@MattWalshBlog Up to 8 here. Try being a dad to a 13 yearold daughter that's obsessed with goats.
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Matthew Blackwood
2.3K posts
Matthew Blackwood
@MatthewBlckwd
Husband to @alesiablackwood, father of 5, homeschooled and homeschooling, Co-Founder @UnLockMath
United States Katılım Mart 2014
740 Takip Edilen363 Takipçiler
My wife has acquired another goat. This is goat number three. She tells me that three goats will be enough but I’m starting to be skeptical. I have become a full time goat herder. This is who I am now. It has always been my fate. There’s no escaping it.
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How does your home library stack up? In 2023 YouGov surveyed 29,000 Americans to see how many books they have in their homes. The results were disappointing to say the least.
- 0 books: 9% (no books AT ALL)
- 1–10 books: 20%
- 11–25 books: 14%
- 26–50 books: 13%
- 51–100 books: 12%
- 101–200 books: 10%
- 201–500 books: 7%
- 501–1,000 books: 4%
- More than 1,000 books: 3%
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@nickitruesdell I feel you. Ours are 20, 18, 13, 10, and almost 5. It's like the first two grew up completely differently, try as we may.
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I’ve been raising kids since 1996. I still have two teenagers at home. Raising the younger ones is very different than the older ones. The glaring difference is the internet.
And I don’t mean that the younger ones have more access to it. In fact, our rules have become more strict as the years went by. But somehow the internet still influences the younger kids’ lives without having constant access.
And I hate it.
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The number of math curricula that are not aligned to cognitive science—that presume discovery learning as a design principle—is a quiet scandal in the US. Talking to a great district last week. They take the science seriously. They can barely find a math program that doesn’t design daily lessons around novice learners guessing inefficiently at solutions.
Claire Honeycutt | ClarifiED 🕊️❤️@HippyMomPhD
You won't like to hear this, but Saxon was the first math program that helped my struggling math student. It's not flashy, it's not colorful. It is slow, practice-heavy, procedural program. And it works.
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@MattWalshBlog I have letters written back home by my great-great-grandfather during the Civil War. They are written so expressively and with incredible vocabulary.
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It’s not just the classic authors. I mean read any random letter from any random Civil War soldier writing to his mother or wife back home. Even if the spelling was bad, the writing is just kind of evocative and interesting in a way that nobody communicates today. I read one in a book that was like “As I write this I’m sitting on a narrow dusty road in the cool shade of a magnolia tree which blossoms in vibrant hues of pink and white,” or something along those lines. Paraphrasing but the point is that you read it and immediately know it must have been written 150 years ago because nobody would casually write in such a descriptive way today. We don’t paint pictures with words anymore. And I find that really sad.
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One thing you notice when you read pretty much anything written more than 100 years ago is just how impoverished and bland and limited our language has become. People spoke and wrote in a kind of effortlessly rich and descriptive way that almost no one does today. On this site a lot of people write almost exclusively in cliches and internet lingo. A lot of people speak like that too. The language contracts, our conversational vocabulary shrinks more and more over time. And the more limited we become in our language, the more limited we are in our thinking.
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@JeremyTate41 Our oldest is 20 and our youngest is 4. We're right there with you!
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I just caught myself reprimanding my youngest, “you will not throw a toy truck at your brother, if you wanna throw something at him, find something softer.”
19 years ago with our first we were serious parents, our number six can hardly be described as domesticated.
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@elonmusk Don't have the "money" but have the happiness with a wife of 24 years and 5 children, 2 of which are grown.
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@teachthemx3 Homeschooling is a great choice for advanced students. We at @UnlockMath have had a few students that have graduated high school and entered University at age 12.
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We really need to create true accelerated math pathways for students who are mathematically advanced. It is absolutely possible to complete calculus by 8th grade. From there, high school math would consist of: linear algebra, differential equations, discrete math, proofs.
I coach UIL Number Sense, Calculator, and Mathematics at my high school. The students love competing just as I did when I completed in these events years ago.
In an ideal world, both math competitions and advanced math pathways exist.
