Homeschool Math. Base Ten Block Method Founded In Montessori.

"The teacher must take her materials from the school, and her principles from what she has learnt; and then she must face practically, for herself, the question of this recall. Only her own intelligence can solve the problem, which will be different in every individual case." ~Maria Montessori

I remember Jerry being quite amused that I wanted to be a master trainer yet had no concept or knowledge of Maria's work. I went home to escape winter and I had been reading "The Men of Mathematics" to try and figure out what the hell these guys were thinking, Newton did not develop the calculus to torture high school seniors, and college students. I also read "Innumeracy" by Paulos. He was surprised by this, so he took me down into his basement where he had a library set up and directed me to READ...particularly works by Mario and Maria. It was a large collection of books; I have an affinity for them, so I was quite content to spend hours down there, I found a book on Vedic mathematics, quite a few classics (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle etc) and many more. Jerry was content to have me down there because while I was down there I wasn't bothering him, and occasionally I'd come up with a topic of conversation "worth talking about."

Try to remember my lineage is direct. Me, Jerry. Mario. Maria. I don't recall Jerry (or Maria or Mario) talking about a standard curriculum that was to be applied to every child. Quite the opposite. The teacher was to be trained in such manner that each child's individual interests could be tapped, nurtured and developed. Discovery was directed by the teacher with regard to the child's individual interests.

Therefore lessons were developed for each class and each child in the class on subject matter at hand, in this case math. There was no cookie cutter approach. Even the books he developed were made with the understanding that the student picked where to start and the order. All books were to be completed but how and in what order was up to the individual student. And yes it's a hell of a lot more work, AND the education is far more effective and superior to what currently passes for education in the public school system of the USA. This year's class is not the same as last years class. How is it possible that the lessons would be the same?

"A teacher, by his passive attitude, removes from the children the obstacle that is created by his own activity and authority.". ~Maria Montessori

For example, today we are going to learn trigonometry concepts. The teacher introduces the CONCEPTS then directs the student to discover more and thru socratic method the child discovers axiom and postulate...and the formulas, they aren't hit over the head with them. Once concepts are understood mastery can be attained. Mastery is demonstrated by being able to make up and solve one's own problems. Again: once they understand the concepts all we can do is change the numbers.

"Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment." ~Maria Montessori

Your job is to create a math rich environment. Place the child in a math rich environment and they will learn math, in their own way and in their own time. This is the education of individuals in groups...how can the lessons be the same, in the same order at the same time. If you were educated in a public school yea verily this is completely foreign to you as everybody pledges allegiance and then opens their text book to page 123, or does the same worksheet in preparation for the standardized test. BTW it has become clear that homeschooled and Montessori students do incredibly well on standardized tests, because again, once the concepts are mastered all the givers of the test can do is change the numbers trying to ascertain if the math is understood or not. This has been circumvented by students and teachers who memorize answers to the test questions, rather than understanding the subject matter well enough to answer any questions. Once they understand addition they can add any two numbers. The principle is the same with regard to "advanced mathematics". The practice is another thing entirely: memorize long enough to take the test.

"Our care of the children should be governed not by the desire to 'make them learn things', but by the endeavor always to keep burning within them the light which is called intelligence." ~Maria Montessori

"The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality." ~Maria Montessori

Once interest has been pricked discipline and concentration flow as naturally as water downhill, time stands still, and learning takes place.

"The first essential for the child's development is concentration. The child who concentrates is immensely happy." ~Maria Montessori

"Discipline must come through liberty. . . . We do not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined." ~Maria Montessori

"Teaching is a sacred trust." ~Joyce A. Rogers.

Upcoming Password Sale and Training..

I put this on my FB page.

The only sale will be on annual and lifetime only, one time payment, no terms. Coming up with 50 bucks or a hundred and fifty bucks might ding your budget so I have now got a handy dandy subscription option where you can pay in installments, but as I said you won't get terms on the sale prices.

I'm going to have a password flash sale in March in honor of my elder's 10th and also the beginning of my second half century counting down the last few trips around the sun in this body...I pretty sure I've already had more than I'm going to get and that in itself is reason to celebrate...

