Brilliant Minds Montessori Math Kit

[Joha]

I'm wondering if someone has used this kit and followed the curriculum. I'm looking for a new math program since my dd doesn't want to do LM anymore. I read the reviews about Jones Geniuses and I don't think it would work for us. I like TouchMath, but the price is out of the question. Any suggestions are welcome. I have not really followed any Montessori methods, but I like this kit because it comes the curriculum. There is not much information out there, but maybe someone that know Montessori can give me an idea of how successful I could be with a 2 year old and this program. 

http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Minds-Montessori-Advanced-Math/dp/B004JKIXQK/

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Maquenzie]

That looks like a pretty good deal. The number rods (blue and red look plastic and cheap), but would work I'm sure.

I'm a big fan of all things Montessori and my oldest goes to Montessori Primary. Every concept (even through lower elementary) is represented with hands on material. And each new concept is isolated. (which can make buying the materials expensive!). In my opinion, Montessori Math is where there is the highest benefit to this.

Here is a free Montessori Math Album (curriculum) that is more comprehensive that that kit, but can give you an idea what those materials are for.

http://www.infomontessori.com/mathematics/introduction.htm

there is also a free video lecture on this, let me see of I can find that too.

And yes, I think you could start these materials with a 2 year old.

[Maquenzie]

Here's what I was thinking of. I thought there was some math material lectures on there. It can still be help with understanding how to give Montessori lessons.

[Maquenzie]

http://homepage.mac.com/montessoriworld/mwei/Course1/VideoCourse1/The_Course.html

[lzp11]

I really like the look of this kit as well especially as it has a curriculum.
I will probably wait a few months until my daughter is 2.
Please do post a review if you go ahead with it.

I'm also thinking about numicon but I'm not sure if 2 is too young as their wesite says from age 3 upwards.

[TracyR4]

Looks just like Right Start Math. This program too is a Montessori Based program as well. Very popular among the homeschoolers.

http://www.alabacus.com/

[TeachingMyToddlers]

If you like the Montessori approach, I recently learned that Shiller Math is also Montessori based. It's kind of pricey though ($299 I think?), maybe you could check Ebay or Homeschool Classifieds. However, it covers several years worth of math so if you consider that the price is spread the price out over several years, it seems a lot more reasonable.

Let us know what you pick and how you like it! Good luck!

[Joha]

Thank you so much to all of you for your replies. I'm still trying to decide what to do since my dd doesn't seem to be interested in math, at all!    I checked the Shiller Math and the Alabacus sites and it seems like both programs are designed for kids 4 and older. Even if my dd was advance in math, it looks like she wouldn't be ready for these. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Maquenzie,

Thank you very much for the links. They have very valuable information.

I have been trying some very basic counting games with my daughter and she just doesn't want to anything with them. I may have to wait at least a couple of weeks and try again, to see if she changes her attitude  All these programs are pricey and I don't want to get something and not use it.

I'll post later to give an update in case we decide to buy any of the programs.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

There is no harm in starting early *if* she is interested. Most of the programs the parents use on the forums are intended for somewhat older kids it seems, I just modify and adapt them to work for my kids. The nice thing is that if it doesn't work out, put on a shelf and pull it out again in 6 months. She may have grown into it by then. Regarding age recommendations, even DD's Leapfrog Tag pen says age 4 and up on the package but she's 26 months old and loves it. She got it for Christmas and it took her about a month to truly get the hang of it. Now it's one of her favorite things to do. Same with her jigsaw puzzles.

Does your DD like workbook activities? (some coloring, pasting, and ordering) I doubt it if you're looking for something hands on. But if she does, check out the Early Bird Math Standards K program. I got mine for $16 shipped from www.christianbook.com I think, it' s a little hard to find online, or at least it was when I was looking for it. I forget how old your DD is, so it might not be a good fit. But if you like, I can do a review on my blog and post some pictures of the pages if you want to get a feel for it.

