Although not the most traditional math program out there, if you’re in the market for an affordable Grades 1-3 math curriculum that takes a hands-on approach to learning, fosters a deeper understanding of math concepts and helps students develop stronger problem solving skills through exploration and discovery, Miquon Math might be just what you’re looking for.
What We Like
But watch out for…
What is Miquon Math
Developed in the 1960s by Lore Rasmussen at the Miquon School in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, Miquon Math is an early elementary math curriculum with a strong emphasis on hands-on and exploration-based learning.
Miquon Math is most known for its child-centric approach and integral use of tactile activities, notably Cuisenaire rods, to help students better explore abstract concepts.
What Grades is Miquon Math Designed for?
Broadly speaking, Miquon Math is designed for students in grades 1-3. That said, the program’s books are divided up more by skill than age or grade based and we feel it can be effectively used by a wider range of students for math instruction.
Each book is color coded and their level represents the complexity of the explorations and concepts included. For example, the Orange book is level 1 and represents the lowest level of complexity, while the Purple book is level 6 and contains the program’s most complex topics and exercises.
Overall, this skill-based division of content can provide more flexibility for those looking to use them for homeschooling older or younger kids, as they can easily adjust their student’s level of learning to their performance without worrying about pre-existing notions of age or grade.
In fact, one thing that we thought was interesting is the fact that there is little text in the workbooks themselves, which means that younger, pre-reading students can more easily use the program and older students who are in need of remediation won’t feel embarrassed or talked down to while they use it develop stronger fundamentals.
In a similar vein, parents should be aware of the fact that Miquon Math doesn’t really follow a traditional scope, sequence of pace for the grades 1-3 level and tends to introduce certain math concepts a little earlier than most other math programs out there.
As such, it can be more easily used as a remediation supplement for older students or as an enrichment for precocious preschoolers and kindergarteners.
How it Works
Miquon Math Philosophy and Methodology
The general philosophy behind Miquon Math is rooted in the work of Lore Rasmussen and her observation and study of kids playing, exploring and learning in the Miquon School. In particular:
- Kids can learn and understand a lot more than we give them credit for.
- Kids tend to learn quicker when they are allowed to explore and discover things for themselves.
- All kids learn at different speeds
- When they are given the opportunity to do so, kids will explore and engage in learning activities for longer
- Kids will take their time and make fewer guesses/careless mistakes if they aren’t pushed into doing so by a formal approach or pace of learning
As a result, Miquon Math itself is rooted very heavily in the principle of child-guided learning and of hands-on exploration, and as a result it has a few notable characteristics:
Student-Led Learning
Unlike most other methods of teaching math, material isn’t really taught to the child in Miquon.
Instead, students are presented with exercises and encouraged to work their way through it, using their creativity and logical thinking to discover answers and basic mathematical principles.
Rather than act as formal instructors parents act as guides, providing explanations, suggestions and in general help turn these student discoveries into more explicit, generalizable learning.
Hands-on Learning and Use of Manipulatives
As with a number of other math programs out there, Miquon Math does make use of physical activities and manipulatives to help kids work through their exercises and discover math in a more hands-on manner.
Unlike many other hands-on math curricula, however, it doesn’t just suggest their use as a helpful tool – Miquon Math more or less requires the use of manipulatives as they are heavily woven into the course and learning material as a method of exploring math concepts.
Throughout the curriculum, kids use Cuisenaire rods and other physical items to model abstract equations, operations, numbers and shapes in a more understandable, concrete way.
Miquon Math is probably best known for its use of Cuisenaire rods, which are small, unmarked rods or cuboids of different sizes and color.
With Miquon, Cuisenaire rods are something of a blank slate for kids to use. That is, the students themselves decide what they represent (depending on their usefulness for the exercise in question), whether that is:
- Distance
- Quantity
- Shapes
- And more
In this way, Miquon’s Cuisenaire rods give students a lot of freedom for working through exercises in different ways, encouraging kids to use their imagination and creativity to figure out how to best use the rods to solve a problem.
