Base Ten Montessori
Lifestyle • Education • Preparedness
This is a community for discussing topics in Montessori education. It is also a community to support Christian conservative teachers and the home school families. All viewpoints are welcome here as long as they are respectful.
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Question and Answer Time!

I had someone ask a really great question on my Subtraction Snake Game and I wanted to share it with everyone:

Question:
"Please why can't you subtract from a colored bead and black and white bead, wouldnt exchanging it be a little confusing for the child?"

My Answer:
This experience of positive and negative numbers, as well as the experience of exchanging, needs to have different sensorial impressions for young students. My students have never had a problem getting confused by this. In fact, I have had many students obsess over each part of this game, but students will pick up on what their guide does and feels about the lesson, so if you give the impression you don't like it or you try to skip over it, they will follow your example. I would encourage you to love each step of the process and that will spill over to the child's experience. As Montessori would say, "Have faith in the child." When you have faith in the child, you will discover that they will adapt to the material much easier than adults - and part of the reason why is that as adults, our minds are already thinking two steps ahead because we already understand the concepts like subtraction so well. But in order to value each part of this lesson, you need to approach this lesson from the mindset of a young child who is still learning this concept and still has a need for concrete sensorial impressions of math.

Each function for subtraction and addition need to be represented with a different impression, and the concept of exchanging also requires a different experience. It is important that each function has a different sensorial impression so that the mind sees, feels and experiences what is happening differently with each function. Also keep in mind that one of the purposes of the snake game is to understand different combinations of ten, so we want to show all the different ways to make ten, including the exchanging. The black and white beads demonstrate a different way to create ten and they signal that something different is happening and we need to demonstrate that function to the child very concretely and not take that step forgranted by skipping over it just because it is easier for the adult.

As an adult with a fully developed abstract mind for simple math operations, yes, skipping the exchange would be easier for us, but the young child is still developing that abstract mind. During the ages of 0-6 years old, they have a concrete mind and need to see each representation of function clearly. In addition to that, there are more snake game lessons in elementary, such as negative numbers, so each part of the snake game builds into the next variation, which is more complicated.

Don't forget, "The hands are the instrument of the mind." So the more we use our hands to manipulate materials and get that concrete experience of an abstract idea, the better those ideas will solidify inside the mind. It's creating neural pathways in the brain. What we learn with our hands always gets communicated to the mind and sets the foundation for more abstract learning later in life!

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If there are any complete series videos you would like me to upload, let me know. I think I have Group 2 and 3 from math that I can do as well. I want to make sure my supporters here get a complete curriculum for each area, so please make sure to comment below and what resources you need more of and I will start working on it!

Copyright Strike on YouTube!?!?!

Apparently someone didn't like my reviews of Montessori Outlet and decided to STRIKE my channel because I didn't recommend Montessori Outlet after my experience with them (I will post links to those videos on Rumble down below so you can see them and decide for yourself if they should have a strike). These videos are 3 YEARS OLD!

I can't figure out where the copyright issue is coming from since it was all my own original work and opinions. First Amendment speech allows me to give opinions and talk about the experiences and materials I like or don't like. It's transformative in its nature. I simply showed and reviewed the materials I received and talked about how after nearly a year, I couldn't get my entire order, so out of frustration I asked for a refund (which they gave). I haven't recommended them since.

I recorded everything through OBS or my iphone 3 years ago, but for some reason this person decided to strike these videos. I have all my original work, unedited, saved and time ...

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September Materials + Subtraction Diagrams

Hey Everyone!

During September I will be working on subtraction videos for Group 4 math. I will be posting diagrams for these lessons from my album so you have a visual reference of how to do these presentations.

I'm still hoping to start a book club this year for my Locals subscribers. I have The Child in The Family outlined and it is almost ready to record, but I'm waiting to see if I can get some other Montessorians to join me in my videos so that it is more of a discussion rather than just me talking.

What other resources are people needing that I might be able to share or work on for the month of September?

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