I am a Christian, a wife and homemaker, and the homeschooling mother of five, ages 8yo to adult, all still living at home (though not for much longer, alas!) in the rural countryside of central Illinois. I have taught or tutored mathematics at every level from pre-K to undergraduate physics—which, at least in the recitation class that I TA’d, was just one story problem after another. What fun!

My hobbies are learning and teaching math, presenting math workshops for homeschool groups, and reading anything I can get my hands on.

As a homeschool mom who loves math, I want to help other homeschoolers see the variety and richness of the subject. Math is not just rules and rote memory. Math is like ice cream, with more flavors than you can imagine—and if all your children ever do is textbook math, that’s like feeding them broccoli-flavored ice cream. Of course, our students do need to learn textbook math, just as piano players do need to practice scales and football players to do push-ups, but they should never be led to think that routine operations are the point of mathematics.

If we can find a way to give our children a good taste of that “Aha!” feeling, the thrill of working through a challenging problem and figuring it out, then we won’t be able to keep them away from math.