14 February 2014

The Problem with Disguising Maths Practice as Fun

“We use maths all the time,” I say to my daughter Gemma-Rose (10). “Maths is everywhere.”

Everywhere? She doesn’t look convinced.

“You use maths to count your money,” says Sophie, “and when you’re cooking.”

Cooking? How many times have you heard this example when real life maths is mentioned? “Real life maths? You know, cooking.”

My girls cook all the time. I have lots and lots of cooking entries in my homeschool records book. They all say similar things: my girls measured the mass and volume of solid and liquid ingredients. They used grams and maybe kilograms, metric cups, millilitres and litres. They multiplied and divided. They recognised fractions. They used the oven and noted the temperature in degrees Celsius. Yes, there’s a lot of maths there. But real life maths isn’t only about cooking.

“Let’s be maths detectives,” I suggest. “Let’s watch out for someone using maths.”

It isn’t long before we notice Imogen measuring out our puppy’s food. She uses a metric measuring cup. Imogen tells us how much food the puppy eats for each of her three meals. We quickly work out how much food she eats in a day.

Then Gemma-Rose spots Callum’s retractable tape measure which he tossed on the table and forgot about. She pulls out the end of the metal tape to measure the table in centimetres, noting she could have used inches instead.

It’s my turn. Can I spot some maths? Charlotte is making coffee. She splashes some milk into each mug, and I say, “I wonder how much milk Charlotte used.” I’m too lazy to get up to perform an experiment to find out. Anyway, it’s not an appropriate time: I have a cup of coffee to drink before it gets cold.

Instead, I say, “I wonder how much milk is in each of those individual UHT milk portions, the ones you get in motels.” I do some googling and discover that each milk portion contains 15 ml. We decide Charlotte would have used more than 15 ml because she is more generous than a packaged portion. It doesn’t take me very long to work out how many 15 ml portions there are in a 2 L bottle of milk (133). I google the price of bottled milk, and I already have the price of a 240 pack of individual portions.  I do a price comparison. Of course, bottled milk is the better buy. We wonder why anyone would buy the more expensive individual portions and come up with some answers. Of course, we note that hardly anyone would use only 15ml of milk in their coffee if given a choice. If everyone did, 133 people would be able to use one bottle of milk, and I have never known that happen. We’ve all witnessed lots of people putting milk into their coffee at homeschool camps.

Sophie, Gemma-Rose and I sip our coffee or milk while we chat about these things. We’re not having a maths lesson. We’re wondering and pondering.

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I tell the girls about a time when I used to buy sugar in individual portions. They don’t remember because they were very young when I did this. They want to hear all about my attempt to slow down our family’s intake of sugar. “Even though the sugar cost more per kilo by buying it in individual sachets, we ate less of it, so it ended up cheaper in the long run.”

We finish our coffee and swallow the last crumbs of our homemade biscuits. While the girls return the cups to the kitchen, I open my homeschool records notebook and quickly type in all the real-life maths we have discussed.

“I wonder what other real-life maths we can spot,” I say.  “Shall we keep our eyes open?”  The girls are agreeable. They are going to use their maths eyes. “If you want to, you can use my phone to take photos of any maths you find.” This is just a suggestion.

I’m looking around. Do you know what I’m seeing? Lots and lots of maths I never usually notice, maths we use without even thinking about it. I can see maths I can share with my daughters. Maybe we can have more maths conversations. (Aren’t conversations a great way to learn? They’re enjoyable too.) We could wonder and ponder. We could take some photos. Perhaps we could do a little research if we feel the need. It might be interesting as long as it doesn’t turn into a maths lesson.

It could be a big temptation to turn every interesting conversation into a maths exercise. I know maths problems will appear while we’re chatting. (They did while we were chatting about portions of UHT milk.) I also know if I insist my girls work them all out on their own, it will take lots of time. They will soon lose interest. They won’t want to talk maths with me. I wonder if I could do any workings out aloud, allowing my girls to see what I’m doing. Of course, I wouldn’t stop them helping if they feel so inclined. Do you think that will work?

