Fun-Schooling Math for All Levels

Let’s talk Fun-Schooling Math.

First of all, we do not have a math “curriculum.” Our math journals work best as a supplement or warm-up to your chosen curriculum. Lots of families like Life of Fred, but dozens of choices exist! Some families choose to exclusively use real-life math and no curriculum at all, along with our journals. At the bottom is a suggested order for working through our math journals.

In the early years, Math looks like learning numbers and shapes, lots of counting (count anything you can with your little ones!), hands-on materials/manipulatives, and practicing writing numbers.

Young elementary school is mainly about addition and subtraction. Kids also begin work such as skip counting, patterns, place value, and measurement. There are lots of good math games for this age! Math Craft Level A can be introduced at this age. It is excellent for helping students develop early math skills regardless of if they have Dyscalculia.

Upper elementary introduces multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and percents. Continuing with games is a great idea too. Lots of families like to work on cooking as a way to teach math at this age too. Math Craft Level B is excellent for helping cement multiplication, regardless of if a child has Dyscalculia.

Middle and high schoolers focus on the math skills they will need to succeed in life. They also work on developing skills for their future careers and callings. For example, a student who desires to own a business will focus heavily on business math skills while a student who desires a career in science will need to study a wider range of math.

As adults, we can continue to develop our math skills and keep our brains fresh! Scientific study after study has shown how good it is for our brains to keep challenging ourselves with pencil-to-paper math as we age.

A suggested order of journals is as follows. Remember, this is a suggestion- your student(s) may or may not go in this order! Early-level learners may not need to complete all of these journals.

What are your favorite books, documentaries, podcasts, tips, and resources for Fun-Schooling Math? Leave them and any questions you may have in the comments.

This post is contributed by Amanda Osenga.

Sarah’s Mom Tips: Is Math Your Homeschool Nemesis?

🧐The PROBLEM with math is that the way it is normally taught! Conventional math lessons are boring, hard to understand, seem irrelevant to real life, and are no fun. 😔

😉My books are like a reset button, kind of like comfort therapy. 😌

My math books are not designed to prepare your child to take a standardized test. Instead they bring math concepts down to earth.

My books make math practical, fun, creative, useful, and easy to apply to real life problems and projects.

What I do is have my children learn basic math with Fun-Schooling Books, and real life projects involving MONEY, time, calculating, and measurements. They become very confident and unintimidated by math. They don’t see it as a subject, but as a super valuable skill for getting things done.

If I were you and wanted to raise kids to be able to confidently use real math in real life… Work through the Thinking Tree Books, then add the math you need for testing, credits or grade level learning.

I would suggest Khan Academy, Life of Fred, Math-U-See, Prodigy…

My kids focus on learning the math that is relevant to their career goals.