New Books: | "The HOMEWORK MACHINE" by Dan Gutman (2006): Dedicated to kids who hate homework... but do it anway (and got better at it). If you want to know what we kids are thinking and talking thesedays, you got to read this novel in the format of a play script or documentary interviews. Dialougs only among grade 4-6 kids, their teachers and their parents, prety cool. It includes lots of facts and answersheets to science homework on "our solar system." Here are the first 5 reasons why we should not do any homeworks: - We live in a democracy, where we have freedom, right? We're entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So how can I pursue happiness if I have to spend every night doing homework? Homework is cruel, totalitarian punishment created by grown-ups to take away the freedoms of poor, defenseless children.
- Nobody ever saved a life, won a war, stopped a crime, or cured a disease while they were doing homework. Think of all the good things we could be accomplishing if we didn't have to spend so much time doing homework.
- Doing homework causes eyestrain, fatigue, insomnia, and other physical ailments.
- Thomas Edison went to school for four months. He never did any homework, and look how he turned out.
- There's a name for working without getting paid. It's called slavery, and it was banned during the Civil War. If kids are forced to do homework, they should be paid for it...
Can you believe it? This book tells us how to build a MACHINE to do all the homework for us! | |
No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks
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$16.29 at Amazon.com October 17, 2006 | Ed Viesturs with David Roberts In the opening scene of Viesturs's memoir of his quest to become the first American to climb the 14 mountains in the world higher than 8,000 meters, he and a friend nearly get thrown off the face of K2 when they're caught in an avalanche. It's one of the few moments in the story when his life genuinely seems at risk, as his intense focus on safety is generally successful. "Getting to the top is optional," he warns. "Getting down is mandatory." That lesson comes through most forcefully when Viesturs recounts how he almost attempted to reach the summit at Everest the day before the group Jon Krakauer wrote about in Into Thin Air, but backed out because it just didn't feel right. His expertise adds a compelling eyewitness perspective to those tragic events, but the main focus is clearly on Viesturs and his self-imposed "Endeavor 8000." From his earliest climbs on the peaks of the Pacific Northwest to his final climb up the Himalayan mountain of Annapurna, Viesturs offers testimony to the sacrifices (personal and professional) in giving your life over to a dream, as well as the thrill of seeing it through. |
This book is fantastic for a young student gifted in mathematics, or even a solid student who would like a bit more of a challenge. It's math of a more advanced level but the language holds the interest of a younger student, without talking down to them. And it explains the higher mathematical concepts in the way a younger child's mind would work! It's like the author remembers well how he thought when he was a kid and wrote the book from that POV. You can see the light go on in the child's eyes when that algebra or logic concept clicks!
This is the way math SHOULD be taught and if we gave kids a solid foundation and then gave them a challenge like this, and taught them like this, they'd be far and above students anywhere, I think, because it's not a book of tricks, it's solid math, and FUN. $24.95 at Amazon.com (June 2003) |
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