When I think of Charlotte Mason style homeschooling, I first think of using literature. How can you use literature for learning math? There are many series that introduce or illustrate math topics through stories. Hello Math Reader is one. We’ve also enjoyed many books by Greg Tang (Math for All Seasons, etc.). Another favorite on our shelves is Miss Mabel’s Table by Deborah Chandra. Our library often has stickers on the spines denoting those that are math oriented in Easy or Picture Book sections. I’ve learned of others via the Yahoo group “Living Math”.
We also try to play up the math in everyday situations. We raise chickens for eggs. The gathering of the eggs is a chore for the children. Naturally, they are learning about the relationship of numbers adding to twelve. As my little ones get older, we introduce multiplying through counting eggs, too.
Multiplying and fractions are a natural to learn in the kitchen. As our family grows, we often have to multiply recipes. We have a whiteboard on the fridge to work out the math. I love it when the girls realize they are doing the math in their head and no longer need to write it down. Also in the kitchen, I use muffin tins for hands-on early math learning.
We have a ceramic tile counter on our island. This has been a great help for my hands-on learners. It’s like a giant sheet of graph paper. We’ve explored graphs, learned about perimeter and area, and played with multiplication using dry beans.
I’m a firm believer in learning through play. It should be no surprise that we play a lot of games in our homeschool. There are many games that are intentionally educational and many more that sneak in the learning. It’s easy to include games and play for my younger learners, but not as easy as they get older. I really appreciate the list of games in the Math on the Level Resources book.
Not familiar with Math on the Level? We acquired it a few years ago and have been using it like a spine for our math learning ever since. It can be used for your all of your children, teaching concepts for your earliest learners through Pre-Algebra. It is not laid out at all like traditional curricula. The idea is to not teach by grade, but as your child is ready for a concept. You use whatever method is the best fit for your child – kinesthetic, visual, etc. The books have teaching ideas you can use however you want. It is very freeing and adaptable for whatever way you teach and your children learn.
My children’s favorite part of using Math on the Level is that most days, they have only 5 problems. Yes, that’s right, just five (keeping with shorter lessons ala Charlotte Mason, too). There is a review system so that you can keep track of how often your learner needs to review — keeping it just right for them. The record keeping has been the hardest part for me to grasp. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting an index card system set up (similar to the Scripture memorization system from Simply Charlotte Mason). I will be sharing more on that in a month or so (and if I don’t, ask me!).
We have also used Math Mammoth (very much not Charlotte Mason, but a favorite of one of my daughters), IXL (we still use this a few days a week in lieu of the 5 a day problems) and Touch Math. All of these have some great points and different ways of presenting concepts, but we don’t use them as is. We tweak them to fit our needs.
Want to read about math in other home schools? That is our topic this week for the Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Homeschooling Hearts and Minds.