Elementary Language Materials: A Photo Journey

You may notice some matches to the primary level - you should! Many of the materials transition over from primary to elementary but are used in different ways. 

Legoboy made a booklet of the rules.

Sentence Analysis is FUN!

Sorting all those nouns!

grammar box work - he wanted *real* items -
no miniatures this time!

Wood grammar symbols - worth buying the wood ones.
They are SO NICE!

small movable alphabets for word study, dictation,
spelling practice, and SO much more!
We have three at home: black, blue, red

Grammar boxes are worth having, but could also be
made of posterboard with cardboard strip "trim". 

Beginning definition stages for elementary
(moves into the definitions cut into strips)
Don't have these for just every topic - but a few key ones
 to develop analytical thinking skills and extend previous work. 

Impressionistic charts tend to inspire copying and research.
(do not require the copying or tracing -
let it be a true work of the child - but you can model it! 

Analysis of Dwyer Booklet - compared to AMI Primary Language Album

I am short on time, but I have several people interested in my analysis, so here are my notes. If I have a chance I will freshen these up in the near future with a bit more narrative.

Please DO ask if something doesn't make sense!



In Complete Agreement: 

0+
Developing language at home - absorbing it
speak, sing, poems, rhymes, read books
REAL language - diverse vocabulary
explore with the sound games (spoken language section of the language album - can begin when a child starts speaking, maybe even before - attune his ear to sounds)

2 1/2 +
Development of vocabulary
Primary Language album: spoken language - heavily emphasized (there are a lot of games in the spoken language section that are excellent for the children's exploration!)
Stories, poems and songs

Emphasis on key sounds - but not on early sandpaper letters! Be sure to have those sounds down pat! But also start them when the child is very young. I add that starting with an older child (4, 5, 6), it may be necessary to introduce some sandpaper letters very soon into it, so that the child "sees the point". Otherwise, the earliest introduction of the sandpaper letters is between 3 1/2 and 4, after just about the all sounds are known.

When sounds are known, quickly go into the sandpaper letters - 2-3 weeks should see them all mastered (AMI says "less than a month" so corresponds). Remember, the child KNOWS the sounds; he is just learning a graphic symbol and tracing it right now. Nothing more.


There are many references to "proper" presentations; full exercises; all the stages (of handwriting for example); children "lucky enough" to have had it all done right for him.... The booklet does not provide these details; the details are found in the language album. Some sample stages of the sound games, which seems sufficient to get the heart of the matter; other stuff too lightly touched on to be in-depth.


DIFFERENCE: 
Up until the booklets/folders, references of activities are to those found in the Primary language album. Activities are very similar, with Dwyer providing few details that are then found far in-depth in the Primary Language album.

DIFFERENCE: The primary language has a "photo album" filled with a set of phonogram card. There are no folders such as described in Dwyer's booklet. They may have been at the time this booklet was originally written. The booklets described are stage 1 of the booklets described in the primary language album. There are two more stages of booklets, which can be hand-made or suitable sets purchased.

SIMILARITY: For the dictionary of phonograms, the album page in the primary language album is "Research".
Dictation is done with the materials at hand - and is done in similar manner - the child can either handwrite or use the small movable alphabet to spell out the words.


SUMMARY OF INITIAL THOUGHTS: 
All in all, the Dwyer pamphlet seems to be summarizing and providing the framework for what was possibly AMI's specific approach at that time. In the meantime, only the minor differences noted above have made their way into AMI; these differences based on observation and needs of the children.

I feel that her approach is straight-forward, but knowing what I personally know, it leaves out a lot of details and leaves me hanging! Understandable given the format she was working with as compared to the size of the language album! I do NOT know how I would have felt about this booklet if I had found it before I had AMI training. I think I would have loved it for the framework it provides along with the bit of details to help me be looking for the right resources to fill in the pieces. I think I would have appreciated it and I do know that I would have mostly understood it better than the p/b/g scheme. But I do think it would have left me with a lot of hanging questions (like what are these activity word games!?).

