Tips for Dealing with Math Refusal: Eat First

The bane of every homeschool mother's existence is math.

It's not because we all hate math. Some of us actually enjoy it quite a lot--both in the doing and the teaching.

No, the thing about math that we all hate is that every single one of us has run into days (or weeks or months) when you sit down and say, "Open your math book," and your child cries. Or stomps out of the room. Or starts nicely and then melts down the instant you start a new topic they've never heard of ("What do you mean, place value?!  Waaaaahhhhaaaaahhhh!"). Or worse, they sit agreeably but won't put pencil to paper, and hours later they are still there, engaged in a silent battle of wills with you--insisting they will not do their math while you insist they will stay at the table until it's done.

Sound familiar?

Whether it's loud and angry or silent and passive-aggressive, math refusal is one of the single most frustrating things homeschooling moms deal with it.

So I will be posting a series of tips for dealing with math refusal.

The first tip is an easy one: never start math without eating first, both you and your child. Every math lesson should begin with a snack--and for many children, the snack needs to have protein in it. Nuts, eggs, peanut butter, and hot dogs are favorites around our house.

For some reason, I find two things happen when my kids eat first:

1.  They don't fight me every step of the way. They are more patient and compliant, and even cheerful, even in the face of a boring assignment.

and

2. Their brains work better, so they can comprehend and complete the math lessons many times quicker than they can if they are hungry.

If we start math and I am getting signs of a math refusal episode coming on, I will put our books down, pencils away, and say, "Let's eat first," or "Who wants a peanut butter sandwich?"

I've said it enough times that my children have begun to self-regulate. If they sit down to their math and find themselves staring blankly at the wall instead of getting it over and done with, they will often stand up and say, "I think I'd better eat first."

It takes 10 minutes to eat a snack, and can take hours to deal with the fallout of shut off brains and hangry children. Even if you're in a hurry, it's a good idea to do a snack first, math second.