I arrived home later than usual. She was at the table doing her math homework.
"What's a percent?" she asked.
I couldn't tell if her gap was the mathematical concept or the English word, since she's from Germany. "How many centimeters make up a meter?"
"One hundred," she replied.
"So per cent is per hundred." I'd grabbed a sheet of paper and was scribbling. Pulling from the amazing clue words provided in MathTacular4, I told her, "Per is a division clue word, so this is just a division problem. If we have 17 per cent, we have 17 per hundred, or 17 divided by 100. And what's that as a decimal?"
Simulation of My Scribbles ...no wonder she looked confused
Soon we'd run through problems involving 3 blue sweaters out of 27 and solved interest equations given a particular principle investment. It trickled back. Algebra was a long, long time ago.
And it struck me, as I explained yet another basic concept that her teachers had thus far failed to communicate to her: Homeschooling happens everywhere. Even in public school. Perhaps especially in public school for the kids who achieve the most. Teachers, no matter how good and dedicated and caring, simply do not have time or opportunity to help each student move at his or her own pace.
Homeschooling simply removes the potentially frustrating daily grind experience and replaces it with a one-on-one opportunity to teach your children exactly where they are.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Math Tutor
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