Pi Day - The Quintessential Homeschool Holiday
Podcast Show Notes:
Pi Day is this week - March 14th.
And if you’re new to all of this, you may not realize it’s somewhat of a
Quintessential Homeschooling Holiday.
Even before social media, we passed around ideas for activities we could do with the kids to celebrate.
Maybe because it’s so concrete, or because it harkened back to homeroom parties or classroom events like Valentine’s Day, or maybe it’s an attempt to make learning geometry fun by tying the Greek alphabet letter Pi to PIE as the dessert. But that’s what I want to talk to you about this week. Ways to celebrate with your kids, why Pi Day even exists, and ways you might want to celebrate with your own kids.
Welcome to the Unschooling Mom2Mom Podcast!
If you’re new to the podcast, Hi! I’m Sue Patterson, your host here and at all things Unschooling Mom2Mom.
I create resources to help parents embrace unschooling as a way to learn and live withyour kids - in ways that don’t include power struggles or tears or the school expectations that never really translated into our adult lives.
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But today, we’re talking Pi Day.
And I already know that because this topic is math-related, a lot of people are tuning out. So many of us have math anxiety - probably from how schools taught us! And, whenever something is uncomfortable, we tend to want to move away from it. But this is under 10 minutes long, so stick with me.
Not only can I explain a little more about Pi Day, but we might actually be helping you dismantle your own math phobia!
So, each March, math geeks and pie lovers converge to celebrate Pi Day!
Mathematically speaking, the date March 14th is chosen because Pi = 3.14+
It’s the third month, 14th day.
It’s also
Einstein’s birthday, so that’s an added layer.
And I just recently learned it’s Stephen Curry’s birthday too - cool for the basketball fans at your house.
(sorry about mispronoucing his name on the podcast!)
Pi is what’s used in geometry to determine measurements of a circle. I have some quick videos you could watch over at the blogpost, if you’re not sure you remember from your own school days.
As I said, Quintessential Homeschool Holiday.
And we did it, when my kids were younger. We baked pies and put the Pi Symbol in crust on top or cut it somehow so it would show. We had Pizza Pies for dinner.
But as unschoolers, we weren’t really studying geometry as a subject. We weren’t trying to find a fun way to learn about the ratio of the circle’s diameter to it’s circumference. Honestly, my kids kind of shrugged it off - but wanted to enjoy the pie, so I think they indulged me.
For me though, Pi (as the math constant) isn’t one of those things that has come up a lot in my adult life. I did want my kids to have a passing awareness if someone said:
"Yeah, but did you know it’s Pi Day?”
Maybe school kids get a few minutes dedicated to PiDay - or maybe math teachers are going all out. But in my Real Life, this version of Pi wasn’t showing up a lot. It seemed a little artificial to me.
Interestingly, when I was looking to see if any new Pi Day memes have been created, (I have over a 100 of them over at the blogpost - I’ll link it in the shownotes.) Because meme-makers CERTAINLY tapped into this Pi Day idea.
And I discovered that Pi Day is an “official” national holiday. Not one where the post offices close - but in 2009, it became official. So I started digging around to see why that was? You know, the curiosity of an unschooling mom… I can’t help myself.
And back in 1988, the staff of the big
Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco had gathered to soul search and brainstorm at a retreat in Monterrey. The museum was founded by Frank Oppenheimer - yes, that famous family. He was the younger brother of the more famous Robert Oppenheimer, but also a scientist. He had died a few years prior and the staff was trying to find their way. So it was at this retreat that another physicist who had worked at the Exploratorium, noticed the correlation between March 14 and the 3.14 of Pi. It’s an irrational number, the numbers beyond that 4 don’t repeat and go on and on.
So, as the story goes, they decided to create an event, and set up a table on the museum’s top floor. At 1:59 pm (the numbers that follow 3.14) they brought out fruit pies and encouraged everyone to celebrate the first Pi Day.
A few year’s later, this scientist, Larry, also known as The Prince of Pi - his daughter noticed that it was also
Einstein's birthday (b. 1879) so that added a new layer to the celebration.