If lifetime passwords are on sale for $150 and are normally $250 what % off is that? Those that answer with parts per million will be hunted down and summarily shot.

150 is to 250 as 3 is to 5 as x is to 8...therefore using this same ratio what should the sale price of the annual plus teacher training password sale price be? X will be the answer but you will have to us a multiplier to get the right answer what is the value of the multiplier? (I'm using round numbers to keep it simple.)

If a broke homeschooler asks me if they can apply the money they already spent on passwords to the sale prices what will my answer be?

Extra credit: Should the flash sale be 5 days, beginning on March 1st, 7 days Beginning on March 2nd or 10 days beginning on March 5th?

SALE IS OVER.

I can not put blocks on sale.  Passwords do not require a phone number for delivery. Blocks do.

Meantime you can get this homeschool math subtraction manual for FREE, all you have to do is send me your email address; if I was smart I would have said email address and a promise that you'd  go back and leave a comment....


I will be having a video training session FRIDAY, 27th Feb, 8am HST.  2 1/2 hours on Fractions.  I just did a 2 and a half hour session with some Montessori teachers from SC and like a silly pants I forgot to record it...it was a pretty good training too...I think: never got much feedback from them.

Any how we'll go for an hour or so take a 15 minute break and then finish up the hour...I will start with this fractions kit. Fraction tiles. And if we have time spend a few moments showing how to use the multi tens to teach fractions...but remember all you really need is a combo kit...

Another training using the multi-tens and combo kit exclusively to teach fractions will happen some other day**...so if you have a fractions kit and want some training on how to use it email me to reserve a spot and let me know you can make it, cost will be 20 bucks.  You need gmail video chat installed and you need to add me to a circle and I'll add you back...this would be a good time for me to actually email people who bought fractions kits and let them know about this...it could happen but I think my Girl Tuesday is going to go to the doctors instead of working her one day a week with me so...

**If not enough people with fractions kits respond I'll do the fractions training using a combo kit and multi tens because I know quite a few people have those.  Then, I'll put it on the training page and perhaps on a PP fractions page as well.  Also if you can't come for 2 and a half hours just come for an hour...you won't get lost.  Which reminds me in March I was considering having a Saturday 6 hour training...50 bucks and you can come for an hour or two or all six or what have you come and go as you please...do 3 and 3 with a half hour break but I will need a quorum of ten.

Apparently, I should do an hour long subtraction seminar but it seems a little redundant now that the SSS  manual is done.  The whole point of the website and vids is to make myself obsolete...eventually you just pick any topic and there will be vids and pages there waiting for you...

You can also comment/sign up below using blogger or FB...

Homeschool Math, Games & Activities with Base Ten Blocks for Interger Fun.

Using base ten blocks to teach Homeschool Math is the topic of conversation for a lot of people who have chosen to homeschoool...asking namely, "how am I going to teach these kids math if I failed math...?" And of course your first instinct is to teach math the way you were taught, even though you know from personal experience that it might not be the most effective way to learn math...here is a method that works and has been PROVEN effective--and best of all it's fun...and as an added bonus no number line to start with, just a noisy game kids love.

Here is that simple game for teaching integers.


I was going to make this a much lengthier post, but let's just keep it short and simple. My subtraction manual,  Supremely Simple Subtraction is doing quite well, although I have now had several conversations where the gist of it is there is no way to describe how cool that book is...lol...still getting people who already have it to leave a simple comment is very difficult for a lot of reasons, but as you can see quite a few have done so now. Click that link get a FREE book...well, not entirely free you have to give me your email, but you won't have to worry about getting inundated with emails from me...in fact quite the opposite. There are people who have signed up on various email lists who have to this day not gotten a single email from me since. Even when they WANT an email to inform them of the new password or for notification of one of Mortco's extremely rare sales.

