Creating a Culture of Math: A Series

During one of my forays into internet groups, a question came up about "speaking math" to one's child when math is not one's forte.  I addressed it briefly and invited more specific questions with the idea that I might begin a series of blog posts about connecting with children on the topic of math in a variety of situations.  The invitation was largely ignored, but that's fine, I'm doing it anyway.  AND, I could use any input from you:  What's useful or not useful?  What would you like to see?  This has been an interest of mine and I would love to know the ideas that are helpful and why.  So, please and thank you, post any constructive feedback in the 'comments' section.


There is the idea that, while not new -- there is documentation of it from a journal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics from 1938 -- has come to my attention in the past year or so.  The idea circulated by professionals and scholars originally was that of postponing formal mathematics education until age 10 or later.  In homeschooling circles, however, I have heard the idea expressed as postponing mathematics until age 10-12.  But there is a huge difference between postponing formal math education and postponing math education at all!

It is true that once a child realizes the value of money, he or she begins to explore the ideas behind adding, subtracting, and grouping.  But we use math every day much more than for just counting our coins.  The thing is, most of us use math in our heads where it is invisible to the people around us.  Just as we surround children with books to support literacy and a love of reading, we need to surround children with math to support numeracy and a love of mathematical concepts and processes.  More than surrounding them, we need to live it, to share it, to engage with it, to play with it, with our children and in front of our children.  This series will talk about specifics of intentionally creating a culture that embraces math.

How, Not What, to Think

BatBoy has for the past year or so been very keen on matchstick puzzles.  I picked up a book of them at Chapters and he often likes to work on them while SpiderGirl has her classes.  One day, we were with a good friend as BatBoy worked on the puzzles, and our friend wanted to engage with him a bit -- which is great!  And she did what people often do when they help someone with a puzzle:  She figured out the answer in her head, and then hinted at what the solution was.  Of course, he then quickly figured it out and went on to start another puzzle. 

What Have We Learned This Year?

As I complete weekly reports throughout the year, I ocassionally purposely slip in a little math, just for the record.  But really, this year, I had been feeling that we hadn't done a ton of math.  SpiderGirl never mastered the multiplication tables, worked much with area and volume, or advanced in fractions, all things that had been on her learning plan.  BatBoy has been exploring many mathematical concepts, but still, not much to go into a report.  So I thought.  When I began working on their final reports for our Distributed Learning school, I realized just how much they have learned this year.