The Homeschool How To
Curriculum Series: Triad Math- How This Program Alone Will Make Your Child Ready to Enter into a Career in the Tech Field
Transform your math education approach with insights from Craig Hane, the visionary behind Triad Math. Craig’s innovative six-tier structure starts with mastering a scientific calculator and pre-algebra, making the subject both accessible and enjoyable for students who have historically struggled. Discover how Craig’s emphasis on self-paced learning and practical algebra can revolutionize the way math is taught, moving away from unnecessary theoretical content to create a more efficient and engaging educational experience.
Imagine mastering integral calculus and differential equations with ease. In this episode, we highlight the transformative power of modern tools like Wolfram Alpha in learning advanced mathematics. By integrating this online resource, students can handle complex topics more efficiently, aligning educational content with contemporary technology. You’ll hear inspiring stories, such as a student's extraordinary success at the Air Force Academy, showcasing the practical benefits of this modern approach.
Join us as we engage in a lively conversation with Craig, who has a PhD in Mathematics, as he reflects on the evolution of mathematical education tools, from early calculators to today's powerful software. We also dive into the benefits of homeschooling math through Craig's resources and discuss the importance of a holistic approach to education, emphasizing the development of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Hear personal anecdotes about unique educational journeys and gain valuable parenting advice that stresses the importance of positive reinforcement and maintaining strong family relationships. Don’t miss out on these invaluable insights into revolutionizing math education.
Triad Math:
Learn more about Triad Math HERE!
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Transform your math education approach with insights from Craig Hane, the visionary behind Triad Math. Craig’s innovative six-tier structure starts with mastering a scientific calculator and pre-algebra, making the subject both accessible and enjoyable for students who have historically struggled. Discover how Craig’s emphasis on self-paced learning and practical algebra can revolutionize the way math is taught, moving away from unnecessary theoretical content to create a more efficient and engaging educational experience.
Imagine mastering integral calculus and differential equations with ease. In this episode, we highlight the transformative power of modern tools like Wolfram Alpha in learning advanced mathematics. By integrating this online resource, students can handle complex topics more efficiently, aligning educational content with contemporary technology. You’ll hear inspiring stories, such as a student's extraordinary success at the Air Force Academy, showcasing the practical benefits of this modern approach.
Join us as we engage in a lively conversation with Craig, who has a PhD in Mathematics, as he reflects on the evolution of mathematical education tools, from early calculators to today's powerful software. We also dive into the benefits of homeschooling math through Craig's resources and discuss the importance of a holistic approach to education, emphasizing the development of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Hear personal anecdotes about unique educational journeys and gain valuable parenting advice that stresses the importance of positive reinforcement and maintaining strong family relationships. Don’t miss out on these invaluable insights into revolutionizing math education.
Triad Math:
Learn more about Triad Math HERE!
Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, Especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. Welcome. Today with us we have Craig Hayne, who's going to talk to us about triad math something that he created.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Craig. Thank you so much for being here and telling us about this. Thank you, Cheryl. Thanks for inviting me. I'm looking forward to explaining it to you and your audience. How would you like to go about doing it?
Speaker 1:Why don't you tell me what triad math is and then we can get into sort of how you came about creating it?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been studying and teaching math for many, many decades and I've trained thousands of people in math, both as a professor, as a high school teacher, and online, and for about the last 10 years I've been. I have an online program that does tutorial videos over the Internet with notebooks, exercises, quizzes, keeps track of everything, and it's for post-elementary, and so most students can start when they're 12 or 13 years old. All they really need to know is the decimal number system to start my program and I have a six-tier program and in the first tier, the first thing I teach the student is how to master a scientific calculator, and the one I use is the TI-30XA.
Speaker 1:I remember using a TI 83 plus when I was in school, so it's about a ten dollar calculator and it's the only calculator you should ever buy.
