Miquon -- feeling lost re: implementing it

[lindsey]

I read the First Grade Diary and I still just feel lost. :/ It only covers half of first grade and I guess I need more of like, a daily plan for all three years. Or at least more of an order and clear instructions, rather than the option to skip around in six different books (and two teacher books...so much to keep track of!). Maybe this is just a bad program for me?

 

I liked reading the First Grade Diary and it sounded good and like it'd be effective and fun, but then the big Annotations book just seems really random and unclear. Help me out...am I not bright enough for this? :P I only bought two workbooks and maybe I could return them.

 

I know kids will all work on different levels and pace can vary...but do most people just go in order? Do a few pages a day? Is it okay to do it that way? Just aim to pace it like, a workbook per half school year? Or is that unrealistic, since it seems designed for skipping around as skills and interests dictate?

Edited January 22, 2016 by lindsey

[Slache]

I just hand my son a sheet and read the instructions if he needs them, which he hasn't since the first week. It seems to be very intuitive for kids but not so much for the parents. ;) Sometimes I'll hand him a sheet that makes no sense to me and he just starts doing it.

[lindsey]

I was hoping maybe it would become a little more clear once I'd fumbled through a few days. I like scripts I guess. :P It's so different than what we're used to, but I like that about it...it just also makes it a bit intimidating.

[Rosie_0801]

You can use it any way you like. You can combine it with a scripted program too if that'd make you feel better. :)

[Slache]

I really like it. It's simple for me and challenging and interesting for him, but when I first opened it I was like "really?" It definitely took me a week.

[barnwife]

We have just started to dabble in Miquon. Before we just played with c-rods. We still do free exploring time with them, but I also spend a few minutes doing some sort of teaching related to a lab sheet a few times a week. Then I give him the choice of 2 or 3 sheets. 

I know some people let the kid choose, but handing mine a book and saying "choose a sheet" would totally overwhelm our 5 yo. 

Doing this 2 or 3 times a week is enough for us for now. 

[El...]

We did the sheets in order, and I was glad we did because it seemed to me that they'd develop a related theme that way, even if we changed topic.  We did from one to six a day, but I limited the time we spent on it so she wouldn't get too exhausted.

 

The first few sheets were sort of simple... play with it, match it, color the shapes to match the rods, try writing the numbers in the boxes....  After that, the most important teaching strategies I learned were: first, if Dd looked lost, hand her the rods, even if she declared she didn't need them; and second, to hand her the sheet and then BE SILENT.  I had to work very hard not to tell her how to do the math.  If I explained, she lost the opportunity to explore what the page was trying to teach.  I learned to ask some leading questions, but really to back out of giving any answers or hints. 

[Alessandra]

We did the sheets in order, and I was glad we did because it seemed to me that they'd develop a related theme that way, even if we changed topic. We did from one to six a day, but I limited the time we spent on it so she wouldn't get too exhausted.

 

The first few sheets were sort of simple... play with it, match it, color the shapes to match the rods, try writing the numbers in the boxes.... After that, the most important teaching strategies I learned were: first, if Dd looked lost, hand her the rods, even if she declared she didn't need them; and second, to hand her the sheet and then BE SILENT. I had to work very hard not to tell her how to do the math. If I explained, she lost the opportunity to explore what the page was trying to teach. I learned to ask some leading questions, but really to back out of giving any answers or hints.

This. We did the sheets in order too. I took them out of the book -- much easier that way.

 

I absolutely read the Annotations. Sometimes there will be a comment I needed. I remember the first really difficult assessment, a red one, I think, folded like a book. It was a relief to read that most kids would find it difficult. For other pages, the Annotations will mention that you can suggest several ways of doing a problem, even if kid got a right answer.

 

When we got to a difficult spot, I would tell dd to take her time and let the rods give her the answer. That almost always worked.

 

We watched Education Unboxed for fun.

 

Dd is a visual learner, so using the rods was a good match for her.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Alessandra

[Ellie]

I read the First Grade Diary and I still just feel lost. :/ It only covers half of first grade and I guess I need more of like, a daily plan for all three years. Or at least more of an order and clear instructions, rather than the option to skip around in six different books (and two teacher books...so much to keep track of!). Maybe this is just a bad program for me?

 

I liked reading the First Grade Diary and it sounded good and like it'd be effective and fun, but then the big Annotations book just seems really random and unclear. Help me out...am I not bright enough for this? :p I only bought two workbooks and maybe I could return them.

 

I know kids will all work on different levels and pace can vary...but do most people just go in order? Do a few pages a day? Is it okay to do it that way? Just aim to pace it like, a workbook per half school year? Or is that unrealistic, since it seems designed for skipping around as skills and interests dictate?