Conceptual Math
As might be expected from a program based on student discovery, Miquon Math is also very much a conceptual math curriculum. That is, rather than teaching and drilling students on how to solve math problems in a step-by-step manner (procedural math), Miquon Math focuses more on teaching or helping students discover the why behind math.
In other words, a large part of the curriculum is devoted to helping students understand the basis for math concepts, why they’re used and why they do what they do.
As a result, there is a greater emphasis on problem solving, puzzles and discovering multiple approaches to solutions than there is in memorizing math facts and doing extensive drills, and ultimately parents won’t find too many pages filled with straight computation exercises (although there are some at the upper levels).
Miquon Math Books and Levels
Miquon Math’s learning, as mentioned above, is divided across six progressively challenging levels, each referred to by the color of their cover. These are:
- Orange
- Red
- Blue
- Green
- Yellow
- Purple
As Miquon Math is designed to teach Grades 1, 2 and 3 math, two books generally cover one grade and the books generally correspond to the following grade levels (although, as we mentioned earlier, there is a lot of flexibility here).
| Orange | Level 1 | Grade 1 |
| Red | Level 2 | Grade 1 |
| Blue | Level 3 | Grade 2 |
| Green | Level 4 | Grade 2 |
| Yellow | Level 5 | Grade 3 |
| Purple | Level 5 | Grade 3 |
Math Topics and Threads
Throughout Miquon Math, each concept and topic in math is assigned a letter from A-Z (Division as J, factoring as O).
Worksheets relating to that concept in math are all themselves numbered, which gives Miquon Math a sort of alphanumeric coding system for its subject matter, Exercises in division would be J1, J2, J3 and so on.
These alphanumeric coded math topics (called threads) are spread throughout Miquon Math’s different books with exercises of increasing challenge.
For instance, Clock Arithmetic is touched upon and practiced in levels 1, 4, 5 and 6, with progressively more complex explorations and exercises to strengthen and deepen kids’ learning.
This gives teachers and parents using Miquon Math a great deal more flexibility in how they go through the program than is commonly seen in other curricula.
Typically speaking, most math programs are categorized as either spiral or mastery (or a hybrid). Most curricula are designed so that parents and students explore math topics either a little bit at a time, rotating through topics and revisiting them later (spiral), or they’re designed to allow parents and students to dive deeply into one topic at a time, exploring it to completion and proficiency before moving on.
Miquon Math is quite interesting in that the way it is set up makes it usable by both fans of mastery and spiral math methods of teaching.
Fans of spiral teaching can essentially follow the books as they are, briefly touching on and exploring different topics and revisiting them in greater depth later on in the series.
Fans of mastery math teaching can instead follow each individual topical thread all the way through the different Miquon books, diving deeply into each individual concept and developing proficiency before going back to the first book and starting a new math topic.
Fans of mastery teaching, however, should be aware that in order to teach mastery math with Miquon they will have to buy all six books at once in order to do a complete dive into each topic.
Miquon Student Math Labs
The core of the Miquon Math program are its various multicolored workbooks that it refers to, due to the exploratory and discovery based methodology of the program, as Student Labs.
The pages of these books are filled with a wide variety of progressively challenging exercises, puzzles and challenges based on the various concepts contained in each level.
With parents acting as a guide, students are expected to work their way through these exercises and make use of Cuisenaire rods (and other manipulatives) to do so, assigning values and ascribing meaning to these little plastic cuboids and manipulating them to help work through and solve abstract math problems.
Interestingly, the lab sheets actually tear out of the workbooks so that students can better work with the manipulatives (placing them on the sheet in different ways) to puzzle things out.
One thing that parents may immediately notice in these Labs is that there’s not always a lot of text or instructions above each exercise.
This is by design and intended to encourage kids to think their way through each exercise and figure out the solution in their own way.
