Any use it? What are your thoughts? What age would you recommend starting kids out with it? I was given the Lab Sheet Annotation book and the rods. I'm debating on whether or not I should get the lab books themselves.
I have them buy my very math advanced Kindergartner isn't quite ready for them yet. We'll probably start them in January. They are technically designed to start in first grade. The good news is that the workbooks are pretty cheap. I think they retail for under $7 each and if you have a completely average child you'll go through two a school year.
When I first bought the Miquon books, I planned to use the curriculum alone, however I saw it would probably need to be supplemented. After doing more research, I found that the unique strengths of one math curriculum meant it also had weaknesses. This is not to say that Miquon alone is not go enough, it just was not going to work alone well for my daughter. I am currently using Miquon and Singapore combined with Singapore being the spine with its structure with Miquon's math exploration wrapped around it. We are about to finish the middle of the first grade level and I have found that they really complement each other well although I still add practice sheets.
We're doing both singapore & miquon. I got the orange workbook as an ebook from homeschool estore. So if I feel like he needs extra work on a page I can print it again. Or. If his baby sister scribbles on it : ) I don't find myself refferring to any of the teacher books much, but I did read a bit out of them in the beginning.
Oh holy cow! I had no idea that these were available as E-books. I envision myself spending a ton of money at Kinko. *sigh*. Live and learn, right?
I know quite a few people that combine Miquon and Singapore. I never used them, but it seems to be a popular way to go!
I to combine Miquon and Singapore lol. LOVE Miquon because it's so abstract- as is Singapore. I also use supplemental work to go with- different math games and bought a new book from Mindware called Codebreakers that dd loves. We've been using Miquon since we pulled dd from ps K this past winter. We're almost done with the orange book and she's almost done with the 1st grade Singapore 1a book as well. What I like about both is it doesn't just teach rote memorization, and it teaches math in different ways.
I have used Miquon for 3 of my children now, we start them in first grade. My oldest used them starting in K and then went to public school and he finished the other books at home after school. My 3rd grader I began them with her in second grade when public school math was not working for her. She is in third grade now and will finish them this year. My 1st grader is moving through them quickly as well. we move on to ALPHA Omega Math 4th grade after we finish them. they are inexpensive and have worked very well for us.
I wish I had known to use Miquon and Singapore together - We used miquon only for 2.5 years and in the third year (grade 3) the program just seemed to fall apart. It didn't seem he was learning the basics (which he would need for future math curricula) and it got to the point I couldn't even understand the teacher's manual! We discovered Singapore this year, and it seems to be the most successful for us - my poor ds has had some rough years in math prior and I feel badly that we didn't use this system earlier to help him out. He know has some minor issues with math. Fortunately, these have been clearing up with our use of Singapore (we also supplement with one page from Keys to Fractions each day - very wonderful results!) so I am hopeful that in a year or so he is ready for pre-Algebra (he is in 6th now). WHile Miquon worked for grades 1-2, I would not use it beyond that.
