It now seems to be widely accepted in literacy circles that kids should be encouraged to read. And that it does not matter very much what they read, they should be encouraged to read. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, graphic novels. It doesn’t matter as long as they’re encountering new vocabulary, important narrative structures, etc. They just need to read. In school or out of school, they just need to read.
We’re not there yet in mathematics.
In math, we think they need to work on these number facts at this grade level, and those number facts at that grade level. Identify this shape at this grade and sort those shapes at that grade.
We have free reading time in class every day in elementary school. But free math time?
I’m just sayin’.