Our Journey Through Math!!

Once upon a time there was a red-headed little girl.  She had so much trouble in school because she saw and wrote all of her numbers backwards.  She tried so hard, but was frequently frustrated.  The subject that caused her the most grief was math.

She would work and work on math but she seemed to always struggle with it.  No matter how hard she tried she would end up missing most of the problems.  This frequently led to tears.

She struggled and struggled and finally got through Algebra 2.  Her mom was tempted to call it quits at this point as she had enough math to graduate with, but her parents had this belief.  You see, they thought that, though you might not LOVE every subject, everyone should be able to appreciate them all, especially math.

They prayed and prayed about what to do.  They did not want to make her hate learning by pushing her on in math, but she still had not found a way to appreciate it. 

The next school year, after praying about it a LOT, they decided to do geometry again.  But instead of the standard curriculum, they tried something different. And they talked to the rambunctious red-head and listened to what frustrated her so much and they all made some changes. 

That school year God did something amazing!  He started to open her eyes and change her heart regarding math.  It started with less tears and frustration and ended the year with enjoyment.  She went from walking the long way around a math book to reading library books on math for fun!

Now, believe it or not, she is getting ready to go to college and pursue a math and computer science degree! 

As her mom and teacher, I wanted to share this with you because maybe you have a child that struggles in math!  I would encourage you to find out what it is that makes math difficult and try to tackle that.  I also want to let you know not to give up!  I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had just let this go and allow her to be “done” learning math.  She might have delayed or missed learning about a special gift God has given her.

Now, I’m not saying that we are all going to be brilliant in math or any other subject, but what I am saying is that math is God’s language here on earth.  It’s His patterns and creative fingerprint.  We should have knowledge of it and we should find joy in it!  Sometimes it just takes a little change in our perspective!!

Last year, she decided to write a spoken word for a church fine arts convention.  We wanted to share it with you!!