"There is one simple thing that kids embrace with all their being, justification-free, which can be used as a vessel for abstract reasoning: storytelling"
So true! This is a big part of why I #PickleStory
My past work experience of improvising simple stories for children is becoming my greatest power and my most terrible curse. https://github.com/j2kun/essays/blob/main/attention-spans-for-math-and-stories.md
Me: This is a story about . . .
Luke: . . . Baby Pickle Putting Nickels on Pickle's Sickles
Me: Ok. One time Pickle was cutting grass when heโ
Luke: Why?
Me: Because you wanted a story about sickles. I'll have to double-check but I'm pretty sure they're used for cutting grass.
Luke: I meant popsicles.
Me: Ooh! That's a different kind of 'sicle.
Baby Pickle and the Spaghetti Code
"When Pickle got back to his spaghetti machine, it was bristling with squeezing functions."
https://bancosparenting.wordpress.com/2023/03/19/baby-pickle-and-the-spaghetti-code/
Luke: I want you to tell a bedtime story where the Babies put Pickle into a times-two function and two Pickles come out. And then they put one of the Pickles into a function that turns thing negative.
Me: A times-negative-one function.
Luke: Yeah. And then they put the negative Pickle together with the positive Pickle and they go *poof!* ๐
Me: ๐จ ๐จ ๐จ But then there would be no more Pickle!
Luke:๐
I can tell I've got a good idea for a Pickle story when I can't stop giggling as I think through the details.
I think I've figured out a concrete way to explore sets that are the same vs. sets that are different, the difference between a set and a member of a set, and how you can put together infinitely many sets if you apply some Baby Pickle logic to the task at hand.
Luke is working on a math sheet that has him figuring out different ways to make $3.35.
Me: You could use one five-dollar bill, two negative one-dollar bills, and โ
Luke: No! There are no negative one-dollar bills.
Me: That's how Baby Pickle would do it.
Pickle and the Bugs
A bedtime story in which Pickle fixes one bug in his function machine but soon finds a lot more!
#PickleStory #ScreenFreeCoding #Debugging #BabyPickle
https://bancosparenting.wordpress.com/?p=2576&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=2608
Pickle and the FizzBuzz Machine
I told this story to Luke a few days after I taught him the rules of FizzBuzz. I say story, but itโs really a thinly-veiled programming exercise! Not that I had any complaints from Luke about the lack of plot; he was fully engaged in helping me design a FizzBuzz algorithm. I really like how the Pickle universe has become our playground for exploring all these fun abstract concepts . . . .
https://bancosparenting.wordpress.com/2023/02/04/pickle-and-the-fizzbuzz-machine/
Oh man, I just had an idea for a Pickle story where Baby Pickle makes spaghetti code. Now I have to figure out how I can incorporate some literal spaghetti into the story! Maybe Pickle is trying to put together a spaghetti-making machine and Baby Pickle comes and messes it all up by adding a bunch of extra functions in a big tangle....
CelesteBancos
