Crewton Ramone's Password Protected Pages

Or what do I get for a Password?

Slightly "older" student begins the process of mastering multiplication. 

People sometimes email me and ask if they should get a password...of course I say yes.

Here is the short version with links to all the pages where you can use your password: PP Links Page.

But what do you actually get with a password? Is it worth the money? I was thinking people would click around and find pages that required a password and then buy one to get into the advanced Algebra Page for example.  This works to a certain extent but apparently people need to be sold on the idea and told what they get. Fine. Here is a short video:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTtEl1X-tC0

There is no short cut I can give you as been said there is no royal road to mathematics, but I can sure remove a lot of the excuses we used to get when people would buy a kit and wonder what to do next. There is no one path to take because each kid and situation is different. And this method does not believe in the standard way they have done things in public schools where basically everybody learns the same thing on the same day at the same time. So quit asking. Not gonna happen here although I am trying to show you how to use these blocks for your situation...ie I want to teach my kid addition, or long division or fractions or what have you.

Also if that standard way of doing things was working so well

 you wouldn't be reading this now,

would you?

There was a time when you got a password with your order but that time has passed. (I haven't updated every page I've built over the years to reflect this so you may see a page that say you do....but you don't.) Be aware that Mortensen Company fills all my orders on blocks and pays me a commission. I fill orders for passwords...which basically means I send you an email in case you miss the pop up page when you check out with paypal.


The GETTING STARTED PAGE is a 5 dollar value all by itself. Many people have found it useful to go to that page and use it as a starting point. Make sure to check out the pdf's on that page too, scroll down, there are four of them there. They contain old articles and scope and sequence for the books, and a nice dissertation from an experienced teacher on why she likes this method.

How to get started?

 A combo kit and a password and you should be good to go. Seriously. And even then you can probably get by without a password for quite a while as you digest all the stuff out there I've put up for FREE. But if you want to see sample lessons right off the bat or you get to the point where you're factoring and are wondering how this shows how to factor negative expressions like

x²  - 5x +  6  or  x²  -  x  -  6
etc you need a password. You will also find that we use algebra to teach the basic operations and I'll show you how. I often use algebra to teach addition and multiplication and use it to sneak math facts in on older students who need remedial work in mathematics. Sound intriguing? It should.

I am told constantly that my password should cost more, not just for the content on those pages but also as a thank you for all the free stuff you were "fronted"...as it were...lol. Yes: I am trying to get you addicted to math.

Check out the advanced algebra page. The only place that shows you how to use the blocks for that on the entire web!

The Password Protected screencast channel it has Percentages on it. My percentages page needs work...and it's on the list of things to update.

There are new pages added and pages updated pretty regularly, I'm always adding youtube vids so you might want to subscribe to my youtube channel.

People sometimes tell me they don't see anything new, that's because your browser is loading the old page out of your cache from last time you were at my site. Hit refresh for the new stuff...the Sample Lessons page has a ton of stuff on it and so does Sarah's Page. Those of you who have funtionally autistic children or students might find that page QUITE interesting. It shows how I took a student who was basically being ignored in a public school system mathematically and got her to pass her GED and Compass Test. Ironically the reason she had to take the GED is because she didn't have enough math credits...but that was because they were teaching her math and I didn't meet her until 10th grade.

Eventually there will be MANY more password protected pages. Some may need their own password but for now all you need is one. Here is a page that gives you more links:

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/password-test.html
You put your password in there and you'll get a list of pages where you can use your password. Or you can hit Test on the navigation bar.

A large page of sample lessons to get you started:
http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/Sample-Lessons.html
 
Algebra videos showing negative expressions:
http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/advanced-algebra.html
 
A TON OF PDFs:
http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/crewtonramonespasswordprotectedpdfspage.html
Download as many PDF's as you want all for a few bucks. There are hundreds of pages available for you. Also watch the vids as many times as you want. You want more and better quality? Share the link for BUYING a password not the links to the pdfs or videos. Its a measley buck a month if you get a year pass. But if 100's of people bought a password every week there would be more stuff and better quality videos and software here. Word of mouth is the best advertising. Hope you find the stuff worthwhile...and worthwhile enough to share with friends who are willing to pay a few bucks just like you did...

Channel of Screencasts you can't get anywhere else: (currently mostly same as "advanced algebra") but also HAS PERCENTAGES AND FACTORING NEGATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
http://screencast-o-matic.com/channels/cXV10bV2S
 
Sarah's Page has lots of vids and more are again being added. See "The Blocks" work with an Autistic student:
http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/Sample-Lessons-Sarah.html

And guess what? There's more.  Buy a password and find out how much more. Just go to the TEST Page they are listed there.

One password does it all at the moment if you run into a page that asks for a password you'll have it.

