Quote of the Day: It is easier to fight for your principles than to live by them. -sorry, I forgot who to attribute this to!

I was wondering if any of you ladies out there have opinions on using calculators in teaching math? I don't think children should use them in the lower grades, but I have friends (these friends have their children in the public schools, by the way) who think that's crazy, that my kids won't grow up knowing how to use a calculator properly. I find that difficult to believe, and if my children reach high school unable to use one, we'll add "calculator lessons" to our homeschooling! I think the odds that a child will grow up dependent on calculators and without a true understanding of how arithmetic works is a much more likely outcome...

By the way, we have a calculator in our schoolroom that sits unused mostly (although I use it sometimes to correct their papers quickly) but my kids already know how to use it to spell out swear words...the famous turn-the-calculator-upside-down-to-spell-H-E-double-hockey-sticks trick...

Here's an article, http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/nsf.html , which admittedly is a little dry, but points out the problems we have teaching math in the schools, which, by the way, is the same problem we have teaching anything else in the schools-- people with an agenda wanting to "improve" the curriculum.That kind of touchy-feely thinking isn't limited to revisionist history, unfortunately, we now have revisionist math to deal with!

By the way, I don't mind letting my kids use alternate methods to do their work from time to time. An abacus, for example, or a really neat math-project called Napier's bones, which are little strips of paper (we've glued ours onto cardboard) that can solve multiplication problems.

Here's a site that has a printable pattern for Napier's bones:

http://orion.math.iastate.edu/mathnight/activities/modules/multiply/makebones.pdf

Off to start school... We got a late start this morning. We usually begin very early and are done by lunch. Today, however, the kids were playing so nicely together-- and even including the baby-- this morning that I decided to let them start an hour and a half late!

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Posted by SandBetweenMyToes

I totally agree with you about the calculators. Children's (and our) brains will become lazy if they are dependent on the machine to do the work. As you said, introduce them when they are older. My older girls used them in in high school.
If your kids want to spell using the calculator, have them enter a decimal point before the 7734. That will spell "hello" instead of a crude word!

Yes, definitely, begin right now to train yourself to pray for every situation in your life. God cares about it all. He has an opinion about it all. Granted some things he doesn't "care" about--what you have for supper (as long as it's good for your body!) or what you wear today (as long as it's modest), but He cares about all your other needs. He does not want us making our own choices and running our own lives. He wants to direct and help us. Choosing curriculum, discipline, how we spend our money, who we spend our time with, our relationships....everything.
Prov 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." We must seek God in all things in order to walk in His footsteps. It is so easy for me to forget to do that sometimes in the day to day things. As you said, in bigger things, like when there is a major behavior problem, or James has a problem at work, but do I remember to ask Him daily to give me the right words to speak to my children or do I just blurt out what seems right to me at the time? Do I ask Him daily to protect my husband, to help his business flourish, and continue to lead him in where he wants the business to go? I'm trying to "train" myself to do these things, but scripture says to seek Him in ALL things, not just what seems too big for me. For Him to be Lord of our life, means He must have a say-so, to give direction and support and discipline in all areas.
God bless you today, and I pray things continue to work out with your step-son.
Letitia

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Posted by humpty

Have you seen this video? It is a few minutes long and very enlightening about some of the books that public schools are using to teach math (multiplication and division algorithms).

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI

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