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AndieF
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| Posted: June 16 2009 at 4:51pm | IP Logged
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materials?
I've been wanting to buy the Geometric Cabinet, Leaf Cabinet, and Color Box 3, for YEARS. I keep talking myself out of it because they are all expensive items. I've now gotten to the point where I have most of the "core" Montessori materials except for these 3, and I've found that there are quite a few materials that are hardly ever used, and had I not purchased those materials, I would be able to afford the three times that I "need".
We could have lived without:
* Knobless Cylinders
* Red Rods
* Rough/Smooth boards and texture boards (home made, but still)
* Dressing Frames (have since sold them, and have handmade dressing vests that are used MUCH more)
* Binomial Cube
* Most of our 3 part cards - I love them, but the children just are not drawn to them.
Andie, Mom to dd 9, dd 7, ds 4 and home preschool teacher to 5!
Montgomery Academy
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 16 2009 at 5:06pm | IP Logged
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I'm not one to answer this thoroughly. I never ended up buying many materials....talked myself out of almost all of them.
I can see your list as less than essential. Were the knobbed cylinders popular? Were the first two color boxes popular, so that's why you want the third?
I'd love to hear more about your handmade dressing vests. Do tell!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 16 2009 at 5:30pm | IP Logged
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Color box 3 was never used here. I'll sell you mine, cheap!LOL! 
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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jdostalik
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| Posted: June 16 2009 at 7:40pm | IP Logged
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Number Rods (blue/red)
Dressing Frames
I have already sold them--at least most Montessori materials have a good resale value... 
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God Bless,
Jennifer in TX
wife to Bill, mom to six here on earth and eight in heaven.
Let the Little Ones Come
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Angel
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| Posted: June 16 2009 at 8:01pm | IP Logged
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I always wonder if the problem with any of the materials that haven't been used is the materials or the fact that I can't put them out because they send toddlers into destructo mode. But the stuff I think I could probably have done without:
The botany cabinet. I don't know why my nature-loving kids do not love this.
Red Rods. Consistently used as swords.
Trinomial cube
Fraction skittles
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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Meredith
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| Posted: June 16 2009 at 10:01pm | IP Logged
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I would have to say the geometry cabinet, it prooved somewhat redundant as I also have the metal insets. Hoping they will get more action this next year with my 4yo
I've noticed as well that if I don't offer or help them choose the card material it doesn't get chosen arbitrarily, with the exception of the geography box materials.
Blessings,
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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mumsrea
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| Posted: June 17 2009 at 8:47pm | IP Logged
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Leaf Cabinet....kids have never used it. Very disappointing. I want to sell it, but don't know where best to list it.
Also the subtraction snake game, and bead decanomial.
My kid just isn't into the beads.
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Erin
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| Posted: June 17 2009 at 11:38pm | IP Logged
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Yep Angela, those red rods are lethal. 
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 19 2009 at 1:09am | IP Logged
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Red rods and Red Blue rods. Also, honestly, the pink tower isn't much used around here. Perhaps this is because I'm still learning myself and because my children were older when I started.
Those big rods are a storage nightmare for me - and really didn't get used much. I think the big problem is I'm still waiting to learn the extensions on them to present - and my children were older when we started. Oh the other bust was the leaf cabinet. My kids were really into leaves but without some sort of explanation for what all those leaves meant and how it related to id of leafs - just wasn't much good. The inprint stuff was much better for my children as it stepped them through a simple process.
I have pretty much backed off from Montessori, though for a while - though I'm planning to re-look at science, geography and the reading stuff.
Funny thing - the three part cards (or cards like the parts of animal) and the insets and Geography cabinet were my best investments - perhaps again because I was dealing with older kids who had a lot of math concepts down cold, but not a lot of eye-hand coordination and hated to write. The insets really made a difference in writing for us and inspired some of my run from a pencil kids to actually want to draw and ask for more art.
Some of my problem overall is simply time - time to study, time to figure it out, time to present. I'm hoping to relook more this summer and maybe do a few presentations to see how it goes. We'll see. I'm no longer making any kind of significant investment unless I'm really pretty certain it will really fill a gap in our house.
Janet
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AndieF
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| Posted: June 19 2009 at 3:52pm | IP Logged
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Well, it sounds like a lot of you don't enjoy your leaf cabinet. I'm not glad that you all spent $$$ on them, but I'm glad to know so that I can finally get it off my list of things that I want but haven't purchased yet. We do have the insets too, and I've wondered lots of times if that is enough. Sounds like for some of you, it is. And I know that I could make a "good enough" version of Color Box 3 at home.
OK, so now what will I put on my "maybe buy, someday" list??? I'm sure it won't take me long to figure out something!!! Or more likely somethingSSSS. LOL 
Andie
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Mare
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| Posted: June 20 2009 at 8:20am | IP Logged
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It's so interesting to see how one thing works in one family but not in another family. We like our botany cabinet and geometric cabinet. I think that may be due to the fact that we are big on botany and math around here.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 20 2009 at 9:25am | IP Logged
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Mare wrote:
It's so interesting to see how one thing works in one family but not in another family. We like our botany cabinet and geometric cabinet. I think that may be due to the fact that we are big on botany and math around here.
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Yes, it is very interesting! Those are two items we have used a lot at different times.
I find the botany cabinet is excellent for explaining what terms in field guides mean (for leaf margins and shapes)and the kids also just like tracing the shapes for various crafts.The littles always loved matching up real leaves they collected to the ones in the cabinet or just using them as simple puzzles (for the very littles).
The geometry cabinet gets very consistent use, even by my 14 yo. He has used them for exercises in calculating area and perimeter of various shapes (the drawer of rectangles is excellent for understanding the relationship between increases in length of sides to increases in area). We pull out the drawer of circles every "pi day" for a review of circumference and area, and it is always being used as a template for something--very handy to have circles of all different sizes for tracing.My(7) dd uses them all the time.The triangles of course are very handy for practicing measuring angles with a protractor.The littles liked to trace the shapes and color them, similar to the metal insets, and also use them as simple puzzles.
Of course it doesn't surprise me that the materials would see different levels of use in different homes.It just really would be nice if we could know before we purchase them, right?LOL!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: What are your LEAST favorite Montessori
