Vn81.1 Imitating Machines 9/3/77 Ever since their first encounter with the Votrax Voice Box back in May (Logo Session 5, 5/22/77), both children have thought it funny to imitate the peculiarly mechanical tone of that speech generator. I have suspected some correlation between my asking them questions they consider stupid and their adopting this mode …
Vn85.1 9/6/77 When we started playing tic-tac-toe, I asked Miriam how many different ways can you start when you move first. She claimed 9 ways, one for each block in the frame. I pushed the point further by inquiring whether these three frames were really different or the same: X | | | | | …
Vn80.1 Planning for School 9/2/77 Miriam, showing her unprompted concern, began the following dialogue. I transcribed it from memory (not tape) about 2 hours after the fact. The content is accurate, though the sequence of points may be a bit muddled. Miriam What do you think the teacher will say when she finds out I …
Vn79.1 Sums Over a Hundred 8/29/77-9/1/77 8/29 While we sat at lunch today, Miriam introduced the topic of adding with this claim: “Daddy, if you live for another hundred years, I know how old you’ll be.” When I expressed surprise Miriam demonstrated: “A hundred 37.” Two complications derailed this discussion. Robby introduced my birth on …
Vn78.1 Allergies Controlled 8/26/77-9/2/77 8/26 Today we took Miriam to her doctor, a pediatric allergist, and explained both her symptoms (waking in the middle of the night, wheezing, coughing, and vomiting) and our own sense of their severity (it has been happening regularly; Miriam has had only 2 uninterrupted nights of sleep since our return …
Vn77.1 A Geometric Puzzle 8/29 & 31/77 8/29 Since Miriam’s completion of our work with picture puzzles (cf. Logo Session 40, 8/1/77), it has been my intention to examine her performance with geometric puzzles. In the past, she has played with a puzzle, the Pythagorean puzzle, which I had made from wood. The Pythagorean puzzle …
Vn76.1 Where Do Ideas Come From? 8/29/77 In this hot, humid weather, Gretchen and the children have been spending all day at Logo with me. This morning I found Sylvia Weir had taken a desk in the room where Robby had just laid claim to an empty desk. She seemed intent on reading, and knowing …
Vn75.1 Logo Seahorses 8/29/77 At the end of the day’s work (Logo Session 56), when the recording equipment was packed away for the trip home, I was preparing material for tomorrow’s session. Robby had been using procedures where DELTA named a variable increment applied to a linear distance and today was introduced to a use …
Vn74.1 The Light Brigade 8/27/77 Miriam, Robby, and I watched on TV this evening a movie about ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade.’ The movie was an important one for several reasons. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I try to lead the children in extending their sense of connection to other places and other times. …
Vn73.1 Not Being Ready; Logo vs. School 8/26/77 For the past week Miriam has been mentioning that she doesn’t ‘feel ready for school.’ I’ve tried to find out what Miriam means by her feeling ‘not-ready.’ In one case, she explained to me that she didn’t know what they do there. In another incident, at the …
Vn72.1 Tic Tac Toe with Robby 8/25/77 Having seen Miriam play tic-tac-toe with me and feeling a little left out, Robby asked to play with me after Miriam went to bed. Game 1: Robby moves first (numbers) 2 | C | 4 5 | 1 | D A | 3 | B Robby originally made …
Vn71.1 Tic Tac Toe (7) 8/25/77 This material provides Miriam with an opportunity to exhibit what she retained of instruction in the previous tic-tac-toe session (cf. vignette 61, 8/10/77). Where Miriam fails to elect a winning strategy (game 3), I subsequently demonstrate how she should have played, then provide the opportunity for her to turn …
Vn70.1 8/22/77 Over the past few weeks, Robby has shown an interest in playing frisbee. Miriam has tried to play with us but has been so inept that the game always became a squabble. Robby usually argued that since the frisbee was his, he should choose the players for the game. It was an obvious …
Vn69.1 Chatterbox 8/19/77 In Vignette 3, I noted one of my objectives was to render Miriam more willing to reveal her thoughts than was formerly the case. Such a change has gradually but very definitely taken place. Gretchen now complains that Miriam is never quiet, that she talks about every least action she undertakes; for …
Vn68.1 Continuous Quantity 8/18/77 As is the case with many who have a few fine things, we hardly ever use them. Our silver and china are in some dark corner, our Venetian glassware sits empty, hardly touched. At dinner our common wine goes into common wine glasses. Through accidents at table and sink, the usable …
Vn67.1 Think and Do 8/17/77 I asked Miriam today if she had read all the stories in the book Friends, Old and New (the book used in initially assessing Miriam’s reading ability in Miriam at 6). She thumbed through the book, said she hadn’t read them all, but found the stories just too easy. What …