Speaker 2:Do not buy a more expensive one. All the graphing calculators today are obsolete for reasons I'll tell you in a moment. So you start with this now. This calculator is is fantastic. If our ancestors, back in during the manhattan project I had one had been worth a million dollars because you can do arithmetic with it that otherwise is very difficult to do manually. Now that some of it you just know, like multiplies and divide and thing. But it does a lot of other things too and most students learn this and it's very kinesthetic because they learn by doing in a couple of weeks and they love it.
Speaker 2:Now many, many math students today are afraid of math. They've had problems, they've discouraged all sorts of reasons. I'd say a high percentage of students today are afraid of math. They don't like math. They struggle with math at different levels in their career and this turns them around psychologically. That's the most important thing. They go. I can do that. This is easy, it's fun. Okay, then I give them 10 lessons of what I call pre-algebra Again. Now this is all online with tutorial videos, for example. The tutorial videos go with notes and exercises. This is.
Speaker 2:I used to have to give people PDFs and I had to print them out, but I have a printer now that prints these out for me very inexpensively. So this is Magic the Calculator. It's not a textbook, it's notes. A textbook it's notes and exercises. Now, to get these notes and exercises, if you don't want to print them out, it costs you about $5. It's 100 pages off. Man, who Do you know? Who my printer is that does these? Would you like to guess? No, amazon, oh, and they print this out. One Amazon. And they print this out One copy delivered to you in two days for less than five dollars. Wow, that's only been a couple of years that's been going on. That's just amazing. Now it takes them a couple of weeks to go through that.
Speaker 2:It's all self-paced. Never, ever forget pacing. Every student has their own pace and they study at a certain rate and so on. After they do that, then I give them 10 lessons in what I call pre-algebra. Now, this is just the rules, arithmetic that they should know, but they might not know. It's ten lessons and again, it takes most students. Depends on their background, depends on how much they know already, depends on their ability. Some students will do it in a week. So it'll take a month, it doesn't matter. Self-pacing is critical. Never, ever, compare two students, every student. And, by the way, there's only one grade in math that counts, that's an A. You either know it or you don't know it. So you learn the calculator and you learn the pre-algebra. Now most students go through those two programs in less than a month. Depends on the student, the age, their background, what they know and so on. Now I have a six-tier program and that's the first tier. Here's the second tier. The second tier consists of three things Practical algebra, all the algebra.
Speaker 2:You need to enter a technical field or the military. Wow, guess how many lessons 10. Most algebra today is taught in schools with the textbooks is loaded with obsolete manual stuff, stuff they'll never use. Theoretical stuff they'll never use. It's horrible. Yeah, these are the 10 lessons you need and, by the way, I've trained thousands of technicians with my company called Hain Training over the years years.
Speaker 2:I'm an old guy, I've been around a long time, I've done a lot of stuff, and so 10 lessons. They go through it and it's no harder than learning to calculate. Well, this is easy. I thought math was hard. No, if it's taught properly, in the right order, with the right pedagogy, it's easy. Then I teach them practical geometry. Now I'm not talking about the way geometry is sometimes taught in high school. How long is something? What is the area, what is the volume? Here's practical geometry. Again, this is not a textbook. This is notes and exercises. This is a little bit thicker one because there's 19 lessons in this one. Okay, okay. Now, when they finish these two, they'll probably know more math than most high school graduates do today. But when you're doing practical math, if you're going to do almost anything in practical math, you've got to be able to deal with angles, and geometry and algebra alone are not enough for that. So what do you need? What's the subject? You need to deal with angles.
Speaker 1:Do you know? Well, I would have said geometry, but you already said that, so now I think it's a trick question.
Speaker 2:It's a name that scares most people, because most people have never taken it and if they have, they struggle with it. It's called trigonometry.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I didn't take trigonometry.
Speaker 2:Here's my trigonometry seven lessons and it'll be all the practical trigonometry you'll ever need. And now you're done and most students go through those three courses the practical algebra, geometry and trig in about one semester, oh my goodness. And I have a lot of students who do it when they're in the eighth grade. I've had them younger than that do it, but let's just say the eighth grade, and when they finish this they'll know more mathematics than 90% of all high school graduates in the United States.
Speaker 1:I believe that, I definitely believe that.
