RE: Are your kids good at math? How do you know?.....How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Homeschool Math
In those grades, many education experts lament, instruction—even at the best schools—is provided by poorly trained teachers who are themselves uncomfortable with math.
The bolded phrase somewhat concerns me. If the teachers are uncomfortable with math themselves then it could show when they teach students. It may pass on to the students and make them feel uncomfortable too.
There is more to math than memorizing the time tables and algebra. I'm more of an applied math/stats type person who likes to see math applications and motivating examples. Showing the students what math is used for can inspire and motivate.
I do agree with the statement there is no creativity in math for early math learning where there is a large emphasis on algebra rules and memorization. Math is like a language where you got to understand rules and then later you can apply it later in different ways. This application part takes a long time unfortunately.
I disagree, but I appreciate you commenting. I think there is room for "hard math" in those ages. You should check out my sprocket problem or kangaroo math - both examples of challenging math for early elementary.
I may have been unclear in my last section of the post where I refer to the algebra rules in preparing students for calculus.
I think the term "hard math" can vary depending on the person. We may have different views on "hard math". I view it as the theoretical and abstract type at the university level. Regardless of math level, math is a challenging and time consuming subject for many.
I did see one of your other posts where there is a question on the number of paths from one point to another. That is a good question in the sense that it promotes problem solving and not so much on memory.
Oh! I strongly suspect we have very different views on "hard math" - I think that I am in the running for "Most Frequent Math Commenter and Poster With Very Little Math Training." What is hard for me is probably not hard for most of the math-y people here. What I mean by "hard math" I should have defined better. For my kid who can mutliply two digit numbers, finding 25x25 is not hard. However, identifying a pattern of how to quickly calculate 35x35 or 24x24 etc. is "Hard Math". In my mind "hard math" is something that can't be solved with a calculator - something you need to think about and be creative to solve - no matter what basic skills you are starting with.
I've written about this elsewhere - but for anyone reading this and thinking about homeschool math - I think that Beast Academy introduces "hard" concepts at a much earlier stage and I love that.