Manipulative

When I first researched homeschooling products and resources, I spent quite some time looking at different math manipulatives. For one thing, there are so many, and for another, I love math. I remember wondering whether these colored rods would really be worth purchasing, as they are on the expensive side. And my math education, as far as I could remember, had been accomplished without a single manipulative.

Then I found Miquon Math, and immediately liked the concept. Miquon uses Cuisenaire rods as their primary manipulative, so with some trepidation, I acquired a starter set.

Creative Toys, 1997, 140 study cardboard cards in a standard game box

Conceptual Math Media, Game board with paperboard tiles and plastic tile holders

Nasco, 11" x 14" sturdy wooden dry-erase board

This is a sturdy and elegant little dry-erase white board for young children learning to tell time. Parents can use this for demonstrating principles of telling time or it can be enjoyed by young children for independent learning.

Advertised as "No Clowns, Trolls or Space Aliens...Just a math program that works!", this program really is just a simple way of drilling math operations. A simple menu allows you to choose your operation, number of problems to solve and how much time to do it in. You can even write in a reward that will be offered when the child achieves at a certain level!

Nasco, 23" x 23" laminated poster

I have used homemade hundreds charts for years - they've been a great help for Math in preschool, kindergarten and early grade school. I was so excited when I saw this item in a catalog because it is advertised as a "double-sided wipe-off white board with sheet magnet-receptive surfaces." I immediately dreamed up all sorts of fun things my little ones could do on this board with skip-counting, covering numbers, etc.

Kit includes 5 flashcard sets covering various mathematical review and pre-algebra skills

Each of five sets in this kit have 10 plastic key-shaped cards that fan-out at a pivot point. A sturdy string attached to the pivot point is pulled through a hole in the card. The student then wraps the string from the first problem to the answer, around the back of the card to the next problem, etc. After completing the card, you turn the card over. If the string matches with the lines on the back, all the answers are correct.

The five sets drill the following materials:

Kit includes 5 flash-card sets - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division and Fractions

Learning Wrap-Ups, plastic palette and colored discs with self-correcting card sets
(This review is based on use of the first and third grade sets).

Smath is a very similar game to Equate. It comes with a game board, 4 plastic tile racks and plastic tiles with a bag for the tiles. Tiles: 6 each of numbers 0-12, 10 blanks, 36 equal signs, 9 each of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division signs, and 12 clear parentheses that stack over another tile when used. There are no fractions or decimal points. Game play is similar to Scrabble. Each player draws 10 tiles per turn, but equal signs and parentheses tiles are kept separate and can be used as needed. This prevents game play from stalling.