Homeschool Math Blog

I found something really nice at Mathmom's. She has written an excellent piece about problems in math education in elementary grades. Her point of view is of classroom instruction, but it is still really relevant even for homeschoolers. Some excerpts follow. On calculators: But to be honest, as much as I hate calculator use in school, in this age of calculators and computers, efficiency at hand computation is not, IMO, the most critical math skill for kids to learn. I am NOT saying that it should be ignored, or that kids should be allowed to skip it, and just use calculators in class (see rant linked above). But it is not, IMO, the be all and end all of math education, nor is it a prerequisite, IMO, for studying anything else. What I consider even more important is a strong sense of number . I want kids who know immediately when the answer they got (either by hand computation or with a calculator) is way off. I want kids who have an instinctive understanding of the distrib...

Some math curricula are labeled as 'spiraling', and some are said to employ the 'mastery principle'. What does that mean, and which is better? Spiraling mathematics curriculum introduces many topics in one grade level. It does not aim to teach those topics completely in one go, but revisits those topics the next year, the next year, and so on. Mastery approach simply aims to teach to mastery any single topic, before going on to the next. There is a lot of talk against spiraling math curricula, especially in regards to some reformist mathematics curricula. So is the mastery principle then better? Well, I think that dividing this matter into two opposite positions is a mistake. You CAN have good mathematics education employing parts of both principles. For example, a student can learn to add 2-3 digit numbers on grade 2. She can revisit the topic on 3rd grade to learn to add 4-6 digit numbers. She can revisit the topic on 4th grade to learn to add even larger numbers. ...