At the beginning of 2014-2015 school year I’d decided that I wanted to add in some Business Math for my oldest son. He was getting very sharp in computation and very eager to learn all about business and transactions. After sniffing around on a few blogs for a few months, I finally found something I believed he would like to help him keep and increase his skills in a authentic and enjoyable manner.
Your Business Math by Simply Charlotte Mason has been a dream come true this year. Today, I’d like to share with you my top 7 favorite features of this math program and how it’s been a total game changer in our homeschool.
7. The Series
The official title is Your Business Math Series. There are three “stores” in the series, to meet the interest level of your child: Pet Store, Book Store, and Sports Store. Having these options not only helps my son pair his interest with his learning, but also it provide the option to use Business Math again with another store. My son has already told me he wants to at least complete 2 stores, one this year and one next year, Pet Store and Sports Store respectfully.
6. The Design
Your Business Math is written in a monthly fashion, January-December. Each month, the student has tasks to complete to keep the business solvent. There are 10 tasks to complete each month. I like that he can follow the design of the book by working each month until year’s end. Also, the 10-task design makes it manageable (and easy) to not abandon his standard math curriculum.
5. Charlotte Mason, baby!
Your Business Math is aligned with the Charlotte Mason approach we prefer in our homeschool. For the most part, I can rely on a certain set of skills and a desired approach in teaching anything Charlotte Mason. This makes life and schooling easy for me, because both my son and I are already familiar with the style and approach.
4. Creative Outlet
The first section of the book is entitled “Start Up.” The first action item to complete is to create a name and logo for the store. My son was very excited to brainstorm a name and design a logo. He did not want my help at all! I did interject to mention sometimes business names and logos complement each other. I didn’t think he took that in, but after I saw his design, he did! As mentioned in the book, he taped his design in the inside cover. He’s very proud of it and I can tell he likes seeing it each time he opens his book.
3. Authenticity
Nothing beats real life like real life! The genuine learning he’s developing and realizing is amazing. He’s sharper in any business transaction he to make. Whether it’s earned money at home, a purchase in the store, or tithes at church; he’s gaining a handle on how business flows and how the numbers are handled. Alternatively, he can discern his weak areas and where he needs to slow down or double check. Just today he filled an order and admitted that he was going back over because computing the tax is the easiest step to miss and the hardest to compute.
2. A Sense of Ownership
My son recognizes the work, as his work, because it’s his store. He’s careful with the decisions he makes in ordering and advertising because he wants to yield a profit at the end of the month. He’s also extra careful to complete his computations (inventories, sales tax, and paying bills) accurately, because he’s realizing a mistake in one place, is a mistake everywhere. The very first week, doing his business start up, he made one error and had to re-do the entire sheet. Eeek! That taught him!
1. Confidence of Skill
This is the greatest value to me as his mom, though the six above are very important to me too. When I was in undergraduate studying psychology, I took a Child Psych course. I never forgot my professor saying, “Children can do anything you tell them they can do, especially boys.” This is so true. I’ve learned over the years, when my son feels confident, he at least aims to do the work. The more he aims and achieves, the more confident he becomes. Your Business Math tells him he can do it! The layout, the routined schedule of lessons, and the content are all written in a way where it’s understandable for him to read and solve, know what to expect, and be able to compute big numbers and higher end math skills without exhausting him.
