CHM162:Making Math Fun for Kids with Crystal Simon, Math Tutor

Welcome to the Christian Homeschool Mom's Podcast. I'm Demitria, your host, a veteran homeschool mom of two wonderful daughters, one college graduate and one in high school. I'm also a loving wife, a songwriter, and a child of the King, and I'm very happy to be your host. So though I'm no longer homeschooling at this season of my life, I do think it's really important to keep encouraging homeschool families to keep up the good work. And before I get into today's topic, I just have to make a really really quick announcement and I wanted to do that at the beginning of this show while I have your ears, because it's about integrity and safety in social media, and I just want to give you a heads up. For those of you who are following me on Instagram, please know that my Instagram handle is at Christian Homeschool Moms. That's at Christian Homeschool Moms, and I only have one Christian homeschool Mom's account. So apparently there is a private fake account that is downloading my content and using my posts that goes by a different username which does not belong to me, and that username is Christian Homi. There could be others. I have no clue. I just know about this one, and just know that that particular username is not me. Please know that unless it's Christian homeschool Mom's username, it's not me. I never slide into anyone's DMS. I will not ask you for money. I will not do anything shady. And with the exception of my personal account, any account I have connected with a blog or a podcast is a public account. So if it's private and it's going by a name that looks like mine, has a picture that looks like my logo, but it's a private account, it's very likely not me because my account is public. So please be very careful, my friends, and would you do me a big favor and report the fake account to Instagram. And it's really easy to report it. You just click on the three dots after the follow button and click report. That's it, and I really appreciate your support in helping to keep us all safe. So on to bigger and better things. I've been thinking a lot about the interview that I have coming up today. I'm sharing with you this month our guest who is a tutor, and I'm excited to share her with you, because, as I mentioned in the last podcast, I've recently begun working part time for an education company that services public school students through after school tutoring and math and reading, and I'm really learning a lot with this gig, and I realize, not only through this experience, but through my recent stint at being a second grade classroom teacher, just how incredible our full time public and private school teachers are. It's an extremely hard job, and I've had the privilege to work at these two different schools in the past couple of years. My last experience, however, I'm just going to be honest with you guys, it was a really, really hard experience, and unfortunately it did affect my health. And there's so much more to say about that experience that I can't get into on this show. But what I will say is that for all the work that teachers do, tutoring, especially in the areas of math and reading, are still so needed for the majority of today's kids enrolled in schools. Now, while I homeschooled my own kids for nearly two decades, I feel that I was privileged and sheltered from a lot of what our schools are dealing with mainly because you know our mindsets as homeschoolers, we tend to truly care for our own and our mindsets are really wrapped around making sure that our own families and our small homeschool communities are taken care of. And in this regard, we tend to not only teach, but we also tutor our own children as well as other homeschool families children through co ops. So, as homeschoolers, I hope you realize your value as both a teacher and a tutor to your own kids. However, there are times when, just like our public and private school teachers, we can't do it all, and we can't get it all done, and sometimes we need outside help and we need to call in extra forces and backup to help our kids when they need a little bit of extra support. And that's where homeschool tutoring comes in. So today's guest is Crystal Simon. She's a passionate mathematics tutor who has been sharing her love for this subject since she was sixteen years old. With a degree in mathematics and actuarial science, Crystal has dedicated herself to exploring alternative methods of teaching math to children, including Mortensen math with base ten blocks. But Crystal didn't always love math because as a child, she avoided anything related to numbers. She found them difficult, confusing, and useless. So this personal journey has given her a deep understanding of the struggles many students face, and Crystal's mission is to help others discover how cool and fun math can really be. So let's listen to Crystal share her love for math and how she aims to help homeschool students. Hi, everybody, welcome to the Christian homeschool Mom's podcast. I have with me today a wonderful guest. Her name is Crystal. She is a passionate mathematics tutor who's been sharing her love for the subject since she was sixteen, I believe. So we're going to talk more about that soon. She is on a mission to help others discover how really, really cool and fun mathematics can be. So Crystal, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. So math is not something a lot of people like. I know. I'm one of those students, former students that just I didn't like math and I'm wondering what inspired you to start a math tutor and how you started enjoying it at such a young age. So I'm actually one of those students too. I did not like math at a young age. I think I thought it was really boring and I just didn't really see the point. Like I was doing multiplication drills and addition drills, and I just didn't necessarily understand where it was going and why it mattered. So I resisted a lot. I was really uninterested in anything to do with math. Anybody mentioned it and I ran the other way, and I was actually pretty behind a little background on myself. I was actually a little behind in math up until twelve or thirteen, or at least what would be