Arithmetic Village

Several weeks ago I stumbled upon Arithmetic Village.  I wanted the books so I contacted the author Kimberly Moore to ask her if she would like to be my first review.  She agreed.  Then I thought, “Oh, I hope I like the books!”  I do like the books! After using it for a few weeks, I love this math method for the ages of my children.  I can teach both of them at their own level.  In this post I will explain how we are using this and compare it to Math-U-See Alpha because I had that first. 

I started by watching the videos on the Arithmetic Village website for activity ideas, then I got the gems, draw string bags and little baskets.  The boys already love these gems from our Marble Jar.  I showed them the bags and baskets and we put 10 gems in each bag.  Hunter knows how to count by 10s to 100 so he liked putting 10 bags in the treasure basket.  Chandler can count to 10.  Both boys like counting things so this was fun for them.  By the way, the gems and bags help show place value and borrowing too.  The basket shows the hundred place value. 

A few days later, I received the books.  I asked the boys if they’d like a story and they said no, so I sat at the kitchen table and started reading them to myself.  Soon they drifted over to look and listen.  Hunter really likes math so he perked up over the story.  The stories are sweet. 

I should mention that I have encouraged Hunter to count by 5′s and 2′s and he resisted this idea.  I taught him the rhyme “2, 4, 6, 8 who do we appreciate!?” but he still did not want to count things by twos. While reading the first page of Tina Times it said, “Terrific Tina discovered the trick, of adding in groups to make counting quick.”  Hunter saw the balloons with 2 gems in each and he exclaimed, “two, four six, eight!” and his mouth literally dropped open and his eyes were big.  This was an “aha!” moment for him.  For the first time he got the reason for the rhyme.  He got really excited and since then he counts everything in 2′s instead of 1′s.

Hunter learns best from ”whole to part” and our kids learn better from stories.  Since I do not know how to tell the story of math, I am glad to have these books.  Hunter grasped the math concepts quickly.  Chandler wants me to read the stories over and over. When I read them to Chandler, he studies the pages intently trying to grasp it.

Our boys like stories of kingdoms and they like gems or coins, so this is a good style fit for them.  We could get gold coins and pretend to be Robin Hood or pirates, etc.  The other day Hunter listened to the stories again and we played with addition using Ms. Moore’s suggestions on the dry erase board.  After writing out and solving a few math problems, Hunter decided to tell me a story with the gems and use math too.  I love that this is open-ended so a child can take the idea and run with it. 

He turned the gems into ghosts and played out a good guy/bad guy game where you add how many are on each team.  You shoot the gems like marbles to knock guys out of the circle.  I can guarantee this would not happen with a workbook.  He would complain instead. 

I believe young children will enjoy the stories too because Chandler, who is 4 years old, likes these books.  The ability to count to 10 is enough to get started with parent/teacher help.  It is a good way to learn math from the beginning.

Since I am reviewing this, I had to think of price.  I am frugal when it comes to homeschooling but I do not mind buying something that helps our children learn concepts that are hard for me to explain.  I got the books for free for doing the review, but I would buy them.  I mentioned in a previous post that I bought Math-U-See Alpha with the manipulative blocks used for $50 and this set is $100 brand new.  All five Arithmetic Village books total $50 and it cost me $13 for the gems and 20 draw-string bags.  How do the two compare?

Math-U-See, while it does have the Lego type blocks for explaining math, is still a workbook – a big workbook with too much repetition.  Alpha teaches only addition and subtraction for mostly the single digits and some double digits and the occasional triple digit like “500 + 300″.  It comes with a teacher manual that is an inch thick and a test booklet.  There is also a DVD to learn the Math-U-See method and a CD with songs about skip counting and addition facts.  The songs are pure memorization without really knowing *why* it is important to know.  For me, reading the huge teacher manual and watching the DVD to learn this method is just not appealing to me.

Pros: I prefer the Arithmetic Village way of telling a story of FOUR math processes, looking at the math concepts in the illustrations, and then *playing* with counting gems on a dry-erase board.  Learning from whole to parts is important, especially with math.  We love hands-on living math and this one is fun.

Cons:  You have to gather the materials and play with your child to teach them (I think this is fun.) As far as I know all the materials for this do not come in a ready-made box. I suspect it is because this is an open-ended math game and everyone will want to personalize it.

Thank you Kimberly Moore, I am very glad to have a fun way to learn math.

NOTE: I just noticed that Arithmetic Village is offering free shipping in the month of October.