I am a strong advocate of delaying formal mathematical instruction until after a child is 10 years or so. That is not to say that we don't 'do' anything but that life itself is rich with teachable moments like "would you like half a biscuit or a whole biscuit?", "if we want to double this recipe, how much milk do we need?", "so you've got 2 feet, Martha has 2 feet - that's 4 feet, and Johnny's 2 feet make 6 feet, my, my, what a lot of shoes we need" etc

What I do keep on hand for when our children want to 'do math' is a South African workbook series called "Numbers Fun". It is out of print as far as I know, but the general concepts that it has in it are numbers from 0-9 first, then progressing in chunks up to 1000. The many varied worksheet type activities are repetitive of concepts in an interesting way and also allow the child to color pages in if the are so inclined. You will probably find something like this at your local bookseller.

We have plenty of items that can be used for counting, packs of cards, dice, games etc.

A favourite card game has to be SET, as it is easy to play for any age, and we have also found that it transcends language barriers if we have a foreign guest. The basic premise is that you see and claim sets of 3 cards that either have one variable in difference or 3 variables in difference. Colour, shape, shading and number of items.

What I like about this game is that it encourages you to look at simple things in detail and inadvertently causes you to think about same and different.

Our next resource that I would still buy if I had to do it all over again is a living book approach to Math in two volumes "Mathematicians are People too". This set has a short snappy chapter introducing famous mathematicians throughout history and the concepts they discovered. I would also recommend this for the burn-out parent 'teaching math' or the child who has that glazed over look and needs to take a break from formal lessons.

During these preparatory years I find it useful to use Saxon's K-4 scope and sequence chart to check up on where each child is at with their understanding and exposure to fundamental maths. I take myself aside and go down the list noting if their are any gaps, where the child is currently at, and what I could focus on developing in them given a teachable moment.

From there when we think our child is ready to assume a more formal approach we use the Saxon placement tests to make sure that starting with 54 is right for where our child is at.

Our formal math programme has happened more as a result of serendipity than anything else. While I was content with sticking to the homeschool stalwart of Saxon all the way through, I had the opportunity to pick up a bulk lot of materials that included Math books from the Scott Foresman University of Chicago Project - Transition, Algebra & Geometry.

These books are NOT the latest version, but in their favour, are more aesthetically appealing to my mind than the updated versions and blend in many real life equations.

I guess what I am trying to highlight is that maths is not an area that changes monumentally, so I don't think it matters that you are using a particular brand or the newest book out.

Some find Saxon suits them to a T and others find it too repetitive. In fact I almost forgot to mention that when we started our first child on 54, I went through the entire book and decided which chapters she was to do, and skipped the rest - approx 40-50% of it. This, at the time, totally challenged my 'beginning-to-end' rigidity of using textbooks. Other families do odd numbers in one chapter and even numbers the next, and some children need all the repetition they can get - whatever works for your child.

In any subject I now embrace the maxim that TEXTBOOKS SERVE US, THEY ARE NOT OUR MASTER.

Later on for advanced mathematics I also have materials for trigonometry and physics etc to extend any child that shows a mathematical bent, otherwise each will also work through a series of local books focusing on real life maths for New Zealanders - for what good is it if we don't know how to use it.

For economics - another living book - Life on Paradise Island.

So I hope this gives you some food for thought as you look at how maths fits into your home school 12-year plan.

These past 5 weeks I have started to learn about my family history - a project that I looked at a couple of years ago but got nowhere fast with.

The gnawing thought that I ought to give this another chance wouldn't go away, and I again assumed the focus of understanding the ins and outs of the software I had tried to use previously.

There was one critical question that my grandmother raised that has torn at my heart and hers, being "who looked after me from birth until I was fostered?".

She'd posed this question to her mother shortly before her death and was told that "it is history" and not to concern herself with it. This, of course, didn't help Gran as not only does she want to know but has been asked on more than one occasion by her children too.

Learning how to research family history has been a real learning curve, or actually feels more like sinking under a sea of the unknown, while trying to tread water and only sporadically getting a glimpse of the shore as a bearing point.

I like research - I am good at it - but starting this was different. It is a case of you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what questions to ask, of whom to ask them, let alone where to go to find answers or what is going to jump out at you next.

To say it is a roller coaster of the mind, body and spirit is an understatement.