And if she does like to color, you can print worksheets (coloring pages) online. Here's a random one I just found right now. http://www.akidsheart.com/threer/lvl1/maths.htm

Does she have a favorite animal, color, or character she loves? Sometimes I will let DD do addition with Wonderpets stickers just to keep things fun.

Does she have any number puzzles or foam bath numbers/letters?
 
How about play dough? I recently made a blog post about math & play dough with some ideas for sequencing, counting, and fractions. The server is down tonight so my blog is too, but it should be up again soon.

Basically, figure out what she loves and reach out to her mathematically with it as a gentle introduction. It could be music (counting as you shake the maracas or hit the tambourine), bath toys (lining them up on the side of the tub as manipulatives), counting food at every meal or snack, etc. Take her to the pet shop and count how many rabbits are in one cage and cats another, then follow it up at home with animal stickers. (Pet shops work better than the zoo for this because you can get nice and close).  I'm just throwing ideas out there. Also, if you have stairs, count every time you go up and down both forwards and backwards. Once she masters that, practice counting from 3, or 15, or 62, whatever random number rather than zero. If you have an appropriate space, consider mounting an over sized number line on the floor and pretend her toy animals/ cars are going up and down.

And keep in mind there are lots of pre-math concepts you can introduce like patterns, comparisons (big/small, heavy/light, long/short, etc). You don't have to commit to a specific program unless you want to.

Also, what is her background and current level? Does she know how to recite her counting yet 0-10? 0-20 and beyond? Does she understand any quantity at all? Do you allow her to watch any DVD's? If so, how about checking out some sample clips online and introducing one of these:

• Preschool Prep Meet the Numbers- Primarily teaches 0-10 numerical recognition with an element of teaching quantity as well
• Leapfrog- Math to the Moon is new so I can't comment on it because we don't have it, but we do have Math Circus. It's a little busy for a very young child because the animation is fast like a traditional cartoon but overall I like it for my year old and my 1 year old is usually around when it's on.
• My Montessori House- Fun Math. Like preschool prep, this is a more simplistic, slower animation and I would feel comfortable showing this to a younger child. It teaches numerical recognition up to 10 along with quantity.
• Weatherall's Musical Math- My kids love this. Very simple animations, low budget but gets the job done, lots of repetition. Teaches counting, greater/less than, number line use, measuring ml's, and I forget what else. The narrator has a British accent but my kids couldn't care less. Not that it's a bad thing, I just notice it every time he says "seven" . Some samples are on you tube, save them using www.keepvid.com
  
  
• Munchkin Math- I have not used it personally but I have heard good things about it.
  

[Joha]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detail post. I really appreciate your input. My daughter is 26 months old. She definitely knows her numbers up to 10, in order and recognizes the numeral. Sometimes she counts up to 10 just fine and other she is all over the place. When it comes to the numerals above 10 she has no clue. I did Doman's math flashcards when she was around 6-9 months old and showed her the whole Doman program in LM when she wasn't even 1. She used to love to count, but not anymore. We try to practice with just daily things, but when we say let's count, she says "no counting" and that is the end of it. I wonder if she just feels tested all the time, when we say "Let's count"  . As you can see my issue is not with the numbers up to 10, but eh ones beyond. We own the Leap Frog moon math adventure, it is very good, she likes it, but hasn't watched for a while. She always prefers to watch something with letters, words and read. We wonder if she just doesn't like math and she just loves reading. She know her letters and the sounds since she was 16 months old and it's in the process to learn to read phonetically.

She is not really into crafts or coloring books. I'm not sure if she gets it from us since neither one is crafty at all. I do have to try dough more often since she seems to like. I just checked just blog and the post about the fractions was very nice. I'll try that.

She likes puzzles and has her number puzzle, but it comes only up to 10. I though about getting a 100 numbers board, but I'm not sure the tiles will be difficult for her to handle.

