Celebration: A Measuring and Data Adventure Around Your Home

This idea walks around your house all day. Real work uses many skills together, not one at a time. That is what makes finishing a project satisfying. This is worth learning because putting skills together is what turns learning into ability.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

This is a good thing for a young mathematician to know. Time to use everything at once. Pick a room. Measure three things with a unit you choose. Check the clock and write the time you started and finished.

Count the coins in a jar if there is one. Sort something into categories, tally it, and graph it. Then show your work to someone and explain each part. Thank God for hands that measure and a mind that keeps count.

Here is what makes this worth doing. Presenting your work to someone forces you to organize it, and organizing it is where you discover what you actually understand and where you were fuzzy. Do it carefully rather than quickly, and thank God for a mind that can learn.