Learning Life Through Unschooling

Jul. 18, 2006

What about Math?

Posted in Math

Melissa over at The Lilting House is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. You still have time to submit your entry this week, so get a move on!

Weather update: current heat index 113. What else to do but blog? ;)

"OK, ok - enough about unschooling reading for now! (Here and here if you missed them) I'm getting the idea now!" - you say?

So what do you want to know about next? Typically it's math. "How do you work math in? What about those kids who detest math?" you ask. Brace yourself for my answer: I don't think kids will learn to detest anything if they are able to discover it on their own, in their own time and they have someone who serves as a research assistant (me and hubby and Grammy and Grandma and Grandpa, you get the picture?) through it all.

So....math.
Yes, they have the typical number counting books that every other toddler acquires from someone along the way. At some point, they realize that numbers are important and they get interested in counting first. Rose has been very interested in counting and identifying numerals lately. How do you know? She puts an emphasis on numbers in almost everything. "Mommy, I have THREE (3 fingers held up) cats in my bed!" and "I put BIVE (5 fingers held up) legos on this and it's a baceship". So I see that interest and I jump. I get out Jade's baby counting books and strew (that's a fantastic article) them around, I ask her to get three cups to set the table, I read some great "math story books" (there's a superb list over at livingmath.net), and we cook.

As a full-on girly girl (with a little tomboy in her too), Rose loves to help with girly things like cooking and unloading the dishwasher and doing the laundry. She counts the socks, she matches the socks, she separates them into groups of "Matthew socks" and "Daddy socks", etc. Granted, I could get the laundry done MUCH faster without her help but where would the fun be in that? At least this way I have an excuse for leaving it all over my dining table. "But Rose wanted to count the socks, dear."

And I'm sure her version of counting and matching and sorting is much more fun for her than boring old dry worksheets.

Cooking is a whole other subject and I could (and probably will) go on and on about for days. Matthew loves to help me cook as well. Just out of pure curiosity one day when we were making cookies, I needed 1 cup of sugar. I showed Matthew that I had the 1/3 C measuring cup out and asked him how many of those would I need to make a whole cup. (We have never discussed fractions that I can recall.) He thought for about 2 seconds and then said, "Three," with confidence.

He loves to pour and mix and measure and just yesterday, he cracked his first raw egg into a bowl and didn't get one piece of shell in it at all. (Of course, his loves-to-cook-mother watched while grinning like the cheshire cat with pride.) Is that more fun than doing equations on a white sheet of paper? Yep. Will he ever need to know how to do equations? Probably, and I'm glad you asked. He's also been interested in numbers lately. He sees them in the books he reads. It seems story books aren't just about stories these days - they all try to be [that nasty "educational" word (but that's another post)]. I'm sure he's seen them in Amelia Bedelia books and his Ranger Rick magazine and on some more of those great books listed at livingmath.net and he's seen them on Cyberchase, etc.

The other day, trying to beat the heat, we headed to the mall with Grammy. In the bookstore, the kids busied themselves with reading and playing on the Thomas train set. (Rose had picked a book out for her stuffed cow to read and had the book opened and the cow looking at the page. Man I wish I'd had my camera that day!) I was perusing through the aisle and found the neatest little math set of books. I bought the addition one. It has a sliding wheel and makes equations for you - for instance the format is x + 1 = y. When you slide the x=1, the y shows as 2, and when you slide the x=2, the y shows as 3, etc. It looked like something that would make a good tool. So I bought it and casually handed it to him a few hours later when we got home, "I bought this book today, thought you might like it". He was quite impressed with it and soon started asking me & Grammy to write some equations down for him so he could look them up with his new book. Voila! Equations. ;) He thinks it's a fun game instead of "uuuuugh, I have 3 pages of math homework tonight!"

If I could only figure out how to work in long division by cleaning his room...hmmm....

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Comments

Jul. 18, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Stacey - Crazy Mama

I totally get the math lessons with the younger ones...as a former early childhood teacher, I know how much fun it is to teach with books and cooking, and to grab those 'teachable moments' when you can.

What I want to know is...when they are older and doing more complicated math...what then?

Don't mean that in a bad way or anything, I'm just curious because I think I would personally be totally incompetent at jr. high / hs math...I forgot all my geometry and algebra before the classes were even over!

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Jul. 18, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by amalapert

Well, I was going to delve into that concept too but figured the post was already long enough! LOL And, well...my laundry was calling my name loudly. ;) So I'm glad you asked!

When they get older, some unschoolers will either start a kind of co-op where maybe one parent is good at math and one is good at science and one is willing to help out with english...and they kind of trade off with helping the kids learn whatever they're pursuing. (Fortunately my hubby is interested in the subjects I'm not and vice versa so between the two of us, we can probably make a good showing. lol) Some unschoolers will find someone who is willing to mentor their kids in apprenticeships in their trade. For example, if my son wants to get a business degree, I could help him find a local business owner who would be willing to apprentice him. If Rose wants to be a Vet, I could help her find a vet who would not only just 'give her a job' but really apprentice her and let her watch surgeries, etc. There are many different approaches to this question and it's quite a common question. Some unschoolers DO prefer workbooks - there's nothing wrong with workbooks in my opinion if that's how the kids are interested in learning.

But the main thing is to leave it up to the kids. Say my son still wants to be an astronaut, as he's claimed since he was 3yrs old. LOL As he prepares in the years before college, we will sit down and figure out how to help him reach that goal. This might mean that he needs to bone up on physics and trig. So we'll cross that road then. At that point, it will be something that comes from his greater desire. It's not learning 'just to learn' with no ideas on practical applications.

When I was in high school, I thought I'd be a housewife and mom. I saw absolutely NO need for algebra, nor dissecting frogs in biology class. ;) And I have to say, whatever I learned (not much, judging from my C's in those classes) from dissecting that frog I still have not used...and I can probably say the same for algebra. So I viewed those classes at the time to be pointless - I saw no need for them in my life and I trudged through them, forgetting the information soon after the chapter test was over. But if my son realizes he needs trig in order to achieve his goal of space exploration, then he will (maybe still not *want* to learn it but) understand why he needs to learn it and it will be easier on him.

Hope I'm not beating a dead horse and I hope that made sense! LOL Thanks again for asking! :)

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Jul. 19, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Stacey - Crazy mama

Thanks for the info! Very interesting. I really admire your dedication and confidence in the way you are educating your children.

And I'm glad to know that workbooks aren't always a sin...I learned well that way, and many of my former students did too, even though the administration doesn't always like to think that.

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Jul. 26, 2006 - Hello

Posted by TOSPUBLISHER

I just love homeschooling and the way that it doesn't seem to matter HOW the teaching and learning is done, it always comes out better than the public school.

-gena
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

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Jul. 27, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by KarenW

Thanks for the living math link. I've bookmarked it and plan on studying it later!

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