Dot and I have completed 27 lessons on Shiller Math, and we are loving it so far. She begs to do it most days. I'm thrilled because it is such a nice program. It seems thorough, gentle, and, just like in a Montessori class, it's learning through exploration.
As a trained Montessori teacher, I find the materials a little different, and sometimes things are scripted in a way that aren't quite the way I was trained. That's okay, and I just make adjustments.
The Shiller material, like Montessori material, is diagnostic. Because it isolates concepts so effectively, it is easy to tell what a child has mastered and also to see what concepts she might need more work on. I quickly learned that Dot needs to practice counting a little more and gain a little confidence in counting numbers over 5 (which she finds slightly overwhelming).
I am love with the Montessori "bank" material. Of course, I love the golden beads used in the Montessori classroom, and the blue plastic units are growing on me too. It gives me a thrill that she can now identify which ones are the tens, hundreds, and thousands. Such a fun thing for a 4-year-old to be exposed to. I enjoyed watching the kids with these materials when I was a student teacher. They love playing with the large quantities. Dot likes to play with them outside of our lessons, which I think is great.
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