Is Miquon Math complete?

[AnneGG]

If I need something else with Miquon, what would it be? I have the Lab Annotations and the orange book. I plan to order the first grade diary and the red book. I’m seeing mixed opinions online on the completeness of Miquon though. I also have TGTB Math, which I may be unloading, but comparing it to Miquon there is no graphing, money, calendar work, word problems, or patterns.  Not sure if that will come back to bite us on a standardized test.(I hate that I have to think in terms of teaching for the test, but we may be dropping the portfolio next year.) 
 

 

[AnneGG]

12 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:

   It’s also too bulky IMO to use as a supplement. 

Agreed! 

[Not_a_Number]

1 hour ago, AnneGG said:

If I need something else with Miquon, what would it be? I have the Lab Annotations and the orange book. I plan to order the first grade diary and the red book. I’m seeing mixed opinions online on the completeness of Miquon though. I also have TGTB Math, which I may be unloading, but comparing it to Miquon there is no graphing, money, calendar work, word problems, or patterns.  Not sure if that will come back to bite us on a standardized test.(I hate that I have to think in terms of teaching for the test, but we may be dropping the portfolio next year.) 
 

 

You don’t need everything but the kitchen sink in the early years. You need a good, intuitive understanding of the numbers and operations, and Miquon will do that for you from everything I’ve seen.

Frankly, a narrower focus is a good idea. It’s not a drawback.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Not_a_Number

[HomeAgain]

Money is easy to add in.  Play store.

Miquon is very complete.  If you would like to add in word problems, I use Gattegno book 1 for the first four Miquon books, and Gattegno book 2 for the last two with my extra littles.  The format is extremely similar but Gattegno is done mostly orally/with the blocks. 

[AnneGG]

8 hours ago, Not_a_Number said:

You don’t need everything but the kitchen sink in the early years. You need a good, intuitive understanding of the numbers and operations, and Miquon will do that for you from everything I’ve seen.

Frankly, a narrower focus is a good idea. It’s not a drawback.

Good point. The reason I wanted to move away from Horizons and TGTB was because it felt like they covered everything and nothing. Yet, here I am questioning myself. Oy. 

[Not_a_Number]

14 minutes ago, AnneGG said:

Good point. The reason I wanted to move away from Horizons and TGTB was because it felt like they covered everything and nothing. Yet, here I am questioning myself. Oy. 

Miquon is one of my favorite programs out there 🙂 . Not exactly what we do, but it's well-tested and thoughtful. 

I've reviewed TGTB when some kids in my homeschool classes were using them, and I'd say "covered everything and nothing" is a fair description of the program. It goes over a lot of stuff but I thought it looked shallow. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Not_a_Number

[AnneGG]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

Money is easy to add in.  Play store.

Miquon is very complete.  If you would like to add in word problems, I use Gattegno book 1 for the first four Miquon books, and Gattegno book 2 for the last two with my extra littles.  The format is extremely similar but Gattegno is done mostly orally/with the blocks. 

I really like the looks of Gattegno. Thanks for the rec! 

[kirstenhill]

10 hours ago, AnneGG said:

If I need something else with Miquon, what would it be? I have the Lab Annotations and the orange book. I plan to order the first grade diary and the red book. I’m seeing mixed opinions online on the completeness of Miquon though. I also have TGTB Math, which I may be unloading, but comparing it to Miquon there is no graphing, money, calendar work, word problems, or patterns.  Not sure if that will come back to bite us on a standardized test.(I hate that I have to think in terms of teaching for the test, but we may be dropping the portfolio next year.) 
 

 

If the standardized test results have serious consequences in your state, you could probably devote a week or so to test prep or have your child do something like Prodigy Math "for fun" on the computer for exposure to the types of problems they will see.  But if the testing is required but there are no consequences to the results in terms of your future ability to homeschool, then I don't think you need to sweat it.  You'll get those topics in the future  (some, like calendar or money are just as easily done in "real life" as in a math book). 