Speaker 2:They're ready for the military, they're ready for tech school. They're ready to go to a company and enter into a technical field. Now that's what I call tier two, and for some students, that's all math you'll ever need. If you're not, if you want to go into hydraulics or pneumatics or mechanical or electrical or there's a thousand one technical fields, you're ready. You're prepared, and you're better prepared than 95 of all high school graduates in this country I'm being conservative, 95% might be higher than that. And on top of that, you'll love it. Now Go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, I believe that for sure. Just that my own self as a public school graduate. Yeah, I can't say I left really knowing anything.
Speaker 2:And it's not just public schools, anybody that's using the standard math curriculum, and that's virtually all the programs out there today that homeschoolers are using and are struggling with. Good point.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, because I've got hundreds of homeschoolers my son's five, so I haven't gotten to that level yet.
Speaker 2:No, and you're, that's right. And so then, if a student thinks they want to go to college, they want to do well on the SAT and the ACT, they need some more math Now. Some of it they'll never use, but they've got to learn it. Some of it they will use, so that's Tier 3. And that gets them ready for the SAT and the ACT. And it takes most students about a year to go through this. Okay, now, for the first time ever, I do use a textbook to go along with my notes and exercises. It was the greatest high school math textbook ever, written by the greatest in my opinion the greatest math teacher of the 20th century, dr George Simmons. And this is a book you've never heard of because no high school's ever adopted it. It's still in print, thank God. It came out in 1988. It's called Pre-Calculus Mathematics in a Nutshell. Thank God it's still available on Amazon for about $20. It's 119 pages and if you finish this book, the 119 pages, you'll know more math than 90% of all high school math teachers.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, In the early 1990s a couple years after this book came out, and I knew George Simmons because I taught more advanced theoretical math with his advanced books. He's got a lot of advanced books that I taught out of when I was a professor. I was a professor, I have a PhD in math and I was a professor for seven years teaching the most advanced theory at college level. He came out with this book in 1988. And about 1990, I gave it to my youngest son. I was traveling a lot in business and he went through it on his own and he won a scholarship to Rose-Hallman Institute of Technology in Indiana Just because of the grades that he got from the exams after taking that course, reading that book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he took it. What he did? He entered a contest and scored so high on it that they gave him a scholarship. Then he went to, then he went, then he went to high school and, unfortunately, he knew more math than all the math teachers did and he got bored with math and he didn't go into math, never went, never went to college. And he uh, I'm also an entrepreneur, I'm a businessman, I'm an adventurer and he went and he wanted to be an adventurer too and he went into business and he's in his early 40s now and he's retired, he's a multimillionaire.
Speaker 2:And so then now the question is are you ready for a good school If you want to go into science and engineering? And the answer is no, not even close. So, in Tier 4, now and this is a little bit thicker I now go into algebra and geometry and trigonometry and complex number at a much deeper level for science and engineering. But guess what? There's no textbooks that you can use to do it, and the reason is there's a tool today that came out in 2009 that revolutionizes the way you learn math and do math. It's called Wolfram Alpha, and I start using that tool. It's free and the only reason I haven't used it before now is because you can't use it on the SAT. Okay, so I put them through that. Then, after they go and that takes most students, if they're interested in science and engineering, about a year to go through this, maybe a year and a half. Then after that I teach them calculus.
Speaker 2:There's two kinds of calculus. You probably don't know this, but some of your audience will. There's differential calculus and integral calculus. Differential calculus manually is on a scale of 1 to 10, about a 3. Most kids can get through it. Integral calculus about an 8. That flunks more kids out of engineering school than anything else. In fact, if you go to any, do you know any medical doctors? Yeah, when I meet a medical doctor and we're talking about things and they ask me what I'm, what's my specialty, I say well, I don't. I'm not a medical doctor, I have a phd in math. Oh, because when they were in pre-med school they took integral calculus and they almost didn't get through very difficult subject with warfarin alpha, it's very easy. Instead of it, difficulty level eight is down to two and that's what I teach. So this is calculus, both differential and integral. One semester. This normally takes two years in college you called that a.
