Ritualizing The Study of Math
Ritualizing The Study of Math
Figuring out the best way to get your math kid ready to learn
It's Math Time
The call "It's Math Time" leads to a flurry of activity in our house.
Pencils and erasers are gathered.
Math Machines (notebooks) are found.
A water bottle is refilled and put on the table.
Pages are flipped to the next clean-and-un-marked page.
The lesson we are studying that day is brought up on the computer.
The brain is calmed and ready to study.
We start.
A messy start leads to messy learning
It wasn't always like this.
The "It's Math Time" call would go out, and it would take us a while to get ready.
Somedays, it felt like it took us longer to get ready than the actual math time for the day.
The kid(s) wouldn't be able to find their pencils.
Or they'd realize they had left the eraser beside their bed.
But they hadn't cleaned their room in ages, so "Math Time" became "Find the missing eraser time."
When we finally sat down, it would be hard to concentrate because of the commotion endured to get ready to sit down and start thinking about math.
Getting ready to learn
Mason Currey wrote a book named "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work"1 covering the obstacles and daily rituals 161 different "famous" people (novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and more) developed to get their work done.
Mason also has a Substack newsletter (https://masoncurrey.substack.com/) you can check out, which covers "routines, rituals, and wriggling through a creative life"”
Quoting from the book:
“The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.”
Further:
“One’s daily routine is also a choice, or a whole series of choices. In the right hands, it can be a finely calibrated mechanism for taking advantage of a range of limited resources: time (the most limited resource of all) as well as willpower, self-discipline, optimism. A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.”
Inspired by some of the people, we tried to create our own routine.
The routine is not the thing
I was excited, so I made a huge list of to-dos and must-dos and a checklist to ensure it worked.
It worked for a few days, and then I started skipping it.
It was too much work keeping track of everything, printing a new checklist, and ensuring we had done every step.
I had made the error of focusing on the routine rather than the "getting ready for math" part.
My focus on the routine had usurped the focus on getting ready for math.
So we had to start again.
Routinizing "It's Math Time"
Having failed, we decided to try the simplest thing possible: End with all the materials together in one place.
No more "find the eraser time" or "I need to find the notebook because I didn't clean up after myself when it was my turn for bathtime," etc.
Plus, it meant that, unlike my previous heroic pre-math routine, the routine was now super simple: get the materials from where they had been left (together and in one place).
I'm always a big fan of starting at the end and working backward, so this seemed like a good "hack."
It also solved the “starting issue” and the “being able to find all the materials” issue.
Plus, it gave us the necessary foothold to start figuring out what worked and didn't work when getting our minds and bodies to start learning/enjoying/loving math.
It's personal / Make it physical
Having spoken to some families about our routine, we've found that other people involve physical parts in their home-grown “It’s Math Time” routines.
Some have a specific place they go to.
Some have a specific exercise (to get the wiggles out) they do.
Some have a specific song/album they put on to get their "soul" / mind ready for what they're about to do.
Some have a specific scent (candle, etc.) they put on.
Regardless of what they choose (and if you get the book or search for "Writing Rituals"” you can see a myriad of options), the idea is the same - prepare the mind and body to get ready to do the "thing."
Try it out and let me know how it goes :)
That’s all for today :) For more Kids Who Love Math treats, check out our archives.
Stay Mathy!
All the best,
Sebastian Gutierrez