 

If you have the Teachers' Lab Notations, you'll see a chart that shows the scope and sequence of all the books. You can either do the books in order, or you can buy all the books at once and follow a concept through as many books as it is covered.

 

The pages in the Lab Notations are just the pages for all of the activities. If you'll notice in the activities books, the pages aren't numbered 1 through 50; they all seem to be numbered randomly. But they aren't. The follow concepts.

 

When I did Miquon, I started at the beginning of the Orange book. I'd find the page in the Lab Notations and read through it, then I'd sit with the dc and help them discover...whatever it was. It works if you do it that way. :-)

[arliemaria]

I have liked looking at Miquon for a very long time but recently bought Gattegno Textbook 1.  It is written in a scripted format and not in worksheet format.  I am using it as a way for me to ease into our Miquon workbooks.

[elizahelen]

Listening.. I am using Miquon orange for my 6 year old. We do 15 to 20 minutes, which is usually a page. If she gets bored or unfocused, I take it away, and bring it out later to finish. Sometimes I use a different math book from library- Richard Scarry best counting book ever, math fables- to just count and review addition and subtraction. I guess I'm realizing that k and first don't need to have any pressure, just making it fun to learn.

[lindsey]

I have the Annotations book but not the Notes to Teacher one (mistake, thought I bought it)...maybe I need that one to help make it clearer? I'll keep exploring the Annotations book, too.

[Slache]

If he's familiar with the rods just start and see how it goes. If it flops sell everything but the orange book. But it might be great!

[MeaganS]

Gattegno is a great gateway to the type of teaching Miquon uses, as is education unboxed. My method is to first teach the rods through play. Once the rods are down, I have the child do the A thread in the orange book. Once that is done, every day I pick a page and the child picks a page. The only rule is that we don't skip ahead through threads, but we can skip across threads. That, and we finish the entire book before moving to the next. My 5yo loves the fractions pages because of the pictures, so she often picks all of those first,for example. If I don't get what a page is trying to do, I'll look in the annotations book, but usually it is easy to tell. Miquon was a bust for dd7 but amazing for dd5 and dd3 is enjoying it so far (only about 6 or 7 pages in).

[Coco_Clark]

I don't think I would have been able to teach Miquon if I hadn't already done Singapore w/ an older child. They are very different programs but I think it just gave me the knowledge (or the confidence?) to teach math.

 

We trade-off me picking a page (I'm going in order of the book) one day, and my son picking a thread (a thread, not a page...because I like him to do different threads in order) the next day. We just do one page, front and back, every day, unless he wants to do more.

 

During Orange I read the Annotation every single time. During Red it was about half/half...if I was confused of it was a new thread to us, or he struggled. We just started Blue after Christmas and I haven't cracked the Annotations since. I'm sure I will, but my point is, you start to "get it".

[TKDmom]

The first few pages are the most confusing. I looked at Miquon at a convention and was so confused that I was scared away from it for a year or two. Once I actually bought the books, I just went through the workbooks in order and consulted the Lab Annotations if I didn't understand a page. Sometimes, I'd skip to a new thread if ds got stuck on a difficult concept. Planning 2 books a year seems reasonable, but I'd rather say 15 minutes a day and get through the books whenever you get through them.

 

Are you confused by the layout of the Lab Annotations? It is ordered by thread, rather than by workbook. If you look at p. 9 there is a chart with each book and what they cover. So the Orange Book starts with Counting (A1-A24), then moves on to addition (C1-C11), then subtraction (D1-D4)... When you get to the Red Book it will start with Odd-Even concepts (B1-B12), then pick up addition where the Orange book left off (C12-C25). I hope this is making sense. If you look at the chart, hopefully it will. Anyway, the Annotations have (for example) all the C-pages grouped together, even though they span 5 different books. You just look at the worksheet page you're on and flip to that page in the Annotations for instructions. When you open up to the first pages of the Orange book and say, "What the heck are we supposed to do with all these funny blobs?!" You turn to the Annotations pages that cover A1-A3, and it gives you ideas of how to use the pages with rods for counting things. Later on, the pages become more self-explanatory, and there may not be much instruction (once you see one page of repeated addition, you don't really need instruction on the next 5 pages of the same activities with different numbers).

[ExcitedMama]

Thanks TKDmom for explaining it so well! I've been intimidated by it!

 

Thanks OP for starting this thread!