Here is a much longer vid covering the website (my house of math), blog, youtube vids and FB page:
I did it in one take and didn't do any editing...you may want to skip it and go to the second one....it's "only" 18 minutes long instead of 38.



That thing is way too long. Here is a shorter version that mostly just covers my website.



People are now overwhelmed at the amount of content I've created and many have found that "it doesn't go in order" as far as they are concerned. On the bright side at leaste there is plenty of stuff for you dig thru now, there was a time when there was NOTHING. ZERO. ZIP. ZILCH. You got a set of blocks or a kit, took it home and it went on a shelf or under a bed never to be seen again because people didn't know how to use the material and there were no places to get training...

Problem is getting close to solved. Now you want an example of how to present whatever it is chances are there's a video for that. If not email me and I'll make one...eventually. Use your search engine!

Vid courses should also come out this year...(2014). If you have a topic you'd like to see leave a comment. I have done a few parent/teacher trainings...which cover what to do in what order depending on the situation, I am told I should make some vids like that...so much to do so little time.

When you do order, turn off your pop up blocker. I have it set up so when you finish paying a page pops up with the password on it and info on where you can use it. If you miss that page just send me an email ad I'll send it right out.  Also check whatever email you use for paypal, I don't know how many times people have sent me pissy emails when I already sent them the password but then they tell me they only use that email address for paypal and never check it.

Some Math Enrichment I did with a 9 year old.

MORE FREE STUFF:

Also don't forget there is FREE software for your little kids, you can download it as an app on iTunes, just search Crewton Ramone (I'm the only Crewton Ramone on iTunes oddly enough) or go here to put it on your computer:

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/free-addition-game.html

Schools you are free to put this software on your computers for your kindergarteners and first and second graders. No license fee, no software fee JUST USE IT.

Go here for an hour long overview of the method and more vids.

Too funny, this post is getting too long...lol...so I'll stop here.

" The way to have a good idea , is to have lots of ideas. "
- Linus Pauling

Base Ten Blocks For First Grade

Building 11's.

I like this kid because so far every time he comes neither of us can believe how fast an hour goes by, and he's only six, in first grade. Base Ten Blocks make the math fun and easy...here are a couple of excerpts from our classes. These are good training for parents and teachers because they are great examples of the teaching concepts...remove the no from the lesson, degree of difficulty, placing the child in a situation where they can not fail, use of the rectangle to make it easy to count, addends and a general algorithm for counting past ten, introduction of algebra right away...



Tasking is not fun if the task assigned is no fun. He likes to play MineCraft, and builds stuff on his tablet and home computer. This is like building in MineCraft but specifically designed to teach math.  When they are in first grade math should be fun and easy. It should also be conceptually based. Symbols can wait. The same way we don't make very young children write English as they learn English there is no need to introduce symbols right away and in public schools they emphasize writing math way too early in my opinion.  They nead to hear the language and get fundamental concepts that they can see and get their hands on, symbols tend to muddy the waters and take away from clarity at this age and they really slow things down. Later when they see the symbols that stand for the numbers and operations they've heard it makes sense.



These videos show how to do it. Remember at this stage of the game all he is doing is counting and I am teaching him to discover how to count for himself...and how to say what he has done. We are basically figuring out how to count more quickly and easily. The brain WANTS to work fast but at this age it lacks training. But rather than drill facts I am showing him ways to count quickly. We also drop the algebra in right away.   Listen for the discoveries.



Little kids like math.  It's fun for them except when you make their hands hurt from so much writing.  You can see for yourself all the math facts he is getting consciously and subconsciously (and that is where the bulk of the learning takes place).

Don't get me wrong I have first grade worksheets, but you want to use them sparingly.  Look for more work with this kid on the Password protected pages and future blog posts here.

Update: He now has his own page, you'll find this post and more vids you won't find anywhere else at CRHOM. This snippet was made from a much higher quality vid using screencasting the vid at my website has better audio and video.


Meantime join me on FB.

Teaching Second Graders With Manipulatives.

Crewton Ramone in the classroom! Here are a few videos and shots where second graders use manipulatives and do math that is supposedly beyond their years. These videos should give you a good idea how to incorporate the blocks into the classroom. Manipulatives make math fun and easy. They make math concepts visually obvious and you can get a lot more math done in a shorter amount of time once the students become familiar with the base ten blocks. Look how many addends get made when they build a tower. It's much better than writing them down over and over again--and more effective. Be careful with worksheets.

But don't be fooled into thinking all these kids can do with manipulatives is add and subtract and do some place value...they can learn all kinds of math concepts. The basic operations (addition subtraction, multiplication, division) and much, much more. Use your search engine I have tons of vids and posts up about math from counting thru high school math.