The overall idea being to teach kids that there can be multiple ways to solve a problem, rather than just one right way, and thereby help promote the sort of structured creativity and flexibility in thinking that are key to effective problem solving at higher math levels.
This discovery-based approach is not only interesting on its own, but actually has been shown to be quite effective at boosting mathematical understanding in students and the idea of helping students explore different approaches to problems is actually used in a number of other well-regarded math programs, such as Singapore Math and Art of Problem Solving.
Another thing that parents may notice is that these workbooks (particularly at the lower levels) sometimes use symbols, rather than letters and other standard notation, to convey information and represent math concepts.
For example, rather than use a standard X/Y axis on a graphing exercise, the books may use a square and triangle.
Other than being a little less intimidating for some students (and more effective for pre-readers), this has the effect of helping move kids out of the standard way of approaching math, as well as whatever preconceived notions or ideas they may have picked up about doing things, and letting them discover ideas for themselves.
That said, sometimes the use of symbols can get a little abstract and may require parents to get more involved from time to time (or even quickly thumb through the teacher’s guide for help).
It should be noted that as the books progress in complexity they do tend to follow more standard notation, which is good as students will probably be preparing to move to a more standardized curriculum.
One issue some parents may have with Miquon’s workbooks is that they don’t contain as much drill and dedicated practice as some other math curricula.
While this can be fine for students who tend to pick things up quickly, some students do benefit from more review and drill to really solidify concepts and may need to supplement with other materials.
Lab Sheet Annotations: Miquon Math Teacher’s Guide
The Miquon Math Lab Sheet Annotations provide essential background information and tips to help parents guide students through their explorations.
In general, the Annotations dive deeply into explaining math concepts to parents, often going beyond the usual explanations provided by teacher’s guides and diving deeply into detailed explanations for parents.
This is perhaps quite fitting due to the conceptual nature of Miquon Math, as well as the program’s belief that parents are their own first students.
From time to time these annotations also provide some insight into how kids perceive and discover math, which can be important for parents to understand if they wish to act as guides and not top-down instructors.
Beyond discussing the math itself, Miquon’s Lab Sheet Annotations also provide step by step explanations of the Lab Sheets, explaining their purpose, providing insight into how kids might approach them and tips on how best to help guide them effectively.
They also provide a variety of suggested hands-on and even physical activities that parents can try to help students better understand math concepts.
Critically, especially for those new to homeschooling and discovery methods, the Annotations offer a good deal of help to parents in translating the implicit learning that students derive from their explorations into the explicit math learning and facts that students need to succeed.
In this way the guides help parents formalize the student’s discovery and learning as they go.
For these reasons we consider the Lab Sheet Annotations to be critical to most parents and teachers using Miquon Math, despite the guide being sold separately.
As mentioned previously, the Lab books themselves don’t come with a lot of detailed instructions and the exercises and drawings can be a little abstract at times in both design and purpose.
Without an accompanying guide, it can be hard for parents and students to suss out the intended purpose and design of certain exercises and it can be easy to get lost as a result.
Notes to Teachers
Miquon Math also offers a Notes to Teachers book, which really acts as a supplement to the Annotations.
The Notes generally go a little bit deeper into the overall philosophy and methodology of Miquon Math, a little bit into Lore Rasmussen’s observations of child development in math, as well as explaining a good deal of the program’s associated materials, such as the Cuisenaire rods.
Although they’re not strictly necessary to teaching with Miquon Math, as the Annotations themselves might be, the Notes to Teachers book does answer a lot of questions that parents new to Miquon and its methodology might have, and does provide various helpful teaching tips and tricks that can be very useful for homeschoolers in general.
First Grade Diary
Finally, Miquon Math has an additional book they offer called the First Grade Diary.
The book really is a diary of sorts from Lore Rasmussen that details a year’s learning (the first grade) in math of 20 kids at the actual Miquon School in Pennsylvania back in the 1960s.