Justin Skycak@justinskycak
When a middle or high school teacher has a bright math student, and the teacher directs them towards competition math, it's usually not because that's the best option for the student. Rather, it's the best option for the teacher. It gives the student something to do while creating minimal additional work for the teacher. Competition math problems generally don't require students to learn new fields of math. Rather, the difficulty comes from students needing to find clever tricks and insights to arrive at solutions using the mathematical tools that they've already learned. But if you look at the kinds of math that most quantitative professionals like rocket scientists and machine learning researchers use on a daily basis, those competition math tricks show up rarely, if ever. What does show up everywhere is university math level subjects like linear algebra, multivariable calculus, differential equations, and calculus-based probability and statistics. Given that most students who enjoy math end up applying math in some other field as opposed to becoming pure mathematicians, it would be a lot more productive for them to get a broad view of math as early as possible so that they can sooner apply it to projects in their fields of interest.
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@Simon_Ingari Or, just man up and set your own boundaries.
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Wife texts husband the letter “F” at 5:01 PM.
That is their agreement.
It means: “Work is getting out of hand. My boss is piling on more tasks. Get me out, but make it look like you’re the toxic partner.”
The wife called him immediately. She used her “toxic, no-nonsense” voice.
“I told you to pick our son up at 5:10 PM, pass through the grocery store, and prepare dinner before 6:00 PM. Get home now, or you’re getting a divorce tomorrow.”
He hung up, sighed, rolled his eyes at his boss, and said, “My wife is such a psycho. I gotta go.”
He left the office.
His time was protected.
He didn’t have to be “difficult” or “unprofessional.”
He didn’t have to push back, explain himself, or look uncommitted at work.
He just had to be the husband with a demanding wife.
Work-life balance restored.
She will wear that badge every single day if it keeps his work from consuming his life.
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@BobbyWilson1004 Once walked into Costco and ONLY bought what I went in there for. Less than $200. Felt like I'd won the lottery!
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@flowidealism My GG-Grandfather took over the family farm at 12 years old when his father went off to war and saved all the livestock by hiding them in pine thickets when troops came through.
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Somebody in this world said having your own ideas and arguing for them is the dessert at the end of education. If you're a PhD student, you can finally have your own ideas. Before that, you're supposed to shut up and do what the teacher tells you. How horrible is that?
I see it differently. At twelve or thirteen in traditional cultures, you took adult responsibilities. Andrew Carnegie had a job at thirteen. Thomas Edison was working at thirteen. Ben Franklin was out working at thirteen. Teenagers are capable of amazing things. We just won't let them.
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When Kroger has Rib roasts on sale for 9.99, it's time to cut some steaks and restock the freezer. #carnivore
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"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor" - George Washington 1789
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@NielsHoven Great points. One reason we gave up on the public school market with @UnLockMath
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The reason so many edtech companies fail is overly-idealistic founders who ignore uncomfortable truths about the world.
When your model of the world does not match reality, not even hundreds of millions of dollars of investor money can save you.
3 core truths:
1) Kids learn at different rates
2) Most families value childcare over education
3) Most schools value equalization over education
Ignore these facts and your edtech company is doomed.
At @MentavaInc we have taught 2yos to read. But we would never tell someone "We will teach *your* 2yo to read."
Odds are, *your* 2yo is not that smart.
However, they might be ready to read at age 3, or 4, or 5. And if a student isn't ready to read until age 7, Mentava will still be there, ready to support them.
But even if you do build an amazing product to let kids learn 10x faster, the harsh reality is that the mass market doesn't care.
Public schools have an 80% approval rating despite 1 in 3 fourth graders being unable to read at a basic level.
Schools districts are eliminating honors classes and middle school algebra - their goal is to slow smart students down, not speed them up.
The cold hard fact is that no one has yet found a viable business model to support a company whose main value proposition is "we let kids learn faster".
Solve that problem, or join your predecessors in the graveyard of failed edtech startups.
