Does miquon work alone?

[lulalu]

We have made it through the orange book of miquon for k this year.

 

Ds loves the simple sheets and loves the work. I love miquon!

 

However, it feels like he hasn't internalized anything real well. I think he needs more practice.

 

Does the whole program give enough practice and review? Or is miquon best used with another program?

[barnwife]

Well, it was certainly created/intended as a stand-alone program. And there are many, many people who do use it that way.

All I can tell you is my experience though. Our oldest (currently 7) was not ready for formal, written maths work at 5. Heck, even starting at 6 was pushing it for him. So I tried to make sure we were doing lots of mathy things in life and just pointing out number things everywhere.

Now, at 7 1/2, Miquon is working really well for us. Our oldest does like variety, so I do throw a worksheet in from a random workbook for him to choose once or twice a week. And he can always choose to do the work on a whiteboard. Plus, when introducing new concepts, I don't show him any sheets for a few days. We do it solely with rods/the whiteboard/other things.

My goal at this age/stage is to get my children a very solid conceptual understanding of math. It seems to be working. So, yes, I think that if your child is ready for Miquon, it does serve as a stand-alone program.

[LinRTX]

It worked well for my oldest, but did not for my second. It really depends on the child.

[El...]

I dearly love Miquon!  The reason is something that happened when Dd was 7, 2nd grade - I hadn't made her memorize any math facts at all, and was starting to worry that she didn't seem to know them, even though she was doing all four functions, fractions, graphing... I provided the Cuisinaire rods, and she used them. 

 

She'd completed four Miquon books and the first grade of Singapore Standards Ed. at the time. 

 

She was doing a math problem, reached her hand toward the box of rods, and then wrote down the answer without opening the box.  

 

Ta-da!  She was visualizing the rods!  The thing was done!  Internalized!  Whooooo!!!!  I did a little dance and texted my sister.

 

All that time using the Cuisinaire rods worked.  I had her do flash card multiplication facts in 3rd grade, after the 6th book, and she knew them all.  She's comfortable with her math facts now, in 5th grade, and confident with Beast Academy math.  She's a little jealous of her little brother, who is now doing Miquon.  

 

 

[Coco_Clark]

I've taken 2 kids from Miquon only into Beast. So it CAN be done.

 

But I've definitely had other kids who needed drill drill drill, so much repetition. I wouldn't decide that, necessarily, with a kindergartener though. It may be as simple as a maturity issue.

[Ellie]

I think it can work alone...for children who need manipulatives. Not all children do. In my early days of homeschooling (1982), manipulatives were The Thing. But not all children need them, and for those who don't, having to do everything with manipulatives is heck on earth.

[Zoo Keeper]

Depends on the child.  ;)  Miquon alone *could* make a great math for K and up--but none of mine (so far) have done Miquon alone...

 

One of mine loved Miquon, loved the rods, thrived with it. Very visual and conceptual thinker-- he played math and puzzles for fun.  Absolutely no problems working with random other K-3rd math (we actually did 3 complete programs, Miquon, Singapore, and MEP, for his 1-3 grade math because I was a crazy lady... :lol: and he really, really, liked the variety and challenge).

 

Two other children NEEDED additional drill and practice.  Miquon was great for helping them think through concepts, but they needed more in other contexts to make it stick.

 

Another child despised the rods, and grumpily endured the first two Miquon books before I had mercy on him and gave him R&S math.  He didn't want to play with plastic, he just wanted a page of numbers, thank you very much. 

 

 

 

 

[mom2bee]

It can. I think that it has for a few long term, frequent posters. However, Miquon was conceived and designed as the supplementary math lab activities for children who attended the private school. Miquon lab sheets were never meant to be a full on, stand alone program.

 

Does that mean that you CANT use it as a full program? Of course not.

 

But just know that it was meant as a lab component that supplemented whatever math the classroom teacher was doing, much like the lab component to a science class.

 

Lore Rasmussen was a "remedial" math teacher--she created activities to exemplify the mathematics principles that children were struggling with in the early grades. For some kids Miquon is "enough", but for others it is not.

 

Because the program was designed to supplement the lessons in the main classrooms, the lab sheets are so flexible that they could be used to introduce, reinforce, extend, challenge etc, but the lab sheets themselves weren't meant to be the only math program used.

 

My understanding is that the program ends at the 3rd grade because it was the expectation that students would eventually phase out of the manipulative-dependent stage and if they'd truly learned those concepts then they would be able to generalize and extrapolate from there.

 

That's why the things that Miquon "lacks" aren't really "lacks". Miquon is "weak" in XYZ, because it wasn't intended to address A-Z, it was meant to do specific things and that is where it's focus is.

[lulalu]

Thanks. I may need to stop my worry. I know ds is so young, but trusting he will get there is hard.

 

I have been looking at r&s math 1 because it really stresses getting facts down. I wonder if I could add in Miquon to discover processes first and the other things that aren't found in r&s.

 

Why does choosing curriculum have to be so hard?!?!

Edited December 27, 2017 by lolo