The book is written in diary form, from September to June, detailing what activities Lore and the kids engaged in, how Lore approached different problems, and some of the insights that Lore derived as she taught each topic and moved through the school year.
The diary is intended to be something that parents can periodically refer to better understand the logic behind Miquon’s methodology, get ideas to help teach more effectively and find new activities to try from time to time.
While perhaps a bit more of an unusual supplement to a math curriculum, we feel the First grade Diary can be fairly helpful to homeschoolers trying out Miquon for the first time, although probably not absolutely critical to teaching with the program (especially for more experienced homeschoolers).
It can not only provide additional background and activity ideas but also act as sort of a ready template that parents can refer to when building out their own Miquon lesson plans.
We also feel that, as Miquon can be a little different to use than other math curricula, parents who run into trouble can refer back to the Diary to help them troubleshoot if they get stuck with a concept, perhaps drawing inspiration from how Rasmussen herself handled the issue.
What is a Lesson with Miquon Math like?
Lessons with Miquon can vary quite a bit between those using it, particularly since it is based on the unique discoveries and exploration of each student.
In addition, most of the activities are suggestions and the program is pretty flexible and encourages parents to modify learning on the fly depending on a student’s progress and their development.
That said, there are some common elements to Miquon lessons, which can give parents an idea of what is involved.
Before each lesson, parents are expected to go through the concepts and worksheets themselves (hopefully with Annotations), becoming familiar with the math, the actual work expected of the student and the possible uses of the rods and manipulatives.
Following that, students and parents do various activities and games together to introduce and explore certain concepts. These are usually fun little physical or tactile games that are prepared and set up by the parents ahead of time and are used to help kids develop a more natural understanding of certain math principles and get some experience before they choose a worksheet.
Following this, when ready, students (as their parental guide) go through their worksheets.
It’s important to note that these don’t have to be completed in order, but can be approached depending on a student’s interest, an overall plan, as part of a mastery approach, a student’s ability or for pretty much any other reason.
The experiences of Rasmussen as laid out in the program’s Diaries often recommend allowing students to choose the categories and workbooks they’d like to work on (almost like a Montessori approach), although this is really a suggestion and ultimately this is up to the homeschool and its philosophy .
Given a general idea of what they need to do, students (with the help of their parents) come up with and then test out ideas, usually with the help of their Cuisenaire rods.
As they explore and engage with the lab work, parents help guide and frame their discoveries by translating their intuitive solutions into more formal and explicit math learning, introducing symbols or discussing why things are working the way they are.
Parents might also introduce their own activities to help explore topics further.
Overall, lessons with Miquon are very much a partnership between parent and student, with both exploring the material together.
As a result, Miquon Math lessons can be considered pretty intensive in terms of their demand on parents’ time.
Not only are parents expected to freshen their understanding of basic math concepts, they also must become familiar with Miquon’s approach and exercises to the point where they can be capable of adapting to whatever solution and discovery the child comes up with and help guide them in their learning.
This is very much in contrast to other curricula, where a parent uses a material to explain and demonstrate a topic before setting the student to do some practice exercises.
Similarly, while Miquon Math does lay out the concepts of math in understandable detail and offers very helpful tips on how to help kids understand it, it is not exactly a scripted curriculum.
That is, Miquon Math doesn’t explicitly tell parents how to teach and what to say to their kids and a great deal of the actual teaching depends on the student’s needs and how they interact with the workbook’s exercises and manipulatives.
As such, parents will need to do some prepwork and be fast on their feet when it comes to reacting to student behavior, and as such isn’t really much of an open and go curriculum.
How Rigorous Is Miquon Math?
Miquon Math does introduce more advanced math concepts at an early stage compared to other math curricula for students in grades 1-3. For example, the basic concepts of multiplication, division, fractions and factoring are introduced in the first grade books.