Speaker 1:You called it a tool. The wolf from atlas did you call it? Wolf from alpha a tool. It's on the internet it's free okay so it's not like a calculator and it's not a method. It is something you would go on the computer to use well, once again we'll do a zoom meeting and I'll demonstrate okay yeah, and you don't know much math so you won't be that impressed by it.
Speaker 2:But if somebody knows math and then the workhorse of science and engineering are what are called differential equations. Now for an algebraic equation, the solution is a number with a equation. The solution is a number With a differential equation, the solution is a function. That's even harder than integral calculus, but Wolfram Alpha makes it easy and I teach that in Tier 6. So when a student gets done with that and I have a 17-year-old student in Florida that's through it and he went to the Air Force Academy for an interview and they couldn't believe how much math he knew they knew he knew more math than their juniors did. And it's not because I'm a good teacher, but what it really is. It's the right content, it's the tool and the concept because it turns out. In mathematics the concepts are relatively easy to learn. It's the old manual tools that are very difficult. Well, trivial example you need to take the square root of a number. Now this is a tool you use to do that. Did you ever have to learn how to do the square root manually?
Speaker 1:If we did. It was very simplistic yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it's very difficult manually and it's trivial with a calculator. So, the point being, in the modern world we live in, you want to use the modern tools. It's kind of like a comparison I make is is okay, let's say you want to dig a ditch, a long trench. If you got to use the manual tools from the 1700s and 1800s, what are you going to get? A shovel, a pick? You're going to dig this long trench oh, today you're going to do it today exactly.
Speaker 2:Well, what our schools are teaching today. Every one of our high school math textbooks is obsolete. They're using the old 18th century stuff. It's the pick an ax manual, and I'm just teaching the modern backhoe. I'm a decent teacher, I'm a pretty good teacher, I'm a pretty good communicator, but what really counts is the content.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the tools, like you said. So what? What if you were teaching and you were a professor? What made you say, um, hey, this is all being implemented wrong and I'm going to go ahead and create triad math. How did that come about for you?
Speaker 2:well, that's a good. Well, that's a good question. I'll answer that. It's a very good question. Well, first of all, I was a professor quite some time ago. Uh, we're sitting here talking about take a guess how old I am, and then I'll tell you 63? Well, that's a decent guess. I feel about 63. I have no aches or pains. I have. I have no uh, I take no medicine. I have no health problems. I know of. My third birthday was one week before Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay, she's going to make us do math. I don't have my TI3.
Speaker 2:If you get your calculator. I'm 85 years old.
Speaker 1:No way, no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 85. Wow, well, you look great, well and and I feel great and I don't feel old, I just am um, and I have this most beautiful wife named mary, and we've been married 57 years oh, congratulations so now back to the.
Speaker 2:So back to the calculator thing. I got my PhD in mathematics from Indiana University, in theoretical math in 1966. In fact that was the year I married Mary. In fact I got the PhD and our wedding was like one week apart and I was a professor of math then for seven years Now. Back then they didn't have scientific calculators. So I was teaching at an engineering school in indiana called rose home and institute of technology, considered one of the best engineering schools around.
Speaker 2:If you check it, and I'm teaching the advanced theory and I noticed the student back then, if you wanted to do arithmetic you use logarithms and trig tables and slide rules. Those were the tools that the engineers used and that's what we taught the engineers to use just to do the arithmetic calculations. And one day I saw a student walking around. He had some weird looking thing. I said what is that? And he said well, it's this new calculator. And I said what are you talking about? He says it's a scientific calculator. What's that mean? So it's the HP35, first scientific calculator. And he showed it to me and in about two or three minutes I realized the world had changed Because the old tools the slide rule and the log tables and the trig table are now obsolete. Now the calculator. Do you know what the calculator cost in the first scientific calculator in 1972? Well, in today's dollars it was $2,500.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:It was $395. But in today's dollars it was $2,500. Oh my goodness, it was $395, but in today's dollars. And so I went to the next math meeting. There's 10 professors and I said what are you guys going to do now that slide rules and log tables and trick tables are all obsolete, which is what they were teaching? What are you talking about, hayne? I said, well, there's this new tool app, and of course that's what happened. What are you talking about, hayne? I said, well, it's this new tool app and of course that's what happened. And of course, slide rules. You've never seen a slide rule. You've never seen a log table or a trig table. You don't use those, they're obsolete.
