(From Lesson 6)

Can you believe a 6.5 year old can do this? Granted, my son Bruce is very bright for his age and is capable of doing third grade math, but this isn’t a case of “My son is so smart!” or, “I’m such a great teacher!” 😉 This is an example of brilliant, Constructivist curriculum at its finest. Can you imagine how easy Algebra 1 is going to be for my son someday if he can already do problems like this in first grade?

I’m not a representative for Hands On Equations and I don’t have any affiliation with the company. I just think this program is awesome. I really want to write a grant and bring HOE to my son’s school, but I haven’t even broached the subject with his teachers.

As a former teacher myself, I know that I really have to watch myself. I don’t want to be pushy, I don’t want to be the problem parent, and I just want to let Bruce’s wonderful teachers continue doing a wonderful job as they see fit. I know as well as anyone that public school teachers can sometimes be under enormous pressure to strictly implement district-approved curriculum, without any room for creativity. So for now, HOE is just a fun activity that we are doing at home. But oh my goodness! The teacher in me sooooo wants to run a HOE small group during centers time. I know those first and second graders and they would eat this up.