Patrick Skinner - edu/acc@PSkinnerTech
For those who are interested in working in EdTech, I need to be honest with you about what you're signing up for. You probably shouldn't apply. EdTech's graveyard is full of brilliant engineers. AltSchool raised $200M and closed. Knewton raised $180M and sold for scraps. 2,148 edtech startups in India shut down in the past five years. They didn't fail because of a lack of technical skill. They failed from mission drift. Here's what working in edtech actually means: You're not building software. You're building a theory of how children learn. - @MitchForest When you're 2 months into the same feature, and it still doesn't work, you won't have the dopamine hits of shipping fast. You'll need something deeper. For the engineers who build learning apps for @AlphaSchoolATX, they are REQUIRED to spend 2 hours every day studying. Not coding. Studying and reading papers on cognitive load theory, motivation research, and translating learning science into applications. Two hours. Every single day. Engineers like @yiran__c write about the neuroscience of handwriting. @arpangup shares the Harada Method. @LamarDealMaker explores AI for skill development. This isn't optional. It's the job. Your success metrics will lie to you. High DAUs don't mean kids are learning. Viral engagement doesn't mean mastery. The metrics that drive consumer tech success actively undermine educational outcomes. The money will tempt you to build the wrong thing. EdTech market: $400B by 2030. That capital creates pressure to optimize for pitch decks instead of classrooms. Byju's hit $22B before collapsing. An MBA analyzes constraints. A builder changes reality. What we require: ➡️ Mission Alignment ➡️ Agency ➡️ Strong Engineering Skills If you're chasing market opportunity or building for your resume, don't apply. But if you're a builder who sees broken systems and feels an overwhelming need to fix them? If you believe high standards create happy kids? If you want to change education for a billion children? Before applying, read the link in the reply. And if you're still interested after understanding what it really takes, let's talk about joining us in building the future of EdTech.
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Love reading through our reviews, knowing we are helping families find #homeschool #success
Unlock Math@UnLockMath
"Wow! I don’t usually promote programs or curriculum as so many children learn differently...I’ve tried many and even in person tutors. Nothing compares...By the way; I have been teaching for over 20 years and have used multiple math curricula. It takes a lot to impress me. " - M
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@AwakenWithJP Not nearly as straight as they think they are.
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@BowTiedBroke Here's my comment. A new @HusqvarnaUSA would come in handy on our 20 acres.
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Husqvarna sent me a stack of chainsaws to give away because a bear stole mine & Internet went wild. I’m adding a 4 day/3 nt stay to my Smoky Mtn cabin. (Side by side tours, meet Jimmy & me, see old moonshine stills, crazy views). To enter (100% free, no purchase necessary):
1) Follow @BowTiedBroke
2) Comment on THIS post with literally anything (tag friends = extra luck with the dartboard later 👀)
Contest runs exactly 24 hours —-> closes tomorrow at 10:00 AM EST
At close, @grok will instantly pick 20 random commenters with accounts older than 3 months. Then, I put those 20 names on a dartboard, film one throw, and THAT person wins everything.
No bots, no BS, fully transparent. Grok posts the 20 here, the dart decides destiny 🎯
Sorry international followers (not that I have that many) U.S. followers only for this one. Cabin is in Tennessee, chainsaws are heavy, and bears don’t do passports.
Let’s go! Drop a reply and let’s see who the Chainsaw stealing bear chooses.
HusqvarnaUSA@HusqvarnaUSA
We are the preferred chainsaw brand for bears.
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@WallStreetMav My wife taught high school math in public schools and now teaches middle & high school math online via @UnLockMath, impacting more students than she ever could in the classroom.
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Teacher reveals the disastrous changes that are happening in public schools and why kids are not learning anything.
It is really no wonder why Home School kids are so much more advanced these days.
Take a few minutes to listen to this if you have kids.
🔊
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@CaryKelly11 Looks delicious! I've got a couple of brisket's in the freezer, thinking I should make some more beef bacon.
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I was going to fast through dinner but changed my mind. This Schmacon is a great right out of the package.
It’s fully cooked beef bacon aka thinly sliced brisket, in this case. Some brands use beef belly.
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@RealDeanCain Watched and enjoyed it recently! Great for the whole family!
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