considered behind, because you know, it depends on how you look at it. So I guess the tides kind of changed for me when I reached well one. I got to the age where I started getting a little self conscious, because you know, twelve thirteen is that age where you start to feel like you're comparing yourself to others a little more than yeah prior. So I felt like I didn't want to be behind anymore, so I decided to finally start paying attention just just a little more. And then I did pre algebra and that was a good opportunity for me to kind of just go where everything that I had missed and I started algebra, and algebra is where it started to kind of make sense to me, Like I kind of started seeing why it applies and why it's relevant, and so algebra kind of caught my attention, and that's where I became a little more interested. The teaching side. My mom was not the best at math, so she was always looking for like different methods and different ways to catch our attention and make it more interesting and make sure that we didn't have the same traumas that she had. And so she had stumbled upon this math tutor that was teaching using the Mortons and math method and around the same time that I was starting algebra, he was teaching his first and Chris first grader and his kindergartner how to factor quadratics, which is what I was learning. So I thought that was so cool, and it's just been a rabbit hole that I've been down ever since. That's how I kind of got into and so teaching cool. Okay, so you mentioned a few things just now that we want to dig into. First, you mentioned that you had some anxiety concerning math, and that being you know when you were sixteen or so, you said, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, that's when we start coming ourselves with other students in class. So can you kind of maybe dig a little bit more into that, because I know some homeschool parents are listening right now and thinking, my kid is super anxious when it comes to opening a math book or doing any worksheets. They just they run away. I know my daughter did for a while. As soon as we in the math book, she was gone. So can explain a little bit more about what that anxiety was like for you. And then also we're going to dig into that Mortenson in just a minute and see how that philosophy is shaped for you. So the anxiety, from my perspective was two things. One, I didn't necessarily see the point, so I was just bored. And so it became this thing that kind of builds on itself where every time I heard the word math, I just really wasn't interested. And then I kind of convinced myself that I didn't like it. I just didn't really see the purpose of it. It's where a lot of my issue came from and I guess more so than anxiety from that front, it was more of a motivation thing. I did have a lot of anxiety all throughout school with respect to not knowing what was coming next. Like algebra was always this big scary word. What does algebra mean? All I knew was that, you know, the older kids that I knew of struggled with algebra and they cried and it did homework for hours, and you know, they talked about how much they hated math and algebra, and so that's all I knew of it. So a lot of my anxiety came from not knowing what was coming next. And it was the same with calculus, Like I didn't know what calculus was. It's a big scary word. Do you learn it? It's advance it's advanced math. So you learn it when you get to, you know, be a senior in high school or in college. And the word scared me, like I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do it, just because I didn't know what it was. You don't know what it is? Yeah, when you when you don't have that defined idea of what it is and there's no predictability. It's like it sounds scary, it feels scary, and older kids are falling apart over it. So right, So I had a lot of anxiety on those fronts, kind of stumming from those two reasons. Those are my personal Okay, I guess circumstances with a lot of my students. I see they have anxiety just with you know, seeing all these numbers in one spot. And I actually liked drills, but I don't necessarily always agree with drills because having all this stuff in one spot can be really overwhelming. So I think a lot of students get anxiety from having all these problems that they have to do when all of these symbols, and that can be a lot to take in. I think just the idea of math, like for me, how it was where I just didn't see the point or understand where it was going or why I would learn it. I think just the idea of math can be really overwhelming sometimes to a lot of my students. Yeah, so see that, I can see how that's prevalent with many students, and that just makes me think about how math is like a whole different language. So I wanted to ask you about the methods that you're using with your students because you have the background of having struggled and now enjoying math. So tell me more about what Morton's math is. And I think the other is good techno. Correct me if I'm pronouncing that wrong. But what are the two math programs or philosophies and how do they differ from like the traditional math. So they're both multisensory. To break down what multisensory means, I like to use the example of imagine you don't know what an apple is. Obviously you do, but just pretend for a minute that you don't. So I want to teach you what an apple is, and I show you these letters. I show you the letters A P, P L E, and I tell you you know, it's the fruit. This is how you read it. This is how you say. It grows on a tree, could be read, it can be green, it's sweet. I try to describe the consistency to you. I'm basically just talking to you, right, So I'm describing and talking and telling you what this is. But if you think about it, you probably it probably wouldn't hold much meaning to you, and you'd be way more likely to forget what that means. So then now I could show you a picture of an apple. Now I'm engaging your site right another sense, and so I could show you a picture of what apples look like and where they grow. And now it begins to hold a little more weight to you because you've seen it, I've told you about it. It holds even more weight if I let you hold one right and touch