A summary chart of the topics covered in the program can be found below.
| Counting | Odd-Even | Addition |
| Subtraction | Addition & Subtraction | Multiplication |
| Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication | Fractions | Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Fractions |
| Division | Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Fractions and Division | Equalities, Inequalities |
| Place Value | Number Lines & Functions | Factoring |
| Squaring | Simultaneous Equations | Graphing Equations |
| Geometric Recognition | Length, Area and Volume | Series & Progression |
| Grid and Arrow Games | Mapping | Clock Arithmetic |
| Sets | Word Problems |
In this way Miquon can be seen as a bit more of a rigorous program, believing that (with the help of manipulatives and guided explorations) kids can grasp and work with more complex math concepts and operations than other programs may believe them capable of.
That said, despite tackling some more advanced concepts earlier, Miquon Math isn’t designed only for advanced or gifted math students.
Its use of manipulatives and its suggested explanations and activities can help make abstract concepts more concrete and understandable to young students of all abilities and skill levels.
In fact, over the years many parents of struggling students have found that the hands-on and intuitive nature of the program greatly contributed to their understanding and success at math.
Pros and Cons of Miquon Math?
Pros
Affordable
With workbooks costing less than $15 each and a teacher’s guide costing less than $30, Miquon Math is an affordable math curriculum for homeschoolers.
A complete set of Miquon Math, with all the materials parents need to teach 3 grades of early elementary math, should cost less than $150, which is quite a bit more affordable than competing curricula in terms of price.
Very flexible math program
Miquon Math is also a very flexible program across a variety of dimensions.
In terms of age, due to its hands-on nature, more advanced scope and minimal instructive text, it can be easily used by students above and below its intended age range.
In terms of teaching, parents are given a substantial amount of freedom in how they use the program. Parents are free to select which worksheets their students should try out, the pace of the program, and even the topics involved.
Similarly, Miquon Math can be used as either a spiral or mastery program, allowing parents to select the method that best suits their student and homeschool philosophy.
Finally, in terms of rigor, as the workbook order is only a suggestion, parents can easily select the math topic and level of complexity to work with, allowing them to adjust the rigor of the program up or down depending on how the student is progressing.
Introduces math topics a little earlier on
One of Miquon Math’s guiding beliefs is that kids are able to understand more than we give them credit for.
In line with this, the program tends to introduce more complex math topics earlier on (multiplication and division in the first level), and we think it does a good job at helping parents guide discovery so that kids of all abilities can actually grasp these more advanced topics.
Hands-on, multisensory math learning
Miquon Math integrates hands-on components (through the Cuisenaire rods and other assorted suggested physical activities) very thoroughly into its program.
These can help make learning math more of a multisensory experience and help kids better come to grips with abstract concepts.
This can make it a great curriculum for students who don’t really do well with a traditional computational program and can get bored with standard lessons and written drills, as well as those who need a little help getting their heads around abstract formulas and operations by using concrete models and activities.
Focus on Conceptual Math
Unlike other programs that teach students how to do math problems, Miquon Math helps students explore why math works the way it does, diving deeper into math concepts.
In addition to building math literacy, the deeper understanding of math logic and theory helps kids learn to approach problems from different angles and develop different strategies, strengthening their higher order thinking and problem solving skills.
Child-centric Approach to Learning
Miquon Math is a discovery-based math program that emphasises the role of the child and the way in which they explore math problems naturally.
How students see and learn numeracy and math, and guiding their organic discoveries into more formal learning, forms the core of the program.
As a result, with Miquon Math learning is far more individualised than other programs, tailored as it is to the student and the way they are learning and discovering math.
Cons
Can take some time to get the hang of teaching
Miquon Math is a very different program than most traditional curricula out there, and the roles of parents and students can be quite different as well.
In addition to needing to get used to Miquon’s philosophy and methodology of teaching, some homeschooling parents who are used to the role of teacher may find they need some time to get used to stepping back and assuming the role of guide and co-explorer.
At the same time, kids jumping into the program from other curricula, particularly from more computational ones, might have to spend time getting used to the methodology, their role of math explorer and the use of Cuisenaire rods, often to the point of needing to at least review the previous grade’s books.
