January 31, 2024 – Math Tears: Who is Crying More, Mom or Child?

Mercy Every Minute

Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor

Read the Tears

There may be hard math days, and sometimes even tears. These are opportunities to teach children to do hard things and to be overcomers. We can pray through the hard days and tears.

It’s not very difficult to be creative with math in the elementary and middle years, but can be a challenge for me when it comes to junior and high school math. My kids just have to do it, and usually with help other than mom. I can still be responsible for the education of my children even as I subcontract out the math instruction to another trusted source, whether a live tutor or online product.

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.

We also need to be able to read the tears. Are they tears of frustration? Are they tears of rebellion? Are they tears of shame? Let’s ask God for help in discerning what is really going on so we can get to the root of the problem.

Some days, help means just doing the odd numbers in the lesson, trying another math curriculum altogether, incorporating special snacks for math time only, or putting the math aside for a math-related game. Whatever it takes, don’t give up. (We have found free videos for every math concept here: www.virtualnerd.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 in front of fireplaces, or with hot chocolate and cookies around the table.

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. They are free to thrive. 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 truly free when they are Home. Where They Belong.

~Deborah

Resources:

Listen to our podcast: When Math Brings Tears

God and math: what is the connection? God and Math: Is Math Part of God’s Creation?

Help your child learn measuring (both customary & metric) with hands-on exercises! Download Math Mammoth Measuring 1 (grades 1-3): https://www.mathmammoth.com/freebook

Beth Mora

Tissues for Math Tears

It doesn’t matter if you’re a math expert—your tears or your child’s will eventually flow. It’s not that you are doing it wrong; it’s just that math is abstract, an art, and requires practice. Think about it; math is abstract. We use symbols to represent quantities and procedures. It’s also an art; it’s problem-solving poetry in motion. There are many ways to solve the same problem. And most importantly, it requires practice, something children don’t want to do. So how can you wipe away math tears, yours and theirs? Let me offer you a few tissues that have helped me.

Tissue #1: Math must be taught using all five senses.
God gave us five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Don’t teach a lesson without a math manipulative in your hands and theirs. Sing a ditty to help your child remember math facts or formulas. Act out word problems. Can you taste math? Yes, we made cakes to learn about area and perimeter. We doubled and reduced recipes to learn fractions. We made treasure maps to scale in our yard. Let your creative juices and your child’s imagination flow!

Tissue #2: Math must have meaning to your child.
Your child’s DNA holds God’s fantastic gift of individuality, and it is helpful when teaching math. My business-minded son understood math concepts when I put dollar signs before each problem. My daughter learned proportions when she wanted to make a historical ball gown. My computer-minded son wrote mathematical formulas to make his computer do a task. Tap into your child’s interests.

Tissue #3: Recognize and squelch math anxiety.
If you’re a math expert, you may get frustrated with your kid who doesn’t “get” it. If math isn’t your strong suit, you may transfer your math anxiety to your child. And sometimes, your child may understand math more quickly than you. Recognize the dynamics of your math relationship.

Math is beautiful and trains the mind to think logically. Tearful math days are common. Know you are not alone. Just remember to use your tissues and wipe away the tears!

About the author

Beth Mora is creator/teacher-on-camera for Here to Help Learning’s Homeschool Writing Program (grades 1–6) and homeschool conference and women’s events speaker. She loves to blog at Home to Home. She serves up HTHL’s Writing Tip of the Week for those teaching their kiddos to write. Everything she does, whether laughable or heart-gripping, is done to honor One. God’s grace is the salve that has healed her own life and is what she offers liberally to others.

Dianne Craft

https://diannecraft.org/

Taming the Math Monster

What do you do when your child hates math and struggles with even the most elementary concepts . . . yet reads and writes on grade level? Or you find that you are stuck on the lowest level, and feel like mastery will never be obtained of math facts, much less, the processes?

What do we do? Easy. We change our teaching method. Instead of memorizing, we use a visual learning method. The visual part of our brain holds onto information much more easily for our kiddoes who are struggling with math. We teach the facts with Memory Hooks. Instead of games, writing, or other auditory memory processes, we put these facts in the visual memory by putting zany pictures, stories, and emotion directly on the processes. This often turns a reluctant child into a success in an afternoon.

Memory Hooks

Let’s look at some examples of Memory Hooks for math facts. For the addition facts, we use dots directly on the numbers and add a funny story with each number. Then we teach the next step, which is adding columns using color and story for the process of adding up the dots (they get so fast at this that you think they have memorized it) and find that they can add four columns across and down. They feel so successful. We do much the same method for the memorization of multiplication facts. Each fact has its own story and pictures embedded in the number. They find that the pictures stick easily, and then they can move on to three-digit multiplication. We also make a story and picture about this process.  

We can do this for other processes too, such as algebraic formulas. Make an example with silly, visual memory hooks, and keep them on the wall for a while. The student’s internal camera will get this into their permanent memory in a week or two. I like to put the math curriculum away for a little while, and focus on math calculation so they get confident right away with adding, subtracting, and multiplying, as well as working with fractions, percents, etc. 

You can get many of these memory hook ideas, and alternative teaching methods by reading our free articles on our website. Enjoy a new freedom in math. Monster no more!

About the author

Dianne Craft has a master’s degree in special education. She has 25 years’ experience teaching bright children who have to work too hard to learn. She developed the successful “Three-Pronged Approach” to reducing and eliminating learning disabilities: Brain Integration Therapy, Right Brain Teaching Strategies, and Targeted Nutritional Interventions. Parents have seen their children overcome learning struggles using these tools. On her website you can download her free Daily Lesson Plans, Learning Assessments (Quick Score Reading test), and read her many published articles. Watch the detailed video “Identifying and Correcting Blocked Learning Gates” free on her website. Sign up for her free monthly Newsletter for more ideas on making learning easy.   https://diannecraft.org/

Learn about Homeschool+ by visiting HomeschoolPlus.com and discover how you can create a customized homeschool learning environment for your child.

Are you looking for some extra math practice for your students? “Daily Math” contains worksheets on a variety of math topics that you can incorporate into your regular math program to use as additional practice or as speed drills. Use these printable pages once or multiple times as your student works on improving skills in arithmetic functions, fractions, decimals, patterns, word problems, money value, and much more.