it and cut it, because now you can see what the consistency looks like. And now you can feel the skin on the outside. And maybe if I give you one and you cut it, you can even smell it, so we have even more senses. And best of all, if I let you taste it right, so now you have all the senses. So multisensory Obviously it could be a little hard to taste or smell when you're learning. Definitely probably smell. But multisensory learning is engaging different senses so that you basically are engaging different parts of your brain and you have a deeper understanding of what you're working with. And so we don't always think of math as something that you can see and visualize and touch and manipulate, but you entirely can you can do it, probably more than way more than you think. I know that I'm still discovering new ways to visualize and touch and you know, just engage more of my senses in learning and in math. So that's the gist of multisensory learning. Both Mortons and Math and Getegno are two entirely different ways of multisensory learning. With math and Mortons and Math is uses base ten blocks. I really like Mortons and Math because it's just shows you all these different ways that you can visualize simple to advance concepts. And for me, another thing that also really stood out with that method was how play based it is. Like for Mortons and Math, you're just playing and you're having fun and you're learning. And this is the method that my mom had discovered where the tutor was teaching his kindergartener and first grader how to factor quadratics. Because when you can see it, it becomes visually obvious and it's way more accessible to even younger students. So that's Mortensen and then Getegno Mathematics is another method. It uses another type of manipulative called quason air rods. And one of the things that without going too deep into either of them. One of the things that really stands out to me about that one is just how much they develop number sense, Like people who are students who study getechno could tell you that three is one third of nine because they like are really comfortable with you know, how numbers go together, fractions and algebraic thinking and all of that stuff is just heavily practiced with that one. So I don't strictly follow either. I kind of have taken both of them and morphed it into my own thing. But those are kind of the things that I take inspiration from both of them, and I think they're super cool. It's definitely worth looking them both up, especially if you are going to teach your kids math, because I just think that they're really inspiring and yeah, there's a lot of really cool knowledge in there. I love that, Crystal. I love that you took two methods that work for you in your teaching practice, and because you have a comfort level with math, you know which which types of methods would work best in your practice. And I feel like what you're saying is there's what you're doing is making math fun, making it tangible for students, and they're having fun but they're also using manipulatives. They're able to touch, like you said, they're using the multi sensory approach, able to touch and feel and see and understand and visualize. So all of that, I think it would make a world of difference if we have that, you know, type of program or access to that in our classrooms or in our homeschools. Knew how to access that, which is why I'm so glad you're here to tell us about it and share what you do. So okay, so kids are having fun. What are do you have any maybe some specific strategies that you use with your students that they really enjoy during your math time together. Specific strategies I like to use. So going back to like I said, I'm pretty inspired by my own struggles with math because I've been there and I didn't like it, and I struggled with it a bit. So some specific strategies I like to use are in terms of making it more relevant and showing where it's going. I like using projects like instead of doing a worksheet where we're calculating ratios, we'll make a pan flute and I you know, and trying to I'm always trying to find new ways to relate math to the real world. So I discovered that, you know, the musical scales are ratios, like you can you can make them out of ratios. So instead of doing a work sheet, will practice that. You can't tell me after that that the stuff is not relevant or that you will not use it, because if you listen to music, then it's relevant to you. I like playing games. I like playing games, and my students like playing games, and it's a great way to get extra practice in. So I love what I do because I get to play so many games. I bet your students love it too. Yeah, it's fun, we have fun. Yeah, I use a lot of I'll have so much China thought for a second, but yeah, a lot of projects and games. And then I also like to also, like I guess in a sense of also showing where it's going and decreasing anxiety, but also promoting like self confidence. I like to just show advance math like I teach. I've taught quadratics and calculus and topology and different advanced math concepts to burst to eighth graders and you know, age appropriate ways. But my purpose for doing that is one I can practice the things that they're learning in their classes. Like if we do a calculatorist project, we can practice area and so I like to use that to practice stuff that they're doing and to reinforce our lessons, but also to give them the confidence and show them that you know, this is kind of where it's going. This is the idea behind the stuff that you might learn if you go further in math, and this is why you might learn that and how you can use it. And it also has a confidence boost like, hey, I thought I was bad at math, but I just did a calculators problem. So these are some of my go to techniques for just making it a little easier and more fun and engaging for my various students. I love that. I love that once again that hands on approach. Your students are having fun and then you're practicing what they're learning in class with them, so they feel like you understand, like you get a right there in the trenches with them, but then you're making it palatable for them. So I love that. And do you do you have a particular