Why do the children write their own math problems? Why doesn’t the teacher write them? The math materials are just like any other materials in the classroom–the children choose what they would like to work on based on the goals they set with me at one-on-one conferences and their own progression through the materials. Thus, if the teacher writes math problems based on her choices, she is essentially taking the child’s choice away. Instead, the children approach me for ideas with their math and many times I write a couple of problems to give them the format, and then they go and make their own math problems based on that particular material. Also, the students check the problems on the math materials–the materials are their control of error. They work it out on paper AND on the materials, so that they gain a conceptual understanding of multiplication, fractions, factors, decimals, square root, etc