One of the things I love about homeschooling is being able to meet a child right where they are. I firmly believe not every child is ready to read at 5 (one of ours was three, one was four, one was almost 7. And the other one, who learned in public school at the "proper" time remains our reader that struggles the most.) In our home, truly no child is left behind. If they are struggling in an area, we can break it down, go slower until it's mastered... if they excel, there's no reason to hold them back to "stay with the class." More than once I've "shelved" a topic one or more of my children was struggling with, and when I brought it back out a month or several months later, we rocketed ahead, because this time they were ready for it.
So how does that relate to the product review? The Master Ruler is quite a tool. And among it's greatest attibutes, I think, is the way it's broken measurement up into manageable pieces, so we can use just what each child is ready for.
My girls are just starting to learn to measure. For them, to be able to remove all of the "extra" lines on a ruler and give them JUST the inches makes the concept much simpler for them and helps avoid confusion. As they are ready, we can add in half inches, then quarters, then eighths and sixteenths... when they are ready for each piece of information. Each fraction of measurement is on a seperate overlay (but hinged together in order), and printed in a different color.
On the other end of the spectrum is Sam, who excels mathematically and was blurting out answers to problems involving adding fractions... which he hasn't actually covered in his math program yet. But when we get there, and especially with the other three, that's the other huge benefit I see to this ruler - it works spectacularly as a visual aid for adding, subtracting and reducing fractions. Click this link to see a video (first on the page) that explains the process better than I could in mere words.
As much as I'd love to give an example of a concept my children were struggling with that they mastered by using this product, I'm afraid the timing just wasn't right for us. The girls had already begun measuring in their math program (I would have loved to have had this a few months earlier) and the boys didn't encounter any measurement units during the review period. We spent some time working together with the rulers, and the children were definitely fascinated and enjoyed using them independently to try to measure things in the workbook that came with it, like the span of butterfly wings or migration distances. They LIKE the tool, and that's always a great first step. I'm thrilled to have these (both the inch and metric models) on hand to use as we encounter future measurement lessons, and I think they'll be invaluable tools, but the most we could do with them for now was play... which of course leads to learning in itself.
The standard ruler is $9.95, and the metric costs the same. The starter set (shown above) with both metric and standard as well as a teacher's model (clear to use on an overhead projector) and a reproducible workbook for practicing the concepts is $41.25. It's a tool that is useable at really any age of schooling, and one I think we'll come back to again and again.
Master Innovations also has other products that work similarly to break down big concepts into manageable chunks, including the Master Clock, Master Fractions and Master Angles. You can see videos for how all of their products work on their website.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
Comments