I highly recommend this booklet for parents homeschooling their 0-6 year olds, but with a caveat: since it is only the structure AND the points of emphasis, it should utilized along with the AMI Primary Language album. The booklet will provide the necessary introduction and practical application, while the album will provide all the details on the materials and presentation styles.

The album can feel overwhelming and for a non-AMI-trained parent definitely could use more of a "guide". It seems that together, this booklet and the AMI primary language album fit well together to provide the homeschooling mom (or other adult) what they need to know to work with their child(ren).


(I have received some offline questions on this topic and am putting them all together in one post - it will go up on January 3rd, but please keep asking questions and I'll keep editing that post as needed so everything is in one place :) How to Use Dwyer with AMI Primary Language (linking to post ahead of time - it will be available on January 3rd). The post includes a chart with each step in Dwyer aligned with the corresponding section of the Primary Language Album.)




Click her for a link to the Montessori Trails page correlating Dwyer with AMI with Pink/Blue/Green - aligned next to each other according to stages.

Multi Base Material - Upper Elementary Mathematics

(UPDATED! For clarity and to add search results at the end)


We strive to be keys-based around here. I provide the keys and the opportunities, my son uses them to their fullest potential at the right times.

Great.

Until I won a giveaway through Alison's Montessori for a beautiful, non-essential, non-keys Power of 3 Cube. This is an *abstract* presentation in my album - it is not intended to utilize a material because at that point, the material becomes a crutch to the child. If the child needs a material at this point, the child *creates* the material himself.

So. We're using that one for sensorial exploration for now - as a puzzle - in lower elementary; then I will pull it from the available materials for upper elementary. It's a neat little "puzzle" so I'm ok with that.


But then I placed an order for our remaining Montessori materials several weeks ago. Received everything; then realized I still have a couple of small purchases to make. Oops. That company doesn't have those things anyway, so it's fine. I get my list ready and figure out how much money we'll need to save and I have it ready for the right time. Ok :)

But then I went and pulled this out of storage (given to us a while back - I'd tucked it away without thoroughly checking it beforehand). I thought it was the Non-Decimal Base Board, but I never thought to wonder what was in the BOX (non-decimal base board does not require a box).

This is the one sold at Alison's' - ours is identical, but I don't know where we got it.
It's pretty - it looks neat - but it is definitely NOT an essential material.
Why do companies sell the non-essentials and LEAVE OUT so many of the essentials? 

I am now the keys-based, flummoxed owner of TWO non-keys-based materials that I didn't know I was getting! ;)


I *thought* it was the board for Non-Decimal Bases. But it's not. And I have *nothing* in my albums for this Multi-Base material. Thus it could be a great work to do! But it is not keys-based - it is an extra. I am "ok" with that to an extent, but if I can't figure it out in under 30 seconds, with my experience and training, then is it really going to be necessary for the child?
NO.

But my son MIGHT be interested in it and it might make a FANTASTIC follow-up if that is where his interests go (no, the local educational requirements in our area will not require what this board teaches, so I can't even pull it in for that purpose!).

Wish I'd double-checked first! Because now I don't have the Non-Decimal Bases board - but that should be easy enough to just draw out on posterboard. And anyone else who needs Non-Decimal Bases Board and you've already made a chart for primary use of organizing the golden beads into their categories (that chart being another non-essential material that could be useful and even necessary in some cases - it is 4 columns, with a row at the top to designate that units, bars, squares or cubes go in a particular column)... Just use that! Fine. I'm good with that. Easy and cheap!


But what do I do with this Multi-Base material? I am flummoxed and, frankly, borderline annoyed - both at myself for not checking a long time ago and at companies for making this stuff. I am looking for an album page, a set of album pages - or someone to just tell me which company sells an album that has it - just to save me time figuring it out and making up the album page(s) myself.

Any ideas?


I have contacted 5 companies who sell it, of the 3 who have responded thus far, they have no idea either! So my next question is where did they get the instructions on how to make the material? Many of the discount places get their materials from the same place in China I am sure, but not everyone gets their stuff from there; so where did the original pattern come from?