Intensive parental involvement required
Miquon Math does require a fair bit of prep work on the part of parents and is not exactly an open and go program.
In general, Miquon pretty much requires parents to buy and actually read the teacher’s guide in some detail before every lesson, getting a good understanding of the material, the worksheets and how students might approach the math from different angles so they can better guide them through discovery.
Similarly, during lessons parents don’t just sit back and watch their kids go, but are expected to work closely alongside them, helping guide them and turn their discoveries into more formal math axioms.
Not as much drill as other programs
Unlike some other, more computational programs out there (like Saxon, for example) there isn’t a ton of repetitive drill in Miquon Math workbooks.
While this can certainly be a plus for students who are prone to drill and kill (those who react negatively to math due to repetitive practice), some students do require a good amount of practice and drill to absorb and integrate concepts and math facts fully and such students may need to find supplements.
Who is Miquon Ideal for?
Parents looking for a program that will introduce more advanced math concepts
Some parents (and even students) are eager to explore math and perhaps get a bit ahead of their peers in terms of topical coverage.
Miquon Math does introduce topics a bit ahead of the typical grade 1-3 pace, and as a result can be a good solution for such families.
Parents looking for a very flexible program
As mentioned previously, Miquon Math is very flexible in terms of how lessons can be taught, the sequence of the program, its rigor and more.
As such, we consider it a very flexible homeschool program that is quite easy to modify.
Parents looking to encourage out of the box thinking
A key component of Miquon Math is allowing students to explore and discover their way through math, and in particular discovering that there can be many different solutions to a math problem.
In this way, Miquon Math does a good job at promoting structured creativity and cognitive flexibility as it pertains to math, which is useful for developing solid problem solving skills.
Students who prefer to learn hands-on
Some students prefer to learn in a more tactile way, holding and touching representations of abstract concepts.
Miquon Math makes the use of manipulatives and physical activities a cornerstone of its program and as such can be a good fit in this regard.
Students who care about the why behind math
Some students don’t particularly like being simply handed formulas to use, preferring to question and understand what exactly they are doing and why.
As a conceptual math program, Miquon Math explores the why behind the math. Rather than simply teach rote steps, it encourages students to explore and more deeply understand math processes, how they work and why they are doing what they’re doing.
Students who enjoy creative explorations
Some students prefer to “get math done” as quickly and efficiently as possible, while other students like taking their time and playing around with numbers and manipulatives to see what happens.
Miquon Math, as a discovery math program, is certainly for the latter.
Parents who really enjoy co-learning
With Miquon Math, parents will spend a good deal of time working with their students in each lesson, introducing activities, providing guidance and having discussions about what’s going on and why it’s important.
Homeschoolers on a budget
Finally, Miquon Math is an affordable homeschool math program that can be a good solution for homeschoolers on a budget (assuming they agree and can work with its methodology, that is).
Who is it not Ideal for?
Students who need a lot of formal drill and practice
Some students do best at remembering and integrating math concepts when given lots of opportunity to drill and hone their skills.
Although there is some straight practice work introduced at later levels, Miquon Math, unfortunately, doesn’t offer as much in the way of pure drill and practice reviews as other programs might and so such students may need to supplement with extra practice or with another curriculum.
Parents looking for an easy, open and go curriculum
Miquon Math does require a good deal of prep work on the part of parents, in terms of getting familiar with the material and setting up lessons and activities.
Similarly, while the Annotations, Notes and Diary do offer a lot of support and act as a framework to go by, it is not all that of a scripted program.
The books generally will not offer parents an explicit step-by-step way of conducting a lesson as the lessons are designed to depend heavily on the child and their individual interactions and discoveries with the math workbooks and manipulatives.
Those looking for a K-12 math program
Although it can be used by younger and older kids, Miquon Math is primarily a curriculum designed for grades 1-3.