Vn66.1 Pre-History 8/16/77 For some unknown reason (“I just wondered,” she says), Miriam asked me who was the first person to sail around the world. Remembering the Straits of Magellan and that it must have been the major obstacle to the western passage, I speculated that Magellan must have been the man. Gretchen, drawing on …
Vn65.1 Arithmetic Ripples 8/13/77 1. Miriam brought me this morning a dime she had found in the laundry. My speculation is that it had been left in some pocket, fell out in the wash, and was pinned in and nearly cut in half by the washing machine. How it got on the floor where she …
Vn64.1 Jumping Rope 8/13/77 Miriam began jumping rope after we moved to Massachusetts. Earlier she had played a game ‘Angels/Devils’, a group rope jumping game in which a child in the center of a ring turns, saying alternately ‘angels devils angels devils. . .’ until one of the children in the peripheral ring fails to …
Vn63.1 Another Birthday Party 8/12/77 This was a party for Robby’s Boston friends, boys he has met while at school here. With respect to planning, this party was pretty much a rerun of the party in Guilford (cf. Vignette 53). The party favors were the same: Hershey bars, bubble gum, and balloons. Match box racers …
Vn62.1 Multiplication 8/7 & 11/77 8/7 Robby has many times now seen Miriam on my lap receiving some instruction in addition. Complaining of feeling left out, he has asked for help in math. Robby said he needs help with addition of numbers such as 9 plus 6 and 8 plus 7. I found him a …
Vn61.1 Tic Tac Toe (5) 8/10/77 This material shows Miriam accepting instruction at corner opening play through a process of “turning the tables” on me after my exemplary victory. (The data were transcribed as Home Session 15.) A corner opening in tic-tac-toe is the strategy of choice, since its use nearly guarantees victory for the …
Vn60.1 Surprise Party 8/8/77 Spoiled by living in the air-conditioned comfort of our Connecticut home during the mid-July heat wave, when the next spell of hot weather found us in the hot air heated loft of our Boston carriage house little persuading was needed to induce Gretchen to join Miriam and me at Logo yesterday. …
Vn59.1 Air Conditioning 8/6-11/77 8/6 Logo came into our conversations twice this day at lunch. When asked if she knew what a palindrome was (cf. Logo Session 39, 7/15/77), Miriam offered two examples: ‘mom’ and ‘I’ (I checked that she did not mean the word ‘eye.’) Miriam later said she would like to sleep at …
Vn58.1 Owning an Angle 8/4/77 As far back as the end of June (in Logo Session 32) making hexagonal mazes has been a part of both children’s Logo work. Before our Connecticut vacation both children worked together generating pictures of mazes (7/8/77: Logo Session 36). During that session, Miriam “discovered” the 60 degree angle input …
Vn57.1 Desserts 8/3/77 When I was a small child, there was rarely dessert in my house. On special occasions my mother might make some rice pudding or tapioca (when cooked, the large size tapioca became transparent balls we children pretended were the eyes of frogs). When my children pester after every meal for dessert, I …
Vn55.1 About Taxes 8/1/77 Since the beginning of the High School Studies Program, the children and I have come to Logo to use the system from 8 to 10 am. One consequence is that we occasionally skip breakfast. Even when we do not, the children have become accustomed to mid-morning snacks. The favorite: apple pie …
Vn54.1 More Arithmetic 7/31/77 While I was having lunch, Miriam came (in her bathrobe from the tub) and asked me if I could divide 79. I asked by what. Miriam didn’t answer but moved away. I pursued the question: “What do you know that’s a 79?” Miriam replied, “They said it’s 2 for 79, the …
Vn53.1 A Birthday Party 7/28/77 Robby’s birthday comes in August. Connecticut friends whom he would like to have at a party can not come to Boston. When he suggested an early party during our vacation, we agreed. Preparations for the party focused on choosing activities and procuring treats and prizes. If you have ‘prizes’ at …
Vn52.1 Fort Griswold 7/26/77 From many places in Boston when you look to the north you can see the obelisk on Bunker Hill rising above the buildings of Charlestown. There is a similar but smaller monument in Connecticut, at the site of the lone major battle of the Revolutionary War that took place in that …
Vn51.1 Paper Ships 7/25/77 This has been a rainy, midsummer day with both children at home in an acoustically live house. Having slept ill last night, under pressure of the noise and our common confinement, I went to bed early. When the children failed to fall silent instantly, I “yelled” at them, i.e. I told …
Vn50.1 The Go-Cart 7/25/77 Kept inside on a rainy day and with me working in the living room, Robby and Miriam were constrained to play quietly (more or less) in the kitchen-dining area of our Connecticut house. Since we vacationed in an unfurnished house, they had few of their usual toys and a limited selection …
Vn49.1 Finger Counting 7/24/77 At lunch, I inquired of Miriam how she used to add on her fingers numbers like 2 plus 7. After saying ‘9’ and my refusing that answer, she counted up, i.e. Miriam said ‘7’ then lifting her pinky and fourth finger on the right hand, ‘8, 9.’ I again rejected the …
