Homeschooling

I’ve tried a few times over the years to express my philosophy of teaching math. Back when I first started doing workshops for homeschooling parents, I told them:

“Instead of drudgery, mathematics should be a game of discovery. It should give children the same ‘Eureka!’ thrill that sent Archimedes running through town in his birthday suit. I call this the ‘Aha!’ factor, the delight in solving a challenging puzzle.”

Years later, as the internet developed and much of life moved online, I started a blog about playing with math. And since all good blogs need an “About Me” page, I had another chance to sum up my thoughts:

“Math is like ice cream, with more flavors than you can imagine — and if all your children ever see is textbook math, that’s like feeding them broccoli-flavored ice cream.”

But over the years, some people got the impression that my goal was all about playing games. They asked, “How can we make math fun for our kids?” — as if gamification adds a candy coating to make the disgusting medicine more palatable.

And of course, I do write a lot of books about games. I think games serve much better than worksheets for practicing basic math skills.

Still, I wanted people to see that the ideas of math themselves are tasty tidbits worth playing with.

Continue reading Musings: A Philosophy of Education