Which cuisinere rods for Miquon?

[AimeeM]

Nico (3) will be moving into Miquon this fall and I'm overwhelmed by the cuisinere rod choices, lol!!! Can anyone... I don't know... tell me what to buy???

[Farrar]

I prefer the wooden ones. The plastic ones bubble out slightly making them not quite line up.

[forty-two]

Lots of people, including me ;), get the Small Group Set (155 rods, iirc), either wooden or plastic (people like both; I have both, too, and I don't really have a preference - they are both good :)).. In our playing around with the rods, we've found that it is nice for each kid to have a full small group set to play with - you need at least that many for free play to be interesting and have plenty for explorations.

 

(Over the years, I've actually ended up with the equivalent of three small group sets, which is a bit overkill for the girls - just two sets are sufficient for them to play with (they don't usually need to break into the third one) - but it's nice for when I want to play with them, too ;), and will be great once the baby is ready to use more than a handful of rods.)

[boscopup]

Plastic and wood both work great. The biggest thing is to get ones WITHOUT notches.

 

I have plastic only, and the bubbling issue hasn't hindered us in any of the math we've done so far. Though I'm an engineer, and anything is fine within a certain percentage of accuracy. ;)

[Syllieann]

I haven't had any problem with the plastic bubble thing either. Actually ds often balances them on end. I also recommend the small group set because then it gives you a lot more options for expanding their usefulness beyond just the lab sheets.

[Walking-Iris]

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/002153/cd89862c6c48a6139b1f60cc

 

This comes with a fun little booklet explaining their use and has some games in it. But there's not enough rods to really get into hundreds so also get this

 

http://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=006380

 

I haven't noticed a single problem with my plastic sets. And we've used them for years!!

[Spy Car]

I'd second a Small Group set (155 pieces) in either plastic or wood. I (against my preference for natural materials) prefer the plastic ones, as they are more dense and of higher quality than the light-weight wood ones. Either will work.

 

I'll second Boscopup in cautioning against the "scored and linking" variety of manipulatives that are sold as "Cuisenaire Rods" (as a marketing device) but in reality are no such thing.

 

It is also very worthwhile to add a set of base-10 "flats" to serve as 100 values to complement the C Rod set. c Rods and base-10 blocks use the same scale, and it is good to have 100s. A set can be had for under $10.

 

Bill

[Farrar]

Rosie has a video about the plastic vs. wood ones. The issue is really minor. Some secret OCD part of me was bothered by it though.

[bakpak]

I prefer the wooden ones. The plastic ones bubble out slightly making them not quite line up.

 

 

I agree that I'm annoyed that our plastic ones aren't straight. And when stacked don't come out evenly.

[xixstar]

Before buying a small group set, read plenty of posts that wood and plastic are the same and the slight bowing sides with the plastic didn't matter.

 

Bought a plastic set and it drives me nuts that 10 bars side by side are longer than a ten rod. I will be buying a new wood set with our curriculum supplies this year.

 

For the record, my kids don't care. But sometimes when we play with them making patterns and designs (filling in a 5"-square area for example) it does frustrate them that everything doesn't fit perfectly if some rods are laid out end to side, it skews the whole layout to where we can't get it perfectly squared.

[fourisenough]

Yep, small group set of wooden rods would be my suggestion, too. I'm a little OCD and I like 'em straight!

[craftyerin]

Rosie has a video about the plastic vs. wood ones. The issue is really minor. Some secret OCD part of me was bothered by it though.

same here. We own a set of each. I prefer the wood. In reality, it doesn't matter at all, so long as they're not notched. If you have any kids of toy gnawing age, get plastic. The wooden ones are really quite soft.

[Abeilles]

After reading reviews on the forum a couple of years ago, I purchased the wooden 155 piece set and have been very pleased with them.Purchased them at Rainbow Resource. I've had plenty for my child to play with, the colors are nice, haven't flaked, and are good quality. i decided to go with the wood and am happy I did so. One caution, my 19 month old at the time sunk her teeth into them and did leave bite marks on the #2 rods. Doubt the teeth marks would have been as deep in plastic ones :)

[umsami]

We have the wooden ones. I think I bought them on Amazon, but it might have been through CBD.

 

We have sooo much plastic, that when I can find something a little more natural, I go for it. From a tactile perspective, I just prefer natural materials when I can get it. :) (And there wasn't a big price difference from what I recall.)

[*Lulu*]

We have the wooden ones here and it is a good thing since Bug has turned out to be a total perfectionist. He really, really, really needs his rods to line up perfectly. If you plan on having more than one child working at a time you'll want more than the 155 piece set.

[El...]

