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After using Miquon exclusively, I switched to _______________?


TheReader
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My youngest has several learning delays, and so learns very differently than his older brothers did. With the older boys, we used Singapore all the way to the end of 5 or 6, and switched to Teaching Textbooks. My oldest switched to textbook based math for his high school maths, then MUS for Alg II, and now Saxon Advanced Math for his Senior year. 

 

My middle son is doing well with Teaching Textbooks and will likely stick with it all the way through. 

 

My youngest is finishing the Green book from Miquon, and has used only Miquon for the last 2 years, and will use only Miquon until he gets to the end of the sequence. I expect we'll finish the next book by the end of this semester, and probably the final book over the summer (due to his delays, we can't have large gaps off), which leaves me wondering --- where on earth do we go from here?

 

He really thrives with the Miquon style of learning, understands the C-rods intuitively, completely understands what happens in multiplication and division, adding, subtracting, fractions, etc. Very analytical mind, yet at the same time hasn't memorized math facts (we will likely spend some time working on that between curriculums, just for the sake of speed). 

 

But.....I've no idea where to go from here. He didn't do super well with Singapore, so I'm unlikely to switch to that. I don't think he'll enjoy Teaching Textbooks at all, so don't want to do that. Maybe Math-U-See? I've never used the younger grades.....would it be similar, with the use of the rods? 

 

If you've used Miquon as your primary math, where did you go once you were done? 

 

Thanks!

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Many have used the Key To... series. I believe it was written by her son and takes a very similar approach

 

FWIW, while the Key-To series may have been written by the son, the approach does not come across (at least to me) as reminiscent of Miquon.  Key-To is good for drill.  

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If you've used Miquon as your primary math, where did you go once you were done? 

 

we went from Miquon -> SM 3A (and BeastAcademy, when that eventually became available, but only for fun...they were mostly past it by the time it came out).

 

You mentioned he didn't like it previously, but maybe it'll go better now that he's older + more prepared?

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As a side note, you may wish to take a look at the Keys to Math series of workbooks, created by the son of the Miquon creator. Topics include: Fractions, Percents, Decimals, Measurement, Metric Measurement, Algebra, Geometry. A series of workbooks cover a single topic, exploring it from various angles. These are not rod based, nor discovery based, but they DO present topics from many perspectives, which allows for many possible "entry points" to "click" with a student. The workbooks are great as either a supplement if the student isn't getting a topic in the spine math program, or as a first gentle, incremental exposure to a topic.

 

Just so you know, I did NOT use Miquon exclusively for either DS, but that's because I strongly believe seeing math from more than one perspective really helps develop math thinking and making math connections. :) Also, what worked for us doesn't mean it will work for you. It totally depends on what type of learner your student is, and what method of presentation works best for that student. ;) With that disclaimer...

 

DS#1 (math-minded, analytical, auditory-sequential learner)

Went from Miquon to Singapore to Jacobs Algebra & Geometry. We used some Saxon as a supplement, as well as some odds and ends

 

DS#2 (math struggler, concrete (not abstract) learner, visual-spatial learner)

Went from Miquon to trying a variety of things, and finally landed on MUS starting in 5th grade; he used MUS all the way through high school. Starting in 5th/6th grade, we also used supplements with MUS: the Keys to Math series and excerpts from Singapore 4A/B, 5A/B and 6A/B. We tried Singapore earlier with this DS as the main math after Miquon, but it moved too quickly for him; using Singapore as a supplement worked VERY well for him. Also, Hands On Equations was a helpful supplement for early exposure to the concept of "solve for X"; I believe we used that for a few weeks when DS was in 4th-5th grade...

 

More ideas: these weren't published yet when our DSs were that age, but you might look into:

Math Mammoth (a bit similar to Singapore, but made easier for Westerners to implement)

MEP (Math Enhancement Programme) -- free

Life of Fred (story-based, seeing purpose of math in real-life settings, a bit of a discovery approach to word problems)

Beast Academy (problem-solving based)

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for your DS after Miquon. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

PS -- re: cusienaire rods vs MUS rods

If you go with MUS, you really DO need to use the MUS rods, and not cusienaire rods. The MUS rods are designed a bit differently in order to visualize concepts through all of the levels, and they are what is used in every video lesson; it would be very confusing to the student to see the demo with one set of rods, and then try and figure out how to "translate" that to the c-rods -- especially when it comes to lessons in which the MUS rods show things like negative numbers and the c-rods are not built to do that. And, DS had no problems switching from c-rods to the MUS rods. ;)

Edited by Lori D.
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