Want some math?  Last night we spent one hundred and sixty dollars on books for the kids.  Other than paying for guitar and ice skating classes, one hundred and sixty dollars is the cost of the kids education this year.  So far.

Most of our books come from the library, paid through our taxes.  We're in the library almost every week.  We use a suitcase on wheels to haul, store, and organize these trips.  Otherwise we would certainly be losing books, forgetting books, and accruing fees.  We live and homeschool on a shoe string budget as do almost all the homeschooling families we know.  Late fees at the library make a difference in our monthly budget.  So we manage them.

That math matters to our family.  We talk about budget, what is possible, what isn't.  Sometimes it surprises the kids; what we willingly buy, what we refuse.  It may look impenetrable to them.  Why spend Friday night in Barnes-ig-Noble (where oh where for art thou, dear independent local books store?) paying solid money answering yes yes yes you may have that book, asking did you see this one or this one?  The answer is simple: to light fires, to put tools in their hands, to demonstrate alternative gathering - always seek outside sources, children.

And it works, this fire lighting tool gathering strategy.  They pour over their books, can't wait to spend the coming days reading, learning, and trying.   Eighty per child is a pittance, of course.  (Lordy, what do they spend per child each day in school?)

Then there is the other math, school math.   I suspect my kids are behind their peers mathematically.   Not wretchedly behind, as they are aware math is a language to describe the physical world.   They can add and subtract, understand multiplication and division as grand adding and subtracting.   They know money and time, length, weight, and motion experientially if nothing else.   Unlike, for instance, Temple Grandin's graduate students to didn't know how to find the middle of a circle with a compass.  Apparently, those well schooled folks grew up learning math, not living it.  I look at the math curricula stacked in my hands, put them all back on the shelf.

I've spent several weeks caring about behindness in math.   Oh, my hypocritical dogma be damned.  I care.  I care.  I care.  I care?  Do I care?  What am I really caring about?  Why?  This is a snap shot of the conversation in my head.   I will send the kids to highschool.  Will I send the kids to highschool.  Do I care?  I care I care I care.  What am I really caring about?   This is mental math, a crazy world where dogma does not equal reality and you must land on value.   Yes, reside on values, figure out what it all equals.  Ask yourself, one more time, how do we grow smart children?

Take Back Your Education - John Gatto

Changing Education Paradigms - Sir Sexy Ken Robinson

Race To Nowhere - Kate the unschooled child all grown up

Seven Sins Of Our System Of Forced Education - Peter Gray