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Someone once asked my daughter if she had used Math on the Level when she was younger. She said that it wasn’t called Math on the Level then because we hadn’t written it yet, but yes, that was how she had learned math. The lady then asked her if she had liked math. To my surprise, my daughter answered, “Actually, I thought I hated math.” But then she continued, “All my friends hated math, so I just assumed I did, too. I didn’t know I was doing math – I thought I was just having fun with my mom!”
Proverbs 17:22 says, A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. (NKJV)
When was the last time you heard, “Yay!!! It’s time for math!” ?
When was the last time YOU felt, “Yay!! It’s time for math!” ?
If you dread teaching math, if your kids are bored with pages of problems or hours of math fact drill, if your kids say, “When am I ever going to use this?”, then perhaps it’s time to take a new look at how you are approaching math. For a change, I’d like to suggest a few ways to tweak your math instruction so that math time becomes much more fun and meaningful.
“A consistent review of concepts learned is better than doing 30 or 40 problems at one sitting. Grinding through pages of math books may seem like the easiest way to teach, but it may not be the most effective way, especially if your kids are miserable.”
One way to create an environment where your children are enjoying math is to play games together. Family games are a wonderful way to teach logic, number sense, cause and effect, and even specific math skills. For example:
- If you play card games where a player can “go in the hole,” children are using positive and negative numbers.
- When players move forwards and backwards on a board game, it lays the foundation to understand number lines.
- Dominoes can be played in ways that reinforce addition, multiplication, and division.
- You can purchase games that focus on just about any math skill.
- You can also create your own games or modify games to allow more math practice.
- Also, when you play WITH your children, you can model and encourage math vocabulary.
“Family games are a wonderful way to teach logic, number sense, cause and effect, and even specific math skills.”
Another delightful way to practice math is to cook together.
- A child who uses measuring cups and spoons on a regular basis is likely to develop a very practical understanding of fractions.
- A kitchen scale and recipes that use metric measurements help children become familiar with the metric system.
- And it’s easy to have a merry heart in the kitchen, especially after the cookies are done.
If your children are working on story problems, try recreating them - act them out. Give your children a visual, experiential picture of the situation, even if you have to get a little crazy. Have fun! And it’s okay to have multiple ages working together. When you act out a story problem, even if the pencil-paper math is too advanced for the younger ones, they may understand the concepts on a practical level. Let them be creative – and they may figure out answers in innovative ways.
Adding math activities to a textbook approach really doesn’t help much and may be overwhelming. Instead, do some substitution. The Math on the Level approach suggests that 2 or 3 days a week the math lesson involves using math in life, and only 2 or 3 days a week will be pencil-paper instruction. If you use a textbook, you don’t have to teach every page in the book. If your child already knows a concept, or if you can teach it using life activities, you may want to skip those pages. And a consistent review of concepts learned is better than doing 30 or 40 problems at one sitting.
Grinding through pages of math books may seem like the easiest way to teach, but it may not be the most effective way, especially if your kids are miserable. Wouldn’t you rather have them excited and curious about numbers? It’s so much easier for us to step out of the box in language arts or history than it is in math.
There are so many math concepts that are fun to teach and practice
- with all your children together
- by doing practical activities together
So gather together for some family games or fall cooking, and enjoy your math lesson today!
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The life of a homeschooling family can be rich and full, but it can also take unexpected turns. Carlita Boyles loves to help you recognize and take advantage of the turns in the road of your homeschooling journey and make real-life activities be an integral part of your family's learning experience. Carlita has successfully homeschooled her three children, each with very different strengths and learning styles, and her homeschooling journey had many unanticipated surprises and joys. Carlita and her husband John have been very happily married for 30 years. She started homeschooling their children at birth, and very early on,Carlita developed a method of teaching using real-life experiences instead of one-size-fits-all classroom methods. At the encouragement she received after sharing her methods within her homeschool group, Carlita and John decided to create Math on the Level,(www.mathonthelevel.com) a curriculum introduced in 2007 and designed especially for the homeschool family. This unexpected turn in their homeschool journey led their family to travel from coast-to-coast to share at homeschool conventions. After several years, they felt the need to put conventions aside to focus on their children's high school education. Now that all three children have graduated, John and Carlita are able to put more focus on Math on the Level, developing the 2nd Edition and more online resources. Carlita also enjoys interacting with other homeschooling moms in her Math on the Level Facebook group (www.facebook.com/groups/mathonthelevel/) and the Math on the Level forum (www.mathonthelevel.com/motl-forum). Carlita has long been an educator. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Child Development and a Master’s degree in Special Education with an emphasis on Learning Disabilities. She also has a California Multiple Subjects credential and California Specialist in Learning Disabilities credential. Prior to homeschooling, she taught Special Ed classes in the public school system. More importantly, however, she has 40years of education experience through which she has seen the faithfulness of a Lord who is able to do all things. The life of a homeschooling family can be rich and full, but it can also take unexpected turns. Carlita Boyles loves to help you recognize and take advantage of the turns in the road of your homeschooling journey and make real-life activities be an integral part of your family's learning experience. Carlita has successfully homeschooled her three children, each with very different strengths and learning styles, and her homeschooling journey had many unanticipated surprises and joys. Carlita and her husband John have been very happily married for 30 years. She started homeschooling their children at birth, and very early on,Carlita developed a method of teaching using real-life experiences instead of one-size-fits-all classroom methods. At the encouragement she received after sharing her methods within her homeschool group, Carlita and John decided to create Math on the Level,(www.mathonthelevel.com) a curriculum introduced in 2007 and designed especially for the homeschool family. This unexpected turn in their homeschool journey led their family to travel from coast-to-coast to share at homeschool conventions. After several years, they felt the need to put conventions aside to focus on their children's high school education. Now that all three children have graduated, John and Carlita are able to put more focus on Math on the Level, developing the 2nd Edition and more online resources. Carlita also enjoys interacting with other homeschooling moms in her Math on the Level Facebook group (www.facebook.com/groups/mathonthelevel/) and the Math on the Level forum (www.mathonthelevel.com/motl-forum). Carlita has long been an educator. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Child Development and a Master’s degree in Special Education with an emphasis on Learning Disabilities. She also has a California Multiple Subjects credential and California Specialist in Learning Disabilities credential. Prior to homeschooling, she taught Special Ed classes in the public school system. More importantly, however, she has 40years of education experience through which she has seen the faithfulness of a Lord who is able to do all things