Teaching Your Children Mathematics

For many people math is a subject that brings frustration, boredom, and aggravation. Many homeschooling parents wonder if they will be able to teach their children mathematics, and if they can do so without letting their own problems get in the way. Luckily for homeschool children math does not have to mean endless hours spent pouring over stacks of worksheets and trying to make sense of the piles of number. If you take a step back you can see just how easy math can be.

Teaching early mathematics is a fairly simple first step. Addition, subtraction, even fractions and decibels can come from your day to day life. Shopping, paying, cooking, measuring are things that many of us do on a day to day basis; and they all involve math. Take a little extra time and involve your children in your own daily mathematical feats. At the store ask them to figure out the best deal, or have them keep track of how much you have to spend. Let them tell you how much change will be, and don't forget figuring for taxes. In the kitchen hand them the measuring scoops and show them how to work with a recipe. Tell them how many servings a meal makes and see if they can find out how much each serving is. You can even have them keep track of the daily totals of vitamins that your family is eating, a lesson not only in math but also in nutrition.

Beyond basic math there is still so much more, and it can still be found in easy to teach ways. You can build a bird house or make a quilt, look for geometric shapes around you, or try to find out how much paint you would need to paint the rooms in your house. Talk to a jeweler or an architect about how they use geometry in their work. Graph the patterns you see in your everyday life, like the amount of rainfall or temperature outside. Try to work out what is the fastest route to a friend's house, figure out batting averages for ball players, or work through how long individual steps of a project take. There are so many ways that we can use higher mathematics in our lives that can be wonderful learning experiences for children.

Do not be afraid to teach your children mathematics, it can be a fun and rewarding experience. All you need is a little creativity and patience to see the educational moments in your every day life. And maybe your children will be able to see the fun in mathematics, and not the drudgery.