To show the meaning of equations we used colored snap-together cubes, and we played around with building blocks and pattern block puzzles. The critical aspect of motivating Emily was to make learning basic arithmetic fun and relevant to her life. Once she caught on to the basics, her confidence and skill improved dramatically. Now Emily is proud to be working arithmetic problems two grade levels above her counterparts in public school, and she likes math. Essential subjects can t be ignored, but with a creative effort to show how they are relevant and even fun you can replace your child s early resistance with real desire to learn.
Grades typically have a bad connotation amongst home-schoolers.
Homeschoolers don t forge ahead until the child masters whatever he s learning, so grades are not really necessary. To them, grades are a symbol of success in learning never failure because they correct their own work and make sure it s all right before they ask me to grade it. Then they lavishly adorn their papers with stickers and hang them up for all to see. We may not have official grades, but we do have review tests to help us find out how much we ve learned. Because I create my own curriculum from a variety of sources, it helps us integrate what we ve learned to pull together the most significant information to be all in one place.