Just Playing with Numbers - Again

Yesterday I came across the following blog entry from my teaching years. At the time, I was teaching the gifted class of 4th and 5th graders. 

The experience I'd shared back then was not atypical for the kids in my classrooms. They were amazing thinkers, year after year.

Read it, think about it, try it, and then be amazed (like me) that a 5th grader figured it out while "just playing with numbers."

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2010

"I was Just Playing with Numbers..."

... began a 5th grade girl this morning as she stood to tell her classmates something during class meeting. (I have learned that when a student wants to say something about playing with numbers or words or science or whatever, that that means something pretty amazing is coming.)

"I was looking for patterns and discovered this. Someone give me a number between 1 and 99 that isn't divisible by 11."

"26!" called out a child.

Teja continued, "I noticed that, if you write the number 26, then reverse the digits and add them" (and she wrote 26 + 62 on the board) "then the sum which is 88 is divisible by 11. And when you subtract them" (now she wrote 62 - 26 beside the first problem) "you get a difference of 36 which is divisible by 9."

We took a moment to absorb that information. 

"I discovered that that always happens. The sum is divisible by 11 and the difference is divisible by 9. But it only works with numbers under 100 which are not divisible by 11."

She took a few more suggestions of numbers, and she was right - they all held true to the pattern she had discovered. Even a single digit number like 5 worked:

5 + 50 = 55 (divisible by 11)

50 - 5 = 45 (divisible by 9)

(Teja explained that there is a zero in the tens place when you write the number 5, so therefore reversing the digits gives you 50.)

I am always looking for interesting Math things to do, especially at the end of the school year when it is too late to start a new unit yet the kiddos still need something valuable to do with their time. I think we will choose number pairs next week and work our way through 1-99 and see if the pattern holds true throughout.

And, I want to find out WHY it works, too. (I did.)

What an interesting puzzle! And even more interesting is that she discovered it while playing with numbers.

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Teja was in my class for 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades and has stayed in touch. Currently she has finished studying medicine at John Hopkins University and is a... neurosurgeon, I think.

Teja and me in 2018. She had heard I was retiring and stopped by my class to thank me for being her teacher and to wish me well in retirement.

Anyone want to make and play with a mobius strip? Or learn how to cut a hole in a post-it big enough to step your entire body through?

Sigh. Sometimes I really miss teaching.

Stay 'tooned.

Pups, Patterns, & Devotion

My sewing is not always done in the sewing room. On Wednesdays and Fridays when Mama spends the day with us, one of us stays downstairs with her at all times.

She is an elderly girl and while she wants to follow everyone upstairs, it has become more and more challenging for her to negotiate the stairs. Having one of us stay downstairs during her visits lets her have the company she wants without the stress (and sometimes pain) of struggling up the stairs.

Craig and I trade off throughout the day in two hour shifts and we both have learned to have things ready that we can work on downstairs on the days she and Nash visit. 

Cutting out patterns for 18th century clothing is one of the things I save for Mama-days. The dining room table actually works better than my sewing table because it is both longer and wider. I bring down several cuts of fabrics, patterns, pins, scissors, and marking chalk and I get a lot done during my two hour blocks hanging out with Mama.

Until Pepper goes into her Seeing Eye Dog protocols. Then, it's a lot harder to pin and cut the fabric.

Her training is that she should get out of the way and go under the desk, chair, or table where her partner is. So, like any well trained Seeing Eye Guide Dog, that is what she does. (Remember Tate's antics trying to do the same thing at the doctor's office? These dogs know what to do and how to get it done!)

She could "get out of the way" in any place of our home, but of course she wants to stay with me and, as she was taught, be close by and accessible for when I might need her.

And she prefers right under the table and at my feet. And usually right where I'd like to put my feet!

Which means I end up sitting like this and having to make extra efforts to pin and cut my fabric.

The rational thing do do would be to have her move to another place. But I don't. I am very aware that she is trying to take care of me in the best way she knows how. And that means being right under the table at my feet. 

There are three doggie beds and two "yes, Pepper, you're allowed up" couches in the dining and living rooms that she could choose to snooze on. But she doesn't choose any of them. 

She chooses to watch over me.

I have to respect her for that. Honor her, too. Even more, I love her for her devotion to me and for doing what she clearly considers her duty - taking care of me. And so she makes sure she's close by if I need her. 

(Reminds me of when the fire alarms went off in the house and she insisted I follow her and get outside to safety. I knew there was no fire in our home, but she didn't and was adamant that I go with her and out onto the safety of the back patio.)

So, on Wednesdays and Fridays, I get to spend a lot of time with these two sweet girls. Molly cuddles up on a dog bed and sleeps, Pepper snoozes at my feet, ready to help if needed, and I quietly cut out patterns and think about how lucky I am to have such sweet animals to hang out with.

Cowgirl Outfits vs What You Really Wear

I was looking through my large stash of sewing patterns the other day and came across this one.

Oh, the memories that pattern brought back! It was the early 1980s and prairie skirts were very popular, for kids as well as for women. I'd sewn this outfit as school clothes for our oldest daughter, Sarah.

That pattern brought back memories from my own childhood in the 1960s. My sister and I were both horse crazy and so our mother sewed us matching cowgirl outfits. I can't find any photos of the two of us in them, but I remember that they were red and black with stars on them and made from felt.

After doing on online search, I found this vintage 1960s pattern and I think it must be the one she used.

It's close to what I remember, especially the stars on the yoke of the blouse and the vest.

Leslie and I use to "canter" around the yard in those cowgirl outfits, saving people from villains and going for rides around the ranch. When we began riding real horses, though, the cowgirl outfits were left behind.

Me, age 11, on Gambler's Maid. She was owned by the stable where I had my first riding lessons and I always requested her when my mother took me out to ride.

We learned that our cowgirl outfits, while fun, were more a Hollywood-stylized version of what men and women wore to ride in.

 My Quarter Horse gelding, Cee Hunt, and me in May, 1975.

And so, Leslie and I exchanged our cowgirl skirts for more practical jeans and boots. I have a fair amount of western wear and jewelry. Still, there's a part of me that would love to whip up a cowgirl skirt and vest for adult-me, just for fun!