Have Children Forgotten How to Play

With a bucket full of plastic chain links and a few minutes to spare, as a child I can recall putting as many of those links together for the sole purpose of seeing how long of a chain I could make. It was fun!

Children today, when presented with a bucket of links, often have to be taught how to play. Is is our job as educators to teach them play when we are already accountable for the academics. What does this say about the world... our world? Where are we going that we have forgotten how to play? Are we so saturated with electronic and instant gratification that we no longer find value in basic entertainment? Or is it that we are rushed so quickly out of our developmental comfort zones as such a young age that we miss that point where we teach ourselves to make our own fun?

Math Operations - There's Only One

In my exploration of the Base Ten System under the Building a System of Tens program, I have been developing a theory that there are not four Operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). There is actually just one.

The relationship between these four processes (multiplication is repeated addition, etc.) is so strong that I purport that there is only "operation" with four strategies for operating. I intend to explore this further but would enjoy shared thoughts on the matter.