Skip to main content

Independence in Another Light: Utility or Grab the Cheese Please!

I had a great remembering a few days ago.  For me, it was a breakthrough moment, for the kids, well, the kids just did what they were capable of doing long before my 'awakening'.  We've tried to set things up so that the gang, 7 year-old No. 1, five year-old No. 2, and three year-old No. 3 are always encouraged to be independent.  When we were grad students, that meant hanging out at campus quads where the kids could wander a hundred yards away or more exploring the area and interacting with people. 
As they grew, this emphasis on independence meant trusting that they could successfully and safely range further and further ahead of me.  The whole thing involved  learning to focus on each other, and mutually trust each other.  As the kids learned to listen for me to occasionally holler directions, they got to range out further and further, and explore more and more.  Ironically, (with respect to my 'awakening'), we started this in the somewhat confined spaces of chain grocery-stores where the kids could be several yards ahead, but still in eyesight, and earshot. 

When we moved to the big city, ranging out at the grocery store, became ranging out to the end of the block.  We each had to learn new kinds of focus.  The gang had to learn to focus on the people around them, not bouncing off of, running into, or getting trampled by them.  They also had to learn to focus on where they were, stopping at every corner habitually without fail, and recognizing busy downtown driveways as different sorts of corners where they had to wait for me to turn catch up before proceeding.

A new kind of independence came when we got to hangout more in 'wilderness' settings.  On hikes with winding switchbacks, the gang would cut the switchback using deer-trails while I took the longer distance switchback route.  They loved it, their route took the same amount of time, (the deer-trails tended to be more steep, arduous affairs to navigate), but they got to be out of sight, even more independent, exploring on their own.

All of which is a rather long-winded explanation of how in building independence, I'd focused on the fun, and beauty of the activity, without focusing on potential benefits to, well, me.  Which brings us to our most recent grocery shopping trip.

Every weekend, we make a dairy run.  We grab milk and butter on one side of the store crowded with weekend shoppers, and then head to the opposite side of the store for cheese before we finally work our way back to the front of the store to pay and escape.  I've been asking the gang to show me where different things are.  "Take me to the milk please."  Followed by the kids ranging out ahead, and me following along as they lead, weaving through the crowd to the back of the store. 

This weekend, though it finally occurred to me!  We could cut our shopping trip in half by splitting the work.  Since the gang knows where everything is already, do they really need me with them?  Not really.  I asked No. 3 to show me where the milk was, and then turning to 1 and 2, said, "Can you go grab two blocks of cheddar cheese, and meet us back by the milk please?"

1 and 2 headed out for points known.  3 and I trundled pleasantly through the store.  3 pointed out the display case for the milk and opened it.  We got the first gallon into our basket when No. 1 chimed, "Here you go!"  She and 2 were back from the opposite corner of the store cheddar cheese triumphantly in hand.  I always felt independence was important, but who knew it could be so handy? 

What are your favorite independence and ranging out stories?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

More Cowbell! Record Production using Google Forms and Charts

First, the what : This article shows how to embed a new Google Form into any web page. To demonstrate ths, a chart and form that allow blog readers to control the recording levels of each instrument in Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is used. HTML code from the Google version of the form included on this page is shown and the parts that need to be modified are highlighted. Next, the why : Google recently released an e-mail form feature that allows users of Google Documents to create an e-mail a form that automatically places each user's input into an associated spreadsheet. As it turns out, with a little bit of work, the forms that are created by Google Docs can be embedded into any web page. Now, The Goods: Click on the instrument you want turned up, click the submit button and then refresh the page. Through the magic of Google Forms as soon as you click on submit and refresh this web page, the data chart will update immediately. Turn up the:

Cool Math Tricks: Deriving the Divergence, (Del or Nabla) into New (Cylindrical) Coordinate Systems

Now available as a Kindle ebook for 99 cents ! Get a spiffy ebook, and fund more physics The following is a pretty lengthy procedure, but converting the divergence, (nabla, del) operator between coordinate systems comes up pretty often. While there are tables for converting between common coordinate systems , there seem to be fewer explanations of the procedure for deriving the conversion, so here goes! What do we actually want? To convert the Cartesian nabla to the nabla for another coordinate system, say… cylindrical coordinates. What we’ll need: 1. The Cartesian Nabla: 2. A set of equations relating the Cartesian coordinates to cylindrical coordinates: 3. A set of equations relating the Cartesian basis vectors to the basis vectors of the new coordinate system: How to do it: Use the chain rule for differentiation to convert the derivatives with respect to the Cartesian variables to derivatives with respect to the cylindrical variables. The chain

The Valentine's Day Magnetic Monopole

There's an assymetry to the form of the two Maxwell's equations shown in picture 1.  While the divergence of the electric field is proportional to the electric charge density at a given point, the divergence of the magnetic field is equal to zero.  This is typically explained in the following way.  While we know that electrons, the fundamental electric charge carriers exist, evidence seems to indicate that magnetic monopoles, the particles that would carry magnetic 'charge', either don't exist, or, the energies required to create them are so high that they are exceedingly rare.  That doesn't stop us from looking for them though! Keeping with the theme of Fairbank[1] and his academic progeny over the semester break, today's post is about the discovery of a magnetic monopole candidate event by one of the Fairbank's graduate students, Blas Cabrera[2].  Cabrera was utilizing a loop type of magnetic monopole detector.  Its operation is in concept very sim