The Great Math Adventure

Math is the subject, to date, that I have spent the most time researching and pouring over other blogs trying to figure out how to do it in our homeschool. Reading the math classics and learning about how formulas came about is something that I'm actually looking forward to, but I already know that reading Euclid to my five year old is not going to work right now.

I felt like it was an answer to prayer when I came across THIS LINK. It is a mathematicians lament on why math in public schools is so far from what it should be. Unfortunately, this essay doesn't go into great depth on how a person really should be learning math. At least, not specifically. My conveyor-belt-brain still needs step by step instructions to things like teaching math. But I know I want to do it the best way possible so I've been thinking and praying about what to do.

In a perfect setting, I would have math be an adventure and discovery process. I feel like if a child could be put in a situation where they were compelled to figure out math problems in order to accomplish something important then they would see the value of math and never forget what they learned. Coming up with these situations is not going to be easy, but I'm sure going to try.

I ordered the Math-U-See Alpha set, but have only done one lesson with Kendi. We are going to spend more time on learning how to write numbers really well and fine tune how to count to 100. The first lesson in Math-U-See Alpha is about Place Value. I wanted to follow a math curriculum to make sure we covered everything, but then include some adventure activities to make math become real and memorable. So how do you put a child in a situation that makes Place Value sink in? I couldn't think of anything and I wasn't sure it was even possible. Then I came across a math game on YouTube. Place Value Hopscotch. This was more of a game than a real life situation, but Kendi loves hopscotch and was willing to do it over and over until the information really sunk in. So while the math principals are simple I will include games as long as they work really well.

At this point I'm hoping we'll have math adventures two or three times a month. If anyone out there has ideas please, please, please let me know what you think. We will be calling this The Great Math Adventure.