I am going to make a generalization: In my years looking at math curricula I have seen how extensive the list of topics is in the typical American textbook’s table of contents. You’ll find an impressive array of math concepts to be covered in these texts. But here’s the truth: There is no way to adequately teach each of these topics well and give the students time to master them.

The thinking behind this approach is that by exposing students to the content over six years or so, they will have learned the material. (Plus impressive lists of topics sell books!) Sadly, though, the students who are forced to go through these texts rarely master any topic well and become discouraged in the process.

Observations as a High School Teacher

For several years I taught junior and high school math to young adults. I realized the classes I was teaching, such as geometry and algebra, were not the problem for students who were struggling. It was their understanding of the basics of math such as multiplication and fractions.

I was a young teacher and did not discover this until we were a few chapters into the course. I then began to notice the error in their homework and exams. I recall one student in algebra 2 who solved a long problem and arrived at the correct answer of X = 1/2, then she flipped the answer and wrote the number 2. I asked her why she changed from 1/2 to 2 and her remark was revealing. “Don’t you have to flip fractions?” She correctly understood the algebra, but her struggle was with basic fractions.

Tutors

Don’t feel like you have to jump into a textbook based on how old your children are, but take time to discern their knowledge of basic operations and fractions first. Then take time to fill in any gaps as you carefully build their foundation.

I have written this before, but home educators are tutors. A tutor first discerns what students know and then begins teaching them at this point. All students are at different levels of understanding. Find out what they know, begin there. Keep up their confidence. Successful students are happy students. Remember your kids are never behind!

Less Can Be More

Slow down and move at your student’s ability to learn and master the new math concept before moving to the next concept. Hopping from one concept to the next leads to confusion and guessing. Math does not have so many concepts that you have to hustle through a plethora of topics each year.

Begin with place value, then master addition and subtraction. When these are successfully a part of the student’s toolbox, learn multiplication well. Save division until the student is confident in multiplying, then teach the inverse, or opposite, which is dividing.

When all four basic operations have been mastered, now use these skills in fractions and decimals. Of course there are several topics that are not as foundational, such as telling time, money, Roman numerals, etc. that can be sprinkled in, but focus on the basics until they are second nature.

Less can be more! When moving at the student’s pace and not the scope and sequence in the table of contents, your children begin to experience success and their confidence increases.

Lifelong Learner with Spunk

One of my favorite phone calls, around 1995, was from a mom in Maine. I answered the phone and after a little chitchat, she asked if algebra 2 was ready to purchase. I responded that I was working on it and she replied, “Well get going!” She was polite but determined, and I loved her spunk. I asked her for more information, and her words were such an encouragement.

She said that she had not graduated from high school but took the GED. Now she was homeschooling her high schoolers and they had just completed the Math-U-See Algebra 1/Geometry book. (Later this was separated into two courses.) She was now full of confidence and was raring to go into algebra 2. She told me, “If I had learned math this way, I could have been an engineer!”

She was indeed a lifelong learner and had learned along with her kiddos. Now she was taking math courses she had missed in high school. It is never too late to learn math.

Teen Success Story

One summer I was serving at a camp for families affected by disability. One of the volunteers told me she heard I was some kind of math guru. When I answered in the affirmative, she shared how her fourteen-year-old son was struggling with math. She was trying to homeschool him, but they needed a new strategy. I then asked a few questions to understand what he knew.

I found out that while he had memorized his basic addition and subtraction facts, he wasn’t confident in regrouping (carrying and borrowing). I took a deep breath and suggested that according to what he knew, he should begin with Math-U-See Beta.

I didn’t hear anything until the next summer when I saw her son. I asked him how his math was going, and he shyly gave me a thumbs-up. I spoke to his mom who said that her son had completed four levels in one year. His confidence had returned, and he was experiencing success!

Our paths did not cross for a few years, and then I saw his mom once again and asked how her son was faring. He had continued to learn math, had done several more levels, and now was a high school graduate. He had just taken the math placement exam for college and passed it with flying colors. He would be taking normal math classes with the other freshmen. Even his mom was amazed, for she expected he would be placed in a remedial math class.

Fun with Math

This year, while speaking at conventions, I did a new session called Making Math Fun which has tips and strategies for making math meaningful and fun.