Counting jalapenos

Yesterday felt like an eventful day in more ways than one. It was also the first time in weeks that I felt as though I had a tiny bit of free time, even with R. going off the rails a bit. One thing I got to was to pick all of the jalapeno peppers that were in the garden so I could do something with them before they went bad. Last year I made cowboy candy with some of our peppers, which is a sweet-hot jelly that is extremely good served over cream cheese or goat cheese on crackers. I knew that I did not have the time or energy to do something that ambitious, so decided to just freeze all of them. (There was a pretty substantial amount given my complete abdication for gardening this year. J., W., and B. receive full credit for the fact we have anything we can use.) We really enjoy jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, and it has become a New Year's Eve tradition for us to have them. They're a big pain to make, though, which is why we only have them once a year. Last year I discovered that you can freeze the peppers stuffed with cream cheese ahead of time, then wrap the bacon around them right before you broil them. It made the whole process much easier. So that is what I did yesterday... seed the peppers and stuff them with cream cheese. They are now sitting on baking sheets in my freezer waiting to be transferred to freezer bags.

But that is not really what I want to focus on. While I was working on the peppers, R. was right nearby because that's where she needed to be. H. was also around watching the proceedings. She is very interested in food and cooking, and has been helpful and watching while I've been getting food ready to put up, either for freezing or canning. As I was working on the peppers, H. became very interested in counting how many I had left to do. She would count the numbers of peppers I had left, then when I took one, would revise her number. She can now count backwards! I actually didn't know she could. Up until very recently, if the number of objects changed, even just by one item being removed, she would have to go through and count every single one of those items again to figure out the new amount. The idea that she could just go back one number from her previous total was completely foreign to her. But yet, yesterday, she was able to keep the original number in her head, then subtract one (or count backwards, same thing) for the next number. I was pretty excited!

Here's where I'm going with this. H.'s ability to do this type of counting; to have a sense of numbers in her head and what happens when you add or subtract them, came about from years of playing with manipulatives and counting and touching and moving real objects. Numbers were too abstract for her to comprehend with just marks written on paper. She had to have actual things. We counted these things, we grouped these things, we compared, we regrouped, we weighed them on balances over and over and over until the squiggles I insisted on calling numbers began to have some sort of meaning for her. If you figure her intellectual life began when she joined our family, then those years of playing and counting and using numbers in real life situations were essentially her babyhood and toddlerhood for numbers. When she had been home for five years, things clicked and she could suddenly count. Last year, her eighth year home, she began carrying in her addition. It is all pretty typical if you adjust for her early years. 

This is not specific to H. This is what every single child needs before they are asked to do anything more than count with numbers. They need chances to touch and move, add and subtract, sort and compare a great many things an even greater number of times. This is the basis for true math literacy. A well-understood concept of numbers, not just in the brain, but also in the body is essential for future success. This is something that worksheets or apps or online programs cannot do. They cannot give a physical sense of how numbers work. And every time I hear a (well-intentioned) parent ask for the best online school or curriculum or workbooks for their three or four year old, I want to scream. It is the complete opposite of what a child needs and what is good for them. 

Sometimes I grow weary of encouraging parents to trust themselves and their child and skip the academics at this age. I feel a lot like some old, crotchety has-been who can't stand these newfangled educational ideas. The trouble is, publishers of both written and online curricula have done a fantastic job of scaremongering. They never come right out and say that if you don't use their products, you will ruin your child, that if you don't use all of their preschool materials your child will be forever behind. (You all know how I feel about that idea.) There is a tacit assumption that parents absolutely cannot know how best to teach their children all on their own. And if you are a new homeschooler, having made the terrifying jump from traditional school to homeschooling, and having navigated all of the friendly voices who helpfully wonder out loud if that is a good idea, you are pretty much a sitting duck for a well-placed scare campaign. 

But the bottom line? The only thing the publishers are actually scared of is that parents will figure out that curricula are not that different from each other, that the library can offer an extremely good education, that parents are actually capable of teaching and raising their children without some expensive product to "help" them. It all boils down to money. If someone is really pushing you to buy their product for a substantial sum of money, they aren't really all that concerned about your child's education, but are pretty darn concerned with their own bottom line. Parents successfully homeschoooled their children for years before the educational publishers discovered a new, lucrative market. And instead of helping families, all they are doing is hurting children. 

Not that I have opinions or anything... I should probably create a 'crotchety' category.