A few years ago, Rachel Thomas, PhD (co-founder of fast.ai) gave an extraordinary workshop to our community about the myth of “not a math person.” After the workshop, I got to thinking that homeschooling parents who had anxiety about teaching their children mathematics (and other higher level skills) could use some more concrete tips on what math curriculum to use and how. A few months ago, my beloved homeschooling community of friends at SEA homeschoolers, invited me to write an article and give a workshop at their conference on the same topic which you can read at the latest issue of their magazine. This latest podcast episode is heavily inspired by Rachel’s phenomenal workshop and research on this topic, and includes some of my own curriculum recommendations, which were greatly influenced by recommendations, experimentation, trial and error and support from Rachel’s partner, Jeremy Howard, during the pandemic, as well as recommendations from parents in the SEA homeschoolers group. This episode is my expansion of Rachel’s amazing workshop, with some additions of curriculum and concrete tips for homeschoolers.
It’s important to me to give credit where credit is due, so I want to emphasize that many of the ideas and studies I cited, especially in the beginning of this episode, were ideas I learned from Rachel’s workshop, which came about through Rachel’s many years of careful research and preparation on this topic. Rachel was the first person who introduced me to the concept that the myth of “math people” wasn’t real. This is my own take, delivered in a way I think will be helpful to homeschooling parents grappling with this topic.
EPISODE NOTES
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
Teach Your Kids: LinkedIn | Website | X | Instagram | Substack | Facebook | TikTok
Manisha: LinkedIn | X | Instagram | Facebook
Join our premium community with expert support and advice
Relevant Interviews
Teach Your Kids: Game-Based Learning: The Prodigy Approach with Rohan Mahimker
Teach Your Kids: Navigating Math with Curiosity: Jason Batterson & Jasmine Eyal on Beast Academy
Modulo's Interview with Rachel Tidd (Founder of Wild Learning)
Books, Articles, and Publications
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol S. Dweck, PhD
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth
Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement Beilock, S. L., Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., & Levine, S. C. (2010). Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring. Bloom, B. S. (1984). Education Researcher
General Curriculum Resources
Tutoring
Courses/Workshops
🐶 Throw me a (🌱vegan) 🦴?
If you’re enjoying the podcast, or just want to be nice and helpful, could you leave a thoughtful review of my podcast? It really helps a lot ot reach more families with the work we’re doing. Thank you so much!