Wordless Wednesday: the Arboretum

Averaging With Legos

 I was talking to Choclo and Oob about averaging numbers, and they were a bit baffled by the concept.  I realized that this is one of those home schooled things: school kids have their grades averaged all the time, so they are very familiar with the idea.

We don't really use grades that way.  We just stick with a concept until they understand it and can do it easily (or get tired of it, and  circle back to it later).

But we are very familiar with the concept of Legos!

I made little stacks of Legos for the minifigs.

How can we make the stacks even, with the same number of stacks?  When I didn't use the minifigs, the tendency was just to combine stacks.

After a while of just moving the blocks, I show them that we can add up all the blocks, then divide them by the number of little people.


First we physically do this with the blocks, then we do it on paper.

When you understand what you are actually doing when you are averaging numbers, it's easy!

I do love the Math-U-See blocks also, but Legos work really well as math manipulatives.  They aren't quite as easy to use for some kinds of math, but they give you an added fun factor that's hard to beat!

It's a Wash! or My Many Laundry Woes

 Sometime in early February, my washing machine died.  I was going in a zillion directions at once, and I remembered that my regular (fantastic) repair guy had mentioned that he didn't work on Samsungs, (and I have another washer and dryer downstairs), so I didn't immediately try to fix it.

By late February, I started calling around, only to discover that, in fact,
  only Samsung techs can work on Samsungs.

I thought it might be just a stretched out belt- I totally could fix that myself!  I consulted the interwebs.

It's a direct magnetic drive: no belts at all.

I know my limits: belts, yes, electro magnets, no!  Life went on for a couple of weeks.

In March, I tried again with the You Tube fix its: my problem was either a broken strut or worn out bearings.

Well... If it was the strut, I could do that with a little help from Mxyl, Zorg and Oob.  It was not the strut.  Fixing bearings means taking the entire machine apart. Nope!

The main problem with a stacked washer and dryer is that when you have to replace one, you have to get an identical machine or replace both, or they won't stack safely.

Since I am unwilling to get another Samsung washer (EVER!), Pop bought me a whole new (Electrolux) washer and dryer.  Thanks, Pop!💓




Best of all, Choclo and Oob have moved into their own little houses!

Poem of the Week: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

HT: Poetry Foundation 

Poem of the Week: Canto XXXIII Excerpt

Canto XXXIII: Paradisio

"Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,  
Humble and high beyond all other creature,
   The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

Thou art the one who such nobility
   To human nature gave, that its Creator
   Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

Within thy womb rekindled was the love,
   By heat of which in the eternal peace
   After such wise this flower has germinated.

Here unto us thou art a noonday torch
   Of charity, and below there among mortals
   Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.

Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing,
   That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,
   His aspirations without wings would fly.

Not only thy benignity gives succour
   To him who asketh it, but oftentimes
   Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.

In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,
   In thee magnificence; in thee unites
   Whate'er of goodness is in any creature.


Dante, of course, translated by Longfellow
This is just the first part of the Canto, but it made me think of the Annunciation which we celebrate tomorrow, and the Divine Mercy feast we are celebrating today.
HT: Wikisource

Wordless Wednesday: Magnolias

Easter Pics: Holy Redeemer

Easter Pics: The Homefront

Happy Easter!

Poem of the Week: Good Friday

Good Friday

Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

HT: Poem Hunter

Image: Tissot's The Crucifixion,Seen from the Cross