Hey Reader,

I need to tell you about one of the the most chaotic teaching moments I’ve ever had.

Life

Picture this: my childcare for the day fell through, so I have my toddlers with me while teaching at my student’s house. I’m sitting at the table trying to explain mixed numbers to him. He’s staring at the paper like it personally offended him, and nothing I’m saying is making sense to him. 🙃

Meanwhile, my two toddlers are running circles around us. Literal circles. Around the table, through the kitchen, back around again. One of them is shrieking with joy. The other one is chasing the first one with a sock. (which actually is probably an accurate picture of most homeschool moms lives with littles!)

And I’m losing it. Not in a dramatic way, just in the subtle way where you can feel your patience getting thinner with every sentence you say that doesn’t work. I’d explained it one way, then another, then a third way that was honestly just the first way again but slower.

Aaaaand nothing was working. Still.

So I stopped. I closed my eyes for a second (as much as you can close your eyes with toddlers in motion), and I just asked God to give me the words. I didn’t have a long, eloquent prayer. It was more like, “Lord, I don’t know how to explain this. Help me find a way in.”

And then I tried something completely different.

Homeschool + Math

Instead of starting with the math, I started with chairs.

“You have 15 chairs,” I told him. “You need to put them in rows of 4. How many full rows can you make, and how many chairs are left over?”

He thought about it for a second. “Three full rows… and three chairs left.”

That was it. That was the door.

From there, we talked about how that leftover is a fraction of a full row. Three chairs out of the four you’d need for a complete row. Three-fourths. We connected that idea to division, because that’s what we’d actually just done: 15 divided by 4. We looked at how long division gives you that same remainder, and how you can write it as a fraction instead of just “R3.”

And then we came back to mixed numbers. Three and three-fourths. Whole rows and leftover chairs. He could see it now, not because I’d explained the procedure better, but because I’d connected it to something that already made sense to him.

And the light went off….finally!

Here’s what I want you to take away from this: when an explanation isn’t clicking, the answer is usually not “say it again, louder.” The answer is to find something your student already understands and build a bridge from there. Chairs in rows. Pizza slices. Groups of crayons. Whatever makes the abstract feel real (remembering that fractions are division is super helpful!)

So the next time you’re stuck on a concept with your student and you can feel the frustration building, try this: stop explaining the math. Ask yourself, “What does my child already know that connects to this?” Start there. You might be surprised how quickly the concept clicks when it has something familiar to hold onto!

Grace

Can I tell you what I keep thinking about from that afternoon?

It’s not the moment he got it (although that was wonderful!). It’s the moment right before, when I stopped trying to force the explanation and asked God for help.

I didn’t get a thunderbolt of clarity, I got a little redirect that was really just nudge to try something different and the image of what I should try. And that was enough!

I think about how often we push through hard teaching moments (or any hard life circumstance!) on our own strength, convinced that if we just try one more time, we’ll figure it out, and sometimes we do. But most of the time, the most productive thing we can do is pause and say, “I don’t have this. Will You help me?” We are to pray without ceasing, and I firmly believe that God cares about the mundane and the little moments in our lives. He really does care! Therefore,

“Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (ESV)

All of them. Even the ones that feel too small to pray about. Even the mixed-numbers lesson that isn’t clicking. Even the moment where you’re not sure you have the right words. He cares about them all. ❤️

He doesn’t always give us the perfect lesson plan or a verbal “do this.” But He gives us what we need for the next moment, be it patience, remembering a direction, or coming up with the perfect analogy. And that direction? It’s enough. ❤️

See you soon!

-Mrs. Holman

P.S. Mixed numbers clicked for my student because we connected them to something concrete. If your student is stuck on a concept this week, try the “what do you already know that connects to this?” question before re-explaining the procedure. It might change everything.