Beth in SW WA Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 (edited) Why has no one told me how fun those little blocks are? Dd7 is building squares & rectangles and doing her Beast lessons with our new blocks. Dd8 is building squares and factoring polynomials. Quite painless and actually enjoyable for all. Even dd7 can see how it works. :) Crewton Ramone's House Of Math videos have given me some fabulous ideas. If you haven't watched his youtube videos...do it! Steve Demme's alg 1 videos are fantastic. I just received MUS Alg 1 this week and we already LOVE it! This should be FUN! Anyone else using MUS blocks for algebra? My young learners are truly enjoying this. Currently dd7 has her mini-fig of Jack Sparrow measuring the sides and areas of her squares/rectangles and other random shapes in Beast. Yay, homeschool. Edited April 19, 2012 by Beth in SW WA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 These look so fun. And with Mr Sparrow in tow too. :tongue_smilie:Wish I had one more kid to try these with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 ... I think they're fun, and so does Bot-bot! Button, however, who has had them for 3+ years now, since Primer, is Not Amused ;). Maybe introducing them with Algebra & alongside Beast Math is the ticket ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted April 20, 2012 Author Share Posted April 20, 2012 (edited) ... I think they're fun, and so does Bot-bot! Button, however, who has had them for 3+ years now, since Primer, is Not Amused ;). Maybe introducing them with Algebra & alongside Beast Math is the ticket ... Oh, yes. Teaching alg w/ blocks seems logical. This is such a great way to teach squares, square roots, exponents, completing the square, etc. Why doesn't everyone use blocks to teach this? Am I the only one coming late to this party? :tongue_smilie: I regret that I didn't introduce this method to my older dc when they were 7 & 8. My younger dds benefit from my years of trial & error. :) ETA: I need to give credit to Crewton Ramone's House Of Math...again. This page on square numbers was enlightening for me -- especially the videos. Edited April 20, 2012 by Beth in SW WA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 I have been a mus fan since we switched to it two years ago. After seeing your posts about algebra I'm excited to get dd there. We are doing fractions in epsilon and she had a blast playing with the blocks at the beginning of the book doing problems like, "what is 3/5 of 10" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauracolumbus Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Beth, If you come across any other helpful sites, could you keep posting them? Thanks for sharing these, Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Beth,If you come across any other helpful sites, could you keep posting them? Thanks for sharing these, Laura You're welcome. Pay the $5 to access the Crewton Ramone advanced lessons. He is fantastic!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 WOW! I've been watching the Crewton Ramone videos for the past couple days since seeing this thread. I am so impressed. I'm thinking of getting the MUS blocks that he uses for my older girls to learn negatives and algebra. We've used Cuisenaire rods for Miquon and have absolutely LOVED them, but the fact that the blocks CR uses can represent negatives and algebra so well makes me think they might even be the better of the two. My only hesitation is that they are scored on one side - that's why I've always preferred C rods (no counting).... hmmmmm..... I might look through our Miquon books and see if my 4yo can use the MUS blocks for it. If so, I think we'll switch over. For anyone who hasn't yet seen the Crewton Ramone videos, there really is some good stuff there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 6, 2012 Author Share Posted May 6, 2012 WOW! I've been watching the Crewton Ramone videos for the past couple days since seeing this thread. I am so impressed. I'm thinking of getting the MUS blocks that he uses for my older girls to learn negatives and algebra. We've used Cuisenaire rods for Miquon and have absolutely LOVED them, but the fact that the blocks CR uses can represent negatives and algebra so well makes me think they might even be the better of the two. My only hesitation is that they are scored on one side - that's why I've always preferred C rods (no counting).... hmmmmm..... I might look through our Miquon books and see if my 4yo can use the MUS blocks for it. If so, I think we'll switch over. For anyone who hasn't yet seen the Crewton Ramone videos, there really is some good stuff there! I love CR and his adorable kids. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitascool Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 We love our MUS blocks. My oldest finishing up Zeta and still uses them for lesson page A every time. He's looking so forward to using the Algebra blocks next year. ...My only hesitation is that they are scored on one side - that's why I've always preferred C rods (no counting)... We are on our 4th child using MUS blocks, aside from first learning the color code we have not had any problems with counting the blocks. It took my oldest (math phobic ds) 3 weeks at age 7 to learn them. The rest of the children did MUS from the beginning and took less then a week to learn them at ages 5, 4 and 3. here is the "code" we use to learn the blocks: 1= green (green tree) 2= orange (tasty oranges) 3= pink (pink pigs or piggies depending on age of child) 4= yellow (sour lemons) 5= sky blue (fluffy clouds) 6= lavender (pretty purple flowers) 7= vanilla (cream sodas) 8= chocolate (chocol8) 9= Aquamarine (submarines) 10= dark blue (bouncy blue balls) 100=red (red apples) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) Dd9 is on lesson 20 of MUS alg 1 and is loving the blocks. She doesn't 'need' them but they sure are handy! I attached a pic from yesterday's lesson on multiplying polys. I can't get enough Crewton Ramone videos. I feel like a broken record. This guy is AWESOME! Between Steve Demme and Crewton Ramone, we are are having a blast with alg concepts. Even dd7 gets this. Seriously. Pay the $5 for a password to his website for cool stuff. An abundance of amazing math videos for youngers using manipulatives for quadratics. Note: I don't get anything for promoting this guy and his methodology. Could we live in a better era to homeschool math? If I can do this, anyone can who is willing to learn new skills at age 42. :tongue_smilie: Edited May 17, 2012 by Beth in SW WA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy in TN Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Dd9 is on lesson 20 of MUS alg 1 and is loving the blocks. She doesn't 'need' them but they sure are handy! I attached a pic from yesterday's lesson on multiplying polys. Thanks for the pic. After you started this thread I thought I would just pull out the MUS Alg1 videos and let Doodle just watch them for fun. I had used them with second ds and they were still on my homeschool shelf. Middle ds never used the blocks, so I didn't even offer them to Doodle. Well, guess what- he paused the video and ran and pulled them out on his own. :) Today he watched lesson 23 and did the worksheets using the blocks. It's kind of funny, because at some point he had decided that he didn't want to use manipulatives. He said they took too much time, but he has been enjoying the MUS blocks with Steve Demme. Could we live in a better era to homeschool math? If I can do this, anyone can who is willing to learn new skills at age 42. :tongue_smilie: I don't know about the era, but I know I appreciate the things you share and your enthusiasm. It oozes through the screen. :D Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Today he watched lesson 23 and did the worksheets using the blocks. It's kind of funny, because at some point he had decided that he didn't want to use manipulatives. He said they took too much time, but he has been enjoying the MUS blocks with Steve Demme. I don't know about the era, but I know I appreciate the things you share and your enthusiasm. It oozes through the screen. :D Mandy For years I overlooked Steve Demme. It wasn't until I youtubed his alg demo that I took notice. Such a hoot. What student wouldn't love him? Very endearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Seriously. Pay the $5 for a password to his website for cool stuff. An abundance of amazing math videos for youngers using manipulatives for quadratics. Beth, is there some organization to the videos on the website somewhere? An ordered list of skills so we can figure out which video to watch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Beth, is there some organization to the videos on the website somewhere? An ordered list of skills so we can figure out which video to watch? I paid the $5 (and will join the website yearly) for the first month because I wanted CR's advanced alg videos. I learned a ton. He is a certified Mortenson math instructor (as is Steve Demme) and teaches online and on Maui for local students. His real name is hidden on