It is very sad and very disheartening that the gray line between "essential" and "extra" (but could still be good) is so blurred, that there are sometimes "extras" that just aren't even good, but are still being called Montessori - but that is for other posts!


Downer post - sorry! It gets better tomorrow!


(UPDATE 12/29/12: All but two companies have responded back to me; I contacted 3 others who all responded. Not a one of them has any clue how to use this material, or even where the pattern actually came from. Wow.

This pdf document makes ONE reference to it:
Workshop
“How Mathematics forms the brain–Montessori and
Multi-base Material” by Ms Han Kamphuis, pedagogical
consultant at Nienhuis.

Thus it appears to be AMI, and it appears to be relatively new.

Not one AMI elementary training center has responded to my messages, to date. Not even the one I attended.)

Will update further as anything new comes up.

Dot Game Fun!

I love the dot game - I don't know what it is - all the dots maybe? Nah - it's the organization of it - the beauty of it - the essential teaching of it!

And it is the one time that markers are typically used in a Montessori class - if the dot game is kept in a glass frame or laminated and mounted - the children can use a dry erase marker and eraser and use it again and again!


Legoboy did it at school, and wanted it to do it at home (that year I alternated subbing at Montessori schools and working at home - and homeschooling - it was a crazy, but wonderful year!) --- well, I just printed it out and he filled it in. We downloaded this version from Montessori Materials - a great place for some of the printable materials.

Then I had to print more - because he just ate it up!

Here is his first one... It's so pretty! I wrote the first set of numbers and everything else was on him.

The children check off as they do a row, so they can track where they are. They connect up the dots to create a "bead-bar of ten"; then carrying over is noted in red the first several times they do it, to really reinforce the extra work that goes into carrying. But these are all concepts that are actually KNOWN - the child has been doing this work throughout use of the golden bead material - for Legoboy, it had been almost two years with the golden beads, probably a year and a half with carrying, before he actually did the dot game. 

Montessori works in baby steps - so there are only two new things here: 

1. doing the work ALL on paper, in typical addition format (on the right side) --- but connecting it back to their previous work of no more than 9 in any category! 
2. introduction of the comma. Until this time they have not really been using the comma. There are many adults (ahem, me) who try to sneak that comma in there sooner - before the child is ready (too many new things at once if it is introduced sooner!) and most of the time the adult doesn't even realize he or she is doing it! It's so instinctive! But we want the children to focus on place value, so we don't worry about the comma until around this time - this is close to the time they will also learn about millions with the wooden hierarchical material - so the next step is to be introduced to the repetition of the categories (unit, ten, hundred; unit of thousand, ten of thousand, hundred of thousand, etc.). 

This material is only used for addition although multiplication could be done on it. There is more other work for the child to do and the point here is the two points listed above. So further operations are not necessary. 

By the 3rd sheet of this work, the Dot Game turned into a balloon popping game - pop 1, pop 2, pop 3, etc. until number 10 was the biggest POP of them all! 

oh the days when it wasn't about battles and weapons.... it just balloons popping! How I miss those days ;) 

Mathematics Materials: A Photo Journey

I started two separate posts, but there is so much overlap here! The materials can be pricey or tricky to make at first, but, as noted, most of it goes for several years!


A photo journey of our primary mathematics materials:

Numbers 1-10 (the candle is for decoration, polishing,
and it makes a neat representative of the number 1 ;)
Basket underneath for golden bead collections.
Most of this material is JUST for primary.
(except the small bead frame!)

There is also a small bead frame- but if you know you are going to do elementary as well, get the large bead frame and use for both (that is what we did). The dot game is downloadable. Teens and tens boards can be made of paper and cardstock (that was ours!). The memorization charts can be downloaded.



A photo journey of both primary and elementary Montessori materials:

At-home multi-purpose use ;)
This material is used FOREVER in Montessori!
It is WORTH it to have every piece of it - do NOT skimp here. 

