These are a few of my favorite things... To teach

When I teach my children, I will forever be baffled at how often I'm the one who comes away learning new information. I really believe that I enjoy homeschooling far more than my children find any pleasure in the lessons, even though I have two children who eagerly beg for more.

In school, as a student, I hated history and science. Hence, I dreaded teaching these subjects. However, both subjects have come alive for me through homeschooling. From the start, it was interesting with tons of learning taking place. I'm not sure how much my kids are learning, but I learned about Amerigo Vespucci through my son 's First Grade history course. I learned about Columbus and his "Discovery" of the New World - how he really sort of accidentally bumped into America.

My kids somehow love science, and two out of three of them absolutely love reading, which was another thing I hated, but I was determined that my children developed a love for both.

I enjoy teaching anything my children enjoy learning.  However, among the core plus more subjects that I teach, I strangely enjoy teaching math the most.

I guess this shouldn't surprise me since I also enjoyed math as a subject that came naturally for me, and my kids seem to be naturals at it as well.

Subtraction First

As with everything, I guess I'm a bit avant garde when it comes to teaching math.  I have always enjoyed hands-on, but not the typical math manipulatives hands-on approach.  And, I have always taught it somewhat backwards, as my children seem to always understand the concept of subtraction before they understand addition.

I have memories of my 11 month old son in the kitchen late one night "subtracting" Pepsi bottles.  It was then I realized how easy it was to learn subtraction first.  And, of course, I enjoy eating our work - As in, how many M&Ms do you  have left after mommy eats 5?

On my more clever days, I've even tied in math with scriptures, as in Was Adam Alive to See Noah (read about it for the answer).

Read more posts about what others enjoy teaching most at The Old Schoolhouse (Posts will begin to show up on the page as of February 9).