I often forget to turn my camera on during the lessons. You can look at the board and tell we covered a lot of math concepts, from square numbers to square roots to multiplying by nine. Here is a post lesson short:



Here they are doing second grade math, just learning their addends. I can't stress enough how important it is to learn and master all 45 addends.  We have broken into teams and they are racing to build pyramids of  10's and 13's...or you could use worksheets and get less done in more time. Note how we go from addends to factoring polynomials without skipping a beat. I expect you can see how it's all one lesson. Even when we are doing algebra, the algebra is just along for the ride what we are focused on at the second grade level is multiplication and addends and having fun.



You can hear the fun.  Building towers is a favorite fun second grade math activity. I use it as a reward. They practice addends and have fun doing it.  But they can do much more than just addends, they can do algebra, understand problem solving fool around with Pythagoras' math concepts regarding triangles and much more. As you can see addends in algebra go together all in one breath as it were, factoring cements the addends and gives them some multiplication and factoring of numbers and algebraic expressions.

Second Graders Factoring x² + 9x +18 with EASE!


This video is unlisted and won't come up in searches. It is on the sample lessons page along with a whole lot more. Gives you a little taste of the stuff you can get with a password. The password protected pages have hours and hours of vids. Here is a sample addends lesson with very young students.

Second Graders Tell ME Pythagorean Theorem

Breaking them into teams makes the whole thing much more manageable, creates a little competition but also lets kids know as they are working on the problems and other teams jump up and yell "done!" that they aren't impossible and that if their peers can do it, they can do it. It also adds a little excitement.

This little group of girls is working together trying to figure out what fits in the corner...not only do they get math skills but they learn team work and cooperation. I can't tell you how many times the kids who are supposedly the top of the class in math end up "losing" to other kids who are not as good at math as they are (my own son included) because they couldn't get their group to work as a team. And by "losing" I mean finishing after the other "winning" group, sometimes by mere seconds.

Keep it fun and keep it moving. Just play. Play is very important...it makes learning easier and faster.


I have several posts showing the use of base ten blocks in classroom situations plug Crewton Ramone In the Classroom into your favorite search engine and see what comes back...besides these:

http://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/2013/04/crewton-ramone-in-classroom.html

http://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/2013/05/crewton-ramone-using-base-ten-blocks-in.html

And now you know why in the world of Mortensen math this is no big deal, astonishing to some but not me or other who have spent the time to learn to use this effective method for teaching.

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Don't forget to find me on FB.

More Hundreds. (Perfect Scores.)

Before I met him he was usually less than 50%.

Here is a functionally autistic student who went from "F" to "A" in a rather short period of time. Base ten blocks made all the difference. Symbols alone are rarely sufficient until you have spent a lot of time playing with manipulatives. Check out the vids on this page and note how I always fall back on blocks to remind him of concepts we have already covered and to make answers "visually obvious" as the Montessorians say. .



Note the difference in auditory perception which is so common in these kids, they don't hear or process information the same way we do...but I can assure getting "F's" has the same effect on them as anybody else. And so does getting "A's". He was quite proud of himself.

I only spent a few lessons with this kid before he told his mother I would "kill him" if he came and got the answers wrong after all that work. He took it literally. It was fun while it lasted. His mom says maybe he'll come back one day...

If you would like some tutoring where ever you are, all you need is a set of blocks and an internet connection, I usually use google vid chat, that way the dupes at the NSA can learn some math too.

It's pretty easy. You send me funds via paypal and set up a google acct so we can use their vid chat. I also have ooVoo but nobody uses that, and rarely we use skype...the software is just a little better with google although my last few skype calls have been trouble free. I have done vid tutoring all over the country but also Europe, Indonesia, and of course Canada. If you have a couple of kids (siblings) I charge the same not per kid...several families put their three kids on the other end of the video and we all play math since with these manipulatives we level the playing field... Also a few parents are starting to figure out they can make money tutoring others too. The demand is high. I have also done teacher trainings, tutor trainings etc via vid chat not just tutoring kids. All that is required is that everybody has a set of base ten manipulatives (or at leaste enough to go around) and a decent attitude.

As long as you have a set of blocks I am quite confident video tutoring is just as good as being there in person and I have quite a few people who have been getting tutored off and on for months...

Dig thru this blog and play around at The House Of Math...just click links and watch the vids that interest you...get a password which unlocks hours of vids and screencasts (there is also a password protected screencast page) plus PDF's, my book and more detailed pages of instruction where you get to sit in on actual sample lessons but also get direct instruction on how to present math concepts. Maybe it would be a good idea to to start on the Getting Started Page which basically covers how to use a Curriculum Starter Kit but can also be used as an overview. As one person said, "I just go and wonder around clicking links and watching vids and hours go by..."

People are always amazed at how much they get for a password. One page of sample lessons alone is worth the 24 bucks.

Captain Jack and Ratios.