Yes, maths exercises are not what this is all about. This is about looking at the world together, with wondering eyes. It’s about showing my girls maths can be a very interesting and relevant subject.

Perhaps you’re not convinced maths is everywhere. Could you be passing over lots of everyday experiences without seeing them? How about putting on your maths detective eyes? Look around. Notice. Ponder. Wonder. And enjoy!

 
 
Image: Gemma-Rose with the biscuits she baked for the DIY baker’s challenge.

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Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

12 Comments

  1. Hwee,

    You make so many good points! Yes, I do agree that higher maths needs focused study in order to learn it properly. I have tried to find ways of making this level of maths relevant by looking for everyday examples, and have failed. The so-called everyday examples would never occur in most people's lives. All my older children have learnt a certain amount of higher maths by using workbooks or online structured courses. There came a point with most of them, when they questioned the relevance of what they were doing, and as they had no interest in it, they gave up their study. Imogen though did the whole of the advanced maths course mainly because she thought she'd need it. She ended up choosing an arts degree rather than a science one, so higher maths wasn't needed after all. The sad thing is she's forgotten much of what's she learnt. You said, "Someone who has the ability to learn is able to learn whatever they're interested in, when that specific topic becomes relevant to them." Yes! Imogen proved she had the ability to learn higher maths. Like you said, I'm sure the others will be able to learn it too if the need arises.

    Maybe Sophie will want to do higher maths. She loves numbers. I guess at this stage I don't want to put her off the subject. I just want to nurture that fascination she has with maths, without her getting bogged down in boring practice exercises. I remember how she said she hated maths a couple of years ago. I'm so glad she's changed her mind!

  2. This is a difficult one, Sue. I think most of maths at the elementary school level can be learned naturally, as with your example of telling time. Even basic algebra can be learned this way. However, the higher level and more technical kind of maths, eg statistics, will probably need focused study to get good at. When it comes to that, then we go back to the question of whether everyone needs to know technical maths at a high level, as you've described in your earlier maths post last week.

    There's certainly no merit in learning something that one finds irrelevant and has very little interest in. I think having the ability to learn, rather than a bag of specific knowledge, is more important. Someone who has the ability to learn is able to learn whatever they're interested in, when that specific topic becomes relevant to them. 🙂

  3. Sue, I love the way your stories make me think about schooling differently. I confess I don't think I will ever be able to unschool (I would love to though) but your lovely advice and ideas definitely have helped me "loosen up" and look at different ways to "school" in our house, so thank you.

    • Lisa,

      You are always so kind. Thank you!

      I rather expected, after homeschooling for 22 years, I'd have it all worked out by now. But new ideas keep occurring to me. I suppose that's what makes homeschooling (and life) so interesting! We're always learning.

      Lisa, we are all different with different children, so I can understand why you don't feel able to unschool. But one thing I've learnt from blogging is that we can listen to each other and chat and exchange ideas regardless of those differences. You aren't unschoolers but you still read my blog and I enjoy yours very much. I really like that. I love sharing with you!

  4. This was timely. My 14 year old was pretty upset with me yesterday. He is feeling "less than" his age group and stated that unschooling is not good. He wants me to push him to do his school work. He is below level in math. Otherwise, he is a mental giant. The information that he has stored from the constant searching is astounding. People are amazed, and so am I, at what he knows. I tried to tell him that he wants me to trust him and treat him like a man with everything else (movies, video games, books, chores). What makes him think I should be in charge of his education? A little later, when it was time to do something that was optional that he had requested my help with, I had to nag him and used it as an example of what I did not want regarding schooling. I have agreed, with his approval, to rent a basic college math text. We'll see. I'm still trying to figure it out. As soon as I feel confident, something makes me anxious about it all.

    • Michelle,

      It sounds like your son is doing a fantastic job learning despite his concern about maths. His constant searching and your description of him being a mental giant make me think he loves learning.

