Montessori at our home - 3

Homemade Multiplication Checkerboard

We did use the Checkerboard online. However, I could sense that my son had difficulty in dragging and dropping the bead bars using the mouse. It was quite disappointing for me. But then, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had scouted for beads in Pune, but here in Chennai, everything needed for the board just fell in place.

Thankfully, we got some beads and golden wires at the local Lucky Stores and made the golden beads ourselves. There was a cute box with 12 compartments just about right to put the different sized beads.



For the board, we took empty cardboard laptop boxes and stuck green, blue and red shiny paper(Each square is 5cm X 5cm). With some cardstock stuck on the remaining cardboard, we got the number stamps. I haven't yet completed the board, but, he has started working. The entire effort has taken about 2 1/2 days (of course with other activities thrown in). Cost - Rs. 300 ($6). Had it not been for my son himself helping me out and pushing me to complete it, I might not have finished this so soon.

Some more pics -





Our thanks to all the people who have put up the Montessori videos and all those useful posts. I do feel far more satisfied at taking some effort for this. Hmm....may be there is an invisible hand at making some small dreams come true! :)

Montessori at our home - 2

I am glad to have finally purchased the following from Flipkart.com

The Secret of Childhood

And, Montessori Today

The second book was primarily for what to introduce to the elementary years.

To be honest, I am unable to keep my eyes wide open - am hardly reading 2-3 pages and then it is zzzzz.....

Meanwhile -

We have moved on from division on unit division board that have zero remainder to equations that do contain remainders.
And, a lot of mental math activity has been going on. Our friend's son who is a chess pro has been doing some minor coaching for our son on how to do different types of checkmates.

Thanks to our friends visiting over this summer we have also learnt about Vedic Mathematics. It is quite appealing and I have gone through some of the tips. But, for now, I feel, the child needs to learn concrete concepts - in a visual sense. And, seeing a square as a square rather than a number has tremendous benefits of later integration.

Finally, the surprise and the biggest discovery today -

The Checkerboard

OMG! OMG! I am pinching myself - unable to believe this. Yippeee Yahoo! And, thanks a trillion, zillion times to Free Montessori

I had just posted to another person asking advice on what next to invest on, for frankly Checker board for Large Numbers as well as Decimal numbers was on the expensive end to buy. Yes, yes, I myself am a person who likes kids to work hands on - sensorial and no laptops or TV etc. But, then, I either wish I could afford all of the material or make them myself at the speed with which I could outpace my kids' interest or learning pace.

I could of course try to make the complete bead material or just buy the bead material and make a laminated checkerboard myself....but, this one serves the purpose for now! Amen!