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, kirstenhill said:

If the standardized test results have serious consequences in your state, you could probably devote a week or so to test prep or have your child do something like Prodigy Math "for fun" on the computer for exposure to the types of problems they will see.  But if the testing is required but there are no consequences to the results in terms of your future ability to homeschool, then I don't think you need to sweat it.  You'll get those topics in the future  (some, like calendar or money are just as easily done in "real life" as in a math book). 

That has generally been my approach. I make sure they can do arithmetic and, just as importantly, that they know WHEN different operations should apply, then we occasionally practice it in real-life contexts. It has been plenty for us, including for tests. When tests use words we don't know, we prep a bit. 

I do drill the facts after sufficient exposure. I don't know if Miquon does this or not, but I do recommend eventually drilling addition and multiplication facts. (I recommend teaching kids about the relationship between addition and subtraction robustly enough that drilling addition facts suffices for subtraction; same with multiplication and division.) 

[HomeAgain]

14 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

 

I do drill the facts after sufficient exposure. I don't know if Miquon does this or not, but I do recommend eventually drilling addition and multiplication facts. (I recommend teaching kids about the relationship between addition and subtraction robustly enough that drilling addition facts suffices for subtraction; same with multiplication and division.) 

Miquon does a lot of fact work, but it's not often looked at as drill specifically. It follows a model where the visualization becomes nearly automatic, making it a fast recall. So a unit on subtraction will include things like using addition in 'chunks' to find the difference, or the introduction of negative numbers, or adding the same amount to get an easier problem...

The only struggle I see is multiplication, and that's just because of who I work with. I ended up making c-rod multiplication strips for my extras that I laminated.  They can turn them any direction they want and do a quick drill or combine strips to see relationships.  Since I have a group of older kids who are catching up to grade level, the materials I made for them consistently focus on using reciprocal skills. So their multiplication tools are mostly Miquon, but then there are the c-rod strips, the heavily modified 60 second challenges, the stacking flash cards...all in a relationship based system that doesn't quite follow the books but gets them where they need to be faster.

 

[Not_a_Number]

11 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

Miquon does a lot of fact work, but it's not often looked at as drill specifically. It follows a model where the visualization becomes nearly automatic, making it a fast recall. So a unit on subtraction will include things like using addition in 'chunks' to find the difference, or the introduction of negative numbers, or adding the same amount to get an easier problem...

Ah OK. We never did C-rods, so visualization wasn't automatic for us -- makes sense that this would happen in this system. 

Since we did a counting model, for us, the "small additions" became automatic via rapid counting on, then doubles became automatic through exposure, then we did a lot of "moving numbers from one side to another," and eventually we had to drill a few stubborn facts. 

[Lori D.]

Here is the scope and sequence of topics, and in which of the 6 Miquon workbooks those topics are covered.

If you think you will like Miquon, you might go ahead and get the rest of the workbooks, which allows you to follow a topic from workbook to workbook, as long as your child is interested or until they "hit the wall" with a topic, and then go back to the Orange workbook, start another topic and keep following that topic from workbook to workbook, as long as the child is interested or "hits the wall". That is how we used Miquon and DSs really enjoyed being able to go deep into individual topics, and not do just a few pages of a topic and then jump to another topic just as they were starting to make connections and be able to think about the topic. YMMV. 😉 

You might also check out the Education Unboxed videos that go along with Miquon and the cuisenaire rods.

