At the beginning of our second year of homeschooling I decided to take a leap on a Montessori Curriculum when I found bits and pieces of it at our local used curriculum store. Still to this day it’s used in our home so I think it was a good investment, it’s definitely the most used curriculum over the past five years.
Schiller Math - a large kit that comes with multiple books, wooden boxes with a number bank, wooden shapes, dice, audio CD's, a balance, counting cubes (single units, 10's, 100's, thousand's), dominoes, artificial money. The used kit I bought had the manipulatives and a few books, but I went to Schiller's website and bought the virtual version so I could print straight from it.
Even though math was a strong subject for me when I was a kid, I really would’ve loved to learn this way which was why I bought it. If they can hold things in their hands and actually see it happen they can really grasp the concepts even more than just reading it in a book. The hands on aspect is what really stood out to me about the Montessori method of learning. What really stood out to me about Schiller is that it covers multiple grades in one curriculum.
Schiller Math - a large kit that comes with multiple books, wooden boxes with a number bank, wooden shapes, dice, audio CD's, a balance, counting cubes (single units, 10's, 100's, thousand's), dominoes, artificial money. The used kit I bought had the manipulatives and a few books, but I went to Schiller's website and bought the virtual version so I could print straight from it.
Even though math was a strong subject for me when I was a kid, I really would’ve loved to learn this way which was why I bought it. If they can hold things in their hands and actually see it happen they can really grasp the concepts even more than just reading it in a book. The hands on aspect is what really stood out to me about the Montessori method of learning. What really stood out to me about Schiller is that it covers multiple grades in one curriculum.
Kit 1 - grades pre-K through 3rd
Kit 2 - grades 4th - 8th
Fractions - 2nd through 8th
Kit 2 - grades 4th - 8th
Fractions - 2nd through 8th
Numbers Bank
 Manipulatives - unit cubes, 10's rods and 100's flats |  Taking Shiller Math Outside |
Pros:
- Hands on learning - lots of manipulatives
- Multi-sensory approach
- Teacher/student books are all in one
- No lesson planning needed
- No need to buy a new curriculum each year
- Over the span of years covered it's cheaper than most curriculums (even if only used on 1 kid)
- Can use with a range of ages, great for multi-children households
- Digital version of the books so you can keep printing for the younger siblings
- No specific timeline -it's student led, they may whiz through some days and then go slower for a while...it all levels out
- Excellent customer service, and private FB groups for extra support and help
Cons:
- Upfront cost is higher
- Somewhat bland-No frilliness - for preschoolers it can look boring, this can also be a pro though, some kids just get overstimulated
- No exact definition of what grade your child is doing
My used kit came with a a few copies of book 2 and 3 but no book 1 so I bought shiller virtual kit to print off what I needed. I still chose printing over the books!
Over the years we've progressed through them and we now own all three of the maths. So our day consists of about 20 minutes of math, often times it's just one lesson, sometimes it's 2-3 lessons, other days maybe half a lesson. If they struggle with it we may repeat it again the next day. It's considered mastery in the fact that you want them to master it before moving on but the curriculum spirals over time, so you stay fresh and continue to build on their knowledge. It works out well because Karter enjoys helping Krissy learn too, occasionally their spirals line up and they're both working on the same topic... say probability - which is one of their favorite lessons!
Today's math lesson was about learning asending and desending order, Krissy had fun with it and wanted to keep "playing" so we did it with roman numerals and then while we were cleaning up also did it in spanish! Then we counted the steps while asending the stairs and desending the stairs. I love how our lessons are reinforced through other subjects or just throughout our day!
Today's math lesson was about learning asending and desending order, Krissy had fun with it and wanted to keep "playing" so we did it with roman numerals and then while we were cleaning up also did it in spanish! Then we counted the steps while asending the stairs and desending the stairs. I love how our lessons are reinforced through other subjects or just throughout our day!
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We’ve enjoyed Shiller Math so much that when they decided to branch into Language Arts, I bought that curriculum sight unseen and we love it too!! The new curriculum brought on a new name for them as well - Schiller Learning. We’re looking forward to many more years of using Schiller Learning in our homeschool.
 Fractions Circles Manipulative |  Shiller Phonics Letter Scavenger Hunt - Language Arts A |
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