A Question of International Law - Puzzle

If an aeroplane crashes right on the border of the United States and Canada, in which country would you bury the survivors?

From: "What is The Name of This Book?" by Raymond Smullyan.

The Racetrack - Puzzle

A certain snail takes an hour and a half to crawl clockwise around a certain racetrack, yet when he crawls counter-clockwise around the same racetrack it takes him only ninety minutes. Why this discrepancy?

From: "What is The Name of This Book?" by Raymond Smullyan.

A Question of Slope - Puzzle

On a certain house, the two halves of the roof are unequally pitched; one half slopes downward at an angle of 60 degrees and the other half at an angle of 70 degrees. Suppose a rooster lays an egg right on the peak. On which side of the roof would the egg fall?

From: "What is The Name of This Book?" by Raymond Smullyan.

A Rate-Time Problem - Puzzle

A train leaves from Boston to New York, An hour later, a train leaves from New York to Boston. The two trains are going at exactly the same speed. Which train will be nearer to Boston when they meet?

From: "What is The Name of This Book?" by Raymond Smullyan.

Two Indians - Puzzle

Two American Indians were sitting on a log - a big Indian and a little Indian. The little Indian was the son of the big Indian, but the big Indian was not the father of the little Indian.
How do you explain that?

From: "What is The Name of This Book?" by Raymond Smullyan.

Maths and Music

Below, I would like to share some of our favourites maths songs -we are playing these during our daily school rides.

Circle and Square: A simple shapes song by Readeez

Source:
https://youtu.be/tjgoAMbPFOM?list=RDtjgoAMbPFOM

Number Songs by StoryBots

Source:

https://youtu.be/Huggdy7ohb4?list=PLPphPHIzdSQOpn7CNolFiqCAB4EQnbUtr

Let's Go to School: Count with Me Song from Learning DVD | LeapFrog

Source:

https://youtu.be/jIZGxk4UWUs

'Penny You're The One' Penny Counting Song (Money Math) by Readeez

Source:

https://youtu.be/0h946YYlH1M

'Odd and Even' by Readeez

Source:

https://youtu.be/aW-0M8uWrjM

'Special Name for Twelve' by Readeez

Source:

https://youtu.be/8VUMDu6bdZ4

1,2,3 or first, second, third..

As we are mathematician, we like to keep the mathematical concepts consistent through out the educational upbringing of our kids. I will explain this using the following example.

It is natural that we are introducing young kids to the word of letters and numbers. With letters, people tend to use letter naming root (using the letter's names) or phonics root (using the sounds that the letter make). With numbers, well, we all tend to start with one, two, three.. of course.

However, have you ever thought about what you want your kid to have in mind when you say eg. five?

I believe that you would like them to be able to associate with the word FIVE a group of five objects. This is because it is what 5 stands for - a group of five objects.
However, to keep this concept consistent in our kid's heads, we should be using the word five ONLY when they are indeed looking at 5 objects at a time.
So, in similar way, we should be saying 'one', when they can see a single object; saying 'two', when they are looking at two objects; saying 'three', when they are looking at three objects.. etc.

Seams logical, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, there is one crime on the mathematical development of our kids that we adults make all the time. This is that when we are counting and pointing to single objects, we call out cardinal numbers (which represent quantity) instead of ordinal numbers (which represent position or rank in a sequential order).

What is the difference?

Each of the ordinal number describes a single object, ei.:

• 'first', means an object which starts the line;
• 'second', describes a single object which is second in line;
• third, describes a single object which is third in line, etc. 

Whereas each of the cardinal numbers represents different quantity of objects.

We've tried to keep these differences in mind, when our toddlers were starting on their mathematical journeys. Will you?