Creative Ways to Teach Math, Mama
It’s easy to be creative with math in the elementary years. I am not creative when it comes to middle, junior, and high school math. My kids just have to do it. Yes, there will be hard math days and sometimes even tears. These are opportunities to teach children to do hard things and to be overcomers. And to reward our little overcomers with a treat at the end can really help!
If there are tears, then that is my cue to sit next to the child and help reinforce the learning until it is not so hard or have them learn under another teacher like an older sibling or dad or a friend you can trade with. And if I am the one in tears, then that is my cue to sit next to my Savior and His Word and find help.
Some days help means just doing the odd numbers in the lesson, and sometimes it means trying another math curriculum altogether. Whatever it takes, don’t give up. (We have found videos for every math concept at www.virtualnerd.com, and there is always math help at www.tosmagazine.com and www.schoolhouseteachers.com.)
The real joy–sometimes in the midst of the tears–is that we have our own children in our own homes under our own care. Math can be done on comfy couches with hot chocolate or outside in the beautiful fall weather.
Home education means we don’t have to deal with Common Core math, fuzzy math, or questionable math teachers. The kids are free to go as far and fast as they can or to take it more slowly until they really learn a concept. They are free from bullies and fear and monotony. We are free to speak about the mighty wonders of God and His orderly math-centered creation. We have freedom to teach truth! We are free to pray and talk about God in the “classroom.” Our children are free to be Home Where They Belong.
Praising God with you! We are more than conquerors through Christ!
~Deborah
Deborah Wuehler is the Senior Editor and Director of Production here at The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. She would say she is a very ordinary homeschool mom–with one exception: she has an extraordinary God Who provides all she needs for life and homeschooling. She has eight children aged 11 to 29. Deborah’s mission is this: to point other homeschoolers to the Lord in all they do, think, and feel—and to confirm that they, too, can find everything they need for life, godliness, and homeschooling in their knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3-4).
