On Teaching Math: Part Four

Welcome to A Mother’s Thinking Love: Living Ideas, Lovingly Shared! In my last post, I clarified my approach to math lessons and shared why I think math can be a communal subject in the homeschool. In today’s post, I want to explain more about why I think that’s true. Join me for: “On Teaching Math: Part Four”!

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There’s NO Way

One of the first objections that you may have to my suggestion of teaching math communally in your home is: How can I cover it all? In schools, and homeschools, math textbooks and curriculums contain 180 days of lesson plans for each grade level. This can lead us to believe that there are nearly 180 days of new math concepts to learn in each grade level, give or take a few days for review. This is just not true.

Textbooks provide 180 days of lesson plans so teachers and students have something to do every day of the school year. There are not nearly that many new topics in each grade level. If you look at lists of state math standards, they also might lead you to believe there are a lot of new math topics to learn in each grade level. Again, this is not true.

Take the idea of addition. Students start out adding numbers within 10. Then they apply the concepts to 100, 1000, and so on. This means addition is broken up over multiple years, but addition certainly isn’t a brand new topic each year. It’s simply building on on idea that came before in a slow, incremental pace. If students can add within 10, however, then can apply that knowledge to 100 and 1,000 much more quickly than textbooks and state standards suggest.

Learn Math Fast: A Resource

I first heard about “Learn Math Fast” a year or so ago. The concept was very appealing to me. There are seven books that take a student from basic operations to Algebra ll. They claim that even struggling high school students can work through all seven books in less than two years. After reading about Learn Math Fast, I decided to purchase volumes one through four. Upon receipt, I was shocked. These were not gigantic books. The books were actually quite manageable. I could see why a high school student could work through them at such a fast pace.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you put off teaching math in your homeschool until the last two years of high school. My point is that there aren’t actually that many brand new concepts for students to learn in each grade level. It doesn’t take 180 days a year for 13+ years for students to learn the math concepts outlined in state standards. It’s merely set-up to look like that.

So Happy Together

I’m not suggesting that your children need to learn math together all the time. There may come a time when you need to do some things individually. Children inspired by creativity and discovery may even take up math ideas on their own. But, I think the bulk of math time in the homeschool can be spent together, especially in the early years.

Homeschool mother-teachers know this to be true with subjects like history or science. We know this when it comes to read alouds. I think it’s true when it comes to math too. Math lessons can be isolating for a child in the homeschool. Sometimes due to the needs of many children, children are given a math book and left to work on their own. Then, Mom comes back to check-in. When math lessons are done in the community of the family, however, new life comes to the subject. Everyone can be successful. Discoveries can be shared. Discussions can be had.

I do want to remind you that I only have one daughter. But, remember, my early days were spent as a classroom teacher in the 3rd, and later the 4th, grade. I have applied this philosophy with roughly 200 students in those four years of teaching math in the classroom. Just because students are chronologically the same age doesn’t mean they are on the same “grade level”. Again, homeschool mother-teachers know this too.

But What Do We Do?

So far, I have shared some experience, philosophy, principles, and a few practical ideas. In my next post, I want to share a plan that could be used to guide your own planning. I think this will be the most practical post yet. Have you tried family-style math? Share about it in the comments below!