Speaker 2:Okay, that was calculators, and then the prices started coming down over the years. This calculator that's $10 is much, much, much better than the original one, than the HP, by the way, hewlett Packard, they came out with the first one. Later, texas Instruments started coming out with them. Well, now, today, and then later on in the 90s, they came out with graphing calculators. They sell them today $100. Calculators do stuff, fancy stuff, and at the time, that was state of the art. When Wolfram Alpha came out in 2009, they all went obsolete because Wolfram Alpha does all that much better, much better and it's basically free.
Speaker 2:So when I was teaching calculus back in my professor days, I had to teach you all manual tools, like everybody, like everybody did, and they were very difficult for students to learn and I. It was a great challenge for students and a lot of students flunked out because of it, that couldn't do it. And today, now it's easy. Math is now no longer an impediment to engineering and science because of it. That couldn't do it. And today, now it's easy, math is now no longer an impediment to engineering and science because of the tool. And, by the way, there's no textbook that teaches it that I know of.
Speaker 1:So then, what made you say hey, this is a simpler way, no one's doing this.
Speaker 2:I wrote a book called Golden Rule Math for All God's Children. That sells at Amazon for five or six dollars. That I wrote and it explains all this to a homeschooler. Then I wrote another book because people wanted to know why what's wrong with our schools today. So I wrote a book called how and why Public School Math is Destroying the USA. This explains it in depth.
Speaker 1:I'd be interested to read that.
Speaker 2:Now you can get a free PDF copy of this Go to my website craighaincom and I give you a free PDF copy of this.
Speaker 2:Go to my website, craighaincom. I give you a free PDF copy of it. But there's actually a better book on my website that you should read and again I can't show it to you. But craighaincom, and if you go down, there's a book called how and why Homeschool Math Can Be Vastly Superior to Public School Math, and that's and it's free, and it's not only text, it's videos that explain all that, and the minute somebody tries it, then they they you know, then they know.
Speaker 1:So okay, so is this primarily for homeschoolers, or is this like a supplemental thing that someone in traditional school would use alongside with what they're you know, kind of because they have to go into the regular math courses and in high school or college would they do this on the side? How does that work?
Speaker 2:You're asking a good question For homeschoolers. It's all they'll need and that's all they'll ever use. But you're right, the majority of students today in this country are not homeschooled and they need the math. So I just recently formed something called the triad math army and and I'm aiming it at young adults, teenage level or they can be in school or not. It's a homeschool, that's fine, but they can be in. They can be in high school or even college, or maybe they've dropped out and they join it and go through my program. Now my program will teach them more math than they'll ever learn in any high school. If they are going to high school, my program will probably help them in their courses. Now the high school is going to teach them some stuff I don't teach because it's obsolete, but but it'll help them understand it better.
Speaker 2:And so I had a student in texas named ty Hansen. He gave me a testimonial and he went through just my practical trigonometry back in Tier 2. And then he took trig at a private school. He was down in Texas and he said it helped him tremendously in that course. But the high school math you don't know what you're going to get, because different teachers teach different things. They use different books. You don't know what you're going to get. Trigonometry at school a can be very different than trigonometry school b depends on the teachers. In fact it can be different in the same school if you got two different teachers, and so I I can't guarantee that my program will help you with your high school math program, but it usually does. But the truth is you'll learn math that you're not going to learn in your high school, that you'll need to know if you're going to go to MIT or a good school to summarize now you you had said how long each of those courses took and I'm just trying to think, in total, to add them all up, what would?
Speaker 1:from beginning, you said that there were six. How did you call it series?
