Math can be a tough subject for many children to learn, and in a home schooling environment, it can cause a lot of frustration for both parents and children when the curriculum is not what it needs to be. Choosing a home school math program that is beneficial to the learning styles of the different children in the home is essential to the success of teaching the subject. Unlike a home school reading program which is easier to modify to the interests of the child through different books and other resources, there are not as many obvious ways to make the home school math program interesting to a child who is struggling with that subject.
Tips for Teaching
Especially in the elementary and middle school years, utilizing math manipulative activities with the home school math program is essential to making the subject more interesting and fun to learn. In addition, for children who are kinesthetic learners, the manipulative materials help them to do things and see the reasons behind why certain math rules work. The home school math programs should contain ideas for parents to use with the different lessons to make the math come alive and show how it is used in the real world.
When teaching the home school math program, parents need to be especially prepared with each lesson so that it can run as smoothly as possible. The lessons should be held at a time of day that is best for the concentration level of that particular child. Whatever subject is the most difficult for a child that is the lesson that should be done at the child’s prime learning time of day. The environment for learning the math home schooling program should be conducive to that child’s learning style. Some children do better in absolute quiet while others will do better with some quiet background music. This might take some experimenting to see what works best on a regular basis and each child will probably be different.
Another aspect of teaching the home school math program is to be consistent. Although the lessons are repetitive, they are repetitive for a reason. Math skills build on each other from year to year and if the math skills from the previous year are not mastered then the student will struggle with the next year’s work. The tedium of the home school math curriculum should be broken up with activities that reinforce the skills in a fun way.
