Charlotte Mason's approach to mathematics is so brilliant and very unique, and a big part of it is something called mental math.

What is that? What does it look like? That's what we want to focus on today in the podcast.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.

I'm Sonia Schaefer.

Joining me today is Rochelle Baborina, and we are talking mental math today.

Now for those who, that's a new term possibly, or those who just need some clarification,

what is mental math?

All right.

So if you'll remember we have a little rhyme, new review, and mental math too.

These are the three components of Charlotte Mason math lessons.

And mental math stands on its own.

Even though at this point, during arithmetic, our lessons are largely oral,

and in any math lesson, our students are going to expend a lot of mental activity. So how does

mental math stand on its own? Well, this is a five-minute time set apart where all of the manipulatives or everyday

concrete objects are put away, and we're going to engage the child in lively, rapid questions

that are within their scope of learning.

Okay, you said rapid. How rapid? All right. So rapid is definitely

relative. It's going to, the mental math time is going to increase a student's ability to

rapidly answer questions, but that's going to progress as the child progresses in their learning.

So as in everything, we teach the child and go at his pace, maybe just gentle, you

know, lean on the elephant type thing.

And you can watch your child, just like when giving a dictation lesson, you can add in your

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