I would say that Miquon is complete for grades K-2, as in enough material and topics. If using it into grade 3, you might want to add in some additional practice and beginning word problems. As I recall, there are a few topics that are typical to the K-3 grades not covered in Miquon -- money, time, calendar work, and math facts. Those are easy enough to add in with supplements:

free downloadable/printable worksheets:

K5 Learning: Free Worksheets -- can sort by grade, and click on specific topic
• 1st grade topics include: patterns, comparing, place value, addition, subtraction, fractions, geometry, measurement, money, telling time, word problems
• 2nd grade topics include: skip counting, place value & rounding, add, subtract, multiply, fractions, geometry, measurement, money, telling time, word problems
• 3rd grade topics include: place value & rounding, order of operations, add, subtract, multiply, divide, fractions & decimals, geometry, measurement, money, telling time & calendar, word problems

Education.com -- free resources; can sort by grade and/or topic
printable worksheets, printable workbooks,  math activities, guided lessons, lesson plans, online exercises, online games
math topics for early elementary grades include:
number sense; addition; subtraction; measurement; time; money; data and graphing; word problems; math puzzles; etc.


You can also do a search for activities for teaching individual math topics. For example, the One Time Through blog has links to "35 Ways to Teach Kids About Money".

Edited April 21, 2021 by Lori D.

[Slache]

I felt it needed drills and added Ray's Arithmetic. Free, oral, short and on my phone.

[lulalu]

It is very complete by itself. I added Gattegno because it was easier for me to see how to use the rods. 

In our home very little needed to be added to Miquon. But I added drill, more money work, word problems, calendar. 

However, keep in mind the program is written to be used as a math lab along side a traditional class. So you are encouraged to make your own sheets as well if your student needs more work in an area. 

[AnneGG]

4 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Here is the scope and sequence of topics, and in which of the 6 Miquon workbooks those topics are covered.

If you think you will like Miquon, you might go ahead and get the rest of the workbooks, which allows you to follow a topic from workbook to workbook, as long as your child is interested or until they "hit the wall" with a topic, and then go back to the Orange workbook, start another topic and keep following that topic from workbook to workbook, as long as the child is interested or "hits the wall". That is how we used Miquon and DSs really enjoyed being able to go deep into individual topics, and not do just a few pages of a topic and then jump to another topic just as they were starting to make connections and be able to think about the topic. YMMV. 😉 

You might also check out the Education Unboxed videos that go along with Miquon and the cuisenaire rods.

I would say that Miquon is complete for grades K-2, as in enough material and topics. If using it into grade 3, you might want to add in some additional practice and beginning word problems. As I recall, there are a few topics that are typical to the K-3 grades not covered in Miquon -- money, time, calendar work, and math facts. Those are easy enough to add in with supplements:

free downloadable/printable worksheets:

K5 Learning: Free Worksheets -- can sort by grade, and click on specific topic
• 1st grade topics include: patterns, comparing, place value, addition, subtraction, fractions, geometry, measurement, money, telling time, word problems
• 2nd grade topics include: skip counting, place value & rounding, add, subtract, multiply, fractions, geometry, measurement, money, telling time, word problems
• 3rd grade topics include: place value & rounding, order of operations, add, subtract, multiply, divide, fractions & decimals, geometry, measurement, money, telling time & calendar, word problems

Education.com -- free resources; can sort by grade and/or topic
printable worksheets, printable workbooks,  math activities, guided lessons, lesson plans, online exercises, online games
math topics for early elementary grades include:
number sense; addition; subtraction; measurement; time; money; data and graphing; word problems; math puzzles; etc.


You can also do a search for activities for teaching individual math topics. For example, the One Time Through blog has links to "35 Ways to Teach Kids About Money".

Education Unboxed has been an immense help. Her explanations were my main motivation for switching to conceptual math. 
 

Thank you for all the helpful information and links!

[Coco_Clark]

I've taken several kids through Miquon in grades K-2, and then moved into other programs seamlessly.  Two of those kids went from Miquon to Beast 3, an advanced program by anyone's measure.

I taught money and time via life, I've never found either to translate well to worksheet anyways (am I the only one that struggles to identify coins on a printed page?).  We didn't worry about word problems in those early years and it didn't seem to affect anyone. Workbooks on those subjects can be found easily, though, if that's how you flight. Kumon has both.

My state doesn't test until 3rd grade, and testing is zero consequence, even then.  So I don't let it affect my decision making.