Why Teaching Textbooks Is Our Choice for Homeschool Math

Hey, everybody. Welcome to The Waldock Way. I'm Jessica. And today's video is going to be a video about why we love teaching textbooks. Now, if you have been around The Waldock Way any length of time, you know that math is the one thing that we have probably struggled with the most with Emily, and it's not because she's not good at it. It's just because she's not great at it and she's not used to having to work for anything. And so therefore she doesn't enjoy it. And when she didn't enjoy it, it would lead to frustration and it was always kind of the struggle bus that we were on. It doesn't help that I'm very good at math and it comes very naturally to me. So when she wouldn't get it, I would just kind of be like, I don't understand why you don't get this and not know how to explain it to her in another way. And so we spent the first few years of our homeschool trying tons and tons of different math programs and curriculums and things and resources trying to figure out what would work. And unfortunately what I ended up doing is killing her love for learning when it came to math. I mean, she thought she was bad at it. She hated it because everything that we tried to do was deterring her from wanting to do math. So we finally stumbled upon Life of Fred and we did that for a few years and it worked really well. We actually still do it in our bedtime basket, but I noticed that she still needed a little bit more, more spiral review, but she's still really, really didn't like math. So we took about six to eight months off and we kind of did nothing. We just did real life math. We played games and I really focused on finding a way to help her realize that math wasn't the enemy and fall in love with math again. And that's all we did for like six to eight months. And then once she finally realized that math wasn't the enemy and that she could enjoy it again, I started looking for a program or curriculum or something that we could use for math after the fact that, you know, now she doesn't hate it and I looked for a lot of different things and we finally decided that teaching textbooks was the one that we've wanted to try and we've used it successfully now for the past two homeschool years. The main reason why it was like the top of my list was because I wasn't the one having to teach it to her and it isn't because I didn't want to teach it to her and it isn't because I don't like math or I'm not good at it. It's because we clash when it comes to math. Because again, I am very natural at it and I don't know how to kind of break it down in ways for her that would make it simpler or make her understand because I just don't understand why she doesn't get it. Like I can't change the way my brain works and she can't change the way her brain works. And I quickly realized if we couldn't do that and we couldn't find a way to make it work together, the best thing to do was to kind of outsource it. And so teaching textbooks does that for us. It's that happy medium where I still get to be very involved. I still get to look at the table of contents about what she's going to be learning. I can still choose games to go along with it. I can supplement it. We can go as slow or as fast as she wants. She can do it two days a week. She can do it five days a week. I still get to kind of plan it, but I'm not the one giving her the lectures and doing the lessons every day. I can be there for support. Kevin frequently helps her. I frequently help her if she gets stuck or the hints don't make sense. But her main teacher, the main person teaching her is the program itself. It's not coming from me. And that seriously saved our relationship, which is like the number one reason that we homeschool is to instill a lifelong love of learning while prioritizing connections and relationships and teaching textbooks helped us to do that because she started loving learning again when we were doing it and it saved our relationship because we weren't clashing and headbutting and fighting each other every step of the way. So that is honestly the main reason why I love it. I love that it saved our relationship, that it helped her love learning and that I get to be as involved or as not involved as I want to be like I can still go into the grade book. I can still look at everything. I can do as much or as little as I want. So in busy seasons, we can just be like, okay, just do your teaching textbooks today and I'll look at it later. And in slower seasons when I have the time, I can supplement and pull games and make it more fun and you know, do other things around it. But I love that it's, it's a good spine. It's a good thing that I can just kind of refer to whenever I need it. And I can be, like I said, as involved or as not involved as I want to be. And it's something that gives me peace of mind. So why Emily loves it though, one of the reasons that she started really, really loving it is because it gives her the ability to customize her math. She can change her backgrounds and she can change her buddies and she can change the sounds that it makes and she can really kind of tailor it to her and make it her own. So it doesn't feel like this cookie cutter math book that was made for the masses, right? It can make, it can make it feel like it's Emily's math. It was made specialized for her and it's special and something she looks forward to. She likes that it has kind of like the gamification that it feels like she's playing a game that it has hints and it's fun and there's bonus rounds and she can earn extra points and she can do all of these fun things. And she really enjoys the instant gratification and kind of the little celebration when she gets a thing right. So it's like, yes, you did it. And there's like unicorns and like things jumping out and popping out and it's, it makes her happy knowing that she got it right and she's getting that instant gratification of getting a thing right. So those are just a few of the reasons, um, not to mention the ones that we've talked about before. Like the fact that it can be done on the go and you don't need a wifi connection and it's just amazing. Like I could sit here and list off tons and tons of reasons of why I love it, but those are like the top two. That's the top reason why I love it and the top reason why she loves it. And then it just, it works for us, which is fantastic. Now I will leave a few links in the description box for you to check out. One is going to be a link where you can get a free trial of teaching textbooks if it's something that you want to try out and see if it works for your kiddo for this upcoming homeschool year. Um, I will also leave a few links to blog posts that I've done in the past so you can see other ways that we've used teaching textbooks and other reasons why we love it in case you want to see more of what we think about it. And I would love it if you would leave me a note in the comments about maybe what is the thing that your kids struggled or struggles with the most in your homeschool. And maybe somebody out there has a resource or a way that they can help you overcome that struggle and make your homeschool more fun and more enjoyable for everybody.