![]() Plus, for some reason I’ll never understand, they rarely give kids enough space in math books to solve the problems. Little hands get fatigued from pushing a pencil and erasing errors. ![]() You can find these cheap at a dollar store! It’s not uncommon for many math lessons to contain 40-50 problems in one daily lesson. Counting bears (or bunnies, beans, beads, etc.)Īnother item to add to your math stash is a couple of whiteboards.Just don’t rush out to buy everything at once because some homeschool math curricula come with the needed math materials for each year. Using hands-on manipulatives is not a crutch or cheating! This is how kids learn and make abstract concepts real, especially kinesthetic and visual learners. Young children learn best when they can touch and interact with real materials to count, sort, measure, and use to make patterns. Just remember – for homeschool math, you don’t need huge quantities of math manipulatives because you are only usually working with 1 or 2 children at a time. So, build yourself a math kit of must-have items. Homeschool Math Tip #4: Use Hands-on ManipulativesĪll children benefit from interactive hands-on learning. (Wait – that wasn’t only me, right?) Free-spirit kids will benefit from having a roadmap for success, and that includes the simple but powerful idea that precision and accuracy are vital to math. Perhaps this is one reason why right-brained, creative children often balk at math – they find it constraining and boring. After all, you wouldn’t want a doctor to be sloppy or imprecise when he did surgery on you, right? Precision may not come easily or naturally for your kids. Simply stress that precision and methodology are one of the secret keys to making math work. Be careful to keep it positive – it’s easy for a child to loose heart when they feel they are getting many problems wrong each day. If you are just starting out in your homeschool math journey, put emphasis on accuracy and details while your child is young. But as a teacher, I’ve come to understand that one of the keys to homeschool math success is careful attention to detail and precision. Instead, I was a free-spirit who couldn’t understand the restraint and strict rules required. Homeschool Math Tip #3: Teach Precision and Attention to DetailĪs a child, I never had any love for math. Following the Saxon sequence and skipping kindergarten math, the teaching sequence looks like the chart below. In our house, we have used a mix of Saxon Math and Teaching Textbooks. It provides you with greater flexibility later on during the years when math is likely to become a battle or during junior high and high school when you begin to see which math will be most beneficial to your child. Why? This leaves room in later years for slowing the math down as it gets harder or opening up options for higher math. Instead, jump into 1 st grade homeschool math and accelerate their math instruction. If that’s the case with your little one, then there is no need to repeat these concepts for an entire year of kindergarten. This happens almost without even realizing it just by reading books and day-to-day conversation within the home! ![]() In many families, parents naturally teach their preschool age children math basics – counting, numeral recognition, simple patterns, shapes, calendar, and so forth. Plus, most math curricula cover all of the kindergarten concepts again in 1st grade, just as a quicker pace. Get a jump start on math by skipping the kindergarten math level! Most kids are ready to dive into 1 st grade math in kindergarten then continue on the regular progression. Homeschool Math Tip #2: Start a Year Early When we put math later in the day, we tend to have more tears and it takes forever to complete. By the end of the school day, the cumulative struggles and challenges of the day add up and your child (not to mention Mom!) may have used up all their patience for tedious math problems. In our home, I’ve found hitting homeschool math as the very first subject of the day is the best plan. They may start off a bit sluggish, but by the time they’ve had breakfast and prepped for the day, their young minds are ready to tackle tough subjects. Most kids are fresh and eager in the mornings. 10 Tips for Happy Homeschool Math Homeschoo Math Tip#1: Do it 1 st If you have young learners, discover what should you focus on in those early years during math instruction to make it more seamless in the later years. Learn how you can make elementary homeschool math more fun, smoother, and faster for a more positive daily experience. And yet, we all know how vitally important math is for academic success. Nothing can produce tears faster during the school day than homeschool math! Parents often say it is the toughest subject, takes the longest part of the day, and causes the most battles.
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