How To Bring Your Math Homeschool Curriculum to Life

Every parent wants the youngster to succeed academically. For homeschool parents, however, the task of creating an interesting and effective curriculum can be daunting. Whether you are preparing lessons for an initial grader or a middle school child, teaching math does not have to become a drag!

The key to a successful math program is really a well-rounded and diverse method of teaching. While concept repetition is important, varying your teaching lessons could keep your child or children interested and engaged in learning math. Most parents learned math skills the old-fashioned way - through reading formal textbooks and completing problem solving worksheets. This method isn't necessarily ineffective, but introducing supplemental materials greatly enhances the learning process and the entire educational experience. Adding videos, projects, games, songs and math manipulatives to your lesson plans is a superb way to help your homeschool curriculum become more active.

So how do supplemental materials actually help your son or daughter learn math? Math can be an inherently abstract subject that may sometimes be overwhelming to learn. Difficult math concepts are much easier to comprehend and master if they are presented through multiple perspectives or approaches. Visual models and math manipulatives help students to see the math and how it pertains to real life. In this manner, these supplements help build a bridge between abstract concepts and concrete understanding.

If you're unclear of what math manipulatives are, they might be any object used in teaching that helps students learn in a hands-on way. Math manipulatives can be purchased or developed by the teacher. Popular math manipulatives include tangrams, color tiles, interlocking cubes and geoboards which may be purchased online. Also you can make your own math manipulatives using common household items such as beans or noodles, toothpicks, popsicle sticks and also your children's toys.

For anyone who is homeschooling a younger child, adding supplemental materials to your math lessons is a particularly great idea. Starting young with fun activities and lessons will foster a love for learning that may last an eternity. A child's comprehension, whether mathematical or otherwise, is rooted in exploration. Having manipluatives allows a child to explore and make decisions with tools that aid learning in a safe and fun way. Playing educational games will also foster good learning habits as children will enjoy the activity they are involved in while simultaneously learning important concepts in math.

As many parents know, not every child learns exactly the same way, or at the same pace. Preparing a diversified teaching program addresses this common issue. Presenting information through textbooks alone can leave many students unclear of the material. Often this lack of understanding results in boredom or disinterest in the topic matter. The easiest method to avoid that is by introducing supplementals to reengage students. It has been proven that using math manipulatives as a supplement to textbook assignments will improve knowledge and test scores. More great ideas include preparing a lesson around a field-trip or adding videos that illuminate the idea.

By incorporating many of these supplements and ideas so as to math can actually be considered a fun subject to teach and learn in a homeschool environment. Adding supplemental materials, especially at an early age, will help your child or children thrive academically.

Justin Holzmann includes a unique style and capability to teach math using math manipulatives to create fun learning for kids. Justin has found that math videos can be made fun and easy by using manipulatives to understand math concepts from addition, subtraction, place value and estimating, to ordinal numbers, mass, area, fractions, money and much more.