This was a fun student. He was having trouble with math because as usual they didn't teach him concepts or teach to his learning style. Again, we see if they can get their hands on it it makes more sense. He had a lot of misconceptions but the nice thing with this particular child is once he got it he got it and he didn't need a lot of repetition. Ratios turn out to be easy.

The cross multiplication they were teaching him didn't make sense even if he could get the answer....but once he grasped the relationships between the numbers things fell into place quite rapidly. Instead of memorizing and algorithm which he would quickly forget he began to get to get a better understanding of what was going on as we played around for an hour. I have made several videos and blog posts about ratios.

I think you will find these videos amusing as well as informative.



I used a lot of manipulatives to get the concepts across but didn't get it all on vid because he often got distracted if I busted out the camera. But if you watch closely you should begin to get some ideas on how to use the blocks to present ratios. You may also watch videos teaching ratios with Sarah, another autistic student to whom I spent time teaching ratios.

Writing is not his strong suit. I spent a long time working with him on how to hold a pencil. Often his teacher's aid would write for him but she also ended up doing a lot of the work for him so he wasn't learning as much as maybe they thought he was which was reflected by his test scores.  When I met him many of them were less than 50%.  Soon he was getting perfect scores.



These videos should also show how important it is to know multiplication, not just be able to work a calculator. Also once the concepts are understood, you don't need to use the blocks for every single problem. What we are basically doing is studying relationships between these numbers.

PUGS!

For more videos you can't get anywhere else showing how to use these blocks with SPED kids and autistic kids and kids labeled with ADHD you might get yourself a password. Also a set of blocks and a net connection and I can tutor you or your kid anywhere...math tutoring on Maui is nice but it can be anywhere there is a decent net connection.  People are amazed at how much you get with a password. You get PDF's and my book, plus hours and hours of videos and screencasts...

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Early last year I followed a link to your web page from The Libertarian Homeschooler's FB page. Saw lots of cool stuff, put it in the mental queue to investigate further for my 4 year old twins. Bought a password last fall watched more, read more, started to try a little bit with the kids. Loved, ABSOLUTELY LOVED, the methodology. INCLUDING that concepts can AND SHOULD be introduced and explored in a non-linear fashion.

We thought we might take advantage of the curriculum kit sale this winter, but with other life issues going on we decided that we would just wait and continue working with the kids with some used Math U See blocks we'd picked up and ideas from your site. Well... then you posted an Ebay listing for a used Mortensen kit and I was able to pick that up. So, thank you so very much for passing that listing on to us. The kids have been doing all sorts of investigations with them and I think my husband's heart skipped a beat when my daughter discovered that 100 was a square made out of 10s. Cool. Luckily the next thing they tried was using the square as a Frisbee and we were humbled...

Oh, I had meant to drop you a note after watching the videos of you working with the little girl with ADHD, Emma I think. Well, in addition to some kudos for giving her some Vitamin C, I wanted to tell you that I thought having her hold the blocks in each hand, not just use her dominant hand for everything, that was PURE GOLD and one of many ideas I saw you use that I've noted to incorporate into our math play. Her neural networks are going to owe you big time for that! Hopefully you put some real butter on that popcorn too...

[but of course and real brewers yeast too]

We will definitely be password customers again in the future. I look forward to seeing where you go with your site.And I also just wanted to tell you how great I think it is that you post info to give parents more info about vaccinations. I wish I had more info, way earlier in our lives, and I hope that your posts will help someone out there make better decisions.

~JK, San Diego



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I just came across your site this past weekend and I am so thrilled to have found it!


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I'm really freakin' excited about this. I think this is the math I've been trying to find for the past decade + that I've been homeschooling my children. I know you've heard this before, but while I was watching some of your videos, I understood some math concepts better than I ever had
before.

I just spent two minutes with my math hating 17 year old son, showing him how to factor a polynomial with blocks. After a bit of denial that it couldn't possibly be that easy, he actually seemed a little excited to try Mortensen methods to help him with his work."Loving your videos and we have been playing with the few blocks we have while waiting for our package.
I am learning so much!!" ~ SK, Florida

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A Little Geometry, Triangles, and counting to 180.

Some simple concepts regarding triangles and 180...This student up until quite recently found triangles to be confusing and stupid.  But with a little directed discovery and explanation things very rapidly started making sense.  Geometry is often easy for visual learners because they can see it...this is not a primarily a visual learner,  this is a kinesthetic learner. He is good at sports and the reason he showed up in the first place was because if he got an F they wouldn't let him play.

"If you can count to nine tell me if something is same or different or not and identify a rectangle I can teach you math if you want to learn it...and you need to be able to speak a language preferably English." Is basically how our lessons started and at first he was incredulous. After an hour triangles were EASY. Now we just have to work on the negative associations he has built up over the last two years...he got a D in algebra and hated it. I showed him problem solving and factoring and he was hooked.

