Not Adding Up
I’ve been homeschooling my kids for years. For many of those years I simply used an at home curriculum where my kids would read the textbook, do the problems, check their answers, and then take the test. This worked for us, but due to the need for socialization and a classroom setting, we switched to a curriculum that included everything but math (Classical Conversations). I then mistakenly bought a program for math that had no real accountability.
“… I knew we needed help and the Lord provided …”
Recently, I found that my oldest was simply skipping math. She was pouring her life and energy into many other topics. She would read for hours without prompting, write beautiful well thought out essays, but math would always fall to the bottom of the pile of work. Then one day, the end of the year came, and I discovered that she was only a fraction of the way through math. She cried and said math was the worst subject ever and she hated it. I knew we needed help and the Lord provided.
Courage to Turn Around
I found a local homeschool co-op with professional teachers offering various courses. There was an excellent math teacher whom everyone raved about and I enrolled her in his class. She was understandably nervous at first, and actually failed many initial homework assignments. However, she was humble enough to admit her mistakes, courageous enough to ask for help and clarification and ended up passing the class with flying colors.
At the end of the year, this is a clip of the email from her teacher sharing with us her final grade:
“She did amazing in Algebra 1. She often struggles on the homework but she has the courage to ask questions and she really concentrated on learning the material as evidenced by her superior test scores. She has earned and richly deserves a 100 for the Spring Semester grade. Unfortunately, you cannot give her more points on her transcript as much as I would like to do that.”
| Fall Grade | Ave 94 | HW 85 | Test 99 | Overall Grade 100 |
| Spring Grade | Ave 95 | HW 84 | Test 101 | Overall Grade 100 |
Accountability is Key
There were many tears along the way and many late nights doing Algebra (because it still wasn’t her favorite). She finally had someone outside of herself holding her accountable. She finally had someone other than herself teaching the concepts, giving her practice at home, and helping correct her mistakes when she came back to class.
If healthy habits are something you struggle with like math is for my oldest, maybe it’s time to find a teacher or coach. What if you had a class for managing food choices and resisting temptations to eat emotionally?
What if you had lessons on skills to implement, a chance to ask questions and clarify things that weren’t working for you, and a supportive environment where everyone was on the same journey?
“… maybe it’s time to find a coach …”
Depending on the subject, many of us can read a book, understand the concepts, get excited about putting in the work, and get the results of our dreams. However, if it is something that you find particularly difficult, maybe it’s time to ask for help.
Maybe the practice of humility and courage will pay off with huge rewards.
