Miquon Math Lab Materials: Orange Book Level 1 Workbook Edition

To preface, I grew up using Miquon. It prepared me very well in understanding math concepts. I transitioned easily into Saxon math 5/4 and was never intimidated by algebra or higher math (until calc 3 in college).It is a great, cheap, resource for grades 1 - 3. The curriculum developer believed that young children could understand higher math concepts. I personally love this because it makes math much less intimidating later on.Miquon is very old and looks dated. My son doesn't seem to care though. I'm including lots of pictures so you can see a sampling of the content. My son is a young first grader. This book requires me to be in the same room with him and sit with him maybe 50% of the time depending on the page. Your child will need to know how to write numbers and do some basic counting. It's also a little messy. At least, my son is. The manipulative cuisenaire rods tend to go everywhere but I make him pick them up.In addition to the workbooks, you will need to purchase cuisenaire rods. I also recommend you purchase the lab sheet annotations book. The annotations book is good for the entire set and includes simple explanations on how to approach each workbook page.Rods link:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F8R5N2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_Ih9XFb0XK1KBA

We started using this math system right before kindergarten started. It is wonderful! I do it at bedtime with my 5 year old, just as I would storytime. He absolutely loves it and I love it because it truly TEACHES math. At an early point, Miquon math introduces the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) which is very logical so he understands how they are truly all related. We're 9 months into the series and my kindergartener is already understanding fractions and multiplication. His teacher has stated that he has an excellent grasp of math concepts beyond a kindergarten level - I give full credit to teaching him with the Miquon math methods. This method of teaching math is not simply memorization. I believe this math system from 40 years ago is very similar to the new common core ideas in that with Miqoun math children are taught to understand math; they are taught the same concept in multiple ways 'explaining their work'. The Cuissinare rods are a must and help with both teaching and understanding the concepts. I absolutely recommend buying the Lab Sheet Annotations book and The First Grade Diary. You do not need to be an educator to do this with your child, just a motivated parent wanting to help your child learn and advance in math.

Great for homeschooling! I like the tear out "lab" sheets. One thing for sure, not every page is intuitively obvious. You really need the "Lab Sheet Annotations" book that explains the hows and whys of the exercises, and gives ideas on how to expand the learning. The Orange Book is the first of six books, and the "Lab Sheet Annotations" covers all six books. If you are a hands-on homeschooler for young children, this is an excellent resource, particularly if you are designing your own curriculum.

I bought this to help me educate my two boys. I am also using Comprehensive Cirriculum books, Spectrum, Kumon, manipulatives, and a bunch of my own ideas. I wasn't sure where this Orange book would begin. Since I received it and looked through the lessons, it appears a little advanced for my oldest boy who is 4 3/4 but normally does fine with Kingergarten level cirricula. It's important for me and him that the learning is not rushed because I want him to love learning more than I want him to learn any particular thing, and what he does learn, I want him to understand and not merely meet some institutionally established criteria. He loves numbers and I believe if I avoid premature abstraction, he will stay turned-on to math and not disassociate. This book appears to involve the use of manipulatives and also asks the student to create some of their own problems. I saw exercises in it where the student is challenged by problems inside and out. For example, a group of 10 items is shown with 3 circled. The student is expected to understand that 3+7=10, 7+3=10, 10-3=7 and 10-7=3. Not only are they expected to know the solutions to the equations, but to be able to determine what the equations are based on the picture. As it is, my boy would be keen on this if it were done exclusively with jelly beans and lego, but worksheets would kill it, so this book will be for me to get ideas from for about another year. My younger boy, just turned 4, is less sensitive to teacher's ineptitude and dearth of pedagogical prowess. He would actually consider 30 minutes of workbook torture to be but light affliction. Still, I'll spare him. This book would be fine for some 1st graders, but I would start with many things less abstract before a child gets to the level of this workbook.

By far one of the most economical manipulatives based conceptual math programs. My son likes it better than my daughter did. F9r the price, it is definitely worth checking out. You will need the lab sheet annotations book, which you can find used for around $4, and a set of cuisinaire rods. I would not recommend the connecting cuisinaire rods, as the set we purchased ended up having rods whose lengths did not match up when making very long numbers.

Such an under rated series. Highly recommend it for a strong maths foundation. My son enjoys working through it.