How Would You Like to Floss This?

Homeschooling continuously teaches me that my children pick up my strengths and weaknesses and oh so often magnify them.


I have had an interest in whales and all things whale related since I was about 8. So my children tend to hear random bits of whale trivia from time to time. And when this trivia blends with the flotsam and jetsam in their minds, you never know what will surface.


So. In geometry the other day, Mr Music had to classify triangles as obtuse, acute, or right. And then he had to classify them as scalene, isosceles, or equilateral. And Mr Music also studies Latin, so word derivations float around on the surface of his brain at all times. 


So. I was unsurprised when he looked blankly at the page for a moment or two and then said. "Sorry. The 'scalene' confused me for a minute. I got to wondering if /scalene/ is related to /baleen/ and then thinking about maybe it was more like the /scales/ of fish."

And then, of course, as all good homeschoolers know, we had to have a brief discourse on how baleen works, anyhow, and what things it was used for. I have always felt they must have been able to produce a great many corset stays from one whale's baleen. And then, Mr Music classified the triangles. But I only credited the worksheet in the "math" part of his daily log, not also under "history," "languages," and "science."