success story that you want to share? I do. One of them that I could that I think sticks with me a lot, is so I teach a pre algebra class. The goal of the pre algebra class, like the pre algebra class, is really geared towards students like myself who had a lot of gaps or who disliked math both or one of the love. And so it's geared towards those students. And so I have them come in every year where they'll say they hate math. It's not their favorite subject. They don't like it. It becomes my personal mission to change that. So there's one student in particular that kind of sticks with me because they came in and they didn't like math, and they thought that they were really bad at it, and they just really didn't have a lot of interest. And then by the end of the year, or maybe even halfway through the year, think they were telling their parents that it was their favorite subject. Wow, and they were yeah, I was I was still happy because that's literally like my full goal. And so they were telling their parents that it was their favorite subject. They were looking forward to class. I think for winter break. I told them that we were, you know, taking a week and a half off, and they were like, no, like, I don't don't want to not do I don't want to not do math, and I was like, Wow, this is a really real three sixty. And how long did it take for that student to make that turnaround? We started in September, and I remember for one thing to break they were they were saying that they didn't want to take a break. I was like, well, I don't want to break, so I'll see what's here. But it made me happy. And then one of the things, and I guess one of the reasons why that story also really sticks out to me is because this is a student who started saying that they were bad at math, and so they finished the class with me. We went through all of the learning arabs, we jumped into a little bit of algebra before the year, and they went into Algebra one and they hit a point where they were struggling a little bit. And so the thing that I ended up tutoring them a couple of times, and the thing that stood out to me at this point in time was the fact that instead of saying that they were bad at math, they were saying that they didn't like the way that it was being taught or they didn't understand the way that it was being and so that's a big distinction, and I just thought that was really cool because they went from feeling like they couldn't do it to recognizing that they can heeler a way of learning. It just wasn't working for them. So that story definitely sticks with me and makes me happy. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's really encouraging to see the big turnaround, the quick turnaround and students and that it's possible for anybody who puts their mind to it, you know, especially when they have someone like you to work with them, that they'll be able to make that turnaround should they really desire to, you know, and the fact that you're making it fine helps. So as far as homeschool parents go, we have so many parents listening that are intimidated of teaching math. So we do have the kind of plug and play, stick in a DVD or listen to something you know, streaming on online, and those kinds of helps. But just having someone personable, having a tutor, having someone that's dedicated to doing that would make a huge difference in the homeschool community. So what advice, though, would you give to parents who are trying to teach math and are intimidated of it. A couple of things, So one of them is, if anything, take inspiration from my mom's story because she had a really traumatic math experience growing up. She really felt like she couldn't do it, and when she started homeschooling, that was the one thing that she was like, I can't. I don't know how I'm going to do this. But you know what, she learned it with me, and we kind of it was kind of a journey, like we went through this journey of just trying to figure out and learn math together. And so I guess one word of advice I would have for homeschooling parents is don't be afraid to learn it alongside your kids. I think personally, for me, competing with my mom was one of my favorite parts of doing math when I was younger, even when I didn't like it. But aside from that, like it's a journey, it's okay for you to be learning it as long as you're willing to put in the work to do that and you're willing to that's perfectly fine. You don't have to know it all. I don't know it all. There are things that I learn aside my students. Sometimes they hit me with things that I've never seen before, and it's just you kind of just get used to figuring it out and learning it with them. So that's definitely one piece of advice that I would have. It's okay to not know it all, and it's also okay to outsource it. You also don't have to do it all, so you don't want to. You don't have to. There are a lot of resources, from free to expensive, that can help you to get the job done. The most important thing I think is that you figure out what works for your kids and you adjust it, and what works at one point might not work at another time, and what works for one kid might not work for another kid. There was a curriculum that I really liked once I got to algebra that my brother absolutely hates and really just didn't enjoy. Yes, So really just being flexible with how you, I guess, just go about your kids education even if you don't know what you're doing, but just working towards figuring out what works for them. Yeah, that's such great advice. Yeah, I love that flexibility piece because that's really important in life in general. But when it comes to teaching our kids and especially subjects that we're not familiar with, it's like, like you said, I mean, we have to just go with the flow, and there may be times, like you said that you don't know it all. We don't know everything, and we're going to have to learn on the job. It's like on the job training. So we'll get there when we get there, and we'll figure it out. Yeah, And I think to that point, it's like enjoy the flexibility that you have as a homeschooler. Like I know that you know in different states and in different places, you don't always have the same amount of flexibility