When Your Homeschooled Child Hates Math
When your homeschooler hates math, it can throw off the entire day. One or two battles over math and before you know it your day is a big ball of frustration and lost patience. So what can you do when your child hates math?
Math has always been a favorite of mine, so I wasn’t expecting all the frustrating moments we had learning math concepts in our homeschool. However, I quickly discovered that teaching homeschool math can be a big challenge at times!
Fortunately, I have learned lots of tips and tricks that make math engaging and fun again. Keep reading to check out my favorite ways to practice math without a curriculum. Plus, get lots of great ideas for learning without a homeschool curriculum this year.
When Your Child Resists Your Homeschool Math Program
What’s a math-loving mom to do when her child resists math? I’ll admit, it was stressful for me and involved lots of tears and frustrating for both of us at times. Battles over learning math facts led us to make some big changes.
In the end, Emily’s struggle to master math facts and my subsequent frustration led us gameschooling. It has been an amazing change for our homeschool journey that we wouldn’t trade for the world! Gameschooling is just one of many great ways to practice math in your homeschool without a standard curriculum.
Here at the Waldock Way, we got creative and discovered some fun new ways to get in real-world math practice through play, games, and engaging projects too. Now, I’m really excited to share our favorite ways to practice math with you.
Fun Ways To Practice Math in Your Homeschool Without A Curriculum
Math is everywhere! We all know it’s important, but sometimes it can feel like such a challenge! Learning math (and teaching it too!) can be a lot of fun if you’re willing to get creative.
Believe it or not, math doesn’t have to be physically painful for homeschoolers or their parents. There are lots of exciting and new ways to teach and practice real-world math that are really fun too! Instead of approaching your homeschool math like a traditional curriculum, look at it as a part of our daily lives, because it is.
Strewing for Math
Strewing is all about providing opportunities for your homeschoolers to explore and learn independently. Teachers and parents don’t give instructions or corrections when strewing. Instead, it’s all about giving your homeschoolers the opportunity to explore math learning without pressure and with a whole lot of fun! Here’s some of our favorite math stuff to strew in our homeschool:
For even more help getting started with strewing, check out my comprehensive Guide to Strewing ebook. It’s filled with great ideas to get you going!
Math Toys & Books
You can encourage a lot of math learning through play too. In fact, learning through play is the very best way to introduce and practice important math concepts with young homeschoolers. Check out some of our favorite math toys for your homeschool:
There are a lot of awesome math books to read together with your homeschoolers too. We have adopted several series into our library that Emily just loves! Check out the Bedtime Math Series and other Math Picture Books for homeschool learning fun.
Gameschooling Math
There are so many awesome math games! Some very simple classic games like Yahtzee and Chutes and Ladders are perfect for introducing and practicing important early math concepts. Then, check out these other great math games for even more homeschool math fun without a curriculum:
Gameschooling math makes it so easy to master math facts! For even more help mastering math facts with your homeschoolers check out my ideas & tips:
Math in the Kitchen
Are your homeschoolers struggling with fractions and measuring? Baking in the kitchen together is an excellent way to practice these important math concepts with your homeschoolers. Create some sweet treats, make lots of memories, and watch how fast your homeschoolers master decimals, fractions, and conversions too!
More Ideas For Learning Without A Homeschool Curriculum
Over the years, we have discovered a lot of fun games, project based activities, and tools we love for mastering math concepts from counting through multiplication and beyond. Check out some of our favorites:
- How To Teach Homeschool Math Without a Curriculum
- Project Based Homeschool Math for Christmas
- Finding a Homeschool Math Program That Works
- The Best Math Games for Your Homeschool
Do you have an excellent way to help homeschoolers fall in love with math too? Share your own great ideas in the comments. I can’t wait to read them and try a few in our homeschool this year!
This was sooo helpful. I mean, TODAY was a hard math day and I came to this in my inbox. God knows what we need. I will definitely be picking up some of these games; doing math the traditional way is not working for us. Thank you for sharing!
Muggins. Marble and dice from old fashion games. They have a while series. You can also choose the dry erase version. But i love the tactile and beauty of marbles. My grandson l lived knock out more. Use the 3 in cluded. Dice or use higher number or weird dice prove mathematically (based on each childs level i used place value with the youngest)
Then claim you space (or in knock out remove your opponets marble first). We played for who did what chores. I carry it in our trailer too)