The idea of de-"school"ing our math was particularly unnerving, and didn't happen until our oldest hit late elementary. At that point, after a reasonable start with Math-U-See and an absolutely wretched year with a workbook-based curriculum, I thought, "Hm. I can spend a lot of money experimenting with curricula, or I can let him be his own teacher with this."

The problem was not so much learning style or ability as sheer inability to find a meaningful connection to the subject. We turned to flashcards. We acquired a pair of $4 sets for multiplication and division, and made those the focus for the year. I was surprised when Spazzerific came back within six weeks knowing about half of the multiplication tables which had tortured him so badly in the previous term.

The next part of the solution was to repurpose the old curriculum. We tried passing it down to Banana Brain, who is an extreme academic and has picked up anything and everything presented to her in workbook format with startling speed. But she found herself frustrated, because she suddenly had to actually work now that she'd skipped ahead a year.

We put the two kids together. They were allowed to brainstorm and work together on problem-solving, learning from each

 other's methods and understanding. A person almost feels like they might be teaching their children to cheat the first time they try this with a traditional curriculum, but the results are good. the trick is to remember that a curriculum is not a set of expectations to live up to; it's merely a packet of information. Getting the information digested is the important part.

In order to get the Spazz to catch the concepts he was missing after his concentration on multiplying and dividing, we threw in his verbose and intellectually assertive sister to challenge him a little. It wouldn't have worked with him and Squirrelly Girlie. They have gone through a protracted period of hating each other's guts. These sorts of educational ruses are the bones of an unschooling family, tailored to each situation and child by the people who understand them best.

In the end, what we've realized is that this subject is not realistic to this child. He sees no connection between it and real life. It has no purpose to him, and he loves purpose. With that in mind, we picked up a book called Workshop Math, which gives references for all sorts of different projects - how to build stairs, how to survey one's yard, etc. As the home renovations continue and the yard comes out from under the snow, we'll find all kinds of uses for those persnickety math facts. In the meantime, he loves chess.

If one child loves math for its own sake, that's good. If another has no need to pick it up until it becomes useful, fair enough. We will make sure the basic concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are learned, and we will apply other things - percentages, estimating, rounding off, fractions - as situations present the need. All of these are monetary or kitchen skills. Kids love money and they love cookies. There are few elementary math problems that an allowance and some baking won't address. Life is good.

The best way to unschool math is probably just to pay attention to when and where you use it yourself, and talk aloud through whatever you're doing. Before you know it, your kids will be correcting you.