As an unschooling parent, you'll get confronted with the question "What about math?" sooner rather than later, and probably more frequently than you fancy.
Now, for the general public, math is this evil course you are forced to take in school that has nothing to do with life whatsoever and that you hastily forget when school is over. However, math is not separate from life, math is ver much a part of it. As an unschooler, you may not quite notice it, because it is so much a part of the everyday things you do.
So here goes: A list of all the many ways in which your unschooler learns math without studying it (and there are obviously plenty more I didn't think of).
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| Image: cogdogblog |
- Counting games
- counting songs
- dominoes
- board games
- drawing stars
- skipping
- rope skipping
- sewing
- knitting
- crochet
- cooking
- doing laundry
- folding clothes
- shopping
- playing video games
- handling money
- doing yard sales or junk sales or a lemonade stand
- card games
- collecting things
- drawing
- watching nature
- smartgames
- reading the clock
- pat-a-cake
- drawing shapes
- playing with blocks
- playing lego
- using a calculator
- using a counting grid
- beading necklaces
- cleaning and organizing
- taking the plane or train
- chess
- sudoku
- guess how much games
- measuring
- waterplay: pouring into different containers
- reading the calendar
So how does your unschooler learn math?
Before we decided to homeschool I was drawn to unschooling. Once we made the decision, I lacked the courage to let go. Now, I am getting to a point where my girls have met or exceeded my expectations for them and I feel like I am more ready to let them take the lead. Math is my biggest concern, but this post provided a lot of food for thought.
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