When we first started homeschooling, all I knew was that I didn’t want to do to my children what school did to almost everyone – create math anxiety. Most people in this country have some degree of math anxiety – anything from a little math avoidance to outright break-out-in-a-cold-sweat phobia. Clearly, school-math isn’t working out very well for most people. So – what to do?
My first and overriding principle was to try to at least do no harm. It would be better for them to end up not knowing any math, but free enough of anxiety to be able and willing to learn it.
So – here were my three goals for my kids:
(1) not create math anxiety in them,
(2) support any interest and talent they may express in advanced mathematics,
(3) help them be able to use math in real ways in their own lives.
