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Taking Small Steps to Enjoying Math With Your Children!

Math in Nature

15 Mar

What do you do if your child DOES hate math, and more than that, so do you?

Can you turn this around? Can you not only help your child learn math but, in the process, actually appreciate it yourself?

I think you can!

Larry Martinek, from Mathnasium, says it very well when he states that children ‘hate being confused and intimidated by math’ and I think if we are honest with ourselves, this is true for us as well. Nobody likes to feel stupid.

One of the keys to unlocking passion in math is to go to a place where both you and your child feel confident. It’s OK to ditch the textbook and find a place where you are not intimidated anymore. Play with math, enjoy math and when you feel confident, start to grow.

As with learning any new skill, small steps and lots of repetition are essential. But don’t mistake repetition of skill as the repetition of an activity. There are lots of different ways to practice a skill while not doing an endless repetition of an activity.

I’m not a big fan of endless worksheets and textbook problems, they can have their place, but real, hands-on, relevant activities will ground your child in math a lot quicker than sitting at a table with pages of problems.

If you are at a place where just the thought of a math lesson has the ability to raise your stress levels, it’s probably time to reassess your approach.

Find where you and your child are comfortable and start there. Think about which skill you would like to work on and find resources, games, and real-life activities that will help them gain confidence in that area. Find opportunities every day to strengthen that skill. When they are confident, move on, grow, learn, play, enjoy! Only when they feel confident, let them attempt a workbook or textbook.

If you have older children and they have reached a stage where you feel unable to confidently help them with their math, you have two choices. The first is to learn alongside them. There are great resources available to help you do this and I will be posting a list to help you find these. The second is to delegate it to someone else. Online learning, with video instruction or hiring a math tutor, are options that are available.

The reality is that life can get pretty busy and you may not have the time to invest in learning yourself right now. You don’t have to do it all. There is help available. BUT, please, if you do decide to delegate, have a positive attitude, for your child, toward math. Encourage and praise them for hard work. Allow them to teach you what they are learning, be interested. Our negativity towards a particular subject has its way of rubbing off onto our kids.

Finding real-life applications for the math you and your children are learning, will help them to realize the importance of what they are learning. Introduce them to role models in the math world, both past, and living, this helps them to see that others have and are succeeding in this field, and math is not boring, but beautiful and challenging.

If I have interested you in ditching the textbook, even if just for a season, keep a watch on this blog for ideas, resources, and links. Also, connect with me on Instagram for hands-on math activities that you can do with your children while exploring nature.

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Jo: Wife, Home-school Mum and Homemaker

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We didn’t find out about the program until about half way through term, so we played catch up most of the time. I love how open ended the lessons are, but with enough structure to work well for those children needing such a program. We have been able to cover much of the required curriculum whilst enjoying the activities we love. Your program has been such a blessing to us, because we needed a change to our homeschooling lessons which would still cover curriculum, but would enable us to relax and enjoy “school” together. Thank you.
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We began our homeschool journey this year keen to explore all that nature study entails. I had searched the web for weeks to research what we would use as our framework. I cannot describe the elation I felt when I came across an AUSTRALIAN nature study guide! Marie has done all the hard work and put together a wonderfully elaborate resource for all ages. You can dip your toe in or dive right into all the ideas and links. There’s so much here we could spend all week doing nature study, and often we do.
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2018-05-25T15:53:11+10:30
We began our homeschool journey this year keen to explore all that nature study entails. I had searched the web for weeks to research what we would use as our framework. I cannot describe the elation I felt when I came across an AUSTRALIAN nature study guide! Marie has done all the hard work and put together a wonderfully elaborate resource for all ages. You can dip your toe in or dive right into all the ideas and links. There’s so much here we could spend all week doing nature study, and often we do.
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2018-05-25T15:48:30+10:30
We have really enjoyed the program this term. We have gotten outside more often and the children are definitely taking more notice of things when we are out. Having a place to share what we have done and seen has been an encouragement to keep it up. I sometimes felt like we could spend longer on some topics as they were so interesting but that is probably just my obsessive "we must cover everything now" problem. 
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I looked high and low online for an Australian nature based curriculum and when I found Australian Nature study Guide on Instagram I was so excited to have finally found something that my family can relate to. My favourite thing about this guide is that Marie is so hands on and involved with her customers. I have never felt alone in the journey, she is there to guide and encourage us every step of the way in the Facebook group. Thanks Marie for welcoming us to your nature study family 🙂
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