Next we will mix in a little algebra...this vid also brings home the fact that knowing your addends by heart makes a BIG difference. Concepts build on concepts and skill sets build on skill sets...soon instead of "2" they will put something like 4x - 20 there. And the student will have to figure out that 4x - 20 = 80.   Which is a snap if they understand problem solving concepts but just adds to the confusion if they just got a "D" in algebra and hate it and none of makes sense. Hero Zero and No Fun Get Back To One to the rescue.

In this video a student I am tutoring discovers that the stuff he thought was hard might not be so hard as long as he can count to 180. The angles of triangles always add up to 180 and using a little logic and reasoning we see why the exterior angle and the two non-supplementary angles add up to 180 degrees. I did a lesson already using directed discovery so that he was able to pretty much figure that out for himself he just couldn't elucidate it well so I showed him using some symbols and it really started making sense. (See also vid below.)

You can't see the x but it is the other angle in the triangle.

This student is a little camera shy and as with all students, tends to behave a little bit differently when the camera is on which adds a little pressure. This is another student that was in danger of not being able to play sports because of his math grade and apparently he's pretty good at baseball...and does "ok" in his other classes except, of course, math.

From what I can see he is indeed a kinesthetic learner and once he gets his hands on the blocks a lot of math problems fade away. (Do you see what I did there? I crack myself up.)

Now we are ready for a "complicated" problem like this on to the left. Looks like it might be tricky but again if you can count to 180 it's not very hard. Turns out it's just two problems stuck together.  Suddenly it's pretty easy except for the part that he sees a problem like this and automatically runs a program in his head that this is hard...but then it turns out to be easy and the program is modified. Soon he will be able to understand even poor explanations because he will be running a program called "this is easy I can do this."

The geometry wasn't making any sense to him nor were the explanations he was getting from his teacher, so he quit paying attention and this turns into a loop that ends with an "F." BTW he tells me probably 90% of his peers are bombing tests and getting poor grades. I'm pretty sure the teacher is just as frustrated if not more than the students.

Anyhow, once he starts understanding basics concepts and the generic ideas all they can do is switch the numbers...and test scores go up dramatically....and people think Crewton Ramone is magic. But it's not magic it's just math....and knowing when to start counting to 180....



Oh and BTW Happy New Year.

Winter Sale!

Winter sale is OVER.


In recognition of the holidays we are having a WINTER SALE in today's world it is difficult to send a holiday greeting without offending someone. So take advantage of the sale and:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, nonaddictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2014, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that United States Of America is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees or animals were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons may have been slightly inconvenienced.

3 announcements. Tutoring is going up to 50 bucks an hour base rate, beginning Jan 1, 2014.. AND passwords will no longer be included when you purchase blocks. I will still take orders for blocks and such...but ordering thru me no longer includes the annual password perk beginning Jan 1, 2014.

NEED PHONE NUMBER TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER. Put in "special instructions". Unless it's a password...otherwise we need the ph3 to complete the shipping form although so far the shippers have not been smart enough.

Combo Kits are 70 now (you guys are fooling yourselves if you think you are going to wait around for prices to come back down if anything they are going higher) the sales are "real" sales they don't kick prices up and then mark them down and call it a sale. Almost all kits are going up in price for 2014. DCSK is going to $525.00 and the RCSK is going to $400.00 Also miss the sale and you get to pay the higher price. Period.

Bought a big 4x6 white board. With which to make vid courses that you can buy...problem solving will be the first one...I keep threatening to make vid courses getting closer to reality.

IF you live outside of the "lower 48" I will invoice you for shipping...if you live outside the USA for damh sure you need to inquire about shipping because they cannot ship to you at these prices. You Canadian and Australians and UK'ers particularly should know better...send me an email and I will invoice you. You can pay via pay pal...which means any credit card will do or you can use your paypal account. Believe it or not I also take checks...you know those old fashioned pieces of paper that you have to put in an envelope...


NEED PHONE NUMBER TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER.

I made some paypal buttons to ease the ordering process, but you can/will only be able to use them in the contiguous 48 states where shipping is pretty much fixed.

WINTER SALE: Note some people are waiting for the old sale prices. LOL! It was a real sale. You missed it. Some prices have increased. (Marked **) take advantage of the sale especially on the deluxe CSK. Note both CSKs go up in price on Valentines day. Also note after Dec31 you will have to buy a password, it will NOT be included.

Also note when the password changes all you have to do is email me for the new if you have bought a one or a kit that included an annual password. My password list is messed up and needs updating so I can send out emails with the new one...but I notice when it changes only a few people even ask for a new password so at the moment the time it takes to do that isn't worth it. ALSO note some of you bought one more than a year ago and you will need to get a new one unless you bought a lifetime password...which BTW, will come in handy as new products roll out.

