Lakeside Math

On one day each week our schedule is such that the window of time between when I pick W up from PE at the public school and when we pick M up from preschool would not allow us much time for work if we went home in between. We tried a few different things in the beginning, but we have settled on this weekly routine: I bring math things along, pick W up, head in the direction of preschool, and we stop at a spacious pull-off by a lake on the way to do math sitting there in the car before we continue on to get M. It allows us 30 - 40 minutes of math time since we aren't using time on extra transitions home or to work at the library or somewhere else. While sitting in the front seat of the car, he's done a lot-- practiced finding the common factors of two numbers, learned how to make equivalent fractions with like denominators, worked through ways to multiply by 4-digit numbers, and practiced multi-step word problems. We try to limit the materials needed for math on these days to pencil and paper and clipboard, but some days require more, and there was the day we lost a fraction bar underneath the passenger seat.

The first time I parked and said to hop up front because we were going to do math right there, W said something like, "Seriously?! Are you kidding?" and I think was a little embarrassed by how strange that seemed. But as with so many things, he's adapted to the new normal. It's turned into one of the special little eccentricities of homeschool life. Maybe weekly math in the car will help him learn flexibility, and the idea that where there's a will there's a way for important work, even if the circumstances aren't ideal. I can hope. The mere fact that he can be productive in an unusual setting shows growth. W said in an essay he surprised me with as a Christmas gift that one of the reasons he likes homeschool is because "we can go more at my level...instead of knowing everything I have to figure it out. Also, I don't have to wait for people to be done. In addition, if I don't understand something, you can slow down." There's some 9-year-old perspective in those phrases for sure and an economy with words too, but the sentiment is about learning being at his speed, and I find that we are as able to do that side by side in the car as we are sitting at a table.

The view is pretty great, too. It's startling how quickly it has changed. It seems like just the other day we could sit there with the windows open and W had to climb down the bank and throw a few rocks in before we started on work each week. Then the fall colors reflected in the lake were really something to take in, and one afternoon from our spot we glimpsed workers at the summer camp nearby taking in the docks for the season. And now the lake has ice that is steadily creeping toward the middle. Even now with the cold, sometimes when his brain or his body needs a break W hops out and runs around the car a few times or stands and takes a few deep breaths outside looking at the lake. Maybe sometime in his future when he has to recall long division or finds himself adding up some fractions, he will reflect back to when he first learned it with a beautiful lake view to ponder in front of him.