Mathematics mats - especially for primary

Circle fractions are for both primary AND elementary

Division with Racks and Tubes
Test Tube Division
Can be used in primary for short division
Elementary for short and long division
and the materials can be used SEVERAL other places as well

Golden bead material - 45 of each, 9 thousands
(only one non-AMI primary presentations needs
more than 9 thousands - and you can make those)

Decanomial bead bar box - we get away with one box
by adding a few bars of pony beads on colored pipe cleaners.
Primary and Elementary
AND you can use this material for SO MUCH - just pull from it what you need!

The stamp game, large bead frame - belong here. Also, get a negative snake game and you'll have all you need for all the snake games.




A photo journey of JUST elementary Montessori materials:

flat bead from for elementary only

Elementary: power of 2 cube
(power of 3 cube is NOT necessary)

Montessori Protractor - this one is 0 - 360
Another one goes 0 - 100
Both are necessary in some form. 

Fraction skittles for division.
Some albums have them in primary for another purpose.
They are intended for dividing fractions by fractions
at the elementary level. 

sample of squaring and cubing in elementary
all material comes from the bead cabinet

too pretty of a picture not to share!
all material comes from the bead cabinet

Decimal Checkerboard for multiplying decimal fractions (decimals)

There is more I have not yet pictured: the squaring and cubing material; the pegboards.

Mathematics is huge! The nice thing is that primary materials DO carry over; and there is a good deal of the elementary material that can be consolidated, or made of paper, cardstock, or other items around the house, along with a few basic purchases. Or is multi-purpose for both primary and elementary with slight modification.

While this area is the most intense, materials-wise, it is also the most efficacious of all the Montessori materials. It is worth every second and every penny! 

:) 

Multiplying Sum by a Sum

Legoboy loved this work intensely - for about 3 weeks. Then he's done. He found the shortcut of adding up the quantities within parentheses and then multiplying, so we had to move on to unknown quantities to keep him practicing the proper procedure!

The idea is to start with lower numbers, with bead bars within one set of parentheses and number cards in a second set of parentheses; then show proper procedure for multiplying each bead bar by each "command card", finding partial answers and later putting them all together into the final product. We turn over the multipliers (commands) not being used, so that we isolate just the one individual being used at the moment.

Talk about good habit-forming right from the beginning and before EVER doing the abstractly!

So. He LOVED the work. And he loves drawing. But for some reason, he always rushed through the few drawings he made of his work onto graph paper. Go figure! Here is a sample - he started off well except for parentheses ;) As Grandma says: Funny boy!
(ordinarily the partial answers are placed underneath their corresponding bead work - not to the right as he shows it here - but he likes to have all of his work of this sort fit onto one piece of paper when possible). He still had the final product on a different piece of paper which he then tucked away somewhere I can't find to show you all! He does that with his favorite work until he is ready to share. I can't complain! At least he wrote the numerical answer at the bottom :)

Sample of 2-sum by 3-sum

1 unit by a sum of 2 addends, then switch it around. 

sum by a sum - basic presentation :) 

Primary Language Materials: Photo Journey

In no particular order, language-related photos I have - some with materials we've made - some with materials we've purchased or borrowed or were gifted:

Zoology and Botany classification cards
with definitions
A few samples of these are nice to have in the classroom or homeschool
focus on keys, then add an interest or two
Thereafter, find outline pictures online and invite the child to
"do research" to find the names of the parts
(so books on the subject would be great!)

small movable alphabet -
punctuation marks are missing from these boxes
the backsides of each letter should have the capital as well
perhaps if I'd made them with the capitals,
Legoboy wouldn't have struggled with them as much ;)
****This material carries over into elementary -
have blue, red, and black on hand for sure*****

wooden grammar symbols - genius!
****Carries over to elementary!*****

Our original handmade metal insets
Not so metal - they are foamboard
do it again? I would either buy them or cut from wood
or from mat board (picture frame backing)
***ALTERNATIVE: just get the geometry cabinet and use
the shapes from those drawers!****

Now, we also had beautiful living books, focused on reality - with a variety of beautiful artwork (nothing cartoon-like).