      Maths is a difficult area. It's easy to see what level other kids his age are expected to be doing by looking at school text books and workbooks. But all children are different and will achieve different things at different ages. I don't suppose this helps though when your son feels this is a problem. Is he comparing himself to a friend or relative? Maybe his strengths lie in areas other than maths.Or maybe he will catch up rapidly when the time is right.

      I wonder how your son will get on with the math text. Some of my older children used a structured maths course for a time. Most of them dropped out after a while. One continued to the end and felt some satisfaction at completing the course, though she doesn't feel she gained much useful knowledge.

      I have just had another thought. You said your son wants you to push him to do his schoolwork. Maybe you can work together. I used to think unschooling meant a child should go off and learn by themselves and be totally self motivated. Now I think it is more like a partnership. I help my children go where they want to go. Sometimes they steam ahead without much interaction with me. Sometimes they want me at their sides. It is good to share and learn together. Maybe your son just wants to work more closely with you, at least for the moment.

      Homeschooling can be difficult at times. I am still trying to figure it out too! Every time I think I've got it all worked out another thought occurs to me. I guess that's what keeps everything interesting!

    • Thank you so much Sue. You are always so generous with your replies. I feel so much better now. After 24 years of parenting, I have an aversion to force. It just feels unnatural to me now. Either that or I'm just tired of fighting or finding "clever" ways to get them to do things, you know?

    • Michelle,

      You have hit the nail on the head! 'I'm just tired of fighting or finding "clever" ways to get them to do things.' Yes, we shouldn't have to push kids along like this. Either they have to be self motivated or maybe what we want them to do isn't that important after all. I have an aversion to force too. I've been thinking about control, how everyone to some extent tries to control others. We really have no right to do this. It's always so good to chat with you. Thank you so much for returning and continuing the conversation!

  5. People always talk about maths as though we're all going to grow up to be Mathematicians and very few of us actually are! We've moved right away from maths (for the time being, it was all getting a bit too boring and frustrating) and I'll be interested to see if anyone does pick it up on their own out of interest.
    Thanks for another excellent and informative post 🙂

    • Kelly,

      I read a lot of comments the other day which all said the same thing: if we don't insist our children learn the higher levels of maths then they might not discover they like it. Society will miss out on future engineers etc. It seems to me that future engineers will naturally want to learn more maths regardless of whether the subject is mandatory. I was also thinking we could apply the same argument to such subjects as art and music. If higher maths is mandatory, shouldn't advanced art and music be as well? But sadly these areas are not valued as much as maths and also the sciences.

      Oh there is nothing more frustrating than persisting with something kids are just not interested in. I agree with stepping back from it and doing something else. They might return to it at a later time. You'll have to let us know if any of your children do pick up maths on their own!

  6. Force goes both ways…we (moms, generally) feel forced to make our kids learn math, against our own inclination to just let it happen naturally. And then we force our kids to do math, or resort to trickery, which they usually see through anyway. My daughter, almost 17, has done very little math. I encourage her (or tell her) to do some every once in a while, when I think of it. Now that she's in a beauty school program, though, she is looking at her math book (Life of Fred) more often…there's a business class within the beauty school, as that is a part of being a beautician…they are almost always independent businesses, at least in this country. I've told her to look at Khan Academy (she is reluctant to…the things she's seen on there have been boring to her). Hey, if you come across anything cool-fun-good along those lines – business maths – send it along! I'll tell Anne about it, and I will also send a link to her teacher.

    • Amy,

      Oh yes, there's a lot of pressure on us mothers to insist our children learn maths. I often dream about a life where there is no such thing as outside expectations. What if they were no homeschooling registration regulations to fulfil, or university entrance requirements? We could just let our children be who they are, and life would be simpler and I'm sure more productive.

      Sounds like Anne has finally found a need for some maths. Right at this moment, I can't think of any maths course that would be suitable for Anne but if I do come across anything, I'll let you know!

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