Math musings

There are somethings in the homeschooling world that I find fascinating. There are obviously a million different methods and philosophy options when it comes to educating our children at home. I fall into an eclectic homeschool model. I do what works for my children regardless of what predetermined philosophy I might find interesting.

For some of my children that includes workbooks and copy work. For other children that includes hands on games and no papers in sight. It all depends on the child and how they learn.  It has taken me years to get to the point where I am comfortable enough to alter, and in some cases throw out, curriculum so that it works well for our children.. Even with tweaking and twisting however I have yet to find a math curriculum that I feel works perfectly for some of our children. I apparently need something that does not yet exist.

 I figured I would scour the web and find another parent that had been in my shoes and designed their own math curriculum. Something hands on that would spark some interest in my children who are workbook phobic. While searching I was struck by something I had never noticed in previous years. Homeschool parents are apparently willing to design their own curricula for science, history, english, etc but not for math. 

Why is that?

It seems that if you voyage away from the mainstream homeschool math workbooks you are in no mans land. Sure there are lots of games and worksheets available online but they are for one specific skill, not a total package sort of deal.

That makes me wonder. What are parents of children who hate workbooks doing with their children for math? Are they just sticking the book in front of them anyways and developing an ulcer as they teach their reluctant/hysterical child? Are they going off grid and developing their own plans...and not being considerate enough to share their curriculum plans with the rest of us desperate parents? Not like they don't have tons of time at their disposal to type out detailed plans, right? I mean we homeschool parents are known to have tons of free time at our disposal. *I am kidding in case you missed the sarcastic font.*

I am not talking advanced algebraic formulas here. Just regular old elementary math. Adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, fractions, etc. Surely if we are willing to design our own science curriculum we could come up with something for addition while we are at it.

I really have no point to this post other than to wonder out loud about the lack of options when it comes to homeschool math. It seems to be either workbooks or a free for all. I find this fascinating.  I am also tempted to write down what we are doing for math this year and design my own hands on math curriculum to share with the world. Obviously I have way too much time on my hands as well!