David H. Albert writes a regular column for Home Education Magazine. In an excerpt from his book, Original Seeking: Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery (Common Courage Press, 2002) he addresses the sometimes daunting challenge of avoiding math fear or anxiety in the homeschool setting. Do apply his advice to your homeschool math curriculum!

He says, "The single most important thing you can do for your kids around math is to help them avoid math anxiety. And one best avoids math anxiety by preventing math trauma. Be a physician, and apply the first principle, Do no harm. Without trauma, anything remains possible. With trauma, your kids may end up with certain skills, but they will also end up with wounds that may take a long time to heal." Adjust your math curriculum accordingly.

Many of us have experienced it, a terrible brain freeze when faced with what seems like an insoluble problem: learning and/or applying one or another math concept. I was never a whiz at math, in fact times tables' mastery escaped my grasp well into adulthood. I regularly practiced what has been proven to be the most commonly used math phobic technique, math avoidance. When exposed to aspects of math's other side though, i.e., a compelling and interesting face found in nature and patterns, or the sly "trickiness" of fun formulas that make no apparent sense, my curiosity and interest rose high enough to overcome my formidable math fear.

About that interesting face found in nature and patterns, David Albert says, "When (your children) are ready, show them the Fibonacci numbers and where they can be found throughout the natural order: in the spirals of shells, branching plants and leaf arrangements, flower petals and seed heads, pineapples and pine cones. To me, these are God's handprints upon the world, which we are all but children learning to read. (Check out the book Fascinating Fibonaccis: Mystery and Magic in Numbers by Trudi Hammel Garland, and her wonderful posters)."

Here is one of those fun formulas that is fascinating because it makes no apparent sense: 1) reverse any 3 numbers and subtract the smaller from the larger 2) add the reverse of the answer 3) the final answer is always 1089! Two examples: 674 - 476 = 198 + 891 = 1089 / 752 - 257 = 495 + 594 = 1089

These two aspects, math's connection to nature and math tricks, are both examples of making math more friendly and palatable, that can, along with other wonderful attributes of the subject that lie just beneath the surface awaiting discovery by you and your homeschool students, make a big difference. Sprinkle these two, along with other interesting facts, tricks and patterns liberally throughout your homeschool math curriculum, and watch the interest and motivation soar.

Most importantly, your homeschooled students will bypass math fear, which can be life-limiting in the extreme. Mark H. Ashcroft, Ph.D. suggests, "Highly anxious math students will avoid situations in which they have to perform mathematical equations. Unfortunately, math avoidance results in less competency, exposure, and math practice, leaving students (even) more anxious and mathematically unprepared to achieve."

There's a general propensity in our educational system to outlaw or denigrate the importance of making mistakes. Math, of all subjects, is most prone to this, with the assumption that there is only one correct answer. Mistakes should be seen as an essential element in the creative process. Some of our greatest minds took the "trial and error" route to their most impressive strokes of genius and breakthrough discoveries. Your homeschool math curriculum should reflect this, in a tolerance for and welcoming of innovation and experimentation. Curiosity is the best teacher!

Albert Einstein was a wonderful example of this way of thinking and working. He famously said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

So, do imbue your homeschool math curriculum with creativity and imagination, and the rest will follow. Your students will love and practice math with healthy self-esteem and confidence.