Post Updates, AKA Good News

I wanted to let everyone know the good news about a couple of my recent blog posts.

Most recently, I wrote a couple of posts--the original Eliminate Math Anxiety post and then the popular Mobius Marinara post--about my friend Maria Droujkova of Natural Math and her attempt to raise $6,200 through Tipping Bucket to extend her work on teaching significant math topics to children from 0-5 years  into a book and online community that could reach many more people.  The deal with Tipping Bucket is that people pledge money to projects they want to support, but if the organizers don't attract all the money they need to make the project work by a set deadline, the pledges are returned to the donors.

However, I'm happy to report that Maria's Moebius Noodles received its full funding!  So the project is now a go, thanks to many generous donors (including, I'm proud to say, my son, who gave a full week's allowance to support this effort).  If you want to find out about developments on this project, follow Maria's blog, Math Accent (which is a font of wonderful information about all sorts of different math topics, not just those related to our youngest learners).

And speaking of our youngest...at the end of last month, I also posted about one of our local homeschooling families who, unfortunately, had lost both of their twin babies.  On top of the terrible loss of their infant girls, they had a lot of bills to deal with, so we were having an online fundraising effort to support them financially.

In this case, it is still a sad story.  However, I am happy to report that this Internet effort between friends, and friends of friends,  and friends of friends of friends of...., well, it resulted in raising $8,372.32 for the family.  I know that the family really appreciates every gift, not only for helping them deal with their financial issues, but as a vote of confidence in their ability to survive through the worse circumstances that a family ever needs to confront--a loss of one (or, in this case, two) of their beloved children.

Both of these remind me of one of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa, who once said:

"What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.  But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

Both of these projects show what is possible when a lot of ordinary people give just a little to a good cause.  It is easy to think that what you can afford--$1, $5, $10--can't make a difference.  But you put all those drops together, and it creates an ocean.

I also heard from several readers of this blog who said they had supported these efforts.  So I want to thank you personally for your support.  I know many will reap benefits from your gift, and I'm glad that you were part of our ocean.

What If We Could Eliminate Math Anxiety?

What is it about math?  We all have subjects that we are better at or are worse at, or that we like or don't like as well.  But no one ever talks about having "history anxiety" or "grammar anxiety."  Math, however, is a whole different matter, at least for thousands....no, let's be honest...millions of us (of all different ages).  If there is any topic that our children (or, again being honest, ourselves) are likely to say that they hate or just don't get or just try to avoid, it most often math.

But what if we could eliminate that for the next generation of students?  Wouldn't that be worth a few dollars to you?



My friend Maria of Natural Math has some great ideas about how to raise children so that they love, rather than fear and resist, math.  Through Maria's eyes, math is a language or an art form through which to view, understand, and communicate about life, not a series of incomprehensible formulas to be memorized and worked over and over again.  And Maria believes that, just like language, basic math concepts--even those that form the basis of calculus--are best absorbed when the human brain is young and plastic....say, up to five years old.  After that, according to Maria's research and experience, it is harder to children to learning the basic mathematical building blocks, just as it is harder for older brains to hear and repeat the distinct sounds of a different spoken language.

I am one of the privileged few who lives close to Maria, and has had the benefit of her experience in teaching my son about math.  Since math was my toughest subject as a child--I'm definitely one of those who continued to suffer from math anxiety into adulthood (although, thank goodness, my husband is really strong in math)--I attribute my son's recent confidence and high performance in math to what he has learned from her, not from me.  But she is only one person in one place, and the problem is so much larger than what one person can do.

So here is what we are doing to try to make Maria's expertise available to a larger population.  Maria has a fundraising effort going on at Tipping Bucket, a cool new social media fundraising vehicle.  Tipping Bucket takes proposals from worthy efforts, checks them out to make sure they are legitimate and have a reasonable plan, and then selects some to support through their website.  Each project has about a week to present their case to the world.  People check it out, and if it speaks to them, they pledge money.  HOWEVER, their pledges only count IF the project reaches its desired goal.  If it falls short, all the money is returned.

Maria is seeking $6,200 to turn her expertise about introducing math concept to infants and toddlers into a book, which could then be made available to everyone.   So we are trying to mobilize hundreds or thousands of us who care about children and the math education they receive BEFORE they ever get to school to give just a few dollars to make this project a reality.

If this speaks to you, please use the button below to go to Tipping Bucket to donate:



Then, spread the word among your communities.  Each of us may only be able to give $1, $5, or $10 dollars.  But if we share this educational opportunities with our friends and colleagues, and ten of them choose to give as well, that raises another $10, $50, or $100.

However, there is a short deadline on this project.  We must raise the entire $6,200 by Wednesday, September 21, or all the money is returned to the donors.

So if you would like to be part of the effort to raise our children to embrace and create with math, rather than to dread and dislike it, please act right away.

If you want more information, visit Maria's blog post about the project, or see the Tipping Bucket page.

PS:  If you would like to post a button on your own blog or website, please copy the HTML code below:

<a href="http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles">

<img src="http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/MoebiusNoodlesFundraiserBadge2.jpg" 

alt="Moebius Noodles Fundraiser Badge" width="200" height="174" /></a>

Valentine's Day Giveway Winner

Happy Valentine's Day to all!  I hope your day was full of love of whatever variety.