We read from the Bible - not from Bible storybooks.

We did a lot of artwork, which helps with handwriting and strengthening those muscles, thus the fraction insets (circles, squares and triangles) were utilized in various setting (we did not have these at home at the time, but I wish we had!). The circle fractions begin in primary and continue into elementary mathematics, with the squares and triangles presented in elementary geography.

We spoke whole-language - real words, full sentences. Yes, we played silly word games at times, but our usual conversations were imbued with respect for the child's intelligence - something hard to fight against in our culture that uses the wrong verb tense and pronouns for the youngest children. Mother-ese is WONDERFUL - but it shouldn't be used on a 2 year old except briefly in silly-snuggle time for just a moment. ;) "Him so beautifuls" being not quite right for a child over a few months old who is absorbing the rules of language. hehe.


These things (pretend stories, awful artwork, poor language) won't destroy a child, but they sure won't build him up and they could certainly slow him down. Everyone who asks my advice because they have been doing these things and have older children - just adjust now. Slowly purge the old books by adding in or emphasizing the good ones; remove the least loved of the others first, and faze out the usual favorites. But save the good literature for elementary! (Beatrix Potter, Wind in the Willows, Fairy Tales --- these are all moral tales and have a profound place in elementary!) Speak in whole, rich language, with a large vocabulary - provide very simple and short explanations only when obviously needed (child asks). If the child says the wrong thing, such as "pretty kitty" instead of cat or kitten, you say, "Yes, this is a lovely cat (or kitten depending on the age of the cat!). So you are giving another name for pretty, teaching its meaning in context without needing a definition, AND providing the accurate word for the age of the creature. No correction necessary :)

Practical Life in Elementary - Primary works?

There are some primary practical life skills that can still be worked on in elementary - whether because the child needs extra practice or because there was no primary level experience - or because of a significant emotional event that causes a child to backslide a bit. In these cases, a specific tray for a specific skill could be set up. But clear it away as soon as it is no longer a work of meditation, development of concentration and skill practice. Once one of those three components falls away, remove the material and offer alternatives that use that skill and continue to develop concentration. We do NOT want the children "hiding" behind work or choosing work simply to be "busy". We do want them fulfilling their inner needs - and YES sometimes that means a simpler activity already mastered. We just need to have the proper balance of work options --- an older child wanting to do some simple pouring, could pour drinks for snack/meals, prepare various works for other children that require pouring, etc. At home, go play in the bathtub with some pouring items - and get clean in the meantime ;)

1st grader practicing pouring between two pitchers
Skill needed: not touching the pitchers to each other

For the most part in elementary, practical life just looks more practical. There are not a gazillion individual trays, one for each skill. BUT in addition to having perhaps 1 or 2 trays to work on a particular primary level skill, you might put together a basket or box of items that go with a research project or a chosen area of study - just to keep the materials together. One example might be a basket that has mapping skills pulled together as an activity box for the children. This would be more appropriate for at home rather than at school, where those same materials will be displayed differently (according to each school). At home: a nice activity basket :) 

World Puzzle Map at Home

Montessori teachers generally highly recommend not to have duplicate materials at home and at school.

For the most part, I agree.

But there are always moments that make you say, "hmm."

And this was one :)


Junior Legoboy (he had not yet discovered legos at this time of his life!) was in an AMI primary Montessori school for his 3 year old year. First thing of interest is that he started to write at home - writing out the letters to spell "thank you" on his after-Christmas cards - but he wouldn't write at home - OOPS! Meant to say *school* - he would NOT write at school - and it's not like we spent that much time at home that year for him to be distracted by duplicate materials at home. I had tucked away all of our Montessori materials so he would focus on them at school. But he just wouldn't write at school!


One day, at home, he pulled out a world puzzle map we had there (yes out of storage, without my permission), and proceeded to do work he'd seen the older children doing at school.

This photo became the cover of my sensorial album!
Please ignore his clothes hanging in the closet behind him ;) 

Assembling the puzzle outside of the frame,
with no outer border reference. 

