Homeschool Mathematics – Opt for Mastery Above Perfection

A large number of homeschool parents have difficulty with children who comprehend math concepts but are sloppy in accomplishing their schoolwork. The outcome is math problems that are often wrong, not due to the fact they do not understand, but since they hurried through and also made silly mistakes (adding wrong, wrong decimal placement, etc. )#)  Parents can be pushed to distraction considering that 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 cope with persistent carelessness?

Carelessness, particularly with math, is a difficult 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, as well as the benefits of doing the task well. But there’s an additional aspect to carelessness that you must give some thought to.

I realize this may surprise a number of you, but when I subtract a purchase in my checkbook, I do not always get the answer completely correct. From time to time I slip up, get the answer incorrect, not to mention must search until I uncover the arithmetic mistake making sure that it balances again. However, I do feel I have attained mastery over subtraction (on most days! )#)

Mastery is different than perfection. Your child might show mastery by scoring 90% on an assignment (they might even have mastery with less than that, I imagine! )#)  Kids should not be expected to be “perfect” however. Now, to tell the truth, 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 motivate them to be more cautious in their daily work. Being careful is a good thing, right? Just do not move from “careful” into “perfection. ”  Trying for perfection can result in strife, and in some cases rebellion. Since we all understand, intuitively, that we simply can not be perfect.

If you are in this predicament, here are a few tips 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 provide 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 try instead for mastery. Explain to your kids that 90% is what you consider mastery.