How I’m teaching Math using a biblically principled approach
11 Oct 2007 1 Comment
in Old Posts from Previous Blog
We are studying the following ‘ideas’/principles/truths in math along with studying some of the mathematicians in math history while we try to incorporate teaching math from real life(when we are not using our Ray’s text 
THE PRINCIPLES THAT GOVERN MATHEMATICS WERE MADE BY GOD -
We find our biblical support for this in Col 1:16-17 -For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Since we can’t SEE the principles of combining objects(addition) nor of separating objects from each other(subtraction) we can classify the principles of math as ‘invisible things’…we can see the effect of the principles of addition in action when we join 2 objects with 2 other objects we get 4 objects.
MATH IS A TOOL THAT HELPS US TO CLASSIFY AND CATEGORIZE WHAT GOD HAS CREATED – based on Gen 2:20
So here is where we learn and discuss that man has devised a way to ‘label’ God’s principles and the patterns man has found in numbers, shapes, and in the natural phenomenon of earth(gravity, equations for higher level math), and whatever else(science). Man came up with labeling 2 objects with the number 2 and 1 and 10 and 39,000, etc.
MATH NOTATION IS JUST A DESCRIPTION OF GOD’S PRINCIPLES OF MATHEMATICS – this one sort of relates to the previous one
OBSERVING THE PATTERNS OF MATH WILL HELP US TO SOLVE PROBLEMS – Here we read a short biography of Thales. I did not pre-read the story before reading it to my children but providencially enough, this biography from MATHEMATICIANS ARE PEOPLE TOO VOL 1 was a story about how Thales used the patterns he observed in how the his shadow was cast on the ground and the position of the sun to figure how tall a certain pyramid was.
THE COMBINING/MANIPULATION OF NUMBERS WORK BECAUSE GOD IS HOLDING ALL THINGS TOETHER – based also on Col 1:16-17
Here I discussed with my children why is it that the sun stays in the sky? What would happen if one day the moon was sitting in the ocean and the grass was floating in the air or if we were floating out in space? Why doesn’t that happen? (because God is holding these things together) So it is with 3+5. It will always equal 8 no matter what country u are in, no matter what day it is, if you are at grandma’s house. What would happen if we wake up one day and 3+5=23,994.87 and the next minute it equals 3+5=0 and next year 3+5=2…would you know how to keep track of how many toys you have or how much money is in your piggy bank? Well, everyday and everywhere we go 3+5=8 , why? (because God is holding all things together so that His principles are the same or consistent. It blessed me to realize in this study how big God is and how much He cares for us. We discussed that God could be holding His principles that require mathematical descriptions FOR US…so that we could make sense of this world and so that we could walk in the dominion that He wanted Adam to walk in, and so that we could KNOW HIM.
WE CAN SEE THE NATURE OF GOD IN MATHEMATICS
We just finished discussing last week what CONSISTENT and FAITHFUL means. The lesson was based on the previous example of numbers not changing. It took them some time to ‘discover’ or reason that if numbers are consistent then so is God…that if numerical principles come from God then there is an aspect of the numbers that must be like God. Just like my son has my nose or my dd has my dh’s eyes…(after me asking many WHY questions) they reasoned that is because they come from me and their dad. Well so do mathematical principles come from God. When we did come to that conclusion I took them to Hebrews 13:8 to ‘confirm’. Another idea we discussed is if God is FAITHFUL and so consistent in holding this universe together and is able to hold numbers and their patterns and principles together then surely He is able (and willing) to hold my little life together and work all things for my good as I give my life to Him !!!!!
=============================
Just a note: The study of math was for us a dead subject. Even though I was teaching the concepts in math to my children, it was dead to me and boring. I began to pray to God for how to bring the life into math. Our other subjects were alive but math was not. I really believe He led me to two resources that showed me how to teach math from BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES. Of course if you want to bring the life into something you MUST bring God…but from all the study I had done thru the NP Math guide and even GACE I was still missing ‘something’…there still was no ‘aha’ moment…or I should say I had ‘aha’ moments but they were not lasting. The NP math guide and GACE gave me the principles that govern math but did not go as far as I needed into seeing how God was in the mundaness of learning and drilling addition facts. Now everytime we drill of number facts we can know and be reminded that these equations work because God is holding them together for them to work. Even when u look at the fact that Jesus took 5 loaves and 2 fish which should have been enough food for several people those 7 pieces of food fed over 5,000 people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So God can make 2+2 equal anything He wants it to equal but for the most part He allows it to equal 4. He allows it to be consistent because HE IS GOOD, HE IS FAITHFUL AND HE WANTS US TO USE IT AS A TOOL TO GOVERN OURSELVES IN HIS EARTH, AND FINALLY HE SOOOOOO WANTS TO BE KNOWN!!!!
Anyway, the resources are:
BEYOND NUMBERS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO TEACHING MATH BIBLICALLY by Katherine Loop and
MATHEMATICS: IS GOD SILENT by James Nickel
deidra
Jan 30, 2009 @ 19:01:26
thank you for posting this. I am a freshmen in college and am doing a paper on education. I plan on homeschooling my own children some day if God is willing that I have any, and I thought I had another good idea of how to teach math to kids using the bible. I think it would be really cool to study the temple in the old testament and get the whole family involved in making a small scale model of it. you would be able to give them a better understanding of what the temple was like, and give them an understanding of its symbolism. you would also be able to teach them about surface area and volume equations. also, atheists often use the argument that the dimensions the bible gives for the altar would make pi equal 3.1 rather than 3.14. this is easily explained when we mathematically figure out how thick the metal must have been. I’m sure there are all sorts of other things a person could dive into with this.