My kids are learning algebra and I am finding the process joyful for all three of us.
Lately weekend lesson preparation time means that I get to work through a pile of polynomial division/factoring problems. I find this joyful by itself. When you sit down to find the greatest common divisor between two polynomials, the process seems somewhat mysterious, until you decide how you might explain it to your children. And then the beauty of math shines through. I actually hear Bach and Beethoven in my head as I work through the problems.
I realize I am a math geek, but the more I love doing these problems, the more my children enjoy learning them. This is obvious in hindsight, but it took me a long time to realize how much children respond to their parents’ attitudes. When you approach them dictatorially with “musts” and “shoulds” and “you betters”, a child’s love for the subject is squeezed away and drudgery takes over. We crave that feeling of freely accomplishing something and excelling at it under the power of their own wings, so why shouldn’t our kids feel the same way?
For me, math time with my kids is a time to share joy and nudge them along so that they can successfully accomplish the skill by themselves. Then they really understand it. But more importantly, they still love it.
And so together my kids and I are finding joy in the details of algebra and I can’t wait until we get to explore calculus together!
