I am glad you asked this question because I have been thinking about this also, but I think what my son really needs is a math "mentor", possibly a college student who really, really likes math. I have always wondered if my attitude toward math has somehow affected my son's attitude the subject. He has always learned math concepts very quickly and he always liked to find other ways of coming up with the answers, which I think is probably a good thing, but I was often impatient with him when he did this. I was only taught one way of doing math and I felt like I didn't really understand math inside and out the way I needed to. There were too many times that I told him "why can't you just do the problem the way I showed you or the way the book shows it and get it over with?" With science, history, literature, everything else, we spent lots of time discussing the subject because we both enjoyed these subjects, but math was a different story and I wish I could take back all those times when I was tired and cranky and not helpful at all when he wanted to discuss math. As a homeschool mom I sometimes feel a little guilty about this.
