Kriston: I think you'll like that group. My son much prefers "playing" with math than "learning" math - so the websites and fun stuff have been so helpful to us to keep his love of math alive.

I find this a very interesting topic and one that most people just don't get. My son, at only 6 years of age, told me NOT to tell him answers or tell him how to do something. He said "I like to find out by myself." He was referring to math, but of course it applies to his intrinsic motivation for learning. He is an exploratory learner. Reading through this thread I think I've realized that this is what he HATES about school. He doesn't get to explore. He doesn't get to experience those "ah-ah!" moments where the lightbulb goes on. YKWIM - most of us here are probably SOOOOO motivated by those moments.

I think that's what you are talking about, Kriston. Don't think of it as TEACHING math. Think of it as GUIDING the child to learning math. I believe this is something that I do just naturally so very often during the day. I bet most or all of us here do. You grab those teachable moments. You just put the information out there and the child absorbs it and learns.

My 19 year old used to lament having to learn math and say "what good is it anyway? I'm never going to use this stuff." I started to point out what I called "functional math." It's now a big joke between he and I when we notice math in everyday life - one of us will smile and say "there's that functional math again." Kriston, I don't think this is a scary thing. This is really nothing more than baking cookies with your little one and letting them explore the relationships of fractions with the measuring cups. Then explore multiplication by putting the cookies on the sheets, Then explore division by figuring out how many cookies each person in the family gets. Then do doubling the recipe and try to determine how much more flour you are going to need.

Unschooling really isn't so hard. I bet you actually do it already.