Vn48.1 Tenable Explanations 7/23 & 25/77 7/23 We drove to town late in the afternoon. In the clear sky, Miriam could see a bright half moon (I could not from my seat). “If you were on the moon, Daddy, what would happen when it got skinnier and skinnier? Would you get bumped off?” I couldn’t …
Vn47.1 Losing a Tooth 7/20/77 Miriam lost her first baby tooth today. The fact is easily stated, but to show how Miriam considers this a watershed defining event in her life requires some elaboration. About a month ago, Miriam visited the dentist. The occasion was the existence of a small abscess above a dead tooth …
Vn46.1 Rotten Hints 7/19/77 Two years ago, Miriam took swimming lessons. She was in the class of ‘Blueberries.’ Their course of instruction amounted to splashing at the edge of the lake. Their most advanced achievement was to say their names with faces held in the water. Last year, in our move from Connecticut to Massachusetts, …
Vn45.1 Going Home 7/15/77 When today’s Logo Session (#39) and errands were finished, we hurried home to pack up provisions for a 2 week vacation in Connecticut. The house is empty between tenants, and since we are renting it unfurnished, it IS empty. What did the children expect of this vacation? What did they look …
Vn44.1 A Boring Session 7/12/77 Riding home after this morning’s session (Logo Session 38) Miriam said she thought the work was boring today. When I asked why, she said, “Oh, I don’t know.” I have to look otherwheres for an explanation. Today I tried to exhibit for Miriam the relation between closed polygons and in-going …
Vn43.1 Binary Counting 7/7/77 At dinner this evening, the topic of counting on fingers arose. After performing some finger sum, Miriam turned to Robby with 2 fingers of her left hand raised and all the fingers of her right and asked: Miriam Robby, how much is this? Robby 7. Miriam No. It’s 25. Tricked by …
Vn42.1 7/6/77 Because the High School Studies Program begins next week and the lab will be filled with teenagers all day every day, we moved into my office the equipment not to be used by the high school students: the slot machine, the floor turtle, and the music box. Since moving things around brings change …
Vn41.1 7/5-7/77 Whenever we ride to Logo in the MG, Miriam has a standing request that we follow Memorial Drive down past the underpass at Massachusetts Avenue. The children like the magnification of their voices provided when they shout in a closed place. Over the past several years, we have agreed that they may do …
Vn40.1 Logo After Hours 7/4/77 During the bicentennial year Miriam was too young to enjoy the fireworks. She was frightened by the noise of amateurs’ exploding firecrackers and so sleepy by 9 o’clock that we abandoned a half- hearted attempt to watch the display from the vantage of Corey Hill in Brookline. Radio forecasts promised …
Vn39.01 Good News 7/1/77 At lunch today we told the children that Gretchen is pregnant. When the children and I finished our morning’s experiment (Logo Session 33), we joined Gretchen at home, picked up a stack of their favorite books, and all went to the doctor’s office. We all suffered a delay (the doctor was …
Vn38.01 Robby’s Place in the Project 6/28/77 Robby raised a very difficult question today — how much of the work he does at Logo will be a part of my doctoral thesis. The answer Robby required, and it is a superficial answer, that the thesis will be about Miriam’s development, was bound to disappoint him. …
Vn37.1 Explaining SHOOT 6/26/77 While visiting some friends with a summer place at Lake Winnepesaukee, the nature of our work at Logo came up in conversation. When I asked the children if they would like to explain any part of it, they agreed to explain how SHOOT works. They designated a mid-floor hot air register …
Vn036.01 Losing a Friend 6/25/77 Now that school has ended for the summer, Miriam will see much less of her schoolmates. Of her close, new-found kindergarten friends, most will be away for most of the summer. The child going farthest away, unfortunately, is Maria, Miriam’s closest friend. Maria is going to Spain, has in fact …
Vn035.01 Hatch Who? 6/24/77 The jokes and puns a child is capable of creating and under- standing are a fine developmental index of his ability to conceive of some object or idea in multiple contexts. (For examples of Miriam’s earlier, limited capability see the discussion in Pre-Readers’ Concepts of the English Word). Precursors of the …
Vn034.01 Candle Fire Crackers 6/23/77 We usually dine by candlelight. We enjoy making candles and using them, and the ill distribution of light in our dining area makes this practice a useful enjoyment. Having agreed that he will not play with fire, Robby has the responsible job of candle man: he brings the candles to …
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Vn032.01 The Word Box 6/20/77 As her term end in kindergarten approaches, Miriam brings home more of materials from school. Today came the Word Box — a small plastic case for holding 3×5 cards. As a reading-readiness activity, the children are, occasionally, asked to select some word whose spelling they would like to learn. The …