Loving Shiller Math

One of the many things I love about Shiller Math is how it presents Montessori based learning in a way that I can clearly meet state standards without pulling my hair out. The way it integrates the concepts is awesome. It incorporates verbal lessons, logic, and games. The music component is an added bonus, because my kids love to sing and I love to hear them singing about math:) What also makes my job easier is knowing that Math presentations are being given. It is also very simple for me to skip a lesson, and come back later if it doesn't have a rhythm to following their interest. I also like how it doesn't take the creativity out of lesson planning for following the child.

The second lesson in book 4 that DJ is using is a multiplication review. This multiplication review is very much needed here!!

It just has a page of multiplication problems. To me and my boy this looks very boring and is not how he has been doing math. I think this page will be wonderful after he has actually did some review activities and feels compelled to complete a worksheet. So for now I just made a work using the equations that he could use  with the multiplication bead board, or the bead frame. One of the reasons that I have made math and language arts a requirement this year is because both Ken and DJ was avoiding the math and language works too often and it always felt like I representing the materials that they had forgotten how to use because their interests in these areas weren't sparked everyday. This caused important learning concepts to fall by the weigh side and the material being used was too often the focus. For the most part DJ used Flash Cards to memorize his multiplication facts.

 I folded slips of card stock

 I wrote the equation in the inside.

 On the back I wrote the answer to allow him to check his work.

 I also placed cuts of card stock in a container just in case he wanted to record the problem in his math notebook. We are really striving for neat work here. Lots of time the kiddos like how I put together their work and want to copy it.

 All the equations and scraps of paper are on the shelf in one container.  If DJ decides he wants to record his work in his notebook  he just needs to get a pencil and a glue stick.

Linking this post to Math Monday.