Listen to “CHM176. Everyday Math, Everyday Faith with Margaret Shawver” on Spreaker.
You Can Also Watch the Podcast on YouTube Here
Hey friends — welcome back to the Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast Blog!
Today, we’re diving into a topic that either lights you up… or makes you cringe a little: math. But before you run, stay with me — because this conversation with my guest, Margaret Shawver, will completely change how you see it.
Margaret is an engineer, educator, wife, mom, and woman of faith who sees mathematics as the language of God’s creation. She’s also the creator of a beautifully simple tool — differentiated graph paper — designed to help students (and moms!) make sense of those tricky X and Y coordinates. But beyond her creative resources, what stood out most in our interview is how she weaves faith and math together in a way that feels deeply integrated and practical.
If you’ve ever wrestled with teaching math at home, wondering whether you’re “doing it right,” this episode is for you.
About Margaret
Maggie Shawver is a mom, wife, engineer, educator, and enterpreneur. She has loved
God and math since she was small, and she has been blessed to have a chance to
practice those loves her whole life. She tries to demonstrate both in a way that will
add to God’s world and the body of Christ.
God’s Order Written in Numbers
From the moment Margaret started sharing, it was clear she doesn’t see math as abstract theory. She sees it as art. Creation. Worship.
When she talks about tulips growing in a parabolic curve, or bees building hexagons because they’re the strongest shape in geometry, you can hear her awe. She explained how even these tiny patterns in nature reflect the divine structure of God’s world.
“Math is the language of the universe,” Margaret said. “When I look at a flower or a honeycomb, I see God’s fingerprints in the numbers.”
And really, that’s what makes her teaching approach so powerful. She doesn’t separate faith and learning — she integrates them, just like God intended.
It reminded me of how our kids naturally see patterns and wonder. They’re not born dreading fractions or formulas. Somewhere along the way, that fear creeps in. Margaret’s mission is to bring back the wonder — to help kids (and parents) see that learning math is learning about God’s creation itself.
From Boeing to the Blackboard
Margaret’s story is just as inspiring as her insights. She’s an engineer by training who built planes for Boeing. But, as she shared, God had other plans.
After years in the corporate world, she began tutoring, and eventually teaching full-time — first at a small private school and now at a Christian K–12 academy. This fall, she’ll even be teaching at the same school her son attends.
That transition wasn’t just a career move; it was a calling.
“God really had me on a single path,” she said. “But then He just came down with a bolt of lightning one day and said, ‘Take a left.’”
That “left turn” led her to see that math education wasn’t just about equations — it was about discipleship. It was about helping young people understand how deeply spiritual the act of learning can be.
Teaching Math as Relationship
One of my favorite parts of our conversation was how Margaret compares equations to relationships.
She shared that when she teaches variables, she uses real-world analogies — even relationships between people — to help her students understand how X and Y interact.
“Everyone knows a high school couple,” she joked. “When the girl does something, the boy spirals around her — that’s your dependent and independent variable!”
It’s a lighthearted example, but it gets the point across: math isn’t just about memorizing steps. It’s about understanding relationships — how numbers and forces depend on each other, just as we depend on God and one another.
That relational view of math is what makes her approach click for students who might otherwise tune out.
For the Homeschool Mom Who Feels Overwhelmed
Let’s be honest: homeschooling math can feel like trudging through mud.
Margaret gets that. And she doesn’t sugarcoat it.
Even as a certified teacher with an engineering background, she admitted that staying on track while also nurturing curiosity is hard. That’s why her first piece of advice to homeschool moms is this: give yourself grace.
“Even professional teachers struggle with this,” she said. “Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it all. You’re doing more than you think.”
She encouraged moms to embrace flexibility and creativity — to remember that homeschool, by its nature, is already beautifully integrated.
That means you can talk about math and art in the same breath, or geometry and God’s creation in the same lesson. You don’t need to follow the rigid school model.