Today I burst into tears on my husbands shoulder as I had finished skim-reading a book I got from the library that I had hoped would help me get inside the culture of the country at the time of my grandmothers childhood. The reality that the same atrocities that had befallen the author at the hands of Catholic orphanages and homes, could also have been thrust on my grandmother (and her sisters) was too much. The only conclusion I could come to was that the nuns and priests had to have been mentally and psychologically brain-washed to have thought that what they were doing was permissible. Isn't that a trademark of a cult? Here you have 'orders' of people taking vows of chastity, frugality, poverty etc, that they may appear to keep on the outside but which consumes them on the inside to the extent that they take others down with their sin. What happened to the author of the book and others is despicable, abhorrent, disgusting, inhumane, revolting, degrading, dehumanising...I could go on. I felt as if I oughtn't tread any further into my grandmothers past, as I didn't know that what I am yet to discover is going to be helpful to her. She is 83 years old and only wants an answer to her question about where she lived and who cared for her in her childhood. That's it. She doesn't deserve to have old wounds re-opened, anxieties re-fester - if that is the whole reason why she doesn't or can't remember. I want to buy her the book, but I think it would be too much. As real as it is, and as honest we are as a family, it is NOT something I am going to let my eldest daughter read right now.

For anyone who reads this book and can identify with it, I am truly sorry. The tears I shed today are equally for you. My hope would be that you have someone that you can turn to, who will say "I believe you", "It wasn't your fault".

There is a t-shirt at Cafepress that I really like, and possibly one of the few that I would ever wear, as I dislike wearing words or advertising slogans, that says "I can only do one thing really well - homeschool the kids - clean the house". Well perhaps I'd alter it simply to "Homeschool or Housework - you choose"?



What I am getting as is there is a different dynamic for parents whose children are at home 24/7. The only time that a child is not occupying themselves with learning and discovery, eating, or creating, is when they finally go to sleep at night. All those day-to-day activities can be messy and time-consuming. It's the same with living with flatmates with everyone coming and going and no one really taking the main responsibility of 'running the show'.

As a homeschooling parent we are on duty the whole time supervising. So where do you get the time to keep house?



What I have found is that trying to regiment Monday for one task, Tuesday for another did not work for us, as we tend to be quite flexible, which means that we may jump in the van and head out with 'dad' on a call-out, and then I'd only feel burdened by what still needed to be done at home.

We also tried relegating the chores to a Saturday and doing 2-3 hours of intense cleaning but in our minds this was wasting important family time (on one of only 2 days when clients oughtn't call).



We try, every morning, having a routine of tasks for the children to accomplish before 9am, which works with some success, but is kept to a minimum of: get up, have breakfast, brush hair, brush teeth, get changed, make bed and open bedroom curtains.

So they are not exactly doing heaps of housework, but in some ways making them responsible for their area has allowed me to chill out a smidgeon and remind myself that if they haven't made their bed and even though I would prefer to see it neat and tidy - it is they that have to lie in it. I am not advocating this for children under 5 years approx, but even then the younger ones can be charged with plonking their pillow at the top of the bed and lumping their duvet or blankets at the other end (then the floor has a chance of being walked across).



What is working for us, and frees me up to think on other things is to have created a master list of things that need to be done - weekly/fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and annually and create index cards for them.

This was far easier than it may sound. One day around the dinner table I asked "what do you think needs to be done around the house to keep it clean and tidy?" and I was surprised at the contributions. Most of the time questions like this would be met with a 'don't know' and shrugged off.

From that list I typed them onto computer generated index cards (with different coloured backgrounds for the different cycles) and laminated them for longevity.

So now I can see at a glance what is next on our weekly/fortnightly task list as it is the card at the front of the stack, and every so often I throw in a card from the monthly, quarterly and annually index cards.

The other advantage is that the children know what is next on the 'to-do' list and sometimes preempt my starting the task and chip in to help.

What more could you ask?



So how do I implement the master plan - just whenever I have the time during the day to do the next task.

As each index card lists the specifics of the cleaning task, I don't have to feel the need to complete the entire task but instead gain satisfaction of completing each item on the list.

Here is what one of our fortnightly cleaning cards looks like:

This is an annual one:

If you would like further ideas for what may go on your master list just type in the two words 'homeschool' and 'housework' into a browser and you'll come up with pages of tips and ideas and of course there is always the FlyLady site, if you need a bit of guidance on starting and being accountable.



Remember to pat yourself on the back for making the start. Don't worry if your tasks don't seem to be as frequent as you like, as you maintain your home, each will get easier and be done more regularly.

In fact one of the cards I have in our fortnightly rotation is to sort out something so that there is less to clean and care for too:

So what are you waiting for .... do you have a Master Plan?