Speaker 2:all right, it depends on the student. All right, you're asking a good question. It depends on two things. Number one, the student's ability and aptitude. I'll call it I hate to use the word intelligence, but their aptitude towards learning math. Some students learn quick, learn slow. It also depends on how hard they're going to study it. Are they going to study it every day or just once a week or whatever? I would say a typical student, not particularly at the upper best aptitude or the lowest typical that will put in four or five study sessions a week, would probably go through my whole program in about they'll go up through tier two in one semester.
Speaker 2:So okay, so that's about four two or three a year, the other the others, and so the whole thing may be three years. I have a girl right now in Tennessee that's 15 years old. That's been through it, but she's bright. She started early, she worked hard and her brother's now going even faster than she is Okay. So you said he's 12 years old.
Speaker 1:You can start around age 12 or 13 as long as they know their decimals. 12 years old you can start around age 12 or 13, as long as they know their decimals. So if someone started around 13 years old, they could be done by the time that they are done with all of their other coursework for like and I'm generalizing as a homeschooler be all done with all of it by the time they're 17 and ready to kind of move on and Correct and in fact, we have.
Speaker 2:On our home. We have a website called Homeschooler Today and we show how to assign credit for the states of the different training you're taking, because the states want you to report. In fact, one of the things I liked about your Becky interview was really good. She talked about how she had a student didn't learn to read until he was 10 years old. Right, remember that. Well, students are different. Let me give you an example.
Speaker 2:First of all, all my children went to regular schools, but I also homeschooled them. It was a dual thing. I mean, when they were young, I sent them to Montessori school. They got a little older, I sent them to Montessori school. They got a little older, I sent them to an elementary school that was Catholic. I actually opened up an elementary school for a year or two called Learning Tree. Then I sent them to a regular public school, but I picked out public. I'm from Indiana and there's some pretty good private schools in Indiana I mean public schools in Indiana and so I sent still not to school, but I always taught them on the side. Now I had my oldest son had a learning disability. I like the way she talked about how her children were all different and all that. In fact, I'm going to give you some advice in a minute. She didn't give you that she should have, um, when you were talking about your with your son and back and forth, and I got some advice for you. But first my oldest son he had a learning disability.
Speaker 2:We didn't know about it until he was a teenager. We knew he had a problem. He had a tremendous memory, but he had a hard time learning things and you talk about.
Speaker 2:Becky talked about having a goal for him to learn when he got out of high school. Well, it was similar with us. Guess what was probably the most valuable thing that he learned educational thing when he was a teenager in high school? A video game called Dungeons and Dragons. Really, I was very criticized for letting him do it, but it was something he could do good. He loved it, he was good at it, had a lot of friends Let people do what they love to do and they're intrinsically motivated and they got a lot of friends and they're good at it.
Speaker 2:He was mediocre in math and other technical subjects Okay, and I taught him the math he had to have. He ended up getting a business degree from Kelly School of Business in Indiana, iu, and I taught him just enough math that he needed for that, which isn't much. He's 50 years old today and he is now a managing director of the world's largest consulting company, deloitte Consulting, and he has hundreds of people working for him and he and he's managing 100 million dollar contracts amazing this is a kid with a learning disability that we didn't even know.
Speaker 2:He was 14 years old and then we found out about it. We're able to give him some therapy to help overcome it. It wasn't dyslexia, it was a different one. It's called isotonic reflex. But, interesting, every child there my daughter was good at everything. She's two years younger than him. She was good at everything and she thought she wanted to be an actress. We said fine. So she's two years younger than him, she was good at everything and she thought she wanted to be an actress. We said fine. So when she's 15 years old, we sent her to a summer where they had a summer theater, a bunch of actors. We were criticized for doing that. They said, well, she's too young to go down there. These are all. We trusted her. If your child doesn't have the right mindset time, she's 15, it's too late. Good point. She went down there and she found out that she said these actors are better than me and they're still living with their parents and they're 45 years old I love that she.
