In my own very limited personal experience, I have found that the subject that is most intimadating to most moms is math.  So I offer my small amount of understanding, in hopes that it may encourage some of you on to love math...okay, not to hate math.  And just to keep it real, I can't spell and I am terrible at grammar, but maybe you could help enlighten me.

A History

Let's start out with the terrible measurement system that the US and Britain still use.  Inches, feet, yards, etc...it is really enough to drive you mad with all the memorizing that is needed just to use this silly system.  But there was a good reason for the system, hundreds of years ago (not today).  Mankind did not always understood the decimal point.  The decimal point revolutionized math, and then 10 became the easiest number to use, by far.  Just move the decimal.  That is why the metric system is so stinking easy to use.  But before we understood decimals, we just used whole numbers and fractions.  The number 6 is the easiest whole number to use, because it can be evenly divided by 1,2,3, and 6.  The number 5 is only divisible by 1 and 5.  The number 12 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,and 12.  Where the number 10 is only divisible by 1,2,5, and 10.  All that to say, that 10 is the number of choice for the day, but don't hate 12, it had it's purpose.

The Power of Ten

Ten is the number for today, so now that we know that, what do we do with that in homeschooling?  I am proposing that the most important thing you can teach your Pre-K children is the 10 number bonds...what sets of numbers make up 10 which are as follows...1 and 9...2 and 8...3 and 7...4 and 6...5 and 5.  This is the single most important concept for mental math later in life.  More important than multiplication tables.  Having these memorized before looking at a single math workbook will give your kids such a huge headstart, whether they are homeschooled or not.

This is why.  When you do a subtraction problem, like 15-7, you are most likely to think about the numbers 3 and 5 and add them together.  You get the 3 from the ten number bond, that is 7 and 3 make 10.  Then 15 is 5 more than 10.  So you add 3 and 5 together to get the answer 8.  This becomes increasingly more important the bigger the numbers become, as you start thinking in 100s instead of 10s.  So 759-298...you can do this in your head by adding 2 to 298 and subtracting 300 from 759.  Then adding 459 plus 2 to get your answer...461.  All of this revolves around the fact that you know those ten number bonds...really, it does.  Think about every multiple digit addtion and subtraction problem you have ever done...carrying borrowing, etc...all needing to know these 10 number bonds.

How-To

So how do you teach your children ten number bonds.  Anytime you are counting things in groups of ten, you are teaching this principle.  Kids are curious, they will notice these groupings automatically.  A few things we do are:

Pick up toys 10 at a time.

Disperse candy 10 pieces at a time.

Set a timer for 10 minutes until something special, and watch the time tick off.

Allow 10 books to be checked out from the library at a time.  "How many more can I have", will inevitably be asked, which becomes a great teaching moment.

This is all really basic once you think about it, but I have found that most people, including me, weren't taught the why behind math, just how to memorize and do it.  I hope it has been helpful, and if not, please don't feel the need to read the next post, which will involve helping your younger elementary kids with math seatwork.  It might or might not be on Monday.  We will see.  :)