During the Intimate Study
Vn009.01 Tic Tac Toe (2) 5/22/77 Miriam asked Robby to play with her this afternoon, offering “Sorry,” “Raggedy Ann” and “Chinese Checkers.” All were refused. Robby finally agreed to playing TIC TAC TOE. I asked the children to come sit in the reading alcove. They did so while I got out my tape recorder. Two …
Vn008.05 Ping Pong Balls 5/19/77 Miriam continued playing with the hula hoop at Logo throughout this week. Since she is willing to watch other people and listen, adults incline to show her the things they enjoy and can do. This has caused me a problem. I will elaborate. At the beginning of the project, Miriam …
Vn008.04 The Bicycle Analogy 5/12/77 During a break from Logo Session 7, Miriam discovered that the hula hoop will stay upright if rolled. For the past several days, maybe the past two weeks, Miriam has attempted to ride her bicycle without training wheels. She received one hint, one good piece of advice from Jim, our …
Vn008.03 Doing the Hula 5/12/77 Despite Miriam’s success with the foot centered hula twist, she was unable to keep the hoop from falling down. She holds the hoop with both hands in front and a part of it against her back. She throws it in one direction or the other, moving her trunk in no …
Vn008.02 The Lemon Twist 5/12/77 I had purchased the hula hoop in the morning and was setting up the music room for our later use when one of the boys in an on-going class from CAPS (the Cambridge Alternative School Program) asked if he could use the hula hoop. After doing a hula, he let …
Vn008.01 Hula Hoop Analogies One of the most active foci of developmental incidents so far has been Miriam’s use of the hula hoop. Four separate incidents come together as activities centered on this toy. How we came to buy a hula hoop — Our family was having dinner at the house of a Cambridge friend. …
Vn007.02 A Willing Subject 5/19/77 As the children left for school this morning, I asked Miriam if she wanted to come to Logo today. She said she would not come. When I asked why not, Miriam replied, “I just need a day off.” After the previous day’s tensions, it seemed a most reasonable request. I …
Vn007.01 A Willing Subject 5/18/77 Today was the most difficult experiment of the initial series, separating the variables implicated in the flexibility of bending rods (Cf. The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence, Inhelder and Piaget). Of the many experiments through which one may distinguish concrete from formal thinking, this one shows best …
Vn006.02 Magic Words 5/15/77 Miriam tried again her ‘magic word’ game, “It begins with ‘p’ and ends with ‘e’.” The choice of time was unfortunate; I was in a hurry to some other purpose, so I snapped back “please.” “That’s not it,” Miriam claimed, for who can tolerate any conundrum’s immediate solution? Sensing my impatience, …
Vn006.01 Magic Words 5/14/77 While she was in the kitchen and returning to the dinner table, I asked Miriam to bring me something. She asked, “What’s the magic word?” My grandmother avers that the ‘magic word’ is ‘please,’ which can make so many things easy that would be impossible without it. We have never played …
Vn005.01 Tic Tac Toe 5/13/77 Years ago I bought a tic-tac-toe game for playing with Robby. The board is 12 x 12; the X’s and O’s are large yellow pieces. At that time I taught Robby a single strategy for playing the game: look for two ways to win. Robby quickly became quite good at …
Vn003.02 Journals5/11/77 When collecting the data reported in ‘Pre-Readers’ Concept of the English Word,’ I was shown by one of the children, Tina, a 3×5 notebook her mother gave her for writing down any words she wanted to learn to read. I bought Miriam such a notebook (a green one) some weeks ago for such …
Vn003.01 Openness and Reticence5/10/77 Miriam rarely discusses her activities in kindergarten unless directly asked. I was surprised today when Miriam volunteered that her class had put on a little play. I asked what part she played. Miriam I didn’t play any, Daddy. Bob Oh, didn’t you want to? Miriam I read the story and the …
Vn002.01 Productive Cheating 5/9/77 Today was a difficult day. Snow in mid-May for a beginning. Before that problem appeared, Miriam came early with me in to Logo in our joint expectation of going to the Coop to buy a hula hoop. With that option closed by inclement weather, Miriam pushed me early in the afternoon …
Vn001.02 Commutativity 5/8/77 As I sat transcribing the dialogue from recent logo sessions, I heard Robby inquire of Gretchen, at work in the kitchen, how many were 5 twelves. Gretchen simplified the computation by elaborating the problem: 5 twelves is half of 10 twelves. How much is 10 twelves? As Robby worked away on that …
Vn 001.01 Everyday Calculation 5/7/77 Miriam suffered a queasy stomach today, so she didn’t join us at our evening meal. She lay on the loveseat near our dining area. The speakers for our radio are directly behind the loveseat, thus more enforcing Miriam’s attention than ours. During a radio commercial we others chose to ignore, …