I'm not sure what friggin' educational genius came up with this idea
Blue Plastic Base Ten manipulatives: made by Satan, NEA approved
But I am about ready to throw the set that came from K12 into the river.
Monkey is well into working with numbers into the thousands, and his books still carry directions like: Subtract. You may use models. Which is fine, except he's past the point where he needs the aid. Still, he insisted on using them because they are 'fun'.
I let him fool around with the things. Five minutes of 'manipulating' to crank out the wrong answer. Then a few seconds with pen and paper to get the actual correct answer. I didn't have to say anything - he put the blocks away so we can get on with life and get the math lesson over with.
I will allow these are slick ways to get the point across - for itty-bitty numbers and kids new to the math thing. For anything above 100 it's worse than math with roman numerals.
And they're not even very good blocks - they're too slick to stack well.
Blue Plastic Base Ten manipulatives: made by Satan, NEA approved
But I am about ready to throw the set that came from K12 into the river.
Monkey is well into working with numbers into the thousands, and his books still carry directions like: Subtract. You may use models. Which is fine, except he's past the point where he needs the aid. Still, he insisted on using them because they are 'fun'.
I let him fool around with the things. Five minutes of 'manipulating' to crank out the wrong answer. Then a few seconds with pen and paper to get the actual correct answer. I didn't have to say anything - he put the blocks away so we can get on with life and get the math lesson over with.
I will allow these are slick ways to get the point across - for itty-bitty numbers and kids new to the math thing. For anything above 100 it's worse than math with roman numerals.
And they're not even very good blocks - they're too slick to stack well.
