An Encouraging Math Story

I occasionally really start to worry about the kids and what they are and aren't learning. I believe that they will learn at their own pace and that they don't need a specific curriculum. But believing sometimes doesn't feel like quite enough.
The area this is most true is math. We do math, as it applies in our lives. So I worry that we aren't getting enough exposure to it. We definitely don't learn math the way I learned math. Sometimes I think my kids should be answering pages of math facts and practicing so that they can do calculations more rapidly. I often come close to trying to teach them math the way I learned it.

But then, we have days like today...

It was snack time and as Nater saw me getting food ready he went to the dishwasher and got out 5 clean plates. He counted them, "one, tree, nine, ehven, tirteen." Then he brought them over and transferred them to the counter, "Emi, Seshi, Nayer, Wee-um, Mom." It was clear that though his counting was off, he understood a one-to-one correspondence. One plate for each number given, and one plate for each person.

Then as we sat down to eat, my girls had a discussion about their day.
E: Miranda was here for one and a half DAYS! Well one night and one half a day.
L: More like one and one quarter days. Wait, is one quarter bigger than one half? Cause she was here til after lunch. Remember the peanut butter in the car?
Me: One quarter is half of one half.
E: Yeah, one quarter is half of one half.
L: and two quarters is
E: ONE half.
L: and three quarters is
E: One half and one half of one half.

I'm not so worried any more about my girls being able to do math.
They may not be able to write 3/4= 1/2+ 1/2*1/2, but they have a sense of what it really means to divide a day and put sections of it back together.

I love homeschooling so much, and so many things make me happy to do it. It is nice to also have reminders like this that homeschooling is more than just loving it. It's nice to remember that we are capable of learning and understanding so much, when we have a motivation to do so.