Hey Reader,

School is in full swing, and It’s been so fun teaching math classes this year! I have such a fun group of kids, and they’ve been a blast to work with. 😊

Life

Planning out next week’s lessons made me think of a student I had a while back (we’ll call her Lily, not her real name) who absolutely hated division.

Every time we got to a division lesson, the walls went up, the tears came and the, “I can’t do this” started before we even got through the first problem. Her mom had tried different worksheets, different explanations, different ways of walking through the steps, but nothing stuck.

So when I started working with her, I did something that might seem counterintuitive. I didn’t start with division practice.

I asked her: “What does division actually mean?”

She stared at me.

She had no idea!

She’d been taught the steps. Long division, the algorithm, where to put the numbers, how to write the remainder. But nobody had ever told her what division was. She didn’t know that it’s taking a total and breaking it into groups. She’d never heard that when you divide 12 by 3, you’re asking “how many groups of 3 fit inside 12?” or “if I split 12 into 3 groups, how many are in each one?”

Once she understood that, everything shifted.

The tears stopped, the walls went down, and she wasn’t fighting the concept anymore, because for the first time, the concept actually made sense.

Homeschool + Math

Contrary to what she believed, Lily wasn’t bad at division. She was missing just one foundational piece, and because of that, everything that got stacked on top of it was falling apart.

This situation happens more often than you’d think.

A child who melts down over a specific concept usually isn’t telling you “I can’t learn this.” They’re telling you something earlier didn’t click, and now every new layer feels impossible because the foundation isn’t there.

The instinct (which we’d all been trained to do growing up!) is to push through. You want to cover the material, stay on pace, and get through the chapter. Or maybe your instinct is to sit back at the beginning and just keep doing worksheet after worksheet hoping it clicks eventually (also something we’d been conditioned to do growing up!) But pushing forward when the foundation has a crack just makes the crack wider. Continuing to do worksheets without the understanding just adds frustration, not mastery. Eventually, you end up with a gap that is frustrating both of you.

So, here’s something practical you can try this week.

The next time your student hits a wall on a concept, pause the lesson. Ask them: “Can you explain to me what this means?” Don’t ask them how to do the steps. Ask them what the operation or concept actually means.

If they can’t, you just found your starting point. And that’s actually the most useful information you could have, because now you know exactly where to go back to!

I want to encourage you though: going back isn’t falling behind. Going back is how you build the kind of understanding that lasts when the problems get harder.

Grace

As homeschoolers, we wear so many hats. Teacher, nurse, referee, chef, chauffeur, therapist: sometimes all before lunch. So when Lily’s walls went up over division, her mom's walls went up a little too. She felt the weight of needing to have the answer, the patience, the right words, every single time.

I was reading 2 Corinthians 12:9 the other day, and this story reminded me of this:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” (ESV)

Here’s what struck me: God doesn’t wait for us to have it all figured out before He shows up. Our weakness isn’t the disqualifier. It’s actually where His power does its best work.

As Christians, we get to rest in that promise. When we call out to Him, tired and unsure, He hears us. And He gives us exactly what we need (like patience, grace, and character) to be there for our kids in their weakness too. Not because we mustered it up ourselves, but because He supplied it.

So when we go back to repair a foundation, ours or theirs, we’re not regressing or falling behind. We’re taking care of what God entrusted to us, in the strength He provides for it.

There’s grace for Lily’s division gap. And there’s grace for us in whatever gap we’re standing in this week too. ❤️

See you soon!

-Mrs. Holman

P.S. If your student has been stuck on a concept and you’re not sure whether it’s a gap or just a need for more practice, try the “can you explain what this means” question. Their answer will tell you everything you need to know about what to do next.