Larry then created and installed the "Pi Shrine," a circular brass plaque, in the center of a circular classroom constructed of circular cinderblocks. He led a winding parade around the museum with his boombox blaring the digits of π to the music of "Pomp and Circumstance." The parade ending by circumnavigating the Pi Shrine 3.14 times while singing "Happy Birthday" to Albert Einstein. 🎉 [Source: A Slice of Pi Day History]
So… there you have it!
And lest you think,
“No… that’s too schooly, we’re unschoolers, we’re not doing that,”
I want to remind you that people celebrate all kinds of random things.
My Strewing Calendar is full of random celebrations every day of the year.
Maybe you celebrate Parfaits for Breakfast day, or the anniversary of the first flight at Kitty Hawk.
Maybe you add a few phrases when it’s Talk Like A Pirate Day,
or you say, “May the 4th Be With You” on Star Wars Day..
So why NOT Pi Day?
Because it’s math? And that’s too spooky?
Too connected to bad feelings in your school experience?
Let’s skip over that.
Over at the website, I did find more memes. Mainly puns, snarky humor. I have it at the end of the video I did one year - but maybe I just need all of them on a video of their own. That way you can put it on the TV while the kids eat pie, and you can watch one after the other!
And you can play songs about Pi, whether it’s American Pie, or Cherry Pie, I looked at the
Billboard’s Hit 100 for Pi Day and created a playlist for us at YouTube. I didn't include all of Billboards, because... well, you might see why when you look. But the 20 song playlist I created for us, has a lot of kid-friendly songs + a few not-so-little-kid-ish. I may just put it on Spotify. Let me know what you think.
And when you see people on social media making references to Pi Day, you can join the fun.
You can take photos of your kids celebrating - and if you do, tag me, so I can see them!
🍒 Maybe Fruit pies for breakfast...
🍩 Oatmeal pies or Moon pies for snacks...
🍕 Meat pies or Frito Pies or Pizza pies for dinner...
You have a lot of options. 🥧
You could get the kids to help you bake a pie. Or you could go to the store and maybe see references to Pi Day - I saw a meme where a store decided their premade pies were all $3.14!
You could do a pie tasting comparison at exactly 1:59 in the afternoon.
You could text memes or
Pi Jokes to your teens. Yes, they’ll roll their eyes - but who doesn’t roll their eyes at puns?
Or send them some of the memes below.
I have a links to
Pi Scavenger hunts, where they can go looking for circles or measuring things that are 3.14 inches or weigh 3.14 on the scale. Or noticing the March 14th on the calendar and seeing that that’s 3.14.
Language Arts & Pi?
But actually, as you talk about Pi Day - however briefly - new vocabulary words get introduced into their world.
Words like:
- Circumference and radius,
- Einstein and Oppenheimer,
- Irrational numbers,
- Why Pi sometimes has an “e” and the end, but this time doesn’t.
Unschooling is ALL about making connections between things - and Pi Day can be a great jumping off place. No, it probably won’t look like school. They may have very little interest in learning about π R2.
Maybe you could just write these words up on a big whiteboard.
Put Pi Day at the top, and then write them underneath.
Encourage the kids to draw pies, or list out their favorites.
There’s something called
PiKu - like Haiku - I have examples of this
at the Pi Day blogpost.
I've linked to videos
there where you could share about how Pi works, even a Dr. Seuss book about PiDay.
You could watch
Life of Pi or other movies for Pi Day:
- Pi (1998)
- Good Will Hunting (1997)
- Hidden Figures (2016)
- Flatland: The Movie (2007)
- American Pie (1999)
- The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)
[10 Best Movies to Watch for Pi Day or 9 Films about Math or Mathematicians]
I even found a link to
17 food deals you can snag on Pi Day!!!
✔️ With these activities, even the most nervous among us can check the boxes for language arts, math (obv!), social studies, science and nutrition!
So enjoy Pi Day. Don’t worry if you have more enthusiasm for it than your kids - that’s ok.
Successful unschooling parents often have an insatiable curiosity for information - and the quirkier the better!
If your kids are flat out bored with the idea - that’s ok too.
I recorded a video about that -
the Reality Check of Pi Day. You might need to go there next.
Or just dive in!
Enjoy your pi and I’ll be back next week with another unschooling peptalk.
MEMES 4 U
