"What do you think?"
"I don't knowwwww...."
"Oh, come on, you asked the question, I bet you have some thoughts about it."
Showing me her Etch-a-Sketch and turning the knobs: "Okay, this is a line [drawing a straight line horizontally to the left] and this is a line [drawing a line vertically upward] but this is not a line [squiggling the line back and forth]."
"Why isn't that back and forth drawing a line?"
"Because it has to go in one direction. This curve is a line, but not when it goes back and forth..."
I left it there because the kid was sick, it was time to start resting and I know answers often rely on more questions about and interactions with the idea at hand. I'm sure this'll come up again at some point in the future.
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| Approximation of original by the mother. As users of Etch-A-Sketches will understand, the original got destroyed with an inadvertent shake. |
Most incredible thing about this post is... you still have an etch-a-sketch at home! But seriously, I love posts about talking math with your kids, so thanks for sharing. Keep us posted if new opportunities arise. :-)
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