So in this case, we certainly had moments where he went deeper with the work at home than he did at school. I'm not drawing any significant conclusions from these observations - just something to say, "hmmm."


Yes, this material was in my sensorial album - not a separate geography area. I had sensorial aspects of the world in sensorial, with the appropriate language activities in the language album. I personally found this layout to be SUCH a relief after having spent several years finagling with multiple subject albums - 4 was such a blessed relief! It certainly helped me to organize the patterns and connections in a way I just didn't "see" before despite the number of years in Montessori environments!

Long Bead Chains - Photo Journey

Just browsing through photos looking for something else, and thought, "I should share these!"

Counting up the 1000 chain!

Drawing it afterward - elementary children

sample of elementary work with the long chains

the lighting was bad ;) 

1000 chain from my student teaching days
I still have that skirt!
And I still remember the happiness of the boy
who worked on this presentations
- the TRUE self-esteem -
the pride he took in his work
the complete turn-around in his behavior
having been given some REAL work to do. 

5 1/2 year old SO PROUD of his BIG WORK
(this boy did this work BY HIMSELF!)
It was probably one of the most fulfilling things
he had done in his life to that date!)

Lego day!

The morning of the day I write this post, my son wrote me a note:

can you come to the m(iddle) of the f(l)oor?
He's not been writing much lately - and despite all the
wonderful Montessori materials - if he doesn't practice,
it's GONE! So spelling skills are OUT.
Every child has their thing - spelling is his.
No spelling bee champ here ;)
(do they have an "Abbreviation Bee?" hehe)

(he'd been leaving me a series of notes - I have a PILE of them next to my computer - he writes them on scrap paper, folds in half, sneaks up, drops them in my lap or on my hands and RUNS, diving behind the living room chair supposedly before I can see him!)

We LOVE these CDs - very educational and very interesting!
Each CD plays the entire song through about 3 times -
once continuous with narration
once with starting/stopping and further depth of explanation
once just straight through with no narration
And LOTS of extras in between ;) 

This was right after he wrote a note asking if we could listen to "Carnival of Animals" from Maestro Classics.

Well, it's Friday and most of his work from this week is already done - so why not? ;) 

By why the middle of the floor? Legoboy has spent the last two days' worth of free time creating a Lego game from scratch.

So we played. Who needs school? Who needs to work? We're listening to music and spending time together.

challenge cards and playing cards

Pieces to build figures and barracks within each field

I like this game. I don't care for Legos myself - I support his interest though - yet I'm winning! So I don't mind this game ;) I did need to call a break for a while so I could get on with more of my own work. We'll finish up this evening.

I love how much thought and effort he put into this game - so much so that handwriting and spelling suffered! But he is going back to make revisions - and in the playing of the game, he didn't get upset when something didn't work - he just either revised the rules in the moment because they needed to be done, or he made a quick list of items that needed adapting for future playing.

I am very proud of him for doing all this work :)




Shshshshsh! Don't tell him yet I found this blog this morning with a LEGO co-op plan - at Homegrown Learners. I am going to see if any local children want to join us for a short-term LEGO club in our home ;)

Maybe we'll combine with this 4-day LEGO lapbook at Walking by the Way.
Click here for her LEGO resources.



What would Dr. Montessori say about LEGOs? I don't know! They are plastic and she saw a much larger benefit to all-natural tools, and I'll admit I'm not always keen on the sound of them and they do GET EVERYWHERE (Legoboy usually works on a sheet which we then gather up and dump back into the big bin, after he pulls out the small pieces he wants to keep organized - that way, at least the LEGOs are partially contained and they don't make a terrible sound when he does work on tile floor).

They are really great for problem solving, engineering-type skills and just plain creativity.

Would I have them in the "school" area (whether a homeschool or a regular school)? NO! I would keep them separate from the usual learning materials, but I don't entirely consider them pure "toys" either. Much like our other "toys" they must have a strong reason to be here, in order to be allowed to take up space in our tiny home. So they are not frivolous play, but lead to creativity, imagination, problem solving and can be combined with other items.

