stephanie thomas berry

There’s a particular podcast I go back to repeatedly when I am frustrated as a homeschooling mother: Krista Tippet’s interview with Adele Diamond, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, on Speaking of Faith. This particular episode, titled “Learning, Being, Doing: a New Science of Education,” explores how play, sports, music, reflection, and memorization nurture the brain.

Nurture the brain. I love that phrase. When I first listened to this podcast back in November of 2009, I knew nurturing the brain was my primary goal as a homeschooling mother. And I learned that the part of the brain that needs the most nourishment is the prefrontal cortex. Evolutionarily speaking, it’s the newest part of the brain, and the most fragile, and it is responsible for our ability to “pay attention, problem solve, collaborate, and work creatively. Facility in these skills, research shows, is a stronger predictor of success, even academic success, than IQ.”

And here’s what jumped out at me and lingered in my thoughts for days after: Joy nurtures the prefrontal cortex, and stress, even mild stress, shuts it down.

So when I am fighting with McKinley to just finish his math worksheet, I am not nurturing the brain. But when we play a game of rummy, or use math by baking cookies, we are nurturing the brain. Honestly, though, we can’t bake cookies every morning. And rummy will only go so far.

How does one incorporate joy into math practice, other than the obvious baking of cookies every morning?  I’m more of an unschooler than not, but I do believe that self-discipline and daily practice are important.

Make it fun, keep it short, but do it every day.  That’s my goal. Especially for math.

To accomplish this I have an assortment of tools.  I don’t buy into any curriculum (although we will be doing Singapore Math this year).   What I do buy are lots of logic puzzles, analogies, reading detectives, and math puzzles.   It’s clear that these engage the brain and promote high-level thinking skills.   A lot of times we snuggle up together in my bed and do a few in the morning or evening.  Mindware is a great resource for these types of workbooks.

Last year I designed a weekly chart to help me keep up with our daily tasks, and I will  be using these again this year.   I am not a super-organized person, so these charts really help me keep on top of things.  I use them more as a guide than as a rigid structure.  I also redesigned them so that I could include a more rounded account of all our activities—chores, movies, games, etc.

And we play games!  I’ve discovered that my three favorite games of all time all begin with a Q. There’s Qwirkle, which Renee will play with me if I take it easy on her, but nobody else will (because I won’t take it easy on them?).  I’ve introduced Qwirkle to a lot of friends and family, and they’ve all gone out and bought the game.  It really is that fun!  Then there’s Quarto—-a recent purchase that is quick-playing game, perfect for after dinner.  It is billed as “the most awarded game of all time,” and I’ll believe that.  It certainly teaches one to pay attention.  And Quinto, an older game that I can’t find anymore (there’s a new game with the same name that otherwise bears no similarity).  In Quinto there are number tiles, from 0 to 9, and each player draws five tiles from the pile.  Each player must lay down up to 5 tiles on the board, in crossword fashion, and each row must add up to a multiple of 5.  There’s lots of math-thinking in this game!

I suppose we have officially begun our homeschooling year, because Renee has been carrying around the Perplexors workbook, doing logic puzzle after logic puzzle, and not only did McKinley break out the chess game after dinner last night, but he also asked for some math and cheerfully did some reading before indulging in his Star Wars video game.

Now I need to design a weekly chart for myself, so I can keep up with all the things I need to do!