Those of you who got CSKs from CREWTON RAMONE earlier this year and last year have lifetime passwords, my way of thanking you for your support when I was just getting this thing up and running.  It is a pretty short list.

Winter sale is OVER.

NEED PHONE NUMBER TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER.

The CURRICULUM STARTER KITS are about to go up in price. I suggest you take advantage of this sale price. It's a real sale. The deluxe kit is a super-dooper sale! And it will be a year or more before they are this low again IF EVER. The days of the $65.00 combo kit are gone forever, although the price will actually come down a little after this sale is over. You're welcome.

How to order. Email me. Then I invoice  you. Soon I will have a few paypal buttons for the most common items. Go to my website (link below) for descriptions of the products. Also you can see them in use right here on this blog.

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/product-exchange.html

They have some price increases that start FEB 14,2014 so take advantage of this WINTER SALE 2013/14 NOW.

Don't know what to get. My recommendation is always the same...when in doubt by a combo kit. Now you can get a combo kit and a set of multi tens for what the price of a combo kit was alone almost...was 91 just for a combo kit. If you have a bigger budget I can't stress enough what a freaking deal the deluxe CSK is at $425.


NEED PHONE NUMBER TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER.

COMBO KIT singles reg $80 SALE 13W $70 Will come down from $91.00 thereafter.

Combo kit and Multi tens. $95.00 Good combination of products.  Reg price will be $120.00 for these two items when the sale ends.

CASE of COMBO KITS QVP - case of 4 - reg increased $315 SALE 13W $250
Winter sale is OVER.

Options:

Combo + Multi Tens $95.00 USD     Case of 4 $250.00 USD     SIngle Combo Kit. $70.00 USD

If you live OUTSIDE the 48 contiguous states EMAIL for shipping price. NEED PH# to complete ALL orders.

**CURRICULUM STARTER KIT ORIGINAL STYLE reg increased $400 SALE 13W $300

**CURRICULUM STARTER KIT DELUXE CREWTON RAMONE STYLE reg $499.00 increased $525 SALE 13W $425

^THIS IS ONE HECK OF A SALE BUY IT!^ An EXTRA 75 bucks off. I've sold lots of these for 500.00 and that was a deal!!

Options:

DELUXE CSK $425.00 USD Reg. CSK $300.00 USD

If you live OUTSIDE the 48 contiguous states EMAIL for shipping price. NEED PH# to complete ALL orders. If you want to order books or items below email me.


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**ADDITION SUBTRACTION KIT reg increased $35 SALE $20

**FRACTIONS KIT reg increased $115 SALE 13W $85

HAVING A PARTY KIT reg decreased $65 SALE 13W $50

**M-10 MULTIPLE TENS KIT reg increased $40 SALE 13W $25

N STUFF KIT reg decreased $15 SALE 13W $10

NUMBER PICTURE FUN KIT reg decreased $50 SALE 13W $40

NUMERAL IDENTIFICATION KIT reg decreased $25 SALE 13W $20

SKIP COUNT KIT reg decreased $40 SALE 13W $20

8 skip count coloring bks; Audio CD Skip Count Songs Jerry Mortensen

**TEN THOUSAND SQUARE reg increased $40 SALE 13W $20

TRIANGLE TRAY KIT w bars 1-10 reg decreased $10 SALE 13W $6

**VERY BASIC BASIC OPERATIONS reg increased $65 SALE 13W $55

BOOKS:  are being revamped and updated and should soon be available in PDFs soon which will greatly decrease shipping costs outside the USA. I will try and get prices on sets shortly. IE I want a set of level one how much? I want Series A...how much?

SERIES A Manuals are back in stock, at last.
WINTER SALE BOOKS.  The way this will work is tell me what you want and I will invoice you.
You need a Dick Tracy decoder ring but here it is:

FORMAT 1 BOOKS: Original Century Publishing Web Press Glue Bound Style

"Individual" "Singles" FORMAT 1 book prices reg $3.15 per book
WINTER SALE 2013/2014 $1.50 ea

BY THE CASE (minimum 300 bks) QVP - QUANTITY VOLUME PRICE
Winter Sale 2013/2014 $1 ea on SALE (by the case). OK to mix and match books. OK to mix and match books.




NEED PHONE NUMBER TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER.
PLEASE NOTE: that these lists are in flux and are subject to change at any time based on Inventory In Stock.
Mortco will only be able to give you a definitive list at the time you request a QUOTE.

LIST OF TITLES AVAILABLE IN FORMAT 1
ALL BOOKS IN OUR MORTENSEN MATH CURRICULUM (over 300 Titles) EXCEPT FOR THOSE LISTED BELOW.