his website. I'll let you find it. :) Our fam is going to Maui in June for an anniversary vacation and my girls will be meeting him in person for a couple sessions. (So excited!) :) As to the website, I asked him to join this forum so he can answer questions personally. I have watched nearly all of them. Dds have watched many. They love him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 (edited) So great in theory. Dd usually turns manipulatives into art/building blocks, though. Hmmmmmm. Maybe I can test the theory with legos first. ETA: Addend towers work with C-rods. :D Edited May 18, 2012 by LittleIzumi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Why has no one told me how fun those little blocks are? Dd7 is building squares & rectangles and doing her Beast lessons with our new blocks. Dd8 is building squares and factoring polynomials. Quite painless and actually enjoyable for all. Even dd7 can see how it works. :) Crewton Ramone's House Of Math videos have given me some fabulous ideas. If you haven't watched his youtube videos...do it! Steve Demme's alg 1 videos are fantastic. I just received MUS Alg 1 this week and we already LOVE it! This should be FUN! Anyone else using MUS blocks for algebra? My young learners are truly enjoying this. Currently dd7 has her mini-fig of Jack Sparrow measuring the sides and areas of her squares/rectangles and other random shapes in Beast. Yay, homeschool. Beth, I love looking at pictures of your girls. Is it possible to use Steve's videos with base-10 blocks and Cuisinaire rods, rather than buying MUS blocks? Isn't it about $100 for the complete set? What we have seems similar, and that's what we used with Beast in the multiplication section. Tell me what I'm not seeing here, cuz I'm always willing to spend if it's for math. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 19, 2012 Author Share Posted May 19, 2012 Beth, is there some organization to the videos on the website somewhere? An ordered list of skills so we can figure out which video to watch? I posted his answer to this question here. Beth, I love looking at pictures of your girls. Is it possible to use Steve's videos with base-10 blocks and Cuisinaire rods, rather than buying MUS blocks? Isn't it about $100 for the complete set? What we have seems similar, and that's what we used with Beast in the multiplication section. Tell me what I'm not seeing here, cuz I'm always willing to spend if it's for math. :tongue_smilie: Try and use what you have. A cheap set of alg tiles from Amazon is about $3 but I'm not sure what you get. I have 2 kiddos using the blocks so it was worth it to splurge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Is it possible to use Steve's videos with base-10 blocks and Cuisinaire rods, rather than buying MUS blocks? Isn't it about $100 for the complete set? What we have seems similar, and that's what we used with Beast in the multiplication section. Tell me what I'm not seeing here, cuz I'm always willing to spend if it's for math. :tongue_smilie: We have C-rods and a Base-10 set. I plan on covering opposing sides of some ten rods from the base-10 set (they are blue) with paper, mod-podging them, and calling them "x" and I will do the same for the hundred flats. Also, I'm going to buy really thin (gray?) tape to put on one side of the rods to represent negatives. We've been using C-rods for a long time and I decided not to switch - especially because I am tutoring a lot of people and it is under $30 for them to buy a small group set of Cuisenaire rods and a set of hundred flats! Then they can play math games with their kids at home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 20, 2012 Author Share Posted May 20, 2012 We have C-rods and a Base-10 set. I plan on covering opposing sides of some ten rods from the base-10 set (they are blue) with paper, mod-podging them, and calling them "x" and I will do the same for the hundred flats. Also, I'm going to buy really thin (gray?) tape to put on one side of the rods to represent negatives. Excellent ideas, Rosie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Hey, Beth, you've seen this, right? (I bet you did and posted it, in this thread even, and I missed it. My brain is fried today!) