Do you feel like the book goes on forever? Especially a math book? It feels long, and most years teaching continues well into the summer. You feel like a failure and think, “ I am ruining your child’s education.” “They will be so far behind if they do not get it all done.”, is one of the biggest myths in homeschooling. Did you know most math teachers are happy if they get through 75% of a book? That makes a good year! Of that 75%, the students can typically only process about 50% of this. That is less than half of a math book. I am here to tell you to stop stressing over finishing that book. Do as much of it as you can, and move on.
Trick one is to know how math books are set up. A typical math book’s first few chapters are review from the previous year. The last few chapters are advanced, and they are getting your child ready for next year. If you did not get Through last year’s book, then make sure you focus on the first few chapters of the next year’s book to help fill in those gaps.
Another trick is noticing when your student is grasping a topic. When you see this happening, move through this topic and this chapter faster. You might teach several lessons in one day. Assign either odds or evens so the students are not overwhelmed with homework.
What about the review questions? Teachers use them if they notice the students are still struggling with a particular topic. Math is a building block of knowledge, and review questions are great, but students do not need to do all of them. A great idea I use for the review questions is: if there are five of them, I allow the students to select two to three of them, and they could choose any of them out of the five.
Another important thing to remember is no student should have more than one hour of math homework. If they do, it might be time to evaluate if you are giving them too many problems. Remember, the problems are there for practice until they understand the procedures and steps to solve them. If you give them too many, it is just busy work.
Math can be scary to teach, but there are ways to make it more enjoyable. Your child will likely feel the same way about math that you do. Math is not hereditary, contrary to popular belief. It is a learned process of steps and procedures. You just have to find ways for your child to learn it. Keeping in mind that the goal is learning and grasping concepts rather than completing every exercise in the book will help alleviate some of the stress. Understanding how math books are arranged and how to use them properly will ease the tension as well. You might find yourself and your child enjoying math!
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