Math, The Popes and Holy Simeon
An educator who has been a consecrated religious for 50 years, once told me "God gives a special talent to each child. You must pray to discover the hidden talent of each child." For some children, their talents bubble up to the surface. There is no hiding their enthusiasm, their skill. It is plain for all to see. For others, the talents don't fit into the ordinary skill set associated with "school." What do you do when your student doesn't have the dexterity to use a glue stick? What do you do if after three years of teaching "two more than is..." and the answer is still a mystery to your student? Where do you go if you know there is a great intelligence hiding in your student yet there is limited material output to show? You pray. You learn from specialists. But most importantly, you believe that God gives talents to each person. There is a talent in this student. Now, what is it? For one such student as this, the interest/talent is "other people." She is interested in "people". She likes to see where they are going, what they are wearing, who they are with. She notices a new watch, a new hair style, a new handbag. In fact she notices everything. This talent is easy to build a history curriculum around. Read biographies, show art work of historical people, listen to the Music Masters series. Literature, music, and art come alive to this person. What about math? Sure, we read biographies of Mathematicians. We took out a video about Archimedes. But, nothing was helping computation skills, until recently. Using the Catholic World History Timeline & Guide (Marcia Neill), we have been going over the portraits of the Popes. We are working on the Roman numerals in the names of the Pontiffs to practice adding. If V = 5 and I = 1 than read the name of this Pope: Paul VI. Does the student even realize we're going over those dreaded math facts? No. My student could tell me, "Oh, Paul III he was the one who sent St. Francis Xavier on missions." (I didn't know that). So, in addition, we have been using a timeline. Matching up dates with Popes. We saw that Pope Paul the III finished his pontificate in 1549. Is 49 closer to 40 or to 50. The student said "50". Great. How close? "Really close" Yes, but how close, tell me. "Like a handshake" (I really had to laugh at this. You see, everything is about other people.")
Through the study of people, we are beginning to exercise mental math.
The Lord matches children perfectly with their parents. The grace is there. If we bring our children to the baptismal font, then we have a greater bond with them than that which is purely natural. In our homeschooling efforts, we may have to be like Simeon going to the Temple, day after day. "Is it today Lord? Will you fulfill your promise?" If it's not today, we retire for the day, hopeful that tomorrow will be the day. Each day we awaken to return to the Temple with Simeon and wait. One day, the Promise will arrive.