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crewton-ramones-absolutely/id334988816?mt=8 This is way beneath your girls' level(s), but I wonder if more CRHM apps will come out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 Slightly OT.... I've been reading through my AoPS Alg 1 text to see how it teaches certain topics as compared to what dd9 is using now (and what older dc used for alg). My thoughts are similar to what I feel about AoPS Prealg. Thorough, rigorous and wordy. I will use AoPS Alg 1 chapters 10-13 with dd9...eventually as review. I can't imagine using this to teach alg to a youngster. Crewton Ramone, MUS alg 1, TT alg 1 seem to teach the same content in a much more relaxed, fun way. Even LOF Alg (which dd loves) is a walk in the park compared to AoPS Alg. But we already knew that. AoPS is awesome. Don't get me wrong. DD14 will read through the quadratics chapters this summer to prep for next year. It is phenomenal instruction. Someday dd9 will be ready for that level of problem solving. For now, she loves algebra. She dreams about it. Talks about it constantly. I guess I'm doing something right. :) Pardon my digression. Thinking out loud here again. Like I do. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Someday dd9 will be ready for that level of problem solving. For now, she loves algebra. She dreams about it. Talks about it constantly. I guess I'm doing something right. :) Um, yeah, I'd say so, Beth!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) Slightly OT.... I've been reading through my AoPS Alg 1 text to see how it teaches certain topics as compared to what dd9 is using now (and what older dc used for alg). My thoughts are similar to what I feel about AoPS Prealg. Thorough, rigorous and wordy. I will use AoPS Alg 1 chapters 10-13 with dd9...eventually as review. I can't imagine using this to teach alg to a youngster. Crewton Ramone, MUS alg 1, TT alg 1 seem to teach the same content in a much more relaxed, fun way. Even LOF Alg (which dd loves) is a walk in the park compared to AoPS Alg. But we already knew that. AoPS is awesome. Don't get me wrong. DD14 will read through the quadratics chapters this summer to prep for next year. It is phenomenal instruction. Someday dd9 will be ready for that level of problem solving. For now, she loves algebra. She dreams about it. Talks about it constantly. I guess I'm doing something right. :) Pardon my digression. Thinking out loud here again. Like I do. :tongue_smilie: DD and I had a lot of fun yesterday watching CR videos and using our base-10 blocks and rods. It's kind of strange solving for quadratics when I'm not even sure DD gets the concept. :tongue_smilie: I haven't paid $5 for the advanced algebra videos since we actually haven't finished MM5 or 6 and I wasn't sure how to teach algebra along with elementary math. I was thinking of doing something like MUS or CR, so more of a relaxed introduction to algebra for a young child, who is not yet ready for AOPS/Dolciani. We also just started HOE, which I would use along with a relaxed algebra program. I did spend some time looking at MUS blocks, Algeblocks, and CR's blocks, and then looking at some reviews on the Logic/High School Board about algebra blocks/tiles. I thought Kuovonne gave a great explanation. Edited May 22, 2012 by crazyforlatin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) DD and I had a lot of fun yesterday watching CR videos and using our base-10 blocks and rods. It's kind of strange solving for quadratics when I'm not even sure DD gets the concept. :tongue_smilie: I haven't paid $5 for the advanced algebra videos since we actually haven't finished MM5 or 6 and I wasn't sure how to teach algebra along with elementary math. I was thinking of doing something like MUS or CR, so more of a relaxed introduction to algebra for a young child, who is not yet ready for AOPS/Dolciani. We also just started HOE, which I would use along with a relaxed algebra program. I thank HoE for lighting the alg fire in dd9. Dd7 is anxious to work on HoE a bit more this summer. As for CR, it would be worth $5 to check it out. I just paid $24 for the year. I thought Kuovonne gave a great explanation. :iagree::iagree::iagree: The password-protected videos have been helpful for dd9. We also enjoy this 2-part lesson on x^2. , Edited May 22, 2012 by Beth in SW WA added more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Also, Kuovonne mentioned Bosse tiles, which I found here. Seems reasonable and those tiles can be used with 3 variables, but she seems to like AlgeBlocks the best for their 3-D approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 This morning both girls used the MUS blocks to build the polys from TT Alg 1 lesson 82. Fun, Fun.:) Dd7 thinks she has died and gone to heaven. (Thank you, Crewton & MUS!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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