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Homeschool Mathematics - Consider Mastery More than Perfection

Many homeschool parents have a problem with children who understand math concepts but are careless in accomplishing their schoolwork. The consequence is math problems that are frequently wrong, not due to the fact they do not understand.

By: Dave Antonio
Category: Education:Home-Schooling
Posted: Jan 28, 2012
Updated: Jan 28, 2012
Views: 54


Many homeschool parents have a problem with children who understand math concepts but are careless in accomplishing their schoolwork. The consequence is math problems that are frequently wrong, not due to the fact they do not understand, but since they rushed through and also made silly mistakes (adding wrong, wrong decimal placement, etc. )#) Parents can be pushed to distraction because they would like their children to be attentive when doing their work, instead of hurrying through and making errors. So how might a homeschool parent contend with reoccuring carelessness?

Carelessness, especially with math, is a tricky subject. Homeschool parents would like their children to do well, understand a subject and attain mastery. Parents would like their children to discover hard work, not to mention the benefits of doing the task well. But there's another side to carelessness that you should consider.

I realize this could surprise many of you, but when I subtract a purchase in my checkbook, I will not always get the answer perfectly correct. Quite often I slip up, get the answer incorrect, not to mention have to search until I find the arithmetic error ın order that it balance

Mastery is different than perfection. Your child may indicate mastery by scoring 90% on an assignment (they may even have mastery with less than that, I imagine! )#) Kids shouldn't be expected to be "perfect" however. Now, to be truthful, when homeschooling I did have my children correct all their math mistakes in their daily work. When they got it incorrect, they fixed it. I was hoping that the tediousness of fixing would encourage them to be more careful in their daily work. Being careful is a good thing, right? Just do not move from "careful" into "perfection. " Striving for perfection can lead to strife, and in some cases rebellion. Because we all know, intuitively, that we simply won't be able to be perfect.

If you are in this predicament, here are a few ideas you can try in your family.

Hold your kids to a high standard (perhaps 90% correct. )#)

Have them do half the problems in the math book to give them extra time to work carefully.

Have them redo the problems they miss so they can figure out their mistakes.

As a rule, steer clear of perfection, and aim instead for mastery. Explain to your kids that 90% is what you consider mastery.

Totaltranscriptsolution.com aids homeschooling parents in changing the years of independent training into home school for high school. The site also provides some general details on order high school transcripts online.

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