[pehp]

Miquon and I have been through it together (love first, then I was confused b/c my son seemed to hate it, now we are back together again and totally committed....)--here are my suggestions (and the above suggestions are great!) on the way we use it....I work my way sequentially through the books, just b/c it makes sense to me.  Sometimes I skip a page if I don't like it.  We always tear the page out of the book.  I look at the Lab Annotations for that page if I'm puzzled by the lab sheet we're using.  And here's the clincher that has been a deal breaker or maker for us: I don't just give the sheet to my child.  A playful, exploratory child might take the c-rods and run with it, but my child doesn't like that (when I tried it that way my son loathed it!).  So we sit together with the rods and sheet and discuss it.  Sometimes it doesn't need much discussion and he goes for it.  Sometimes we play with the concepts together. Sometimes I am more didactic.  I don't try to schedule it simply because we might spend one day on one sheet, if the concept is more elusive for my son, and on another day we might roll through several pages.  I try to observe his pace.

 

I have to say I think my son's conceptual understanding is rock-solid.  He does NOT recall math facts very well yet (we're doing some Calculadders to help with that--he likes C'ladders and thinks the worksheets are fun).  But conceptually he GETS IT.  He can visualize math.  And it's not boring (we tried R&S for a while in second grade as I was attempting to brush him up on facts, but it was boring--effective, I am sure, but neither of us liked it much and I did a lot of skipping b/c the repetition seemed excessive to me). 

[lindsey]

This is all very helpful -- I also went through the Annotations and flagged the start of each section (with letter labels), and paper clipped the Orange book pages so the smaller sections are easy to find. It seems less overwhelming and a little more organized that way, so I can flip around easily as needed! I'll just plan to go through in order. And to spend time just playing and getting to know the rods before starting with the workbooks. (I don't imagine my kiddo will be all that into building and playing independently with them and such, so we'll learn them together.) Thank you!!

Edited January 23, 2016 by lindsey

[Ellie]

This is all very helpful -- I also went through the Annotations and flagged the start of each section (with letter labels), and paper clipped the Orange book pages so the smaller sections are easy to find. It seems less overwhelming and a little more organized that way, so I can flip around easily as needed! I'll just plan to go through in order. And to spend time just playing and getting to know the rods before starting with the workbooks. (I don't imagine my kiddo will be all that into building and playing independently with them and such, so we'll learn them together.) Thank you!!

 

:thumbup1:

 

I did the same thing with my book. However, I also took it to Kinko's and had the spine cut off, then the book drilled with three holes so it would fit in a three-ring notebook.

 

Before I started Miquon, I went through quite a few of the activity cards in Mathematics Made Meaningful.

[Sarah0000]

I read through the first quarter of the Annotations, and the Notes and Diary, then started DS in Orange. After about a week or so, we stopped doing them in a structured way. Instead two of the books (one below level, one at level) are stored in our games closet with all of our logic puzzle/code books and board games and its something he pulls out to play with. I'll sometimes pull it out to play with too, so occasionally we do a more parent led "lesson" with them. We do a lot of other math stuff as well.

[Lori D.]

Yes, the first handful of pages in the first workbook are somewhat confusing, but after that it settles down. You might find the Education Unboxed videos helpful for getting a feel for what "discovery" with Miquon rods and work pages can look like -- enjoy watching WITH your student.

 

Miquon is set up to be used either as a "spiral" -- go straight through the workbooks in sequential order and keep spiraling back to the topics and go deeper -- or as "mastery" -- follow a topic from workbook to workbook until the student "stalls", then go back to the first workbook and follow the next topic from workbook to workbook. You may want to start sequentially, and then if your student really clicks with a topic, switch over and let your student take off. :) You can always switch back to a going sequentially, or swing back and forth -- whatever works for the two of you. :)

 

Most of the previous posters used Miquon sequentially. We did the "mastery" approach, following a topic until DSs were no longer "clicking" with it, then going back to where we left off in the lower workbook and working on pages until they got interested in a topic and wanted to run with it again. Both DSs are very different learners (one is highly auditory-sequential, the other visual-spatial), yet Miquon clicked well for both.

 

As far as how much to schedule for a day -- you can let your child's interest lead here. We started homeschooling when DS#1 was 2nd grade when we started homeschooling, so he flew through Miquon and typically did 4-5 pages a day; he took 2 years to do the program, and the second year, I added in Singapore, and after completing Miquon, he went on to complete Singapore Primary. DS#2 started at 1st grade, AND he struggled with math, so he went more slowly through Miquon, at about 2 pages a day.

 

You might find these resources helpful:

 

Mastering Miquon: Top Ten Tips -- helps for getting started in using Miquon

Just Five More Minutes -- tips for getting started with Miquon

Dewey's Treehouse Blog: Family Journey Through Miquon Math -- what she did when they hit specific "roadblocks"

Mamaland Blog: Rethinking Miquon Math: A Revelation -- out of the box scheduling idea for Miquon -- parent picks a page to "teach", student picks a page for "discovery"

 

Miquon Math Forum

Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics (Liping Ma) -- not directly related to Miquon, but this gives you an understanding of the Asian approach to math, which Miquon heavily draws on

 

 

BEST of luck in your Miquon adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Lori D.

[hands-on-mama]

Yes, the first handful of pages in the first workbook are somewhat confusing, but after that it settles down. You might find the Education Unboxed videos helpful for getting a feel for what "discovery" with Miquon rods and work pages can look like -- enjoy watching WITH your student.

 

Miquon is set up to be used either as a "spiral" -- go straight through the workbooks in sequential order and keep spiraling back to the topics and go deeper -- or as "mastery" -- follow a topic from workbook to workbook until the student "stalls", then go back to the first workbook and follow the next topic from workbook to workbook. You may want to start sequentially, and then if your student really clicks with a topic, switch over and let your student take off. :) You can always switch back to a going sequentially, or swing back and forth -- whatever works for the two of you. :)

 

Most of the previous posters used Miquon sequentially. We did the "mastery" approach, following a topic until DSs were no longer "clicking" with it, then going back to where we left off in the lower workbook and working on pages until they got interested in a topic and wanted to run with it again. Both DSs are very different learners (one is highly auditory-sequential, the other visual-spatial), yet Miquon clicked well for both.

 

As far as how much to schedule for a day -- you can let your child's interest lead here. We started homeschooling when DS#1 was 2nd grade when we started homeschooling, so he flew through Miquon and typically did 4-5 pages a day; he took 2 years to do the program, and the second year, I added in Singapore, and after completing Miquon, he went on to complete Singapore Primary. DS#2 started at 1st grade, AND he struggled with math, so he went more slowly through Miquon, at about 2 pages a day.

 

You might find these resources helpful:

 

Mastering Miquon: Top Ten Tips -- helps for getting started in using Miquon

Just Five More Minutes -- tips for getting started with Miquon

Dewey's Treehouse Blog: Family Journey Through Miquon Math -- what she did when they hit specific "roadblocks"

Mamaland Blog: Rethinking Miquon Math: A Revelation -- out of the box scheduling idea for Miquon -- parent picks a page to "teach", student picks a page for "discovery"

 

Miquon Math Forum

Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics (Liping Ma) -- not directly related to Miquon, but this gives you an understanding of the Asian approach to math, which Miquon heavily draws on

 

 

BEST of luck in your Miquon adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Thank you so much for this post! I have been wrestling with switching over to Miquon for my youngest. This is going to help a lot!

 

[lindsey]

Yes, the first handful of pages in the first workbook are somewhat confusing, but after that it settles down. You might find the Education Unboxed videos helpful for getting a feel for what "discovery" with Miquon rods and work pages can look like -- enjoy watching WITH your student.

 

Miquon is set up to be used either as a "spiral" -- go straight through the workbooks in sequential order and keep spiraling back to the topics and go deeper -- or as "mastery" -- follow a topic from workbook to workbook until the student "stalls", then go back to the first workbook and follow the next topic from workbook to workbook. You may want to start sequentially, and then if your student really clicks with a topic, switch over and let your student take off. :) You can always switch back to a going sequentially, or swing back and forth -- whatever works for the two of you. :)

 

Most of the previous posters used Miquon sequentially. We did the "mastery" approach, following a topic until DSs were no longer "clicking" with it, then going back to where we left off in the lower workbook and working on pages until they got interested in a topic and wanted to run with it again. Both DSs are very different learners (one is highly auditory-sequential, the other visual-spatial), yet Miquon clicked well for both.

 

As far as how much to schedule for a day -- you can let your child's interest lead here. We started homeschooling when DS#1 was 2nd grade when we started homeschooling, so he flew through Miquon and typically did 4-5 pages a day; he took 2 years to do the program, and the second year, I added in Singapore, and after completing Miquon, he went on to complete Singapore Primary. DS#2 started at 1st grade, AND he struggled with math, so he went more slowly through Miquon, at about 2 pages a day.

 

You might find these resources helpful:

 

Mastering Miquon: Top Ten Tips -- helps for getting started in using Miquon

Just Five More Minutes -- tips for getting started with Miquon

Dewey's Treehouse Blog: Family Journey Through Miquon Math -- what she did when they hit specific "roadblocks"

Mamaland Blog: Rethinking Miquon Math: A Revelation -- out of the box scheduling idea for Miquon -- parent picks a page to "teach", student picks a page for "discovery"

 

Miquon Math Forum

Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics (Liping Ma) -- not directly related to Miquon, but this gives you an understanding of the Asian approach to math, which Miquon heavily draws on

 

 

BEST of luck in your Miquon adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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