As Margaret said, “Maybe what moms should do is give themselves a break, because certified teachers struggle too.”
Amen to that.
Simple Ways to Integrate Math and Faith at Home
Margaret offered some really practical examples for how moms can integrate math naturally into everyday life.
Here are a few gems that stood out:
- Cooking – Turn meal prep into a lesson on fractions and conversions.
- Building projects – From measuring wood to calculating surface area, it’s all math in action.
- Nature walks – Spot symmetry, patterns, or parabolas in trees, leaves, and flowers.
- Bible projects – Build a model of the Ark of the Covenant using biblical measurements.
The point isn’t to “do math” for math’s sake — it’s to show your kids that God’s order and logic are present everywhere.
Even when you’re driving and your child asks, “Why did you turn left?” — that’s an opportunity to talk about reasoning, decisions, and systems.
Margaret reminded us that if your home is functioning — if your roof isn’t leaking, your fridge is stocked, and your family’s getting fed — then you’re already using math every day. You just might not be calling it that.
The Story Behind Her Differentiated Graph Paper
Now, let’s talk about the resource that started turning heads — Margaret’s color-differentiated graph paper.
It’s such a simple yet brilliant idea: she designed graph paper where the X-axis lines are blue and the Y-axis lines are red.
Why? Because students constantly mix up their coordinates. That confusion leads to frustration, fatigue, and wrong answers — especially for kids with dysgraphia or dyscalculia.
“This visual cue — X is blue, Y is red — helps them make the right connections,” she explained.
It’s subtle enough not to distract, but powerful enough to rewire how kids approach graphing.
And she’s right: no one else has done it before.
You can find her paper on Walmart.com and through her Etsy shop, Working Mom Labs.
This is what innovation looks like when it’s driven by compassion and a calling. Margaret didn’t create this to make a quick sale; she created it to help kids understand. That’s what sets her apart.
Faith, Fire, and Finding Balance
As our conversation wrapped up, Margaret got real about the daily struggle of balance — being a mom, wife, teacher, engineer, and believer.
She quoted My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, sharing a devotional that says:
“It’s in the fire that we find ourselves.”
That line hit me hard — because it’s true.
Homeschool moms, we’re not called to live easy lives. We’re called to live refined ones. And that refining often happens in the chaos — when the baby’s crying, the lesson plan falls apart, and the algebra book is missing a page.
Margaret reminded us that even when we don’t feel like we’re performing at our best, God is still in control.
“It’s God’s problem how we perform,” she said. “If we can’t, He’ll take the reins.”
That’s the kind of faith perspective we all need to cling to when homeschooling feels like walking through fire.
Bringing the Joy Back
So how do we bring the joy back into teaching math — or any subject that feels heavy?
Margaret’s advice was simple: try new things.
Don’t be afraid to outsource. Find co-ops. Ask for help. Use resources that fit your child’s learning style. There’s no shame in not knowing everything — that’s why we’re a body, not a solo act.
“It took hundreds of years for Jerusalem to rebuild,” she reminded us. “Your homeschool doesn’t need to be perfect by Friday.”
That perspective changes everything.
We don’t need to rush learning. We need to nurture it. And that happens through patience, curiosity, and connection — the same things God shows us every day.
Final Thoughts
Talking with Margaret Shawver reminded me why I started this podcast in the first place.
Homeschooling isn’t about perfection. It’s about partnership — with God, with our kids, and with the learning process itself.
Math doesn’t have to be a mountain we dread climbing. It can be a daily act of worship, a reminder that every number, every pattern, every formula points back to a God of incredible order and beauty.
So next time your child groans about math, remind them (and yourself):
This isn’t just arithmetic. It’s everyday math, everyday faith.
Connect with Margaret Shawver:
TikTok – @workingmomlabs (math demos + tips)
Walmart.com – Search for “Differentiated Graph Paper”
Etsy – search for “Working Mom Labs”