Those looking for a single curriculum that will take a student through K-12 math with the same look, feel and methodology may need to look elsewhere.
Students who enjoy more directive learning
Some students enjoy discovering and exploring their way through learning, while others do not.
Whether in math or in another subject, some students simply feel more comfortable and learn better when directly and explicitly instructed by a teacher, especially when offered clear instructions to follow.
For these students, Miquon Math may not be the right solution.
Parents who are in a time crunch and need to stick to a strict schedule
Miquon Math is not a curriculum that parents can really rush their kids through.
A key part of the discovery learning method is to allow students to take their time and explore concepts thoroughly, with as many activities and exercises as they need.
As such, it may not be the best solution for really busy homeschoolers with very strict schedules.
Traditionally-minded parents
Parents do need to keep an open mind with Miquon Math as its methodology may be substantially different than the way in which they were taught math (or even to teach math).
Parents who believe that there is only really one way to teach and learn math may not have the easiest time coming to grips with many of Miquon Math’s more open and child-centric philosophy and pedagogy.
Those looking for a common core math program
While Miquon Math is a very comprehensive and thorough math program, it does not align with common core standards for scope, sequence and pace.
Price
Note: Prices are correct as of writing. All prices in USD.
Miquon Math offers several books as part of its curriculum – the multicolored Lab books, the Lab Sheet Annotations, the Notes to Teachers and the First Grade Diary.
These can be found for approximately the following prices (before any discounts or offers):
Miquon Math Labs: $12.95 each
Miquon Lab Sheet Annotations: $21.95
Miquon Notes to Teachers: $11.95
Miquon First-Grade Diary: $13.95
Overall, Miquon Math is a pretty affordable math curriculum.
Those interested can pick up all 6 books (encompassing three grade levels of math) for under $80, and the teacher’s guides, all six books and rods for less than $150.
In terms of price, this places Miquon Math on par or even below (depending on relevant discounts and offers) other budget-friendly homeschool curricula such as Math Mammoth.
That said, since curricula like Miquon Math are periodically offered at discounts or in special bundled offers, it’s always good to check the latest prices.
Is Miquon Math worth the price?
Despite being quite budget-friendly as a math curriculum, we think Miquon Math also provides a lot of value for those using it.
Miquon Math offers parents and teachers a fairly unique approach to math, proven to work over a period of decades, that combines child-led discovery with structured, hands-on learning to get kids exploring math in a way that interests and is understandable to them.
The curriculum provided by Miquon is thorough and comprehensive, extending beyond topics commonly covered by students in this age range.
Yet, despite the somewhat advanced pace of the program, the program’s activities, hands-on work and detailed explanations tips make the program effective for students of all math abilities, making Miquon Math a rigorous but still broadly useful and approachable math program.
Further, the program’s conceptual focus can deepen students’ understanding of math and encourage the development of the kind of creative and out of the box thinking that can help kids develop greater resilience and stronger problem solving abilities, skills that can help them thrive in later math courses and, more generally, in life.
Finally, Miquon Math is also a highly flexible math program. With a little work and planning parents can customise anything from the way topics are presented (spiral vs mastery), to subject and topic coverage, to the way lessons are specifically taught.
Ultimately this flexibility makes Miquon Math better able to fit a wide variety of teaching philosophies and student abilities than many other programs out there.
To be sure, Miquon Math’s approach to math instruction is a bit unusual, but for the right student we believe it can make math a lot clearer and more understandable and be a real lifesaver for the right families.
Bottom Line
Although not the most traditional math program out there, if you’re in the market for an affordable grades 1-3 math curriculum that takes a hands-on approach to learning, fosters a deeper understanding of math concepts and helps students develop stronger problem solving skills through exploration and discovery, Miquon Math might be just what you’re looking for.
About the Author
David Belenky is a freelance writer, former science and math tutor and a tech enthusiast. When he’s not writing about educational tech, he likes to chill out with his family and dog at home.