Nuh-uh, Sally.

 So, yeah.We homeschool.  A lot of people tend to get all squirrely when they hear that we do.  Especially when they learn that Kenny is a public high school English teacher and head football coach.  I don't blame them for their googily eyes one bit. I was a public school teacher for 7 years.  I know the rap sheet that goes with the whole "school at home" business.  There's a lot of really hard working parents out there making homeschool rock solid awesome. And, then there are a lot of parents out there half heartedly invested and sabotaging their children's education for the sake of luh-azy.

And, you know what?  Homeschooling is hard work.  It is a job. An occupation that requires just as much attention to detail as the public school educator's.  The W-2 and monthly stipend of the homeschooling parent is traded in for freedom in creative teaching methods & the time span in which concepts are taught.  Hear me when I say, it is not easy. But, truthfully, what job really is when you aim to give your all to it?  

The boys are math guys.  That's not to say they like doing it, but math flows for them.  I'm kinda happy about this because math sucked for me.  It sucked rocks.  It wasn't that I was horrible at it.  It was more that I was just scared to death of it.  So scared that my amygdala shut down all notions of common sense.  My math game changer?  8th grade, Coach Lamar Davis. He leveled the playing field for me and math.  He was witty and openly honest about his own struggles with numbers.  His admission of his own vulnerability gave me hope. Hmm.  I like that. I like that a lot.

The boys and I are working through word problems.  I have made them aware of the wicked witch otherwise known as common core standards.  We have talked about how answering math problems may involve more steps and details.  And, that they might not like what is required of them in order to be considered "correct".  And, as of now, I have decided to take a different approach to this whole "core" thing.  Why?Cause I homeschool.  That's why.  

I am having the boys work through a set of problems each week where we just totally talk them all out.  I am repeating what I hear them say.  I am inquiring more about how they came to that decision on how to solve a problem.  I am re-directing them.  I am asking them to answer it another way if they can, too.  I am not stressing format and rigid steps just yet with their formal answers.  Why?Because I want their confidence, that's why.  Above all, I want them secure in themselves as problem solvers in this world.  Not protocol pushers.  I am trusting my gut on this one.  It may burn us in the end, but I feel like our heavy detailed math conversations discussing problems will pay off when it comes time that I require them to "write and answer in this format."

So, one day this week we were trucking through some word problems.  Eli's on one side of me with his set.  Casey's on the other.  We are rolling. Casey is on the problem you see here:

And, he reads it aloud to me only to exclaim, "Oh, Mom.  I got this."  He then proceeds to begin coloring the sets of shirts, realizes he needs more room and flips to the back to draw it out all spacious-like.  Now, what you see below is his final answer with one tiny exception. Before we dive into that teensy glitch, let me praise this 6 year old cat for the use of tally marks and spacial reasoning.

Now, for that tiny exception.Ahem.  If you'll look above, you will notice that Casey used lines to draw to match each shirt with each pair of pants to create his total number of outfits.  Well, the line from the red shirt (circle) to the orange pant (square) was not there originally.  And, originally, he only had 5 tally marks for his total.  See below, so to kinda follow along with this story.

And, I look over to find Casey like this telling me he is done with that word problem:

I then check his work to find it incorrect.  I begin encouraging him to get down and go check back through to see that he is completely finished.  He refuses saying he is done, and he is correct.  I then flat out say, "Casey, I think you might need to think back through problem #1.  I think you might have a little more to consider."  Without hesitating in his upside down stance, he says, "Mom, there are only 5 total outfits that can be made.  Everybody knows you don't wear red with orange."  

Of course, I want to totally bust out laughing, because, freak, the boy knows his fashion.  But, like a good Mother Duggar homeschooling mama I got back in the saddle of shaping young minds.  This time I come at it him with, "Case, honey.  I see your point {Internally, I am shouting you're dang right we don't wear red with orange!} but I think the answer is not about you and what you think is appropriately coordinating to wear, but more about the total number of combinations Sally thinks she can wear."

To which he quickly responds with, "Mom, I don't want to hear it.  You know we're not wearing red with orange and Sally better not be doing it either."

What can I say? Fashion wins.  

Take that, common core.

p.s.  Corrections made after FIVE more minutes of bullying him to correct the answer.  Nice, Casey.  Really nice.