February 8, 2013  What Makes It Meaningful?  After finishing a
packet for homework, Joel pulls out his notebook. I'm wondering
if he's going to write a story or maybe sketch some pictures.
He's been really into that lately. Instead, he begins writing
all the numbers up to 1,000, carefully trying to make sure he
has it set up to work on one page.  At first glance, it feels
mindless, repetitive, rote - the very things that I often rail
against. I want to tell him to stop. Go run in the backyard. Go
make something. Instead, I step back and watch. It's his free
time and he can squander it if he wants.  At first he just
writes the numbers. Then I see him finding patterns. I see him
talking about skip-counting across rows. I see him doing mental
math as he plans out the space.  What makes it meaningful isn't
the nature of the task. I wouldn't recommend this activity
across the board for all children. But it's meaningful to him.
Right now. In this moment. And that's all that matters. He is
setting the paramaters of