Foam Base Ten Set

As I mentioned in this post I had the opportunity to review a product of my choice from Toys and Games Online, one of the many online stores at CSN stores.

I chose the Foam Magnetic Base 10 Set because it seemed similar to the Montessori golden beads.  I also remember learning carrying and borrowing using a base ten set in my elementary school days and it is also how I taught these concepts to my third graders.  I knew that something like this could be useful in my homeschool classroom.

This learning material is good quality.  The foam is sturdy and the magnet is a single sheet covering the entire foam part.  The magnet seems adhered very strongly.  The product looks durable.  I am disappointed though because, based on the picture, I thought I was getting the same base ten set I used as a child - one with 3D unit cubes, bars and thousand cubes.  I was very disappointed that this set was 2D and that I hadn't read the specifications under the photo, where it mentioned that the thousand square is 2D (but does not mention that the other parts are also 2D).
It took a day to get past this disappointment. My husband politely told me to just get over it, since I still got a free product I can use to teach Bear and J-jo.  I wish now I'd chosen something more fun instead of something useful!

I love that it is magnetic. If you work on a cookie sheet, the little units (which aren't even that small, another good thing) can't get lost.
Or you could use your fridge (especially if you have a white fridge) as a white board and display a number for your child to decipher. 
Bear already is counting by tens to one hundred since we got it as she likes to take the 10-bars and line them up on the hundreds board.
So even though at first I was disappointed that it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, I can still totally see us using this product and learning with it. 


I am very grateful to have received this product free from Toys and Games Online.  This has in no way influenced my review.