More Real Life Math / Parenting

Today was the day that we sweep our carpets... When we use the Rainbow sweeper instead of just the little handheld vacuum, we usually rake them as well. Yes, that's right - rake them. It's actually a professional carpet cleaners rake that they recommend you use before sweeping to bring up dirt from the bottom of the fibers, and prolong the life of your carpet. But that's more along the lines of science, not math, so I'll get off that subject. :)
Travis we have long said is going to be a lawyer. He loves to argue his point when he thinks he is right. So, when we laid out the plans for who was going to sweep and rake what rooms, he had a problem. The 2 rooms that Jesse had to sweep had to be not as much work as he (Travis) had to do, since he had to rake and sweep 4 rooms, plus the hallway upstairs. It just wasn't fair that Jesse age 10, only had those 2 rooms, and Travis, age 8, had 4 rooms and a hallway.
I tried to explain to him that the square footage for Jesse was more, since he had the 2 largest rooms in the house. I used the example of how 20 pennies usually looks like a lot more than just 1 quarter to a kid who doesn't understand the value of money yet. He didn't understand, so, I said, "Ok, Travis, do you want us to prove it out mathematically?" He said yes.
So, out came the pencil and paper, and the measuring tape. He measured the hallway alone, and he and Jesse began measuring my bedroom. He measured it in inches with my sewing measuring tape, so we had to convert to feet, which required some long division that he's never done before. I didn't let Jesse help with that, since he already knows how to do it. Travis and I worked it out, and before we even finished doing all the A = L x W, to find the square footage of all the rooms, Travis started seeing how Jesse really did have more work and didn't want to finish doing all the calculations. Which was fine with me. I am not going to make learning long division all at one shot a "have to" thing. I think he'll get it easier if it's in smaller, digestable bits, rather than forcing something down his throat that's too big to swallow at his age.
I don't know if I blogged this before, but I've read articles,that state that before age 10, if you try to make a kid learn Math that's more complicated than simple calculations that can be done in the head, you'll actually mess him up. We aren't hard wired to learn that stuff properly before age 10. Kind of like we aren't mature enough to handle some information, until we reach a certain age...
You don't go telling a 5 year old that he has to do 10 x 12 in his head, right? The article stated that you store math info differently before age 10 than after. It's like a computer putting it in the wrong file before age 10, and then after age 10, not being able to find it.
Anyway, long story short, we found another way to learn Geometry and long division, and lots of multiplication and adding, in real life within days of the last time.

I do want to note something else as well. Some people think that unschooling parents just leave their children to themselves, and don't bother to "teach" them anything.... Let me ask you, how many parents of kids who have to do schoolwork every day, would still have the energy or desire take the time to go through all that measuring and calculation? How many would just say, "Hey! Listen! I'm telling you, the 2 bigger rooms are more work! Now GO DO IT!!!" In my opinion, I not only taught Travis some Math, but I also taught him that I value him enough to allow him to try to prove his point. It was not an angry exchange of emotions, it was simply a logical exchange of ideas between two people.
I am not in any way generalizing all "school" type parents as bad parents... I am trying to say that Unschooling is NOT Unparenting.