Also, I'm going to check the other DVD's you recommended. DVD's seem to be a good tool for us. I have to admit, as much as I have tried, I don't think I'm a good teacher    I keep trying new activities so she is not watching too much tv, but at the end my dd gets inpatient, I get inpatient and we go nowhere.

I have two more months before my second baby arrives, so we'll see how much we can accomplish. Thanks again for your input.

[TracyR4]

How about counting while doing some fun physical activity?

For instance we count when my oldest daughter uses mouthwash. My daughter learned to count to 30 because we count to 30 when my older girls swish with mouthwash after brushing their teeth.

We've counted when we stir things. Like when we make cookies, stir the juice , etc. You could get a bowl and a spoon and let her stir and count to how ever far you want. Even if she doesn't do the counting herself. Still count.
There have been times when I just do the counting and my daughter is listening.


Get some M&M's or Cheerios and count them into a bowl. If she counts them she can eat them    You don't have to say " let's count them." You could say " We need to count these so mommy can use them to make some cookies!" Then make some cookies.

Tape some paper squares to the floor and have her count as she jumps on them. I remember with my 3rd daughter I wrote the number on the paper so she could see the numbers as she jumped on them.

If all else fails let her take a break from math for a bit and concentrate on something else. Sometimes children need some time to absorb things sometimes too.

Touch math is expensive but you can find it on ebay, and they do sell Worksheets online that is the same as their program.
http://www.touchmath.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=worksheets.welcome&GradeLvl=1
I'm not sure why this program is so insanely expensive because they sell it to schools.

[annisis]

If your child is in to videos, They Might Be Giants really sparked interest for several things in my son. I feel like the early education world doesn't know enough about these guys.

It isn't a curriculum by any means, but they are lots of fun and parents can stand to listen to them over and over.

Here is one of my son's favorite songs from "Here Come the 123s," their math video:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/L8pySVYytRs&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/L8pySVYytRs&rel=1</a>
And here's my favorite :

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/x5ohtlewREI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/x5ohtlewREI&rel=1</a>

We love TMBG and have all their DVDs, but you can watch many of their videos online on youtube. Just be cautious if you look around on youtube as they used to be an alternative rock group and not all their music videos (mostly fan made) are appropriate (Don't watch "Particle Man" with a little one nearby).

[lzp11]

Hi Joha, i think we have quite similar issues at the moment and rather than resurrecting another post, I’ll hop onto yours if that’s OK!  My daughter is a little younger than yours and maybe you have already tried many things that we have yet to try.  She does also know to count up to 10 and read the numerals also up to 10.  I’m worried I might make her bored if we go over it too many times.

 If you have only two months to go before your next baby arrives, perhaps you are feeling a bit tired at the moment?  This can make it hard to remain relaxed and joyful about learning.  I am currently in early pregnancy (15 weeks) and feeling horrible!  This is making it quite tough for me to be relaxed and having fun with the learning programmes!  I’m sure my daughter picks up on this.

There are some really great suggestions here.  I have decided to try to relax and enjoy ourselves for a few months whilst looking for activities that spark an interest in maths.  I don’t think we are quite ready for worksheets yet.  Probably I’d personally love to follow a curriculum because it takes a bit of pressure off me to know what to do next when I feel unsure about what I’m doing / or “should” be doing (which is most of the time!) but I’ll try to let go of that for now!  I think I could end up spending a lot of money on something that we don’t really use.