FORMAT 2 BOOKS: 3 HOLE PUNCHED SLIGHTLY REDUCED ORIG ART WORK FROM 1980'S

FORMAT 3 BOOKS: 3 HOLE PUNCHED UPGRADED ARTWORK TOTALLY RE-DONE

These are certain specific Titles which are out of stock in the FORMAT 1 Web Press Glue Bound Style

These are Titles which are no longer offered in the original FORMAT 1 style.

The NEW UPDATED FORMAT 3 STYLE is a real improvement on the original web press books.

These are on Bright White 8 1/2 x 11 size, 3 hole punched with more room for students work
Easier to see and to work with!

LIST OF TITLES AVAILABLE ONLY IN FORMAT 2 or 3
You may receive FORMAT 2 "Interim" style of some of these due to availability or lack thereof.

If you do receive FORMAT 2 at first - they will REPLACE these with the NEW FORMAT 3 as soon as possible from Spring Sale 2013 forward. Many of these are in the works. Any that are ready (new ones are ready every week) in the NEW FORMAT 3 will be sent. The List changes frequently enough they cannot give a completely up-to-date List here.BUT this  list is of Books no longer available in FORMAT 1:

LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1 ARITHMETIC BOOK 3
LEVEL 1 ARITHMETIC BOOK 6
LEVEL 1 ARITHMETIC BOOK 7
LEVEL 1 MEASUREMENT BOOK 6
LEVEL 1 CALCULUS BOOK 4

LEVEL 2
LEVEL 2 ALGEBRA BOOK 4
LEVEL 2 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 2
LEVEL 2 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 3
LEVEL 2 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 4

LEVEL 3
LEVEL 3 MEASUREMENT BOOK 1
LEVEL 3 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 1
LEVEL 3 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 3
LEVEL 3 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 4
LEVEL 3 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 5

LEVEL 4
LEVEL 4 ALGEBRA BOOKS 1-10
LEVEL 4 MEASUREMENT BOOK 1-10
LEVEL 4 PROBLEM SOLVING BOOK 1-10
LEVEL 4 CALCULUS BOOK 1-10

LEVEL 5
LEVEL 5 CALCULUS BOOK 1-10

SMILEY FACE BOOKS
SMILEY FACE COUNTING BOOK 7
SMILEY FACE ADDITION BOOKS 1
SMILEY FACE ADDITION BOOKS 2
SMILEY FACE ADDITION BOOKS 3
SMILEY FACE ADDITION BOOKS 5

Winter sale is OVER.

NEED PHONE NUMBER TO COMPLETE YOUR ORDER.

Understanding Ratios Using Base Ten Blocks.

 I had a student talk about cross multiplication like it was some kind of dark magic. Here is an explanation of WHY cross multiplication works.

You should be able to see it. The relationship is one to three. in the second set the relationship is still one to three...but it's two to six.  You can play games where you get one and the student gets three.  In that case you might have put a two down and the student might get out 3 twos.

But here we are looking at the relationship in a slightly different way.

You can see how it works: if I have the rectangle and one side or two sides of the rectangle...and this is what we are employing to problem solve. Concept three: we form rectangles to facilitate counting.



Now from there we can do problem solving in Geometry with triangles and other shapes..."this is to this as x is to this..."

For example 6 : 15 as 14 : x...of course you could cross multiply and divide but there is an easier way. If you can start using rectangles in you mind problems like this will be easy to see. And even if you can't, the concepts are still easier to understand. This also points out the need for mastering multiplication tables. People will say who need it now that we have calculators...well being able to punch a calculator will not help you recognize 6 and 15 are on the threes multiplication table. And people often lament that calculators don't help with fractions very much...


They do but only for computation not for understanding the math. Some kids can "see" right off the bat that on top we have 2 threes and 2 sevens and if we have 5 threes on the bottom we must have 5 sevens too.  Others take more explaining.  Adults always take more explaining.

Here I drew in the rectangles. Use you imagination to see the sides. The whole thing is six and one side is two the other side MUST be 3. The whole thing is fourteen and one side is 2 the other side HAS TO BE 7. If the "top" is 3 the bottom is 3, if the top is 7 the bottom has to be seven because the relationships are the same.

So if I know the sides are 7 and 5 the whole thing HAS TO BE 35. We love math. It isn't going to be different tomorrow. No exceptions.  And you should be able to see the relationships are the same two to five...doesn't matter what it is.

2x/5x in this case we have 3 and 7...the logic also works no matter where we put the x.

Then we the student sees this, it makes perfect sense. It's not some kind of magic or a stupid rule to follow that just is.

Students need to see where the rules come from and that makes them easier to understand and then we can work on applications with triangles. We can also work on applications with triangles or rectangles and show how these rules work, but...


