Making Math Memorable

   I am a product of every crazy math idea of 1970s elementary education. If it was "innovative" and destined to later be dubbed "ineffective," I was there. One particularly bad experience was IMS. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, a cart was rolled into the classroom at the same time every day. On the cart were laminated file folders of various colors. Each child chose her folder, read the lesson and completed the exercises in grease pencils. She checked her own work and then recorded it and erased the grease. Then, she moved to the next uninspiring pencil. I distinctly remember that my math goal for the year was to make sure that I was always at least one folder ahead of Greg K. I'm not sure where the teachers were--perhaps that was their lunch time. I am certain that the experience forever ruined me for laminated plastic learning materials. I remember very little of the content, but I do know that grease pencils are brutal on one's cuffs.

In nineteen years of home education, we've used a lot of math programs. I've quested after vanquishing my bad experiences and I've longed to make math memorable (in a good way). Honestly, elementary math is very simple in terms of concepts to be taught. Children need to understand numerals and what they represent. They need to know the four basic operations. They need measurement skills and some beginning geometry. This content is not all that complicated, though the books on my "math" shelf belie that fact.

Looking beyond the concepts, I'd really like for my children to have a "relationship" with math. I'd like them to be unafraid of numbers, even to watch their eyes light up when they see how it all works. I'd like for math to be memorable, but not for the plastic and grease pencils.This year, we're taking a story approach to math. We are weaving those basics into a story about gnomes and a wise, Tolkein-inspired tree. It's too soon to tell if this will make masterful mathematicians of my children, but I do know that their eyes light up when the gnomes come out and they sit wide-eyed for the story. Sure beats the way I'd cringe when I heard the squeaky wheels of that IMS cart all those years ago...This is therapeutic math and maybe, just maybe, it can cure the ills of way too much individualized, impersonal plastic instruction.

The story has begun at Serendipity . Katherine has woven an endearing tale-- the gnomes are learning how numbers work and there is lots of useful information on supplies for mom. won't you join us as we discover how math is memorable and even beautiful?

C is for Children

"The soul is healed by being with children."  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I am asked frequently about avoiding burnout and recovery from burnout.  There is a chapter in Real Learning devoted to burnout. I wrote that chapter ten years ago. Still, I have not entirely vanquished burnout. It still lurks here, waiting to sweep me up and envelope me, smothering joy and sapping enthusiasm.  I know myself well enough now to know the signs as it creeps. And, thankfully, I know how to keep it at bay.

As contrary as it seems at first, the trick to avoiding burnout-- for me-- is more time with my children. It's important that the time isn't all frantic, rushed time. It needs to be focused time, time spent without the distractions of adult conversations and responsibilities. Children are rarely the cause of my burnout; working them in around the adults in my life is the cause of my burnout.

And so, the "cure" or the prevention is to spend time with them, unencumbered by the demands of grownups. I cannot be tethered to the telephone or the computer. I need to look them in the eye when they are talking to me and I need to listen with my full attention. And when I do, I find my soul is readily healed by children.

I made a mistake when I started this academic year with few plans. I was pulled away all summer and did not give the proper time and attention to planning for the fall. I was scrambling instead of peaceful when our year began. And, frankly, I was mourning. Michael's departure, however wonderful for all of us, left a big hole in the fabric of our family life. In hindsight,  should have taken a week by myself to pull together plans and to reflect on our new rhythms. Instead, I barreled ahead.

God can take anything and bring a great good out of it if only I allow Him to do so. He took my stacks of books and ideas and He took my frequent and somewhat frantic conversations with caring friends and He returned to me something of beauty. They are lesson plans, yes. But they are so much more. They are an opportunity to begin anew, to see again the joy of childhood through the eyes of my children, to heal my soul.

Serendipity represents what we are actually doing in the heart of my home. It's blogging from the overflow, the afterglow. It is a record  of our learning but it is not nor will it ever be anything but the bubbling over of the good that exists in my real life with my real children. I won't rob from them to blog for someone else. I will, however, gratefully share from abundance.

The plans are in place now. The schedule is finally tweaked (Download elizabeths_weekly_calendar2.pdf ). I have a vision for our days and weeks and even the whole year. (I've even begun to spin the tales for next year in my head). The rhythm will follow, I am sure, but only if I am committed to being truly present in the lives of my children. They need me. But even more, I need them.

But What About the Big Kids?

When we first started brainstorming about what to study this fall, Katherine and I both acknowledged that the best of the best happens when we plan both horizontally (across the curriculum) and vertically (up and down the age span). Our little girls loved the flower fairies but what about the bigger children, even my teenagers? What about the boys? Could this work for everyone? Frankly, it had to work. If I can't do it with everyone, at least a little, I end up abandoning it.

So, we've planned for Serendipity with an eye towards including everyone. In every week's plans, there is a list of books for the older children. As time goes on (we're doing this in real time) I expect we'll add even more, particularly as the children themselves spark ideas. For my teenagers, I've begun to work with MacBeth's Opinion, making some book substitutions and additions as I go. I also enjoyed a very nice conversation with Regina Doman last week and my oldest student, Christian, is reviewing her modern day fairy tale trilogy.  At first, the question was raised by my big boys especially, "Why read fairy tales now?"

The answer was because they are part of our cultural heritage the same way that myths are. My boys are huge C. S. Lewis and Tolkein fans.  C. S. Lewis commands their utmost respect as a storyteller and a man of God. In the dedication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis tells the world how important he thinks a fairy story is for his own dear godchild:

To Lucy Barfield:

My dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will  be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be

Your affectionate Godfather,

C.S. Lewis"

- Dedication in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe