What age to start Miquon?

[ExcitedMama]

I've posted before that Miquon intimidated me and it took me forever to finally use it since it looked so weird and different to me. I didn't start Orange with DS until the end of his K year. I am now very impressed with the program. DS was very reluctant to use the rods, I think because I waited so long for him to start, but finally enjoyed them as it moved into multiplication. When he was younger he did the Singapore Essentials books and CTC Mathematical Reasoning books. I think Miquon is far better than those books so my plan is to do it with DD. What is the best age to start? I don't mind taking it slow but I don't want to start so slowly that it's not worthwhile. Any recommendations?

 

I know I know I should look into Education Unboxed....I meant to with DS and we did it a few times but it never worked out so I know it won't happen. But a curriculum will get done so I just need an idea of when to start since with DS I waited too long.

[Ellie]

I've posted before that Miquon intimidated me and it took me forever to finally use it since it looked so weird and different to me. I didn't start Orange with DS until the end of his K year. I am now very impressed with the program. DS was very reluctant to use the rods, I think because I waited so long for him to start, but finally enjoyed them as it moved into multiplication. When he was younger he did the Singapore Essentials books and CTC Mathematical Reasoning books. I think Miquon is far better than those books so my plan is to do it with DD. What is the best age to start? I don't mind taking it slow but I don't want to start so slowly that it's not worthwhile. Any recommendations?

 

I know I know I should look into Education Unboxed....I meant to with DS and we did it a few times but it never worked out so I know it won't happen. But a curriculum will get done so I just need an idea of when to start since with DS I waited too long.

 

Miquon is supposed to be for first through third grades, so 6ish would be about the age to start.

 

I like using Mathematics Made Meaningful before Miquon.  :-)

[Miss Tick]

I started with dd at 5.5ish in K. Being a book of worksheets it is easy to start and pause as needed. The Annotations book has ideas for outside activities to introduce subjects, also. Plus, finding games to practice topics at that stage is ridiculously easy, even if Education Unboxed doesn't work for you. Online games, cards, dominoes, dice, etc.

[justasque]

You can start with letting your child just play with the rods much like blocks.  Have fun stacking them, sorting them, laying them out by size - whatever they find interesting.  You can even make pictures by laying out the blocks in an interesting shape, then drawing around the blocks - then remove the blocks and give the page to your child to fill in with the appropriate size blocks.  Let them do the same for you!  This will help build an understanding of the relationships between the different color blocks, etc.  As the play progresses, you can get a feel for whether your child is ready for a bit more.

[Spy Car]

Miquon is supposed to be for first through third grades, so 6ish would be about the age to start.

 

I like using Mathematics Made Meaningful before Miquon.  :-)

 

 

Disagree on both counts.

 

Miquon was used as a First Grade resource in 1964 when children were not introduced to math until that age. Times have changed. 

 

Miquon is designed to be introductory and a discovery-based method.

 

By using MMM (which has explicit instruction) in advance of Miquon one would kill the "discovery" in Miquon (arguably the most important element of the program) by having a parent/teacher led introduction happen first.

 

I'd vehemently argue against this for a parent that wants their student to gain the most possible from Miquon. Setting up children to think for themselves builds autonomy and competence that is invaluable.

 

As to when to start, it depends somewhat on the child. We started on my son's 4th birthday (the rods and books were part of the bday gifts). It was not too soon. Playing with rods and solving problems in a playful manner capitalized on children's desire to play. It was all fun. That my child could do it for himself was empowering. Not to say that creating a "Math-Lab" environment isn't work for parents as "facilitators" (it is) but the thinking/reasoning is theirs.

 

So I'd start at the age you think they can have fun and reason out solutions for themselves (given the problem-solving tools and support). No one magic age, but in our case just-turned-4 was not too soon. I think it helped develop a "math-brain" of a sort that is otherwise lacking in the gene-pool.

 

Bill

[3 ladybugs]

Miquan was an afterthought for me. I was banging my head into a wall with our math program. One day I saw it for sale on here and thought I would try it, not thinking it would really work. So we started at age 7 but we are flying through it. My son has been doing it just over the summer (think we started at the end of May) and he is in the middle of the blue book right now. :) At his current pace we will be done with the whole program before the end of this school year. 

 

So to me you could theoretically wait till your child is mature enough to breeze through it like my son is right now. He is learning, but because he had some math before, he is getting concepts quite quickly. 

 

On the other hand, if you wanted to start it early, I would think you would start when your child had counting down to 20, and basic understanding of addition and subtraction. To me this would make it easier to go without feeling bogged down. At least that is my plan for my younger son... should we use this. 

[El...]

We've started at 4.5, are very casual and slow with it, and it has worked.  Sometimes I make copies of the worksheets, if I'm not sure how quickly DS4 will grasp something, and let him cycle through a group of worksheets more than once.  Dd8 finished it at the end of 3rd grade, but we also did Singapore 1-3, so it was a lot of math.  I'm very pleased with what it gave her!

[Ellie]

Disagree on both counts.

 

Miquon was used as a First Grade resource in 1964 when children were not introduced to math until that age. Times have changed. 

 

Miquon is designed to be introductory and a discovery-based method.

 

By using MMM (which has explicit instruction) in advance of Miquon one would kill the "discovery" in Miquon (arguably the most important element of the program) by having a parent/teacher led introduction happen first.

 

I'd vehemently argue against this for a parent that wants their student to gain the most possible from Miquon. Setting up children to think for themselves builds autonomy and competence that is invaluable.

 

 

I hesitated when I was answering, because I know you've disagreed with me before. :-) Nevertheless, I am sure I read somewhere that children should be familiar with the rods before they start Miquon. I cannot prove it, but I am still sure, and so I will stay with my answer.

 

I would also disagree that MMM has "explicit instruction" such that it would kill the discovery of Miquon.

[Spy Car]

I hesitated when I was answering, because I know you've disagreed with me before. :-) Nevertheless, I am sure I read somewhere that children should be familiar with the rods before they start Miquon. I cannot prove it, but I am still sure, and so I will stay with my answer.

 

I would also disagree that MMM has "explicit instruction" such that it would kill the discovery of Miquon.

 

 

No, children need not be familiar with C rods prior to starting. They learn the "ordinary" values of the rods via using them in Miquon activities. Parents are the ones who get hung up, not the children. 

 

I'm familiar with MMM and it explicitly involves parents/teachers showing students things that Miquon leaves it for a child to discover for themselves. It is impossible for a child to "discover" something they have already been shown via direct instruction.

 

Direct instruction has a valuable role in education, but in this case, it is putting the cart before the horse •if• one hopes to get the most from the discovery method.

 

A discovery method doesn't resonate with every student (or every teacher) but when it works (especially when introducing a field of study) it can be very empowering as it puts the reasoning in the hands and mind of the student as the active partner in learning. That was a magical process in our experience and one that continues to pay dividends.

 

Bill

[lindsey]

We started at 5.5 to help my son with math he was learning in PS at the time. He's 6.25 now (ha) and we're in the red book. We went pretty slowly through the first, but are picking up the pace now as things 'click' faster. 

[Sarah0000]

We started very early, but my child is very accelerated. Keeping in mind this is coming from a parent with only a couple years experience, I would say it would be best to wait until the child understands the concept of quantity and that a numeral represents quantity, understands the concept of more and less, and has an interest working from a book. I think too much counting one to one or adding and subtracting with counters would hinder Miquon more than help. Mep Reception or Right Start counting techniques would be more helpful, but not necessary, prior to Miquon Orange.

[Tracy]

We started Miquon at 4.5yo and finished it at the end of 2nd grade (8yo) last year.

[Farrar]

I liked the old blue task cards that came with MMM. I would not call those explicit or direct instruction for the most part. Most of the activities had goals, but were open ended. Most of them worked well for a pre-Miquon kid. However, with all the amazing work Rosie (that was her name, right?) did by making Education Unboxed, it meant that the meat of those task cards - the rod activities - nearly all went into video form now and I think that better reflects how we like to learn now. So I think they're mostly unnecessary at this point. The great thing about Education Unboxed is that it synthesized the activities from the blue task cards, Miquon's teacher materials, and other sources like those Cuisenaire Idea Books into one place and sorted them by topic.

 

I tend to be very against the hard academic push for younger kids to do more math, but I do think most 5 yo kindergarteners can tackle Miquon Orange for sure. And that most kids can use Miquon as a K-2 program instead of a 1st-3rd program. One of the beautiful things about that is that it then can be a perfect lead in for Beast Academy.

[Farrar]

I liked the old blue task cards that came with MMM. I would not call those explicit or direct instruction for the most part. Most of the activities had goals, but were open ended. Most of them worked well for a pre-Miquon kid. However, with all the amazing work Rosie (that was her name, right?) did by making Education Unboxed, it meant that the meat of those task cards - the rod activities - nearly all went into video form now and I think that better reflects how we like to learn now. So I think they're mostly unnecessary at this point. The great thing about Education Unboxed is that it synthesized the activities from the blue task cards, Miquon's teacher materials, and other sources like those Cuisenaire Idea Books into one place and sorted them by topic.

 

I tend to be very against the hard academic push for younger kids to do more math, but I do think most 5 yo kindergarteners can tackle Miquon Orange for sure. And that most kids can use Miquon as a K-2 program instead of a 1st-3rd program. One of the beautiful things about that is that it then can be a perfect lead in for Beast Academy.