Learning about Pi – Relaxed School Style

Wait – That’s Chocolate Pie – and no one need teach an American Middle Schooler about that! We have been working on Saxon 7/6 this year, and in lesson 47, out of the blue – they wanted to throw in PI into the never ending list of items they are learning this year. We sat and tried to explain it – but the boys were just not interested. So we tabled it, moved on, now we are almost to lesson 80, just skipping the Pi lessons. . . .

This weekend we found our third Float in Finder’s Keepers. The boys were questioning in that interested curious speak of which float was the largest. Depending on how we lined them up, one or the other looked wider or taller. Oh- I can teach about Pi and Diameter and Circumference!

So we got out the ribbon and measured the width of the floats around the middle. Next we measured the height. We learned that two of the floats are equal, and Nate’s red float is taller. His has a little bubble at the top that gives it an edge, or um, a round bump. . .

Measuring the middle – then taking the same ribbon to measure the height.

Next we took a plate and measured the diameter – to find the circumference. Then went backwards on the floats to find the diameter of their shape.

Orange is Largest at 43.5 CM Circumference

Blue is Next at 42 CM Circumference

Red is last at 41 CM Circumference, however it is the mid tallest.

Then we ate more pie, to think about pi and measured the rest of the floats. 🙂

I thought I’d post this example of how Unschooling is not NO schooling.

How Relaxed Learning still involves staying on the path of a math book or such. But in a relaxed style we waited for the opportunity to bring the Pi topic into an every day life event – when the boys asked the question. I have found, that so far, they have brought up just about every topic in the “what to learn when” books. Its up to the parent to keep their ears open and teach them to find the answers. 🙂

UPDATE April 6th – The Next Day!

We were working smoothly along Lesson 76 when Nate was doodling about Pi on his notebook page, singing some made up diddy, driving me to distraction – when I um, Had a mom moment of maybe raising my voice to tell him to knock it off. . . . When

He said he was working out a Pi Question – the Green Tractor has tires that are so big in diameter, what is the circumference – so I worked it out for him on the white board – has has memory troubles and I didn’t expect him to know since we just talked about it yesterday – when he heaved the heavy sigh and said – I KNOW – What do you Think I’ve been doing over here?????

Then I took a half a million photos of his moment. He says actors carry on about “normal” people not understanding paparazzi and the press – he says – They havn’t met any Homeschool Moms with a Blog. Guilty. I can’t help it. He’s changing so much that I’ve just gone back to recording every moment. . . .