I Love You 100 Board!

I know I said I was done for the year, but I just had to express my love for the 100 Board while it was fresh.  We've been working on the Ten Boards, but only have the patience to count through about 40.  I was pretty sure Link understood, but just didn't have the endurance to continue counting.  I decided to introduce the 100 Board and boy am I glad!

At first I used the golden beads to emphasize how we were counting and what happens when we get to the end of a row.  Then Link kept saying "I get it now!" and "this is fun!" while he and Bumblebee fought over who got to put the tiles in.  I had to change from letting them take turns, to telling Bumblebee that he could work on it after Link was finished.  Then Link would explain to me how the numbers changed, and how he saw patterns in the numbers.  It was great!  I think he can start on the number chains after Christmas!

As a side note, I'm wondering something about my bead cabinet from Adena Montessori.  They include the long bead chains, cubes, squares and no short bead chains.  Instead, they include individual bead bars.  Are those supposed to be in there, or should those have been bead chains instead?  So I have five 5 bars, and ten 10 bars, etc.  Should I buy some little connectors and connect those into chains?  I'm pretty sure that if I needed the bars, I could just use the ones from the Decanomial box.

Reading!

This will probably be our last full week of school for the year and I definitely won't be posting for a while.  I just wanted to post a quick note about Link's reading.  He is doing so well, and we are really enjoying the Logic of English curriculum!  He is about to finish the first level and can read (in my untrained, motherly opinion) GREAT!  I can't say enough good things about LoE; it has worked so well for us, and it has cut down on my preparation time dramatically!  It's so easy compared to my Montessori plan, but is obviously not Montessori.  I would have liked for him to be a bit more self-taught, but it just wasn't happening.  I will post a movie soon of Link reading his last reader, I'm so proud!!

Happy Holiday's everyone!

Concepts of Energy - Download

I've started using the book Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2 with Link.  We are working on lesson C-1: Concepts of Energy this week.  I put together some pictures to use with the lesson, and thought I'd upload them, so here they are!

Wordless Weekend :)

My Adena Montessori Shipment!

Bumblebee at Home Depot

Link at Home Depot

Math Periods and New Materials

According to Gettman, Link is in Period Five for his math works.  I'm separating the works into the threads that MBT uses: linear counting, operations, memorization, fractions, and story problems/equation formats.  I'm also using MBH which is organized similarly to MBT's threads.

So in period five that includes the following works:

Linear Counting
Formation of Complex Numbers (with cards)
Introduction to Teens
Introduction to Tens
Counting - 100 and 1,000 Chains, 100 Board and skip counting

Operations
Collective Exercises (Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication)
Stamps (Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication)
Dots

Fractions
Concept and Quantity

In period six that will include:

Operations
Collective Exercises (Division)
Stamps (Division)

Memorization
Addition and Subtraction Snake Games
Addition and Subtraction Strip Boards
Multiplication Tables
Multiplication Bead Board
Finger Charts

Fractions
Advanced work with Fractions

Period seven:

Memorization
Unit Division Board
Division Charts
Small Bead Frame
Hierarchical Material
Large Bead Frame

Now I just have to figure out what materials I need to purchase to get through these three periods.

Period Five
Already have golden bead material, teen and ten boards, stamps.
Need Counting chains, 100 Board and fraction material.

Period Six
Snake games
Addition and Subtraction Strip Boards
Multiplication Tables
Multiplication Bead Board
Fraction material

Period Seven
Division Board
Division Charts
Small and Large Bead Frames


Hmm.  I just configured what MBT says is the minimum bead material, but I'm not exactly sure what those things are used for.  I'm assuming that the first three items in the list will cover counting chains and snake games.  It just seems like a lot for just those works, but I know they have extensions as well.

Here is what I'm looking at from IFIT for $596, free shipping. (If I just do Periods five and six, its $510, so I might as well get Period Seven while I'm at it.)

			ITEM  DESCRIPTION			QTY		EACH		TOTAL
				Decanomial Bead Bar Box				USD80.00		USD80.00
				Elementary Negative Snake Game				USD53.00		USD53.00
				Complete Bead Material Only				USD260.00		USD260.00
				Multiplication Working Charts				USD38.00		USD38.00
				Addition Strip Board				USD18.00		USD18.00
				Subtraction Strip Board				USD21.00		USD21.00
				Hundred Board				USD23.00		USD23.00
				Control Chart for Hundred Board				USD2.00		USD2.00
				Multiplication Bead Board				USD15.00		USD15.00
				Division Bead Board				USD15.00		USD15.00
				Division Working Charts				USD34.00		USD34.00
				Small Bead Frame				USD16.00		USD16.00
				Large Bead Frame				USD21.00		USD21.00

Adena, Montessori Outlet and Alison's were all about $650, but Adena includes a cabinet.  So I could save $188 at Adena.

This does not include any of the fraction material.  It's so expensive! I'm not exactly sure what I need for fractions.  It seems like I could get away with just the metal fraction circles for $56 from Adena. ($85 from IFIT, but I hear IFIT's are better quality.)

Since I'm a little ahead of the game this time, I don't have to rush into buying anything.  I'll probably wait until the new year to do this purchase.