Thrifty Math Lessons for Homeschoolers
September 30, 2008 by Katelyn Thomas
Filed under Frugal Homeschooling
How many times have you gone through a checkout line, only to have the cashier, who is attending college classes, freak out when he or she has to figure a percentage off or do some other basic math calculation? I feel very strongly that the most important math homeschoolers can learn is consumer math and that is what I emphasized with my first homeschool kid. Once they have that mastered, they can go on to algebra, calculus and all the other higher math.
So, how do you teach these guys consumer math without going bankrupt on textbooks and manipulatives? I’m glad you asked. We cook. We shop. We balance the checkbook. We create the budget. We measure the windows for new curtains. We measure the furniture and then go measure the wall we want to move it to to see if it will fit. Anything you do on a day to day basis can become a math lesson that actually helps your kids survive in the real world.
Here’s a basic subtraction math lesson I did with my pre-K guy the other day:
We had some canned goods to put away. I grabbed a few more off the shelf so that there were ten cans and then asked him to help me. I explained I needed to know how many cans there were to be sure there was room on the shelf. He counted them and gave me the total.
Then, I asked him to take away one can and give it to me to put on the shelf. I asked how many were left. He quickly got in the swing of things and by the third can was re-counting himself to see that we now had seven cans to put away.
For kids that are a bit older, make the lesson more challenging by asking them to take away two cans at a time or by asking them to tell you how many are left without recounting the remaining cans. (You had eight cans. You just took away two cans. How many cans are left?)
Photo by Warley Rossi
LRN
You’re so smart and resourceful. Your family is lucky to have you.
Hi Katelyn
My sister home schools two of her 7 kids in Australia. As she’s an ex-teacher, I guess it was a little easier for her.
Just letting you know that I used to help home schoolers myself many years ago. (Eg. I’ve given seminars to the Alternative Education Resource Group)
Anyway at the moment I have some really unusual free basic math lessons that students in 131 countries are using.
The testimonials I’m lucky enough to receive are quite bizarre!
So if you think your home school parents could do with some extra help in the area of math, point them to http://www.newmerals.com
Best wishes,
Jonathan Crabtree