Math

This is an impressive, complete, scripted, Montessori-based Math program. Though it's not 100% purist Montessori (for example, some of the manipulatives will provide changes in color and shape at the same time, where Montessori was very fussy about only working with one attribute at a time), I think it does a really nice job of incorporating her most critical ideas. I think it's a perfect fit for those who want to start with something really well-organized (such as those who appreciate Saxon's completeness), but wish to aim for a more holistic approach or are working with a child that might be struggling with learning challenges or unconventional learning styles. I was particularly impressed with how the materials helps the parent determine how much the child will need to work in each area. Note: The scripted lines are included in the workbooks.

The books are workbook in format, but carefully make use of (and include explanations of) the Montessori philosophy throughout.

The kit includes workbooks, answer guides and manipulatives for grades K-4. The manipulatives are quite nice for "inexpensive" products (in comparison with those you can purchase for starting up a Montessori school). The bulk of the expense of the kit is for the books. Some of the manipulatives are inexpensive and readily available at teacher supply stores, where others are custom made for Schiller, like the "numbers bank", a lovely set of numbers in a wooden box (with sliding lid) that helps teach place value (my kids have really enjoyed using this!).

Scripted programs are not for everyone. They tell you exactly what to say at each point, which are helpful for some parents and annoying to others.

The best way to more thoroughly understand the program offered here is to visit their website where you can view pdfs of all the materials included, sample pages and more: SchillerMath.com

While this particular kit is intended for grades K-3, Schiller also has Math materials available for grades 4-7.

The K-3 kit is quite expensive (about $500), but includes a large box of books and materials (including a CD of math songs to accompany the program), plus 5 years of free downloads of consumables - to cover younger siblings. Keep an eye on their website for discounts and sales which seem to come up frequently.

Audio tape designed to help children with some addition "math facts" and with skip counting as a preparation for multiplication further down the road. Simple songs are sung without accompaniment to familiar tunes. The tunes are rather catchy and we find ourselves regularly singing them around the house. (Such as the "9s" - 9, 18 and 27, 36 and 45, 54 and 63, 72 and 81, nine of them, round the sun, make their orbit one by one, nine of them, round the sun and counting them is fun). One side of the tape includes all of the songs sung by a simple tenor voice. The other side has the same songs played at a faster speed (which sounds something like "Alvin and the Chipmunks" for you Generation Xers.) There is another tape which I haven't reviewed which uses Biblical themes and tunes for the songs.

Audio Memory offers math audio tapes and CDs for practicing "Math Facts" in Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication. (Sold separately from each other). These are Math drills set to music (of the synthesized variety). Although these make for an easy memorization aid, I found the songs almost unbearably sappy. (My children did like them though.)

Freedom is not a license for chaos. is my son's signature below his email messages. It was written by Norton Juster, of The Phantom Toolbooth fame, and it comes from our almost-17-year-old's favorite book.

The phrase is the turning point and premise of this amazing, simply delightful little Math book. Math? That is our son's most disliked subject. Wait, The Dot and the Line is not a Math book! It is a hilarious comedy! But is that all? It is a romance, a story of love deeply felt, pursued, capable of provoking great things in the soul. In a little math book? Is it possible? Yes, it is.

Our classic languages-loving son reads it aloud every time this book visits us from the library. He suffers with the straight, dull and unbending line when driven to the "edge" (of the paper-- the line is drawn on the edge of the page) as the "perfect by every measure" dot flirts around with the anarchist, slothful squiggle. Moved by great love, the line at first attempts to show its own grandeur by asserting its importance in art, world politics, sports. To no avail: the dot is not impressed. Then the unimaginable happens: when almost giving up, the line, using great concentration, becomes able to make angles!

What follows next is what makes this little book a great book: the enthusiastic line makes more and more angles in a chaotic frenzy, until... it realizes that chaos without order leads nowhere. It stops, straightens itself again and it discovers that freedom is not a license for chaos. From then on, life changes for the line: exercising great control and virtue, it discovers a new world:

For months he practiced in secret. Soon he was making squares and triangles, hexagons, parallelograms, rhomboids, polyhedrons, trapezoids, parallelepiped, decagons, tetragrams and an infinite number of other shapes so complex that he had to letter his sides and angles to keep his place. Before long he had learned to carefully control ellipses, circles and complex curves...

Ah, the virtue of Mathematics! The beauty of its exact angles and dimensions. The rhythm, art and music of what it is able to create, using exercise and order! I will refrain from spoiling it completely for the new reader, but let me repeat the "moral" of the story: to the vector, the spoils.

The back jacket, after telling us that the author, among other things, runs "a support group for negative numbers" (one can glimpse Mr. Juster's opinion of the state of the culture in the 60s) mentions an award winning film, and I found it on You Tube. I was happy to see that that the screenplay was also written by the author but I warn you that the book is much better. This new edition has wonderful graphics and some different pictures as well.