OK, I'm getting the lesson plans. Do I really need the manipulatives and decimal material too? Here are some points to consider when making your decision:
1. Manipulatives for the Kit I books (books 1-3) include EVERYTHING you need, down to ruler and pencil. The common items we include are for your convenience as an educator for 4-8 year olds. But these manipulatives include many items not typically available elsewhere: work mat, foam ball, balance, number cards, number tiles, wooden shape set, dominos (through double-9), and perhaps most important, the 25-song audio CD.
2. Manipulatives for the Kit II books (books 4-6 and Fractions) include only ShillerLearning manipulatives: Decimal chips, geo shape nets, 3D shape set, and Kit II 25-song audio CD (the Kit I audio CD has a different set of songs). These manipulatives are not available ANYWHERE ELSE.
3. Manipulatives for the Fraction book include only ShillerLearning manipulatives: fraction circles and fraction song downloads. These manipulatives are not available ANYWHERE ELSE.
4. Kids love music and the songs on the CDs integrate with the lessons.
1. A major underpinning of the Montessori system, 155 pieces of base 10 decimal materials (plus 16 easy-to-assemble cardboard thousand cubes) integrate with the number cards and number tiles.
2. A student needs to have a significant amount of decimal material to practice counting and exchange. The ShillerLearning decimal material set includes 100 units, 27 tens, 27 hundreds, and 17 thousands (1 plastic and 16 cardboard).
3. The decimal material set includes a wooden tray to hold the material.
4. Decimal material is required for Kit I lessons. The units are also required for Kit II lessons (100 unit cubes, ruler, and geared clock now are included with Kit II manipulatives at no extra charge).