As for me, I LOVE to announce that the winner of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, a book that our family LOVES, is Sally, who was selected by the Random Number Generator at Random.org!  Congratulations, Sally.  Please contact me to arrange how to get you the book.

Thanks so much to everyone for the great suggestions on books.  We hadn't read any of them, but now they are on my ever-expanding books-to-read list.

I'll be having another book giveaway next month in honor of another special holiday, so check in on March 1 for find out about that contest.  Maybe Month will be your lucky month!

The Cycle of Giving and Receiving

I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions; I tend to make more short-term resolutions or intention statements all along the year.  However, I do have one for this year:  Take More Baths!  However, this isn't really a statement about my personal hygiene....

I'm thrilled to say that in the four months that I've been doing this blog, I've had 3,153 page views, including visitors from dozens of countries from every continent in the world except Antarctica.  I don't know who all my readers are, but I'm assuming that most of you all are parents and/or teachers.  And parents and teachers are some of the biggest givers in the world.  That's not to say that they don't get a lot out of parenting and teaching; I'm sure those activities are up there in the top five list of the most important and significant and rewarding aspects of their lives.  But both teaching and parenting involve putting your heart, body, and soul into serving others so that their children and/or students can have full, enriching lives.

The thing about big givers is that they often need to be reminded to allow others to give to them as well.  It's not that it is OK for givers to receive sometimes--actually, it is a necessity that they do.  If they don't, if they never recharge their own batteries or refill their own stores of energy and spiritual nourishment, they can't keep on giving.  And if they never allow those around them, particularly their children and students, to give to them, they are depriving those other people of the opportunity to learn to become givers as well.

For me, this lesson came this week from taking a bath.   Usually, I never take baths, even though I enjoy them.  Why not?  Why, they take too much time, of course.  Why spend 20 or 30 minutes in the bathtub when I can get the job done in 5 minutes by showering?

But this year, the people around me were sending me a message.  One friend gave me a special candle for taking a bath.  Another gave me a lovely bottle of wine, and yet another some rich dark chocolate.  Best of all, however, were some friends who worked with my son to give me a handmade gift--which turned out to be some peppermint bath salts and an organic oatmeal facial mask.

So I was rushing around earlier this week, trying to get ready for our trip up to Washington DC, when I realized I needed to wash my hair that night instead of taking time in the morning for a shower.  But I was also cleaning up, and happened to pick up the jar of bath salts from my son.  I realized that a nice bath would help relax me and my body before having to drive for many hours tomorrow on roads that would be packed with both other cars and with snow (on the sides).  Could I actually spend the time on a bath with so many pre-trip chores to get done?  When I first mentioned that I was thinking about taking a bath, my son looked surprised, and then said "Thank you."  I realized that he didn't really think I would ever use his bath salts, and that it made him feel good for me to actually take advantage of his gift.

My husband offered to wash the dishes and clean up from dinner, and my son said he would pack his own clothes.  So I thought, Why not?  I gathered all my gifts, ran a bath, poured in the bath salts, mixed up the oatmeal facial and applied it to my skin, and slid into the warm water.  I lit my candle, sipped a little wine, ate a little chocolate, and enjoyed both my muscles relaxing in the warm water and my soul reveling in a few minutes of peace after the exhilaration of the holiday season.

When I emerged from the bathroom maybe 45 minutes later, I was clean and rested and much better prepared to face the stress of a day of driving in heavy highway traffic.  And my skin!  I couldn't believe it!  I've always had really dry skin, but my face felt smooth and moisturized like it hasn't felt in a very long time.  (And it turned out that it stayed moisturized all through my trip to DC.)

So I realized that it was crazy of me to think that I could spend the time to have a bath at least every week or so.  It's something that is cheap, relatively quick, and good for both my body and my soul.  And if I don't take care of myself, I can't take care of anyone else either.

So for all you other givers out there--I hope you find something that allows others to give to you (even if it is just leaving you alone for a short while) and make that part of your routine this year.  For me, that was the "other thing" I mentioned in yesterday's post--I spent a portion of my New Year's Eve in the bathtub, so I expect to be doing a lot of bathing in the coming year.

And speaking of giving... it is time to give away the curriculum package from Hands of a Child.

I used a Random Number Generator application from Random.org to pick the winner, and it came up with entrant #10.  And the lucky person #10 was Amy!  Congratulations, Amy--let us know what you end up getting.

I'm sorry that I don't have something for everyone who entered, but I enjoyed this, so maybe I'll do some other contests this year. And you might want to sign up for the HOAC newsletter, because when they do get to their 400th curriculum package (which is supposed to be soon), they will be doing some great giveaways, including a free Super Membership (2 free ebooks each month PLUS 15% off every purchase--a $65 value), a free Custom Unit (you tell them the subject and the grade level, and they will produce a curriculum on exactly the topic you want--a $75 value), and a free LIFETIME Super Membership (a $275 value).  Somebody is going to win....so maybe it will be you!