Math resources

There was a time when I used to get a little annoyed when people would ask what curriculum we use as soon as they found out we were homelearners. I think the reason it bugged me was because I knew that they wanted to hear a list of purchased "school" books that we were using. That isn't the way that we choose to learn and so I would find myself stumbling for an answer. Did I really want to try to explain life learning/natural learning to them? Would it be easier to just tell them the name of the math program we use (the one workbook that we do purposefully buy) and leave it at that? And why were they even asking? I would never think to ask my school friends what curriculum their kids were using.

My answer to this question (after all these years) still depends on lots of things - who is asking and why I think they're asking, if they are a homelearner or not, and even what mood I am in when they ask. ;-) Most of the time my answer will simply be that we don't use a prescribed curriculum; I'll say that Life! and the library are our "curriculum". Most people know that I am a huge fan of our library system and this is the time of year when we really get into taking full advantage of all they have to offer. I thought I would share a sample of the books we are enjoying right now for part of our "math curriculum". W loved these a few years back and so now we are reading them with E.

We also like Sir Cumference books. There are so many things that I love about learning at home but I think one of the main ones is that my boys actually love learning. They don't ever think of learning as something that only happens in a particular place or at a particular time; they know that learning can happen anywhere, anytime and in many different ways and I think that is because they have come to think of Life as their "curriculum" too.