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The first time I ever outsourced a subject in our homeschool was with my oldest. An exceptionally mathy kid, he was ready for pre-Algebra at age 10, and let’s just say that I was … not ready.

I was an excellent student, but math was never my favorite subject. I earned As by listening to the teachers and following the steps, but as a homeschool mom, I found I didn’t have the language to explain why of it all.

My oldest loved math and was curious about it. He has a naturally math oriented brain; I wasn’t born that way. He stumped me with questions regularly, and I spent a ton of time relearning math online. I feared I was holding him back, and I wanted him to embrace his inner mathematician and shoot for the stars.

In addition to my extreme-lack-of-adequate-mathy-language hurdle, we began to have power struggles that hadn’t existed before. (In retrospect, fourth grade would prove to be the year that every kiddo of mine would battle me over the math book!)

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Encouraging Independent Learning in Your Homeschool

* Disclosure: I received a copy of TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners by Dennis DiNoia and was compensated for my time to write this review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only share resources I would use with my family and those I believe other homeschool families will enjoy.

Long story short, I was stressed about math in our homeschool and toying with the idea of outsourcing when I was offered the opportunity to try a math class with Mr. D Math.

Talk about serendipity!

The rest, as they say, is history. My oldest fell head over heels for Mr. D Math and went on to take many courses through the platform, from math to American Sign Language to College and Career Readiness and more.

Creating An Environment Of Independent Learning

Dennis DiNoia, a.k.a. Mr. D., is a middle-grade math teacher, podcaster, speaker, author, and founder of Mr. D Math.

One of the things that I’ve always enjoyed about Mr. D Math’s courses is how he speaks to students. He does not speak to them in the traditional teacher-to-student manner but as if they were adults, too. An entertainer at heart, Mr. D is engaging from the get-go. My oldest was ALL IN within the first few minutes of his first class with Mr. D.

Look at how little he was when he took his first Mr. D Math course!

Trusting students to be the teachers and fueling creativity in the process.

Mr. D wants his students to take ownership of their learning and trusts them to handle class work. Students are asked to complete assignments and grade their own work (except for tests). By giving students the responsibility of grading their own work, Mr. D. makes a traditionally passive, teacher-led task (grading homework) an active learning experience for the student. In addition, students are building those executive functioning skills as they review their work and correct careless errors.

Additionally, when students review their work and notice errors, they are more likely to be curious about the process and determine why they got something wrong. They are more likely to ask questions during the next class. In short, Mr. D fuels curiosity in his students.

And now Mr. D has written a book about all this and much more, and I’d like to tell you about it!

TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners - A resource for parents

In TEACH: Creating Responsible Learners, Dennis DiNoia shares his experience as a middle school math teacher and tutor and talks about the many lessons he has learned from his students.

Recently, Dennis visited The Homeschool Sisters Podcast, and we had a fantastic conversation about this book, his early years of teaching, the lessons he learned from his students, and how these experiences shaped the creation of Mr. D Math and his approach to teaching and learning.

In the snippet below, you’ll learn a little bit about Dennis’ early days of teaching:

Dennis shared how he started off with a traditional approach to teaching, as you see here:

After a semester of being traditional, Dennis tried a new approach, and the results were astounding:

TEACH: Creating Responsible Learners is an accessible and easily digestible book written in a conversational tone. (When I read the book, I could actually hear Mr. D’s voice in my mind!)

While the book was written with homeschool parents in mind, one of my teens read it in an afternoon, while my other two read parts of it. (We definitely have Mr. D fans over here!) I am certain there are many other teens out there who would be interested in reading it, too.

Key Takeaways from TEACH

Dennis made so many fantastic points in TEACH, but here are some of my top takeaways:

Learning is not something that happens passively. To really learn, the student must be in control.
To that end, the student should be the teacher.
Learning from mistakes should be an active process and not a passive one.
The goal is to create a homeschool environment of curiosity so that children fall in love with learning and discover their true passions.

If you’re looking for some homeschool inspiration, this title is a must-add to your Poolside Professional Development stack!

Don’t miss Mr. D. discussing his book, TEACH (and so much more!) on The Homeschool Sisters Podcast!

In episode 136 of The Homeschool Sisters Podcast, Mr. D talks about his book, TEACH, and so much more, including education, homeschooling, parenting, and how to raise independently responsible learners. If you missed it, watch a video replay of the conversation below or check out the show notes here!

Get Your Copy Of TEACH

If you’d like to read TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners by Dennis DiNoia, M.A., Ed, it is available on Audible, Kindle, and paperback.

And, like I said, it would be a great addition to your summer Poolside Professional Development!

You can also hang out with Mr. D. in the following places:

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: How do you encourage independent learning in your homeschool? What is in your poolside professional development stack? Share here!

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Encouraging Independent Learning In Your Homeschool

Encouraging Independent Learning in Your Homeschool

Long story short, I was stressed about math in our homeschool and toying with the idea of outsourcing when I was offered the opportunity to try a math class with Mr. D Math.

Creating An Environment Of Independent Learning

Trusting students to be the teachers and fueling creativity in the process.

TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners - A resource for parents

Key Takeaways from TEACH

Don’t miss Mr. D. discussing his book, TEACH (and so much more!) on The Homeschool Sisters Podcast!

Get Your Copy Of TEACH

More MLP posts about Mr. D Math:

You can also hang out with Mr. D. in the following places:

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: How do you encourage independent learning in your homeschool? What is in your poolside professional development stack? Share here!

Encouraging Independent Learning in Your Homeschool

Long story short, I was stressed about math in our homeschool and toying with the idea of outsourcing when I was offered the opportunity to try a math class with Mr. D Math.

Creating An Environment Of Independent Learning

Trusting students to be the teachers and fueling creativity in the process.

TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners - A resource for parents

Key Takeaways from TEACH

Don’t miss Mr. D. discussing his book, TEACH (and so much more!) on The Homeschool Sisters Podcast!

Get Your Copy Of TEACH

More MLP posts about Mr. D Math:

You can also hang out with Mr. D. in the following places:

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: How do you encourage independent learning in your homeschool? What is in your poolside professional development stack? Share here!

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