Logic On Fire, LLC

The 4 Dec 2021 instructions are posted here.

I would like to publish some of the instructions which I have created to teach my children. After photographing a great many pages of this work, I realize that I cannot show them all in this post. It would be like photographing 'War and Peace' one page at a time and uploading them. That would be too much effort and would obscure my intention.

So, I shall upload a couple of photographs for the work I created on 5 Dec 2021 and, in another post, upload 4 Dec 2021.

These photographs serve to show my process somewhat. What I would like to do is receive a photograph of the homework from the parents of the child or a photograph of the math page, which is difficult to understand. Plus, perhaps, a description, however brief, of the hard part in understanding the concept.

I create instructions, which I hope will make it very clear to understand the concept. I send the instructions to you before the session. Then, we have a zoom session and do our level best to understand the math and do the homework.

That is kind of what I do with my own kids.

I would like to explain my philosophy of teaching mathematics to my children. I have two children, a 13 year old boy and a ten year old girl. I started teaching them when each child turned five. We cover math on the weekends. Surprisingly, that is more than enough to give them a strong edge. Although they both attend school, homeschooling, that is, my teaching, accounts for about 10 to 20 percent of their education. We spend 3 to 6 hours every weekend.

We use the Spectrum and Kumon books for mathematics. We only recently incorporated Spectrum grammar books. And, like I said, we regularly study on the weekends. The holidays, like this recent long Christmas holiday, are used for more instruction during the week since I do not want them to, frankly, totally shutdown intellectually.

So, before we cover a few pages I spend time reading the pages of the Kumon/Spectrum book and create my own instructions. I like to drill down deeper into the material. My instructions are designed to convey a crystal clear idea of the mathematical concept. The objective is to see the concepts in your mind. My kids should know the idea so well that they can see it in their mind and have a general idea on how to solve it. Now, you need pencil and paper to do the equations and flesh out the details. I council them to never try to solve the equations in your head. However, see the problem in your mind and then chase and solve the problem in your writings.

That is how I have done it for decades and that is how I train them.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

I would like to describe the process for my service. My preference is to have a picture of the homework page(s) or the topic covered in school prior to the zoom session. Plus, if you can describe the sticky point in understanding the concept then that would be helpful, as well.

The object is to start the zoom session with a good idea on what to cover and explain. What I do not want to do is to spend too much time figuring out what to cover during the zoom session. That would waste a of time for the student. We can do that before the zoom session. I want to get to the business of teaching math as quickly as possible. I want the student to understand concepts within mathematics as best as possible. And, I will do everything in my power to expedite their learning.

The winning scenario is not me drumming up business. The win is your child knowing math that much better. The win is conveying a concept clearly so that the student now understands the mathematical concept and can solve those sets of problems. That is the win.

If you have any idea on how to help your child learn then, please, let me know!

I would like to state that the books that I used to teach my children mathematics are Spectrum and Kumon books. These books are very good, however, the parent is indispensable in teaching the material and walking through a couple of examples. Mathematics is like learning a foreign language. It takes repetition with increasingly complex sentences, if you will. Plus, like learning a foreign language, you need someone to teach the conventions, the assumptions that are embedded in mathematics, like idioms in another language. Oh, one more thing: Links to the Kumon and Spectrum books are given below.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=spectrum+grade&i=stripbooks&crid=169P830TZQ18V&sprefix=spectrum+grade%2Cstripbooks%2C173&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kumon&i=stripbooks&crid=5APUQURN3AHN&sprefix=kumon%2Cstripbooks%2C137&ref=nb_sb_noss

Amazon.com : kumon

Teaching math is a growing passion of mine. I have two children, 10 and 13 years of age to whom I have taught math on the weekends since they were five years old. We spend a few hours every weekend working through various math books that I will review in future posts.
The big secret is that the little time teaching them math has paid off with big returns. They are both doing very well in math. With that success, confidence in other areas, i.e., English, History, Geography, Finance etc. grew. In other words, once they experience hard-won success with math, their confidence in other subjects increased.
From teaching my own children I have learned that two keys to success are to be consistent and never give up on them. Reading about the educational challenges faced by parents in these Covid times makes me want to share with other parents and their children, my success in teaching math to my own children.

This is the first post for the Login On Fire page! Woo-Hoo!!!