We got a flat set of wooden rods first, and then had to buy the small group set of 155 because we needed 10 ten rods. You can't make 100 with only 4 tens. I got both on Amazon, I think. I wish I'd bought the larger set first!

[NASDAQ]

I got a big set of wooden ones off of ebay.

[mathnerd]

I got the plastic ones first - they are the linking ones and they bow slightly but DS loves them because he is a Lego fiend and he is used to linking things together for play. I personally do not like them because the notch in each rod makes it bigger than the expected size. So I went ahead and bought the 155 set of wooden ones and they are great.

My biggest problem with the wooden set has been that markers and dry erase pens stain the rods easily and now all of them have stain marks on them (we use a white board as a tabletop and write math on it as well as use the C-rods on it). I bought a compatible set of flats and 1000 cube from Rainbow resource and they work well together.

Also RR has a storage tray for C-rods that I find very useful.

[Walking-Iris]

I got the plastic ones first - they are the linking ones and they bow slightly but DS loves them because he is a Lego fiend and he is used to linking things together for play. I personally do not like them because the notch in each rod makes it bigger than the expected size. So I went ahead and bought the 155 set of wooden ones and they are great.

My biggest problem with the wooden set has been that markers and dry erase pens stain the rods easily and now all of them have stain marks on them (we use a white board as a tabletop and write math on it as well as use the C-rods on it). I bought a compatible set of flats and 1000 cube from Rainbow resource and they work well together.

Also RR has a storage tray for C-rods that I find very useful.

 

I didn't even know. Thank you. I just ordered two. I made Montessori bead bars out of pony beads and wire and have been looking for a perfect container for them and this will work brilliantly, and another for the c-rods. So much better than the kids dumping the entire tub of both of them every time they use them.

 

I've read the wooden vs plastic c-rod debate so many times and I have to wonder if people are just getting bad batches or if a certain company making them is better than others. We've never had any problems with our plastic rods, and my ds is on the spectrum and went through a phase of meltdown when things didn't line up properly and yet our rods never bothered him at all. Hmmm.

[Spy Car]

I've read the wooden vs plastic c-rod debate so many times and I have to wonder if people are just getting bad batches or if a certain company making them is better than others. We've never had any problems with our plastic rods, and my ds is on the spectrum and went through a phase of meltdown when things didn't line up properly and yet our rods never bothered him at all. Hmmm.

 

The plastic ones are perfect in tems of "length" and since that is how they are ordinarily used, there is no problem. What some peopl have notices is that the stacked height of 10 Orange Rods (to give an example) laid horizontally might be slightly greater than the length of one Orange Rod oriented vertically.

 

I never noticed until Rosie (Education Unboxed) raised the issue. I tested ours, and sure enough the stacked height was ever-so-slightly off. Would I prefer more perfect precision? Sure, but I'm not OCD (and frankly never noticed).

 

I still prefer the more dense material used to make the plastic ones vs the soft-wood. If someone made perfectly milled C Rods out of hard-wood (and I could afford them) they would be my choice. But to me the soft-wood versions seem "cheap" and of lower quality than the plastic set.

 

Bill

 

 

[Walking-Iris]

The plastic ones are perfect in tems of "length" and since that is how they are ordinarily used, there is no problem. What some peopl have notices is that the stacked height of 10 Orange Rods (to give an example) laid horizontally might be slightly greater than the length of one Orange Rod oriented vertically.

 

I never noticed until Rosie (Education Unboxed) raised the issue. I tested ours, and sure enough the stacked height was ever-so-slightly off. Would I prefer more perfect precision? Sure, but I'm not OCD (and frankly never noticed).

 

I still prefer the more dense material used to make the plastic ones vs the soft-wood. If someone made perfectly milled C Rods out of hard-wood (and I could afford them) they would be my choice. But to me the soft-wood versions seem "cheap" and of lower quality than the plastic set.

 

Bill

 

I just tested that and mine are perfect. I still don't get it. Oh well. :tongue_smilie:

[Five More Minutes]

I have both. :blush:

 

I have two daughters, and for a long time one had a strong preference for the plastic over the wood (she liked the density, I think), while the other only would use the wooden rods.

 

Lately they've both become picky about using only the wooden ones, because they're into building and layering squares, and they are the type who are bothered by the very slight difference caused by the rounded edges on the plastic. They've also found that their free-standing structures are more stable when they use the wooden rods ... :001_smile:

[AdventureMoms]

We prefer the wood. I think you need at least a small group set, even for one child. I have both plastic and wood, and it probably wouldn't matter if we just used them as instructed, but we do like to play with them a lot. DD likes to make mosaic type squares with them and the plastic ones don't fit together right. I'm not really OCD, but yes, it bothers me that 10 blocks side by side are nearly 11 blocks wide...