This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure statement for more information.
The Big Bad Math Episode with Kate Snow {Episode 48}
Sisters- it’s here! The big, bad math episode!
Cait and Kara have been wanting to do a math episode for so long, but they wanted to be sure to talk to an expert who would bring the knowledge, but also put your heart at ease.
So this week, they are interviewing Kate Snow of Kate’s Homeschool Math Help. Kate is a Harvard grad, a teacher, a curriculum creator, the author of 5 books, and she’s also a mom who has taught math in her own home, so she knows the unique challenges of homeschool families.
Pour yourself a nice, hot cup of coffee or tea for this one- and keep your ears open at the end- there’s an opportunity to ask YOUR biggest math questions!
This episode is sponsored by Epic! and Audible.
Epic! is the leading digital library for kids twelve and under. Epic! has more than 25,000 high-quality, popular children’s books, audiobooks, videos, quizzes, and more! When you check out Epic!, you’ll notice many popular titles including Where the Wild Things Are, A Wrinkle in Time, Big Nate, Ramona, Sesame Street, and National Geographic Kids. Parents can look up a topic and find many titles related to the subject matter- it’s perfect for unit studies! Epic! also includes a digital reading log to make record-keeping easy. It’s only $7.99 a month and you can cancel at any time. To get Epic! for 2 months absolutely free go to getepic.com and use the code sisters at checkout.
Listeners of The Homeschool Sisters Podcast can go to audibletrial.com/sisters get 30 days free plus a free credit for an audiobook!
our brand-new newsletter will help you plan your homeschool year!
Guess what – in the months ahead, we’re starting a simple newsletter to keep you in the know about when we release new episodes, and what’s going on in our world! Sign up right here!
Listen to the episode here:
Click on the above image to listen to the episode!
Links from the big bad math episode
-
10 Practical Ways to Create a Homeschool Math Growth Mindset | Kate’s Homeschool Math Help
- All of Kate Snow’s books
- Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
- Audible
- Birding By Ear (Peterson’s Field Guides) CD set
- Chess
- Cribbage
- Do I Have to Finish the Math Book? | Kate’s Homeschool Math Help
- Grade 6 Math “Understanding Mathematics” Set from Rod and Staff
-
Homeschool Math 101 | Kate’s Homeschool Math Help
- It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
- Lost Cities
- Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Mindset by Carol Dweck
- Penrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas
- Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
- Ramona the Pest (audio) by Beverly Cleary
-
Review of Activities for the AL Abacus (RightStart’s program for catching up in elementary school)
-
Should I Change My Homeschool Math Curriculum? | Kate’s Homeschool Math Help
- The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
- The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
-
What to Do When Your Homeschooler HATES Math | Kate’s Homeschool Math Help
Be sure to follow Kate Snow!
You can find Kate Snow on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest … or sign up for her newsletter!
Don’t miss the latest from your sisters!
Listen to all of our fall haul episodes here:
- Fall Haul: Homeschool resources we’re loving {Episode 7}
- Fire Bosses and Walking Tacos: The Sisters Talk Fall {Episode 24}
- Fall Haul 3: Here We Haul Again {Episode 43}
FOLLOW THE HOMESCHOOL SISTERS
You can hang out with Cait and Kara on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
PSST…DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE HOMESCHOOL SISTERS PODCAST WITHOUT SPENDING ANY EXTRA?
Many listeners have asked how they can support The Homeschool Sisters Podcast. The answer is a simple one. Do you shop online? Click our link first. You won’t pay any extra, but a small percentage goes to The Homeschool Sisters Podcast to help offset our expenses. Every little bit counts, and we are so grateful for your support!
Loved this episode, it came at the perfect time! Question for Kate Snow: My 10 year old son knows his math facts (maybe not division totally yet) and used to love math, but lately, anytime he starts doing problems that are more complicated or have multiple steps (i.e. REGROUPING SUBTRACTION) he gets lost in the steps. A 2 or even 3 digit subtraction problem seems to go ok but if you’ve got a bigger subtraction problem then he loses track of what he’s doing. My big question is how to help him as he learns to do multi-step (and more difficult) math problems so he doesn’t give up, feel lost in the problem or become incredibly frustrated in the process. He views it as he’s a failure at math, because he thinks he should just *get* it, rather than he’s learning and it’s ok to not get it right every time or right away. And then math becomes a huge struggle.
Thanks for this great math episode with Kate Snow! I’d love to know her thoughts on the following: I have second grader with a mild intellectual disability. We have been slowly moving through the Right Start Level A curriculum since she was in Kindergarten. One stumbling block we face is in the area of problem solving. Although she is making progress in math, my daughter almost always cannot answer a word problem question. Most recently, we tried the “wee ones” questions in Bedtime Math until it became clear that those were too difficult for her. She tends to guess at the answer when presented with a word problem. It is as if she cannot picture the numbers in her mind. Do you have any advice for helping a child develop problem solving skills? How can I get her ready to thoughtfully answer the word problems in her math curriculum and beyond (like the most basic questions in Bedtime Math)?
Thank you for this episode. Last night my cough woke me up at 2am and my homeschool mom anxiety/guilt over math kept me up until 4 am. I was up researching math curricula, “doing the math” to figure out how quickly we could get through our Right Start A that my (now 8 year old) has been trudging through if we do “x” number of lessons a week (We’re only on lesson 71 of 132, gah!!!). Knowing that it’s moving too slowly for him but scared to jump ahead or change curriculum because I’m the queen of changing curriculums and I don’t want the dreaded “gaps.” I literally prayed that God would give my some clarity in the morning when I woke up (if I ever fell back asleep) and when I checked my email in the morning I saw this post.
I love that you pointed out that the curriculum has to work for the mom’s teaching style as well as the child’s learning style. Right Start is a great, solid curriculum and I am terrible at teaching it. I know that many love the open and go, tell me exactly what to do each day curricula and I dread it. I’m too free spirited, I guess. My older son has been thriving with Life of Fred, and we are a literature strong family, so it’s just such a good fit. However, I was finding that when I tried LOF with my youngest last year, he wasn’t getting the basic math concepts so I bought Right Start, hopping the manipulative would help. I feel that he has enough of a base now that we can jump in to LOF with both feet and I can supplement with extra games and activities as I see him struggling, as well as utilizing the games book from Right Start as well as the manipulatives. I just purchased two of Kate’s books and can’t wait to use them as supplements! Thank you for your timely podcast!
Loved the episode. I read that kids really understand math when using it in real world problem ( not just worksheet number problems and I am not sure when to use an algebra equation in real life). I was wondering if Kate could recommend resources ( books,etc.) that used upper math in real world problems or word problems. I can do real world problems with elementary math but as my daughter progresses in pre algebra I am having a harder time with problems from life.
Could Kate recommend resources for real world problems for upper level math ( algebra and geometry) to help me answer the ” when am I going to use this” question.