Nick and I have been making our way through Algebra I this year.  What fun.  lol  Math has never been my strong suit, so he’s actually teaching me Algebra I this year.  I have this amazing kid who figures out the problems in his head and tells me the answer.  I scramble to the back of the book to check to see if he’s right (which he usually is).  One of his biggest gripes about doing Algebra has been challenging me constantly with real life examples of when he will ever actually need to use it. 

 So, here I am, a middle-aged woman and business owner who, by the way, has never used algebra (that I know of) even once since I graduated from high school trying to find examples of why he needs to know it.  What I’ve actually learned is that some of the projects I’ve taken on around the house would have actually been much easier had I applied some basic algebra to them — instead of guessing. 

In all honesty, my public school education gave me such a fear of math that I never felt adequate to be able to teach it to my son beyond basic stuff.  However, as we’re working our way through Algebra I this year, a lot of the old mindsets are falling off me and I’m actually feeling like I get it this time around.  How wonderful is that?

I have to thank homeschooling (and all those brave parents who went before me and blazed this fantastic trail) and I have to thank my son, Nick, for my newfound understanding of Algebra I.