We’re Taking a Break From Math

There I said it. We’re taking a break from math for a while.

She hates it. She cries. She doesn’t retain anything because of the state of mind she’s in when she’s “learning” it.

So let’s just take a break and regroup.

She was pretty excited when I told her we were going to “take a break from math.” She proceeded to tell everyone she could find we were taking a break from math for a while. I started to get a little paranoid. You can’t really just “take a break from math can you?!!!” 🙂 Well… we aren’t really taking a break from MATH exactly… we’re taking a break from math curriculum. 😀

We still do math every day. She just doesn’t always realize that’s what we’re doing.

What does math look like in our house right now?

Making muffins, and maybe doubling or halving the recipe.

Comparison shopping at the grocery store.

Shopping within a budget.

Playing SET daily.

Playing Connect Four.

Playing Diner and writing up a guest receipt, adding it, including tax.

Dragon Box apps.

Eating out, and figuring out the tip.

Puzzles from YouCubed.com

Having mathematical conversations. 

Thinking Mathematically. 

Solving real world problems. 

Playing Prime Climb, Discount, Budget, or Grocery Cart 

Reading living math books.

We are starting Math and Magic in Wonderland next week, and will be connecting with some of my private group members to do it as a book club… sharing activities and insights as we go.

It was hard, for me, to let go of “daily math”. I think, because that’s what I thought math was… doing math problems. It’s not. Math is so much more than that. Math is art, thinking, problem solving. I read somewhere that math is the science of patterns. That really hit me. When we hit our brick wall with math I knew I was going to have to find a way to change how I looked at math. If I couldn’t change my mind about math… there was probably no way I would be able to support Hanna in changing her mind. I went to books (as always lol). Here are three that really helped me change my perspective, and I highly recommend if you are ready and wanting to change the way you look at math in your homeschool.

Let’s Play Math

This book helped me see that math can be something OTHER than just doing problems. There are different ways to “do” math… and many of them are *gasp* fun!

Table Talk Math

I was wishing, one day, there was a Brave Writer for math. I was wishing to have Big Juicy conversations for math, instead of 44 math problems to fight and cry through every day.  When I saw this book I was excited! It really helped me see how we can bring math into our every day conversations and become mathematical thinkers and conversationalists. This is not a step 1,2,3,4 kind of book… but it opened my mind up to the possibilities. There are ideas for different conversational activities that really helped me bring more math conversation into our homeschool.

A Mathematician’s Lament

It was THIS book that really helped me let go. This book allowed me to let go of the guilt for not doing “daily math problems”. <3 I love this book, and I highly recommend it to every homeschool parent… but especially if you feel like this. 🙂

It’s interesting. When we started our homeschool journey, a couple years ago now, my kiddo hated reading. I found it much easier to let go of what I felt we “should” be doing and just do whatever helped her remember she loved to read. I feel like we are finally doing that for math as well. The I hate math death grip is starting to loosen and it still surprises me every time she asks to play a game, and requests Prime Climb! (It took MONTHS of waffling before I decided to finally buy that game… I’m really glad I did! It’s quickly become a favorite.).

If you’re struggling with a kiddo who just HATES math and you’re feeling at your wits end. Come on over to the Secular, Relaxed Eclectic, homeschooling older kids group… we can probably help, and at least hold your hand through it. <3