My daughter loves music so I’m going to order a few musical maths DVDs.  I’ve ordered:
-  Here come the 123s by TMBG (Annisis – thanks for the post – I used to love these guys many years ago when I was at university and I remember seeing them live – I had no idea they produced kids music now – am REALLY excited to get the CD / DVD)
-  Fun with numbers: counting 1 to 10 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1406650536/ref=oss_product
This is a BBC product – and was quite reasonably priced!  I also ordered their fun with phonics letter and reading packs.
-  Haven’t ordered yet but am thinking about Math to the moon

Other things I think I will try:
-   Counting food (always a good motivator).   I will probably try to just count it out as if that’s the normal thing to do (“OK, it’s time to count out the cheerios into your bowl...”) rather than highlight it as a learning activity.
-  Matching numbers of cheerios with dot cards / numerals (might be a way to move towards addition / subtraction).  A good breakfast game!
-  Counting my daughter’s fingers – she gets really excited about this!  We often sing the nursery rhyme 12345 once I caught a fish alive at the same time.  Think we might move onto her toes next
-  Counting as we walk up and down the stairs.  I might try to print out some numbers and bluetack them next to each step as we go up and down.  Counting backwards when we come back down might make it more interesting too.
-  I bought a big foam dice to see if she enjoys throwing it and looking at which number comes up (if so I’ll probably get another one).   Wasn’t entirely sure how to make it into a good game but maybe we’ll try jumping (whilst counting) out the number of dots that show on the dice.  We also have a mat with numbers on like hopscotch so could try running to the matching number on the mat?
-  Playing with our toy abacus.  It has numbers at the bottom and I sometimes ask her to choose a number that she likes.  I then count it out on one of the abacus rows as well (she gets to choose which colour row!).  I’m aware I’m not really using the full potential of an abacus here and wondering if we might be able to progress to simple addition and then subtraction. 
-  Using coloured cotton reels or beads: she enjoys playing with these in lots of ways (sorting into bowls by colour, threading onto a piece of string) and we can probably count as doing this.  I also thought about putting numbers into bowls and then counting out the correct number of beads on top.
-  I read that it’s a good idea to make different patterns with various identical objects and count each time so this might be fun (e.g. horizontally and then vertically and then in a cross shape) showing that the number stays the same
-  Bouncing a ball 1 to 5 times and counting each time (mixed in with general throwing rolling and other fun ball activities)

I still like a lot of the Montessori approach.  http://www.montessorimom.com/ has some good ideas.  Rather than buying a more expensive bundle, I’m wondering about getting a few key elements such as some number rods  although I’m not 100% sure what we’d do with them!  Maybe compare length, arrange into order (up and down).  I found a discount Montessori store (UK based) http://www.absorbentminds.co.uk/acatalog/Discount.html

Finally, as I am based in the UK, I am strongly thinking of getting the Numicon at home kit http://www.numicon.com/resource_overview/numicon-kits/1st_steps_with_numicon_at_home_kit.html  - it seems a very reasonable price and something we could work towards

[Joha]

annisis,

Thank you so much for the videos. I'm going to show them to my dd tomorrow to see if she likes them.

lzp11,

Thank you so much for putting all these ideas together.  I actually have been working on a list of videos in youtube from different recommendations and today she didn't want to stop watching them. When she went down for her nap she was signing her numbers, so I was very happy about that. She really liked the Peter Weatherall videos so I just went ahead an ordered them today. They are price very reasonable. I also ordered the foam dice and I'm waiting for them in the mail. Just like you, I need to figure out a way to make it fun. Yesterday I put beads of different colors in a plate full of rice and she had to sort them out by color, she loved it! The activity kept her busy for a while too. After she had sorted them out, we counted them and place the foam number that matched the quantity. After that she was just happy transfering the rice into another container with the spoon. I'm attaching a couple of pics to give you an idea.

I have been thinking about getting an abacus, but not 100% how to use it. I also looked into Numicon, maybe you can let me know how it goes if you order it. Just like you, I don't think we are ready for worksheets, but I"m going to print the free worksheet they have at touchmath's site and see how she is doing.

I'll strongly recommend getting Math into the Moon from Leapfrog. I think is very well made.

Let's keep the post alive with updates and new ideas    I really appreciate everyone's input.

PS. You are right I'm tired,so my patience level is low    But the first trimester was the toughest.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I just wanted to say, wow what a cutie pie!!! So sweet. 

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