The Button Box

Our six-year old grandson is enjoying his summer...even with it being five months long!

So, with both of his parents working full-time--considered essential employees during COVID--we've all had to make some adjustments in our schedules.  Our daughter says she's grateful we live in the same town and can look after the lad.

So here we are:  Oma and Opa (to him), wondering how we can keep his brain actively learning.  He was in kindergarten when the pandemic arrived, and he has "graduated" to enter Grade 1 next month (hoping schools start...and stay operational!)

Having no homeschooling experience, I simply had no idea where and how to start at Grade 1 Math.
Yes, there are some interesting websites ... but I wanted a simple (for me) and easy to understand (for him) method.

One day in spring when I was cleaning a room in which some of my late Mother's (his Great Oma) belongings were stored, I opened a very special box that had, many many years ago, held the 8-ball pooltable set of balls that came with my late Father's purchase for our family room when I was a teenager.  The entire family loved playing pool...and I recalled that my Dad, who had been a high-school Math teacher in Europe before emigrating to Canada, had always said pool was all about Math...angles to be precise.  And once that "light went on", I realized that Math would and should form an integral part of a person's life.  That was when I was a teenager, still living at home.

Fast forward (ahem...fifty years!) and the very special box held a Math secret:  it was chock full of colourful buttons.  Hundreds of them, all sizes.   My late Mother was an excellent seamstress and kept every button before discarding old shirts, etc.

That box with its shiny, myriad coloured buttons gave me an idea.
It would help me explain many aspects of Math to our 6 year old grandson.

And it did.
It was fun.
On the dining room table, he and I over the last few months spent hours and hours piling and sorting buttons, first by colour, then by size, and so on...over the months, fewer and fewer ended up on the floor.  We added buttons, we subtracted buttons, we learned the basis of knowledge with those buttons.

I do have photos of our grandson's Math successes...
(in no particular order).

Bless my Mom (Great Oma), for her Button Box.
She passed away two years ago at 94, and two days ago would have been her 96th Birthday.

She--and her Button Box--live on in us all.
Thanks Mom!

And thanks, Dad--who passed away in 2005-- for buying that pool table for our Family Room when I was a teenager.

We'll work on "angles" next!