Speaker 2:I bought her macintosh computer and she went wrong with it. She didn't like it, so she decided to be a math, going to math. Well, I have a phd in math and I know I'm. I know what it takes to go into math and it's. And I knew she's as good as I am and I'm not good enough. And she didn't like computers. Well then, she took a computer science course and liked it and ended up now she is a distinguished service professor of computer science and informatics at iu. Well, she was. Now she's in michigan. But my point being you never know what your child's going to do. They're going to do this, they're going to do that. And my youngest son, who was the bright one I told you about, won the scholarship in the eighth grade, didn't go to college. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:He's probably still successful.
Speaker 2:So he went into business and I taught him business and into business and I taught him business and now he's independent and he's does philanthropy now, but you never know. Now back to you. I was going to make you some advice. Yeah, perfect, you have a young boy that you say. You you had you struggle with your mother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you talked about that yeah how you and your mom went back and now you're doing it with your son. Yeah, here's what you do. It's very simple. Okay, whenever he does anything that you like and approve of, compliment him. Okay, make a point of it, don't ignore it. Compliment him. And whenever he does anything you don't like, unless it is dangerous, ignore it.
Speaker 1:Okay. So when he's just really really annoying in your face and you're and I'm like you ignore it.
Speaker 2:But when he does something and also give him tasks to do, okay, give him work to do, things that he wants to do, challenging, and every time he does anything at all that you like, whatever it is complimenting. Most parents do the opposite. They ignore the good stuff and they they criticize the mad bad, beat what they call the bad behavior. I will also tell you that's good marriage counseling. The reason I've been happily married for 57 years and love my wife more today than as much as I ever did is because I compliment her every time she does something I like and I ignore when she does something I don't like and she does the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it is great advice. I think, like, as the parent, you know when you see him doing something like you know being right in someone's face and you're like okay what one that's annoying to me, but two if you're doing it to strangers or friends they're not gonna like you and, but I guess you just have to like let him figure that out on his own that.
Speaker 2:That's right. When he walks in the mud puddle before your hike, don't sit, ignore it, it's not dangerous. And let him walk with wet shoes and see how he likes that, and maybe he'll learn a lesson and not do it next time you criticize him. Oh, don't get in that mud puddle. We're getting ready to go for a walk. Well, that's the wrong thing to do. Let him I'll let my kids do all sorts of stuff that they learn the hard way.
Speaker 1:That's a very good point. That is good advice.
Speaker 2:Well it works for employees too. Yeah, it works for almost anybody. Try to uh compliment people when they do something you like and ignore it. Now, if it's dangerous or something that's different but usually it's not dangerous, it's okay, walk to the mud puddle, that's not dangerous, no, it's just setting you up for it. And then, when he gets home, say, okay, now you got to clean your shoes off before you come in or do whatever you know. But uh, by the way, kids love to work. I, I let my kids go to work. By the way, I've talked about this um triad math army. Uh, we're really in a battle today. We're in a war.
Speaker 2:It's not just homeschoolers, it's, it's parents that want to raise their children right and and and and. When you learn about it, you'll see what. I'm not just teaching math now. I'm teaching a lot of other things. For example, every student needs to understand what a convex option is, because that will have a huge impact on your life. They need to understand the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. So I'm teaching more than just math. The math can apply to it, but it's more than that.
Speaker 2:It's what I taught my children and or tried to. I'm not saying I'm a perfect parent. By the way, I made a lot of mistakes. For example, when I was a boy, my dad used to whip me, and so when my oldest son was little, I spanked him when he misbehaved Guess what Huge mistake. And I finally realized it and I quit doing it. And I didn't do it with my older children. But because my dad has spanked me, I thought well, I spanked. Actually, it's the wrong thing to do in my view, and by that I mean wrong. It's wrong in the sense it won't get you the result you want. Everything we do in math and this is something I talk we talk to the students and the parents about coaching, and if they don't have a coach, the student's got to learn to coach, and I coach them Every time you make a mistake. That's good, because you learn from it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did say that to my son the other day. Mistakes are good, the mistakes are good.
