Math. Math. Math.
It seems to be the true sticking point for people. I frequently here, “We unschool… except for math.” Honestly, we used to unschool, except for math, too. It was the one thing I couldn’t easily see her “learning” without lessons, teachers, and “practice problems”. We tried and tried to find something that worked, and by work, I mean didn’t have her us in tears by the end of the day.
Then one day, I decided we would just take a break from math. And we did And we haven’t looked back since.
In my Facebook group ROSE (Relaxed, Older Kids, Secular, Eclectic) Homeschoolers, people often ask,
“How much time do you spend on math each week/day?”
It’s a hard question to answer because I know they are thinking in terms of sitting in front of a book/computer, teaching a lesson, and doing math “problems”.
And that’s just not how math goes around here. Math is actually based around REAL problems, that my kiddo actually cares about.
Here are some examples.
How much hay does she need to feed her horse? How many bales does she need for the day, the week, the month? Do we get a discount if we buy more bales? Is it better to buy round bales or square? Is it cheaper? Is the waste more with a round bale… so would it actually be cheaper to buy square bales with less waste? Math. Math. Math.
Looking at new horse tack. She has a certain amount of money to spend. She could buy each piece separately, but looking at the website, she sees there are sets. But, the set doesn’t have the headstall she wants. Contact the seller work out a deal. Oh wait, there’s tax, and shipping… maybe she can find something cheaper somewhere else. Research. Research. Research. Math. Math. Math.
And then there was that time when she looked at the 10 acres next to our property and decided she would own it one day. 😀 She measured the 10 acres (in ingenious ways I never would have thought of… it may have included her bicycle and an app on her phone.). She got graph paper, and made a chart of the property. She scoured websites looking at barns, building a budget. She decided on how many turnout paddocks she wanted, the size of the arena, and round pen, including alleys to get horses to and from places. She designed the driveway. And made it all fit in the space provided. She spent, literally, HOURS every day for a couple weeks working on this project. I honestly, was sick and tired of listening to her talk about the area of an arena, and the diameter of round pens. 😀
Thus far our horses have been boarded off our property. She realized after the trainer’s challenge this past year, how much easier it would be to work, if her horses were here (and I whole-heartedly agree lol). Time for more math.
We need a round pen. She researched the best size for a training round pen. Started researching pricing for wood vs. metal panels. She figured out how many panels she’d need for the size round pen she wanted. She began pouring over Facebook marketplace looking for panels at a good price. She eventually was the one that found an amazing deal on a full round pen set up, and delivery was included. Once the guy dropped of the round pen, she thought he’d made a mistake. There weren’t enough panels. She then texted me to tell me she realized these were 12 foot panels instead of the 10 foot she’d based her calculations on. 🙂 Then we had to find a place where it would fit in the space we currently have and not interfere with the pasture space, or the trucking business. 😉 Lots of math and measuring there. 😀
Next, time for a fence. She really wants to bring our horses home. 🙂 She measured out the entire area we have set aside for pasture. She figured the perimeter. The area of all the different spaces she’s setting up. She figured up how many posts we’d need with 8 foot spacing. How many lines of fencing we’d need. She researched different kinds of fencing for best pricing and best type of fence for our needs. She found deals on the internet (thank you FB marketplace). She researched corners, and started finding deals on corners, and of course gates. She’s put together a budget, a map, and a plan for the fence. So far, we have the posts, and we are getting ready to order the fencing. (How many reels of fencing do I need if the reels are this long and our perimeter is this long and we need 5 strands?) Math. Math. Math.
I might also add, she’s writing all these things down in a notebook. Keeping track of all her ideas, and the places she sees the deals. Hello, writing. 😉
Then there’s a trailer. We only had ONE horse… so we got a little two horse trailer that worked great. Now, we somehow have 4 horses. (Still not sure how that happened.) We need a bigger trailer. So much math here. All the things you have to consider when buying a trailer… weight, length, the type of vehicle we have available to pull it (and her mom’s willingness to pull a gigantic trailer lol). She started with a SMALL budget. SMALL. It was hard to find something in that price range that wasn’t going to take a lot of work. We discussed this issue, what’s better, spending a little bit of money and getting something not so great, that you will have to inevitably put a bunch of money into, OR… save more money and buy a nicer, newer trailer? It was a toss up. She wants a trailer NOW. 🙂 We also discussed getting a loan for part a more expensive trailer, so we had some great conversations about debt, interest, payments, budgeting, jobs, and on and on. We are still working on finding the right trailer, but the longer it takes, the more money we are saving. 🙂
This is just the horse math. There is math in games we play, and cooking, and baking, and of course in our business. We own a fishing rod company www.slimecatrods.com and she is a whiz at creating orders, and has been in charge of setting up our dealers with their wholesale orders. That includes a wholesale pricing discount, and no tax. We also have to figure out shipping by weight and size of the box. It’s amazing. The more I let go of the idea math = sitting in front of a book doing problems, the more I am able to see math everywhere.
So, your kiddo isn’t into horses, and isn’t out there mapping out perimeters for a fence line. I get it. I bet, your kiddo has some sort of interest though. I bet, within that interest, there’s math. It was difficult for me to see math in our every day life, but it’s there. I promise, it’s in yours too.
