Lord willing, this is my first of many updates in my new Curiosity Journal. Every Wednesday, I report what I’ve been reading, enjoying in play, learning about and reacting to in my life.

Reading: The Myth of Ability (Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child) by John Mighton (Amazon affiliate link)

This book, written by a man who once struggled with math in public school, and now has a doctorate in mathematics, gives me hope when it comes to my own math ability. I vividly remember giving up, not caring anymore when in the the fifth grade. According to Mighton, I’m not the only one to give up when math became a tearful chore; to accept the belief that I lacked a “math gene” and to muddle through the rest of my school experience believing I couldn’t grasp higher mathematics.

I’ve always been careful not to project my own misgivings about math to my children. Encouragement is easy. Teaching not so much. As I’ve watched my daughter struggle learning certain concepts, I accepted she also didn’t have a God-given talent for numbers.

Mighton shares stories of students who appeared to have no ability to understand math, but blossom in their understanding with his teaching techniques.

I’ll be reading the rest of this book carefully, especially as Mighton moves into the second part of the book when he explains the how-to teach math concepts.

Wish I had this book years ago when we first started homeschooling.

Playing: Nintendo Wii. Did I tell you that we got our first gaming system for Christmas? We’re all having a blast. Lucy, 5, beats us at bowling. Peter, 11, beat Aragorn’s Quest in only three days. I want to try my hand at Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but I know I be toast in a matter of seconds.

Racko (Amazon affiliate link):  We hosted a Family Game Night on Sunday, a good excuse to dust off a few games neglected due to the business of life, computer use and the new Wii. I’ve been a Racko fan since I first discovered this simple, yet strategic, game as an adult. I’m not too good at explaining how it works, so I’ll just link you to a page that is more eloquent than I.

Note to self: Introduce the kids to Racko. No batteries required.

Learning: If you have a Wii, you know you can live stream certain movies and TV shows from Netflix.

As a homeschooling mom with a strong-visual learner boy, all I can say is, “This is gonna be fun!”

So far we’ve watched a lot of Mythbusters and other kid shows we never bothered to get on DVD (Hello, Veggie Tales!). Personally, I’m on a social documentary kick – seriously, I could watch them all day. The kids and I watched “Super Size Me” (FYI: the F-bomb dropped once, two references to s*x and p*nis said twice.)

I didn’t think my almost-teen daughter and 11 year old son would be too interested in “Super Size Me,” but they watched it, engaged me in conversation about fast food, nutrition, health and choices American’s make in their diets. I won no converts to the anti-fast food camp, but at least now they know how chicken nuggets are processed.

Reacting:

OWN – the new Oprah Winfrey network - have you seen any of the programing yet? Thoughts?

I’m by no means an Oprah fan (long time readers here know I have issues with her beliefs), but thanks to Klout and SheSpeaks, I had a chance to preview the reality show, “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”. You know me: I’m curious, so I just had to check it out. It was okay; reminded me of “The Apprentice” with Donald Trump.

Prior to watching “Your OWN Show,” I read an article about Oprah’s lack of desire to run for public office (wish I had the link to the article. Sorry! It was on Time, if you want to search for it.) I must say, it makes sense for Oprah not to run for office. Why should she? Oprah already has her TV network where she can influence millions of viewers.

That’s smart.

Sadly, after the tragic events in Tuscon, serving in government just got to be much more dangerous. Oprah now has another reason to stay away from political office.

What was your week like in reading, playing, learning, reacting and writing?