 Hey everybody, welcome to the Wallach Way. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be why teaching textbook math is so perfect if you are homeschooling an only child. Now if you're homeschooling multiple children, stay tuned because I think some of these reasons will still apply to you. I mean, you'll still find them useful. I just really wanted to speak on this from point of view of homeschooling an only because I feel like so many programs are geared towards larger families. So I love that this one works so well for us. If you are new here, I am homeschooling an only child. She is at the time of this video in fifth grade and 10 going on 11. And we've been homeschooling since the beginning. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love homeschooling my only and I think you can do it very, very successfully. But homeschooling an only child is definitely not without its challenges. One of the biggest challenges being that you are the everything. You are the it person. When you're homeschooling an only, there is nobody else except you and them. That means you are their parent, you are their teacher, you are their playmate, you are their classmate, you are their sibling. You are it. You are the only person that they have to teach them, to be with them, to play with them, to entertain them, all of the things, which can be super exhausting. At least for me it is. I mean, it can just be exhausting. So when we started really, really looking for a math for Emily, I was like, this is gonna be perfect because it's going to give us a break from each other. And I know how that sounds, and don't get me wrong, I love my child. But 20 to 30 minutes when she's doing her math lesson, having that time apart, having that time for her to be kind of preoccupied with something other than me, and giving me the time to go do something else. And that something else can be emptying the dishwasher, putting on a little laundry, making the bed, taking a shower some days, or maybe it's just sitting in a room with peace and quiet. It helps us both have a better day in the long run because we've had that 20 or 30 minutes apart. It helps me be a better homeschool mom in the long run because I have that 20 or 30 minutes to recharge. And to be honest, it has saved both of our sanities. So it's just become a huge perk for us that it's a break from each other. Another thing I love about teaching textbooks as a mom of an only child who's homeschooling her is that it gives her a different teacher. For us, math was the one subject that we butted heads on. I mean like tears almost every single day. And it happens to be because math is like the thing I'm good at. I get it, it comes naturally to me. I love it, I don't find it complicated. And Emily is the exact opposite. She is a literacy-brained child, numbers and math frustrates her, she doesn't understand it, she doesn't get it. And so when I would try to teach her, I couldn't understand why she didn't understand it and I couldn't explain it in any other way. And so we were constantly butting heads over and over and over. Now we tried for a little while where Kevin would come home and teach her in the evenings when he got off work. And that did work for a while but it just became very, very evident that we couldn't do that forever. We needed a more permanent solution. And teaching textbooks was that for us because teaching textbooks gives her the ability to learn from somebody other than me. And I find that that is a huge selling point because I think even when you are homeschooling multiple kids, but specifically and only, there is some serious benefits to being taught a different perspective and a different point of view, especially when it comes to something like math. Like here's the way I would teach it but here's the way they would teach it. So it's really nice to have a backup teacher in the house, have somebody else teaching her math. Now that doesn't mean that we don't still teach math because we do, it just gives us the ability to have teaching textbooks teaching certain topics a certain way and then we can supplement with teaching topics a different way and it just really, really goes well together and it gives her a very well-rounded idea of math. And so it's really, really been helpful in that situation. As a homeschool family of an only, I find that we are on the go a lot. Now, I'm not saying that if you're homeschooling multiples, you're not on the go a lot, maybe you are. But I find that since there's only three of us, it's really easy to decide at the last minute like, hey, the weather's nice, let's go to the beach. Because there's only three of us to get ready, it's super simple. And so because of that, we spend a lot of time not at home. So having a math that I don't have to plan, I don't have to prep, I can feel really, really good about saying like, hey, even though it's a homeschool day and we really need to get some school done, let's go anyway because we can listen to an audio book in the car and you can do your math on the go. And teaching textbooks gives us the ability to do that. She can just take her tablet with her. You can even do the lessons when it's offline, which is fantastic. I have a whole video about how we use teaching textbooks on the go. So I will link that here for you guys to watch if you're interested. But it really, really makes it simple and it makes it work for our lifestyle of being on the go so much because we are homeschooling and only, and there's only three of us. And then the last reason that I absolutely love it for homeschooling and only child is that it is affordable. Now, I know that a lot of people say, well, homeschooling and only must be more affordable than homeschooling multiples and hear me out because it probably is. But if you were looking at that math program that maybe costs $500 and has all these manipulatives and all this amazingness, and there are a ton out there, it can be really, really difficult to justify that purchase when you're only homeschooling one child because there are no other kids to use it. It's not like, okay, I'm gonna invest $500 now but the next five kids can use it, which makes it only $100 a kid, that makes it worth it, right? As a homeschool mom of an only, I don't have that luxury. Yes, I could resell it, but then that's the out of stress and complication. Whereas with teaching textbooks, it's affordable and I don't need any of the extra stuff. There is no manipulatives and no extra things that you need so the cost is super reasonable. I don't have to worry about the stress of reselling it and it just makes it a no-brainer because it's low cost, there is no consumables included in it, there's no manipulatives needed, it's super easy, it requires very little of me. It really kind of is the perfect cost analysis when you start talking about homeschool math for an only child. If you are homeschooling an only, I wanna let you know that you are not alone. There are a ton of us out there and while it can feel very isolating, sometimes it doesn't have to. I'm gonna leave some links in the description for you to check out all about myths about homeschooling an only child, some encouragement about homeschooling an only. Like I said before, there are definitely some challenges but there are also some amazing advantages and don't forget to check out the link for teaching textbooks because one of the things that they offer that I find absolutely amazing is placement tests as well as you can try 14 lessons for free as a trial that way you can find out if it is going to be the perfect fit for homeschooling your only now so that you can go out and start prepping for next school year.