Just my OWN two cents ;)

Your Business Math - Pet Store

As with all elementary Montessori work, the idea is to get the child exploring and learning of his own accord - provide him the keys and let him do the unlocking ;)

Along that vein, when Legoboy came across some information about Your Business Math, he was really excited! And started saving his money for it.

While business math is ideal for the adolescent age, there is nothing wrong with some sidework in the business world at the elementary age too!  They have three options: pet store, book store, or sports store. We have the e-book version of the pet store.

There is a bit of printing with the e-book, but it saved shelfspace and allowed us to just print what we need so I'm good ;) You can print straight from the pdf they send you or they have links on their website to download just the needed pages.

He got started on it the week before Thanksgiving and while he would be happy to fly right through it, I am intentionally slowing him down so that we truly focus in on each step of the process.

You work in "months" which take about an hour each to do if you fly straight through and a bit longer if you are more mindful.

As I said, he started to fly straight through, because
he was SO excited. He mis-spelled a word -
but he's corrected that since I took the photo.
I would have added more color, but
he preferred keeping it simple. 

We spent one evening just setting up. I sat at the computer and worked; he came to me for the next step to read the instructions, print as needed, then he was off. When he needed guidance he brought his binder to me and we worked through it. This way, I was "occupied" but available and would not fall to temptation to micro-manage. ;)

He chose a binder and some dividers; drew out a logo and selected a name for his store:

The first divider - all inventory sheets, order forms,
customer orders,, ledgers, etc. for each month
are behind their own tab. 

We like it. I wish it was a bit more intense, so we could more easily beef it up and make it a younger adolescent experience - but this is solidly 8-12 as their website specifies - and I could see most Montessori 11 and 12 years old wishing for more intensity.

The nice thing with families - is that each child can have their own store - the instructions are the same, the order details are different - and they can place orders with each other. There are other ways to provide variations, such as other family members placing pretend orders, choosing not to accept a program-provided order on moral grounds (ie one customer wants to feed his animal purchase to his other animal, so would you as a *pet* store owner want to allow that, etc). The instructions note when you should develop certain policies such as these. And there are certainly your own variations you can make as you like.

There are chance cards and cards for "additional in-store sales" (AISS cards). These also add some variations and allow for varying situations.

At the end of each month, profit and loss are calculated; as well as at the end of the year. Evaluate how things went, what worked, what didn't - and how would this all work in the real world.


Down-sides: 

• The ledger system is a single-line - good for some purposes, but some accounting records need double-entry - this might be an item to add to an adolescent experience, following using this program in elementary - build up complexity in increments. 
• The labels of debit and credit are incorrect - reflecting what your personal bank statement looks like rather than what a real business ledger account would look like. This is easy to fix by simply crossing them out and re-writing them - or leaving those words out altogether. It is also a good discussion point for the children - when is a debit "money in" and when it is "money out". 
• the orders have no actual dates, so we make them up. The program has you calculating all ledger entries at the end of each "month" instead of as it happens. This has benefits and drawbacks in the real world. Another discussion point for the children. 
• the chance and AISS cards can be a tad confusing - how to record them for example: if you had $450 in additional in-store sales, what inventory are you replacing? It doesn't say. So we chose to mark it down as services rendered - perhaps pet-boarding for the day or the weekend; or delivery service. We just have to ignore the other expenses (extra food used, gas, mileage) - this is where this is program is solidly elementary, but would not be appropriate for adolescence who want real world experience. So we make the adjustments, gain the experience and move on. 
• If a chance card says increase earnings by 10% - 10% of WHAT!? It doesn't say, so I created another set of chance cards, that when this sort of card is picked, he draws from the new stack to tell us the percentage of what - AISS, monthly profit/loss, total income for the month, etc. 

For what it is and what it purports to do, it is fun, lays a good foundation and introduces the practical purpose of various math concepts. Can't beat it! It would be great to see something for middle schoolers with more of the "trickiness" included - perhaps that is something to look forward to!