Article - Homeschooler Goes to College

Salon posted this article recently. It's a good read, but the many bitter comments also drew my attention.

Teaching Math

I don't know if this will be a long post or not, but I just wanted to quickly comment on teaching math at our house.

I always wanted to be a math teacher....I thought it was my true calling...that is, until I had a job teaching 5 remedial classes at a high school--six weeks of my life I will never get back.

Right now we are using Singapore math to teach both Simon and Gwen. Gwen is on level 2 and Simon is on level 5. For the most part, it is just a book with worksheets that are about 1-3 pages per lesson. I used to always think "practice makes perfect" and the more problems you did, the better you were at math....but my opinion has changed. It turns out, I can usually tell by 4-5 problems whether or not my kids understand the math. I know Simon hates long division (as do I) and if I see him doing everything right, I usually cut the assignment in half. Most of the pages seem to have about 10-14 problems, but again, half of the problems is plenty, especially since I know they'll be repeating the skills again in another lesson.

I guess I find it interesting (to me) how much my opinion of how kids learn has changed since we started homeschooling. It is obvious when they are frustrated, and definitely clear when they are enjoying the lesson....but I guess that is easy when you have a classroom of 2 kids plus teacher...

So, I am enjoying this new school year. I really look forward to coming home after work and doing math and science lessons with the kids...

That's all...now back to my lazy Sunday...