It's been my experience that having some experience here first makes a big difference there.

And here is some more covering this topic where we can do it the easy way or the hard way. And if we HAVE to do it the hard way at leaste we understand why it works. Taking the mystery out of the math is important.



This student has just about gotten the concepts mastered. He is a quiet boy so he doesn't say much but he did exclaim, "Ok I get it!" at one point and "that makes it easier to understand..." at another. You will find this response almost universal among students who just learned it the other way...using cross multiplication.

Here is a slightly different way of looking at it using different symbols:



In this method it becomes visually obvious that we are talking about multiples.

There is lots more we can do with ratios but that's enough for now...

Simple Math In Chinese Using Manipulatives With DBoyz.

What's annoying to me is a lot of the kids their age can barelyadd numbers in English. I had a interesting conversation with a Chinese teacher who pointed out that yes there may be as many honor students in China as the USA has students but they also have as many failing students as we have students as well.



"Only the smart one comes to USA, no failing students get out..."

I had a similar conversation with a friend who is from Hong Kong. She did "okay" in math but a lot of her friends failed...and what did they fail? Algebra. Base ten blocks make math easy to see in any language. They are quite useful with the deaf and blind too.

Practice and patience is pretty much all it takes to learn another language...and like Chinese they aren't going to learn it all at once. It's the same with math...you didn't get bad at math in one day....you won't get good at math in one day.  Chinese, English and Spanish with those three Languages you can communicate with most of the inhabitants on this planet. They got English by default, Chinese is proving to be a challenge but it's FUN and after Chinese Spanish will seem like a breeze. I was fortunate to go to a high school where I got Latin,  5 years of Spanish and a year of French JFSAG. But no Asian languages were offered...helping them learn Spanish will be MUCH easier than helping them learn Chinese. And Yes there are plans to get some of the Math Materials translated into Spanish. Right now the house of math is mono-lingual.

Anyway we are just having fun playing around with math in Chinese. They still have lots of work to do when it comes to writing symbols...lots of people have already noted that their stroke order is incorrect. Considering their age at that they only get an hour a week I'd say they are doing pretty well.



There is always room for impoverishment, and I have no doubt that they will get better as they progress. Right now they are finding fun that they can write a little bit in "code." I am told they need to master about 3,000 symbols...numbers are pretty straight forward in Chinese. Very simple rules. More uniform than English.  Eleven is ten and one literally in Chinese...twelve is ten and two. Twenty is two tens...lol...in English we have a word for two tens: twenty.

The Mathematics is a Universal Language, learning some in Chinese is fun and will pay dividends in the future. I was going to attempt to do some simple math in Pinyin here but it's too much work...I think I will let the videos do the talking...and people who speak Chinese can cringe all they want.

Trying to write the inflections for even simple stuff like jia (add or plus) jian (subtract or minus) would be a little more effort than I want to put into a simple post like this. Eventually, I think I will discover free software that does some translating that I can just cut and paste...I'm sure it exists I just don't know where at the moment.

The Kit shown is called the numeral identification  kit, or Number ID for short. It is great for REALLY young kids. like two and a half...if they are learning to talk they can learn the names of numbers just like they learn other words. It's just vocabulary. The how many part can be learned later and the fact that the six can be made up of a combination of other numbers can be learned later too.

Use the basic concepts and teaching techniques like the three period lesson and degree of difficulty to make the learning easier and fun...also don't forget to play, they learned a lot of Chinese playing Chutes and Ladders in Chinese and you can make up other games as well even if they aren't learning Chinese. Games and Play: that's HOW they learn.

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Factoring Forms Using Base Ten Blocks

Here is a quick video showing various ways of factoring a quadratic. Using the the blocks to show what we are talking about with each factored expression of

3x² + 17x + 24

Can be factored several ways. The most common way is a great example of economy of symbol.

Note how we are still all positive...keeping in mind degree of difficulty. Lets understand some basic concepts before we start adding negatives coefficients to the mix.  Most text books just dive right in instead of taking it one step at a time.

The blocks take the fear out and make the symbols relate to something tangible in reality. They can actually see it.


Then when you show your students the other forms it's obvious. Then when it's time to start graphing these bad boys finding zeros and more points and the vertex and y-intercepts and such is easy because they already have this much under their belts instead of being inundated with it all at once.



The student in this video is shy and as soon as the camera goes on he chokes up...had the camera not been on he would have had an easier time answering my questions. Anyhow the action figures or lego men or whatever you have are handy to help get the point across.

Got the Star Wars effect going on here...a long time ago in a galaxy not far enough away they were still teaching math like idiots. Then suddenly math was cool...and the kids could see it and the symbols made sense because they could decode them and everybody was laid back and groovy.

For more get a password and head over to the house of math.


Learn to use your base ten blocks.

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