I haven't gotten around to making a list and getting an email program but I have hired an assistant, a Girl Tuesday if you will, and I think she will work wonders in getting things done and freeing up my time...so you may in fact get an email from me in March informing you of a special sale.  And if you miss it you miss it. People have I think at last given up waiting for another sale from Mortco at these prices.  And I warned people that prices were going up, but people are used to gimmicks so they thought prices would go up so we could mark it down and call it a sale...lol...no: prices have actually gone up.  Same with my passwords...there might be two sales this year on them and they are not going to happen again...a Birthday Sale for the elder boy when he turns TEN...he won't turn ten again so don't expect a sale like that again...although the younger says we will also have a sale when he turns ten but that years from now, so I wouldn't wait...


I like this video because you can watch them learn in real time. Play along don't just watch math is not a spectator sport. Also would it be as much fun if it was just me and one student? This is why I like groups. More is learned faster. I have used this game for years and I can tell lots of different stories about kids learning with the number line and getting confused and then this game clearing things up. Also the explanations in Supremely Simple Subtraction work wonders.

I have had cases where the older sibling was taught with a number line and the younger learned with blocks thru me and the younger sibling blew the older sibling out of the water when it came to test time on integers...eventually I will have ten Series C Manuals done, subtraction is book three in the series, book one will be "Groovy Games & Addicting Activities" of which what you see here is just one. Series A Games and Activities is completely free no email or other interaction required there, hard copy costs about $3.20 (plus shipping) from Mortco. Don't say I never gave you nothin'.

You can also use algebra and factoring polynomials to teach integers...but if you want to learn to do so, you'll need a password (then just go to advanced algebra on my website...or be good at digging around on this blog and the internet.  Here is a page regarding the teaching of addition and subtraction and more that you might find useful and may have had a hard time finding on your own.

Note the girls are at no disadvantage whatsoever, and you may note I make an effort to call on the girls more than the boys. The myth that girls can't do math must be busted and laid to rest along side the myth that woman can't learn to read, permanently.  That myth about women and reading was prevalent just a few hundred years ago in western culture.

You can also use cuisenaire rods to play this game, just mark one side with a pen and make that the negative side. No biggie.

A few testimonials:

"By the way, YOU ARE AWESOME! I actually clapped for you when you explained some concept soooo simply and clearly.It is fantastic!" ~K Ontario, Canada.We are excited for math today!!! ~amazed parents from all over the globe.First, I wanted to thank you for being out there and for introducing me to the Mortensen Method. I'm a new homeschooler who's been searching for Math under every nook and cranny of the globe. Worksheets I can make. Flashcards I can draw. Concepts and vision...now THAT'S something to pay for.
EDIT
Also, as a believer in the separation of church and state from an educational standpoint, I felt really at home at your House. Thank you for that, too.
EDITFinally, thank you, thank you, thank you for mentioning somewhere, somehow, in some side comment that I can no longer find in your fantastic maze of a world the work of Liping Ma. I immediately bought her Knowing & Teaching Elementary Mathematics and have been forever changed as a result. It made me rethink the way EVERY subject is taught, learned and subsequently taught again. I never would have even heard of her if it weren't for you. EDITI am extremely eager to start having my "oh, I'm just not good at math, never was" mind blown. ~PF USA

"I've paid a lot more for a lot less." ~amazed parents from all over the globe.

"Ps. Your parents teacher training is great!" ~EM, UK

"The training is crazy. No one is offering anything like it that I know of...and your price is crazy too." ~JC, CA.

"The amount of stuff you get for the money is crazy."~JJ, New Hampshire.

"Just got the Parent/ Teacher Password.CR wasn't lying when he said 1 page was worth the price. Get it for yourself to learn how to think math." ~KY, USA.

" I really like how you do math. My kids do too! We were having problems and you made math good and happier for us. I sincerely say Thank You from the bottom of my heart." ~CS, Ohio.

"So, I am absolutely flabbergasted by the stuff I am learning just hanging out in the House of Math like four to five hours (literally) per day! Before the little one gets up, I'm on. Nap time, I'm on. After bedtime, I'm on with toothpicks bracing my eyelids. Even before purchasing the passwords! It's like a crash course re-education, and I am infinitely grateful..."

Here is a collection of Testimonials.