Unlock Learning with Simplicity
Hi Reader,
Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is going well and that you and your kiddos are finding your footing as we step into March.
LIFE
Life has been full over here lately — the good, busy, beautiful kind of full that leaves you tired at the end of the day but grateful for it.
With two little ones underfoot, "quiet work time" is more of a concept than a reality most days. This week my littles have been especially committed to being my shadow — which is equal parts sweet and chaotic. If you've ever tried to answer an email while someone insists on sitting in your lap and pressing random keys, you know exactly what I mean.
We're taking it one day at a time. Some days that looks like thriving. Some days that looks like surviving, but both count. And right now, I'm learning that doing the next right thing is enough — I don't have to have it all figured out. I just have to keep building, even when the foundation looks different than I expected.
More on that in a minute.
HOMESCHOOL + MATH
Okay, let's talk about that one thing.
If your middle schooler has been struggling in math — or if YOU have been stressed about where they are compared to where you think they should be — I want you to take a breath. Math progress is rarely linear, and being "behind" doesn't mean broken.
Here's the one thing I want you to do this week: Find one concept your child almost gets — and spend just 15 minutes on it.
Not a whole unit. Not a curriculum overhaul. Just one concept, 15 minutes.
But here's the part I really want you to hear: sometimes that one concept is not the one you think it is. Sometimes you have to go back further than you expected — and that is not a bad thing. That is actually smart, strategic teaching.
Let me give you some real examples of what this can look like.
Example 1: Multiplying radicals Your kiddo is completely stuck on multiplying radicals, so you sit down to help and quickly realize — they don't actually know what "squared" means. They've never truly understood that 3² means 3 × 3, not 3 × 2. So you back up. You spend 15 minutes just on perfect squares. 2×2, 3×3, 4×4. Maybe you draw them out as actual squares on graph paper. And suddenly √9 makes sense in a way it never did before. THAT is the one thing — not radicals. Not yet. The foundation first.
Example 2: Adding like terms They're staring at 3x + 5x and have absolutely no idea what to do with it. You dig a little deeper and realize they don't know what a "term" is, much less what makes two terms "like." So you back WAY up. You say: "3 apples + 5 apples = 8 apples. So 3x + 5x = 8x. Same idea — x is just our word for the thing we're counting. A term is each piece that is separated by an addition or subtraction sign." Fifteen minutes on that one idea can unlock weeks of frustration. The concept isn't necessarily like terms. It's what a term even is.
Example 3: Adding fractions Adding fractions with unlike denominators is hard when your child doesn't truly understand what a fraction represents. So you back up to the most basic thing: draw a rectangle, cut it into 4 pieces, shade 1. That's ¼. Now do the same with thirds. Now try to add them — and let them SEE why you can't just add the numbers straight across. Fifteen minutes of that visual foundation can change everything.
Do you see the pattern? The "one thing" might be the concept right in front of you — or it might be two or three steps behind it. Either way, you start there. You don't skip it or rush past it hoping they'll catch up. You stope and build.
When you check their work this week, I also want to encourage you: don't just mark things right or wrong. Look at their process. Did they set the problem up correctly? Did they show their thinking, even if they made a small error at the end? That effort deserves to be noticed — because that IS the learning. Progress over perfection, always.
Learn something new every day. That's the goal. We don’t need a perfect paper. We don’t need a finished unit. We just need ONE new/solidified thing, built on a real foundation.
GRACE
I've been thinking a lot lately about how God doesn't look at us and say, "You should be further along by now." Instead, He meets us exactly where we are, in the mess, in the gap, in the place we didn't expect to find ourselves, and He starts building from right there.
That's the picture at the end of Matthew 7, in the parable of the wise man and the foolish man. In the story, two men each build a house. One builds on rock and one builds on sand, and the storm comes for both of them in exactly the same way. The same rain, the same floods, the same relentless wind beating against both houses. The difference isn't the storm: It's what was underneath when the storm arrived. The house on the rock holds firm. The house on the sand falls, and not just tips over: it’s completely destroyed.
The wise builder didn't skip the foundation just to get to the walls faster. He started at the bottom and did the slow, unglamorous work that nobody sees until the moment it matters most. And when the hard things came, as they always do, his house was still standing.
That's what you're doing when you back up and find the real gap in your child's math. You're not losing time and you're not failing. You're being wise. You're choosing to build something solid instead of something shaky, and that matters far more than keeping pace with any scope and sequence.
And friend, I think that's true for us too, not just our kids. Whatever season you're in right now, however unexpected the ground feels beneath you, God is not behind you. He is right there meeting you where you are, building something in you that will hold.
So tell me: what's the one concept your kiddo is thisclose to getting? Or what's the concept you suspect might be hiding behind the thing they're struggling with? Hit reply and let me know. I'd love to cheer you on.
You're building something that matters. 💛
See you soon,
Mrs. Holman
