Studying with Dad

A guy on Twitter wrote,

Two things teach intellectual humility: people smarter than you, and maths. Doing math with people smarter than you is sort of a bit too much.

And that reminded me of Dad.

I grew up with a father who, with the best of intentions, wanted to share his love of math with his kids. David, I think, took the AP calc test in 8th grade (after taking AP chem in 7th); Christine took it in 9th. I was slower, and didn't take AP calc until I was a high school sophomore. I spent less time home schooling than they did, by my choice; I thought, correctly, that public school would be easier.

But it was hard for Dad to empathize with us, none of whom had his intuitive gift. He would get frustrated after the 3rd or 4th try at explaining something he thought was simple. (A normal reaction! which I empathize with more now.)

So my public school teachers would always comment on how I was good at math but I would always think, not really, it takes me forever to understand simple things.

Fortunately by the time he taught Matthew and Melissa, Dad had both gotten more patient and also spent the prior ten years teaching freshman college students at NJIT, so he had a more accurate baseline expectation. He also got better at telling them when they did something well, so afaik both of them enjoyed studying with him.

(Melissa covered four and a half "years" of math with him in a single year of homeschooling; she had been getting Cs in public school and we thought she might just be bad at math. Turns out that she is quite good at math but she has ADHD.)

Mother's Day 2018

Matthew cooked eggs and bacon to start of Mother's Day. Then we went for a family walk/hike through the Brushy Creek trail. I ran ahead to take this picture, then Matthew started running to troll me by not being in the picture (too slow!) and then of course everyone else started running, too.

I took the kids to Gateway Church, where they had a nice message about mothers and God's love.

I marinated lamb chops for 24h for Mother's Day dinner. (It turns out it's hard to find lamb chops -- I called four HEBs after the first one I visted didn't have them, and finally found them at Whole Foods 365.) Everyone was a fan, from the two year old to Grandpa ("best lamb chops I can remember"). Rounded it out with spiced carrots and yogurt, fresh green beans and bacon, mashed potatoes, and fresh bread. Rachel made Grandma's favorite tortellini soup and a fruit salad AND a carrot cake, and Matthew and Melissa both helped out a lot. Tommy *wanted* to help. Isaac and Corinna mostly ignored the activity in the kitchen until dinner time.

Cooking for a big group is tough. I made too many green beans and (with three full racks) not quite enough lamb chops.

This is the main table, we had to overflow to the dining room as well.

Tommy and the sharpie

Glass shaping

Gathering molten glass onto a rod before shaping it with my hands.

Kites

I bought kites for the kids' Easter baskets. Here's how that turned out:

Corinna is holding her kite in the wind happily, as it blows about five feet in front of her.

Melissa is running through the field with her kite behind her, trying to get it to take off.

Isaac has been throwing a tantrum for half an hour because his kite's tail got a knot in it.

Tommy got bored of kites, and is holding onto my legs moaning because he wants to get a drink, but he is worried that people near the water fountain a few yards away will see him if I don't come with him.

Master and student

Uncle Grant teaching Matthew the fine points of FTL. Such a good game.

Power outage birthday party

(Photos taken 2017-05-28.)