as other places might, but you have more flexibility than you do if your kids are in school. You have more flexibility than teachers do in school. So one thing that I that I really would like to emphasize, and I think I do this myself with my students, and I can give you an example that I thought was really funny is if something's not clicking for them, because math is one of those things where if it clicks, it clicks. If it doesn't, it doesn't. If something's not clicking, you can stop and come back to it later and do other things have that ability. It might you might not be able to do it for years, or you might be able to do it for years, but you can stop and take a break and come back to it at a later time. And I had one student that I was trying to teach long division too, and I tried. I tried so hard. I pulled all the tricks out the bag and nothing worked. So finally I just felt like we were wasting time and money, and so I said, you know what. I told the parents that we'll come back to it, and we started doing other things. We made progress in other areas, and then at some point before the school year ended, I really wanted him to get that concept. So towards the end of the school year, I said, you know what, let's come back to this and try it again. And I don't even think I started the explanation. I just pulled up the problem and they solved it. I was like, oh my gosh, like what happened. So I text I had texted his parents, and I was saying, you know, like, did you guys do this, because he's great now, like I think I might have given one word of advice, but he did the problem himself. And his mom said no, like she didn't do it with him. They hadn't touched it since we left it alone. So I think it's important to just take advantage of that flexibility because, like I said, teachers in school they don't necessarily have the ability to do that even if they wanted to. But you can. And sometimes it's just not the time for that particular thing, that there might be a better time, and it just makes your life easier. That's so profound what you just said. Sometimes it's not just that it's not the right time, but you can come back later. Time. You're right, we do have that flexibility. Whereas in most school systems you have to meet that scope and sequence and by the end of the year they need to be moved on to the next level. But with homeschooling, we have that flexibility to come back around to the topic or to that concept. So I love that you were able to do that with your student and see how the light bulb just came on right when it needed to. And that's amazing. Yeah. I love what you do. I love what you offer. So tell us about your business, what you do, who you offer your services to, and how our listeners can reach you. So I have private tutor That's kind of how I started. After I graduated college, I kind of dove into that I started coming up with so many different projects and activities to make math relevant and fun, and so I started actually doing math clubs. I offer them online and also in Central New Jersey because that's where I'm based, where we explore different concepts and how they apply, and we do puzzles and we do games, and so I do that. I do that for homeschool students and also as an an after school program. And then I also do teach a couple of math classes. I teach pre algebra, which is near and dear to my heart. I teach this year. I'm also teaching sixth and seventh grade math, and I'm teaching algebra one. So I do a couple of different classes for homeschoolers. Those are for homeschoolers a tutor throughout the day, so not necessarily your towards homeschoolers, but I have a lot of homeschool students because you know that's near under in my heart, I was one yes, and then yeah, I do math clubs. Thank you, Crystal, this has been awesome. Okay, tell us the website where we can reach you. B www dot Mathimagined dot com. Mathimagined dot com. Okay, so we're going to make sure that we post your links so that we can get in touch with you. I know we have parents that are getting geared up for the new school year and figuring out math and what to do. So you're a great resource and I appreciate all that you have brought to us today, the encouragement as far as how to how to introduce math, how to take it easy and let time take its course with our kids, and that we can take advantage of that flexibility that we have. So you've been very encouraging. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I just appreciate it. You're welcome. Well that's a wrap for today's conversation with Crystal and I hope you enjoyed it, and please don't forget to visit her at Mathimagined dot com for more information on getting math helped for your students, and if you need a homeschool coach, don't forget to visit Tracy Kelly at homeschool power dot com. Also, be sure to stop by and visit my blog for more homeschooling information and dig into my archives for encouragement and support at Christian homeschool Moms dot com. That's it for this week's episode. I plan to be back really soon within a few weeks. I'm typically posting at a rate of about once a month these days, and so I will continue that unless I have a few extra interviews in my pipeline that I want to release before the end of the year. But for now, we're looking at still about once a month, and so I look forward to talking with you again in the month of November, where we'll get into Thanksgiving and a Gratitude episode, and then again for the holidays, and maybe there'll be a surprise interview or some other episode in between. So until then, I'm looking forward to connecting with you. Please be sure to sign up for my newsletter at Christian Homeschool Moms. I have not been writing to you all who are currently on my list because I've had a super busy summer getting my daughter ready to go to school full time, and so it's been quite an eventful summer with that plus looking for extra gigs and work as I launch my kids off into the world. But I am planning to get back into the swing of things and reach out to you guys by email really soon, so I hope that you're on my list, and if you're not again, you can do that at Christian homeschool moms dot com and until next time, happy homeschooling,