All about Time Zones in the New Year

Ours is a family that travels quite a bit. Hence, the kids know that places that are considerably far from each other can have different times, at the same time (that’s how they like to put it). But how and why? They seem to be a bit puzzled about this and hence I decided to begin the New Year by giving them a very basic explanation for the same, till they are old enough to learn in detail about time zones tending to follow the boundaries of countries and subcontinents and so on. Here goes.

“World” by qimono is licensed under CC by 2.0

Once upon a time long ago, the people on the earth believed that our planet was flat. They assumed that our earth was like a log floating in water (the oceans and the seas) and every place on earth had the same clock and the same time. But then, as science progressed, we came to know that the earth was indeed spherical – that is how we have day and night one after the other, because the round earth rotates on its axis (a globe and a torch for demonstration would work here). This way the sun shines only on one half of the earth at a time. And so, it couldn’t be possible for every place on earth to have the same time – after all, it would be breakfast time in one country and bedtime for a country that is right on the opposite side of the globe!

Then came along a couple of scientists who did the smart thing – they divided up our planet into 24 different time zones – same as there are 24 hours to a day. Now what if the entire earth had just one time zone, as was thought to be the case earlier? Well, afternoon would then not have meant the same thing for people living in London, Dubai or India – it could mean morning for some, evening for others and the middle of the night for someone else!

Playing Around with Math

“Mathematics” by OpenClipart-Vectors is licensed under CC by 2.0

These days I’m trying to teach my daughter to ‘play with numbers’. Right from using building blocks to count from 1 to 10, playing board games like snakes and ladders in which one has to count ahead spaces at every step and add numbers together to mastering the fundamentals of the basic number line through a simple game of hopscotch, we’re doing it all. And it’s a whole lot of fun.

We also have an abacus at home now. Earlier I was of the view that it could only be used to do simple addition and subtraction; but then on reading more about this fun calculating tool, we’ve started doing more complex operations like multiplication and division too, albeit of small numbers.

We try and include math in our everyday activities – in the kitchen learning about volumes, playing online math games on the computer and the like. Kids (at least mine) tend to develop a natural aversion to the subject if they are made to sit down with a list of problems on a worksheet and asked to solve them. The key to making the subject fun is to involve imaginative play in math, something that is a part of their everyday routine and yet is enjoyable.

Finger Counting - Good or Bad

To begin with, I unashamedly admit the fact that I use my fingers to count even today. Count as in, not counting on my fingers one by one, but yes, I do take a quick look at my fingers whenever a single digit calculation has to be done, just by way of habit.

And the debate goes on – shouldn’t you wean your child off from counting on her fingers as soon as possible? Naysayers who do not support finger counting put forward the following claims:

• Finger counting is an introductory skill and children should generally move ‘from the less-efficient strategies of using their fingers, to the more efficient strategies without finger use’, according to a certain mathematical development research.
• The whole calculation process slows down as a result of counting on your fingers, and hence the child is put at a disadvantage in class.
• Finger counting closes the kids’ minds to the essential skill of memorizing certain math facts.

That said and done, a recent study conducted by a team at Stanford concluded that:

• Far from being ‘babyish’, the technique is essential for mathematical achievement.
• Stopping students from using their fingers while counting could be akin to halting their mathematical development.
• Visual math is a powerful tool for all learners, especially young kids. When we work on math, our brain activity is distributed among many different networks, which include areas within the ventral and dorsal pathways, both of which are visual. Hence, our mathematical thinking is grounded in visual processing.

Now the next time your child starts to do a basic mathematical calculation on his fingers, don’t discourage her; instead do it along with her. It’s for her good only in the long run.

Live Everyday like it’s Leap Day!

‘Leap year, Leap year, When will you be?

Every FOUR years, THEN you’ll see!

You want more? We do too!

How many more can you leap to?’

This leap year rhyme has been doing the rounds lately – and why not, considering the fact that the present year 2016 is a leap year and it has come after a gap of four whole years! The other day my young son looked at me with a quizzical expression and inquired about the extra day in the month of February this year and how all the kids were talking about it. Here’s how I decided to make the explanation simple for him; perhaps it could help you too in order to explain the same to your kids.

• A leap year is different from other years as in it has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days.
• February is the month with the extra day, with 29 instead of 28 days.
• A leap year occurs every 4 years (here’s a good opportunity to test their multiplication table of 4 and ask them about the next leap year).
• February 29 is called a leap day.
• It takes the earth 365 days to orbit around the sun once - hence an earth year has 365 days in it.

While younger kids would probably be satisfied with digesting this much of information, here’s a wonderful video I discovered about leap years which would be fascinating for older kids:

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