Weekly Wrap-Up: Unicorn Logic

Last spring, at the Midwest Homeschool Convention, Sweetling decided she wanted to learn formal logic. We checked out this awesome series from Memoria Press.

I came home and told the Jedi we were planning on including logic is Sweetling's curriculum for the upcoming school year.

The Jedi, wisely, asked, "Who's going to teach logic?"

I replied that we had found this great curriculum. We were going to order the books, and then read and work through them together.

The Jedi, even more wisely, said, "Ah."

The books came. They are well written and each chapter is followed by lesson plans for which sections to read on which day as well as review and comprehension questions for each section.

We dug in.

Sweetling is doing great. She understands the material readily and is able to answer all the questions with no trouble.

Mommy is struggling. Mommy reads a section and gets confused. Mommy tries using hand gestures to make sense of the sections.

Each day, Sweetling asks me if I understand what I'm reading. I answer by singing a happy song. This is Sweetling's cue that the lesson is quickly going south. Sweetling then re-explains the section using examples often involving unicorns.

I understand unicorns. Unicorns are my friends.

On days that are particularly challenging, Sweelting brings me my Webkinz unicorn and pegasus so that I can cling to my tangible representatives of my fantasy world while I wrestle my way through formal logic.

On days when I grasp the material the first time round, she brings me a large stuffed blue bunny to hold as a reward. I call that the Blue Bunny Award for Effort. I like receiving the blue bunny award.

Often the section review exercises prompt the learner to write their own examples of various types of statements. This is both Sweetling and my favorite part of the logic lessons.

Here are our samples by section. (Because I love them and want to be able to re-read them later.)

Statements (propositions....whatever the proper term is. I don't remember, Sweetling isn't here to ask, and I don't have the book with me.)

Sweetling:

Mommy is funny.
Milk is delicious.
The TARDIS is bigger on the inside.

Mommy:

I am a fairy princess.
Squirrels are good minions.
Ducky Mo-Mo is oblivious to his surroundings.

Not propositions:

Sweetling:

Hey, where's Perry?
Don't blink!
Nang nang nang nang....
Curse you, Perry the Platypus!

Mommy:

Avengers, assemble!
That's it? That's your tragic backstory?
Fish sticks and custard.
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

Affirmative propositions:

Sweetling:

Ferb is British.
Some days are Saturdays.
Phineas's head is a triangle.
Everything's better with Perry.
Some birds are penguins.

Mommy:

Some pens are green.
All chocolate is Mommy's.
Some unicorns are on Saturn.
All bunnies are adorable.
Some squirrels are casing Mrs. Angie's house. (I play fast and loose with my copluas.)
All Pastor Andy's game nights are crazy.

Negative propositions:

Sweetling:

Perry is a not a cuperberra.
Sweetling is not food.
What we're doing isn't cooking at all.
I'm not exactly surprised.

Mommy:

Some leaves are not an autumn color.
Some schoolwork is not interesting.
No daleks are nice.
The statue of liberty is not a weeping angel.
No chores are exciting.
Some forest spirits are not small.

Universal propositions:

Sweetling:

All DVDs are discs.
No unicorns are living on Saturn.
All eagles are birds.
All oookas are tasty.
No kisses are zerburts.

Mommy:

All toes are piggies.
No chipmunks are evil.
All unicorns are real.
No rainbows are ugly.
All penguins like fish. (fast and loose copula)

Particular propositions:

Sweetling:

Some kisses are for Eswin.
Some hats are fedoras.
Some animals are platypuses.
Some blankets are not penguin blankets.
Some hugs are Mommy hugs.

Mommy:

Some toes are wiggly.
Some chipmunks are not in favor of hats.
Some unicorns like pepperoni pizza. (another fast and loose copula)
Some rainbows are not in the sky.
Some penguins are secret agents.

Contradictory propositions:

Sweetling:

No pairs of pigtails are connected. Some pairs of pigtails are connected.
All platypi are secret agents. Some platypi are not secret agents.
No whales are space whales. Some whales are space whales.
All lumas are Rebecca Schmorange. Some lumas are not Rebecca Schmorange.
No earthbenders are metalbenders. Some earthbenders are metalbenders.

Mommy:

All unicorns are loved by Mommy. Some unicorns are not loved by Mommy.
All fairy houses are built by children. Some fairy houses are not built by children.
All gnomes are garden gnomes. Some gnomes are not garden gnomes.
All chipmunks are awesome. Some chipmunks are not awesome.
All penguins should be snuggled. Some penguins should not be snuggled.
No Mommy's should be made to do logic. Some Mommy's should be made to do logic.

Contrary propositions:

Sweetling:

All oookas are for tickling. No oookas are for tickling.
All self-destruct buttons are necessary. No self-destruct buttons are necessary.
All Mommies are fairies. No Mommies are fairies.
All backstories are tragic. No backstories are tragic.
All random hand gestures are helpful. No random hand gestures are helpful.

Mommy:

All slipppers are fuzzy. No slippers are fuzzy.
Mommy is awesome. Mommy is not awesome.
No fairies are good at logic. All fairies are good at logic.
All hot chocolate is delicious. No hot chocolate is delicious.
Everything is fixed by kisses. Nothing is fixed by kisses.

Subcontrary propositions:

Sweetling:

Some vegetables are leeks. Some vegetables are not leeks.
Some otamatones are jumbo otamatones. Some otamatones are not jumbo otamatones.
Some Mokanas are black Mokanas. Some Mokanas are not black Mokanas.
Some towns are fun towns. Some towns are not fun towns.

Mommy:

Some otomatones are pink. Some otomatones are not pink.
Some Mikos are astrotroopers. Some Mikos are not astrotroopers.
Some bananas are for cereal. Some bananas are not for cereal.
Some music is from Zelda. Some music in not from Zelda.
Some oookas are pokemon trainers. Some oookas are not pokemon trainers.

Subalternate propositions:

Sweetling:

All troopers are astro troopers. Some troopers are astro troopers.
All pigtails are teal pigtails. Some pigtails are teal pigtails.
No platypi are platypi that do much. Some platypi are not platypi that do much.
All pigtails are connected. Some pigtails are connected.
No rides from outspace are "street legal." Some rides from outer space are not "street legal".

Mommy:

All your base are belong to us. Some bases are belong to us.
No Sweetlings like pink. Some Sweetlings like pink.
All timelords have two hearts. Some timelords have two hearts. (Sweetling complained again about my copula not being a form of '"to be". Sweetling doesn't get that Mommy is a rebel.)
All statues are weeping angels. Some statues are weeping angels.
No cosplay is bizarre. Some cosplay is not bizarre.