Speaker 2:Good for you, we can learn from them, and you're right, and that's 100% right. I tell people I've been studying math for 80 years and I've made more mistakes than you'll ever make, I'm pretty sure. But I learned from them. And the other thing is it gets back to the golden rule almost. If you can help other people learn something, that's good. I was very fortunate. I was actually homeschooled before I went to school by my uncle, jack, who was a barber. This was during world war ii. You probably don't know that, but cheerios came out in 1942 and I was four years old and he started using them to teach me to count.
Speaker 2:They were called cherry oats at the time and then later they call them cheerios. He taught me to count. He was a barber and a builder. He was, and he was 60 years old, so he didn't go to the war. My dad was working in a war factory, my mom was working, all the adults were working during in 1942. I mean, you know, we were in war. I remember that vividly. I remember you know the rationing and just blah, blah, blah. Anyway, he taught me to count and my dad entered me in grade school when I was five years old. I was the youngest kid in my class. I couldn't skip. I'm colorblind, so I'd make mistakes. Call I can't sing. I was a dumbest kid in the class but you could count but well, that's it.
Speaker 2:It was a two room, it was eight, eight grades in a four room schoolhouse, putnamvillenamville, indiana. So, miss Lewis, miss Bernice Lewis, is my teacher and one day she got the first graders up to teach them to count and no one had been taught because her parents were all working and there was no preschool back then, no kindergarten, and none of them had been taught to count except me. And she got to me and I started counting and I got up into the 60s and she said craig, craig, I mean she was amazed, that's what my uncle jack had taught me. So then she enlisted my aid to teach my classmates to count and all of a sudden I went from being the dumbest kid in the class to being the smartest kid in the class in their view, because I could count. And then he taught me geometry practical geometry, not the kind you learn in school, practical and I had that all the way through.
Speaker 2:Now, when I was in high school in the ninth grade for the first time, I studied algebra, which he didn't know anything about that, and I didn't do well in algebra. I made a bad grade and I was told by my principal and my counselor that I was not college material. No one of my family never going to college. My dad had an eighth grade education and you're a working guy, take shop. And I was saved by my sophomore teacher, ms O'Hare, in geometry and I was good in geometry with her, bad in algebra again my junior year. I'm from Greencastle Indiana and we have a school there called DePaul University. My senior year she said go to DePaul and take college algebra as a special student and see what happens. And I did. And Dr Clint Gass was my teacher and I got an A in college algebra even though I'd done bad in high school and that got me going. So if it wasn't for Uncle Jack and Miss O'Hare and Dr Gas, you'd never heard of me.
Speaker 1:Everything does line up the way it's supposed to, you know.
Speaker 2:It does, it does and it doesn't. It depends on who you are and how lucky you are. It didn't work for my brother. He's five years younger and he didn't go to college.
Speaker 1:He didn't go to college. He didn't consider he's as smart as I am in fact, we look a lot alike but he had bad teachers, so I was very fortunate. So now, if somebody is interested in doing this program with their child, um, I will have you tell us where they can find you. But also, is it? You showed me the workbooks, um, is there also an online component that they work with you or watch your videos? How would it all lay out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all online, it's all automated off of Amazon Web Services tutorial videos and they take the program and there's a forum. They can ask questions in the forum and someone will answer them, and that doesn't happen very often. But if they can't get the question answered, occasionally I'll do a zoom meeting with a student. That's rare and it doesn't happen because the way my program is structured, if they, if they, if they study properly and they're coached properly which I'm giving them more coaching then they get through it.
Speaker 2:Fine, what I'll do is I've just started this triad math army thing. It's just brand new and it costs $30 a month to be a member and your first month you join it and you have access to everything. If you don't like it, you drop out and get your $30 back, so it costs you zero and you you've learned whatever you've learned in that month. If you do like it, you keep on going. Now, if they're a homeschool family, we have family plans and they can buy the programs ad hoc and they'll learn all that, and so they could drop out of the army and just buy a regular thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yes, I do have a page set up on my website at the homeschool how to dot com for listener discounts. So, yeah, we'll put that right in there, easy spot for people to find it and share it on Instagram. Craig, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you, all right, my pleasure. Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast, or my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To with friends, family on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you for your love of the next generation.