How to Unschool Math Without Using a Curriculum

Curriculum companies are geared for school settings. And school systems have adopted a scope and sequence they want to use to move the kids in their system through the entire 12 year process. 

But you’re a family. Not a system. You can pivot the minute an interest shows up. You can shift to use real life opportunities to help your kids learn more about math. Practical, useful aspects of math.

If you’re thinking, “Not my kid. They resist if they catch a whiff of math.”
You’re left wondering why the kids resist in spite of the companies assuring us that their approach is "fun" or "exciting" or "sure to engage the kids!" 

Maybe because it’s fun and exciting if all you have to have to compare it to is rote memorization or a teacher droning on and on at the chalkboard. 
It’s not fun compared to the real world.
It’s not fun compared to whatever adventure your child has in mind for their day.

So I’d ask you to reframe that idea of them resisting math.

Kids resist SCHOOL MATH, not real life math.

Do they like to gather coins in their video games?
Do they play games and not even pause to separate the math from the fun?
Do they sort and measure and pour and tap out rhythms?
Math is everywhere. We’ve just been convince to wait for the curriculum to show us where it is. Even though in our real life, math is puttering around all over the place!

Hmmm… so maybe you wouldn’t have to be at odds with your child, if you could SEE the math that’s happening.

Maybe we think, “Come on. You need this. You just don’t realize it yet.”
Because that’s what everyone told you year after year.

But stop and think about what math you’re using in your adult life.
Have you done a lot of graphing sine and cosine? How about slope?
How about geometry theorems? Is your life easier because you know them?

I doubt it.

Remember when your teacher said you had to memorize all those math facts because you wouldn’t have access to a calculator all the time? Well, that wasn’t what happened at all.

Inevitably, at this point when I’m talking in a group, someone says they’re an engineer and they use higher level math all the time. And what if their child wants to grow up to be an engineer?

I get it. We don’t want doors to close for our kids because we took some “easy way” out.
But consider this.
If your child wants to be an engineer, you’ll have other signals of this. They’ll build… all sorts of things. They’ll be very logical and analytical. They’ll love creating strategies and systems. They’ll enjoy playing with math concepts, and together, you’ll help them find ways that are more complicated and fun for them as they’re growing up. They don’t need textbooks to do that. And, in fact, giving them textbooks too early can be really frustrating for them. Better to help them build their own pile of mathy life experiences.

And then when they’re older - say mid to late-teens - they can take some community college math classes to give names and explanations for what they’ve been playing with. They’ll have the maturity to see the connections. They’ll be excited for the more natural progression. 

You won’t have closed any doors at all. In fact, they’ll have a huge pile of life experiences they’ll be able to hook those higher level math concepts TO.

So, that’s my response usually to the engineers in the room.

Let’s not do a one-size-fits-all approach to math, because they MIGHT become an engineer. Think about how many engineers you personally know. For me, not too many.

So the next question might be - so how do I do this when I was raised on the school approach to math?

Very good question! 

And luckily, I’ve been talking to parents who have done this for decades now. I’ve been gathering information and explanations. See, I personally, am more like you than I am my engineering friends. I didn’t think I was good at math. I got through Algebra 2 by the skin of my teeth. It gave me all sorts of hang-ups about math. All because of the way it was taught.

When I listened to the unschooling parents who loved math, I discovered all sorts of things.
Mainly that they believed the school approach to math to be all wrong.
They believed that that approach was what made us a nation of math phobic people. 

I mean, most of us had math for at least 12 years. You’d think we’d be super competent and confident about it. But most of us aren’t.

And that fear is what makes us search high and low for SOMEONE ELSE to teach our kids about math. We bought into the idea that WE were to blame, and not the school approach. So we don’t feel particularly competent or confident in our ability to help our kids learn math.

BUT! That’s where you’re wrong!

You are quite competent in your adult life. YOu’re using math in ways that you’re not even noticing. Sure, no quadratic formulas - but if you needed them daily, you’d have figured it out. Or you’d go to YouTube to see how someone can explain it to you. Most of those things that poked holes in our confidence aren’t needed in our regular lives! 

Remember when we asked, “When are we going to use this?” and the teacher couldn’t really respond?
And now our kids are asking us the same questions, and we’re thinking, “hmmm… because you have to?” 
It’s like I mentioned in the last podcast, everyone was on this conveyor belt. Don’t ask questions, just keep it moving. 

And unschoolers have decided to get off that conveyor belt.
To stop putting the system before the learner.

Instead of forcing the child through the curriculum - that isn’t really related to much in their lives - let’s take the unschooling approach and start with The Learner.  Yes, even for math!

4. Play more games with the kids. Dice, cards, counting, strategizing...
these are all ways of playing with math concepts.

I have a free PDF for you with specific ideas - it’s a page from one of the workbooks in my new Unschooling Math course.