To my fellow homeschoolers,
Most young children are not developmentally ready to master abstract, pencil-and-paper rules for manipulating numbers. But they are eager to learn about and explore the world of ideas. Numbers, patterns, and shapes are part of life all around us. As parent-teachers, we have many ways to feed our children’s voracious mental appetites without resorting to workbooks.
To delay formal arithmetic does not mean that we avoid mathematical topics — only that we delay math fact drill and the memorization of procedures. Notice the wide variety of mathematics Benezet’s children explored through books and through their own life experiences:
Grade I
There is no formal instruction in arithmetic. In connection with the use of readers, and as the need for it arises, the children are taught to recognize and read numbers up to 100. This instruction is not concentrated into any particular period or time but comes in incidentally in connection with assignments of the reading lesson or with reference to certain pages of the text.
Meanwhile, the children are given a basic idea of comparison and estimate thru [sic] the understanding of such contrasting words as: more, less; many. few; higher, lower; taller, shorter; earlier, later; narrower, wider; smaller, larger; etc.
As soon as it is practicable the children are taught to keep count of the date upon the calendar. Holidays and birthdays, both of members of the class and their friends and relatives, are noted.
— L. P. Benezet
The Teaching of Arithmetic II: The Story of an experiment
Continue reading Build Mathematical Skills by Delaying Arithmetic, Part 2
