Math on the Level and Math Lessons For A Living Education

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  • March 3, 2011 at 2:38 pm
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    I am looking into both of these.  We currently use Math-u-see though I am considering changing.

    If I choose Math Lessons For A Living Education I would just use those with my kindy and keep my oldest doing math u see for now.

    thanks

    March 3, 2011 at 3:06 pm
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    Math on the Level reviews say high prep and lots of teacher time involved.  Do you find this more so than other math programs?  I mean math u see is no prep but does require the parent teaching the concept, well I actually just let my son watch the video and then do the lessons on his own unless he asks for help.

    March 3, 2011 at 4:49 pm
    RobinP
    Participant

    We use MOTL and love it.  It is high prep for me although it doesn’t really take that much time.  But what I love about it, and what makes it worth the extra time, is that is totally go at the pace and “maturation level” of my boys.  I teach only what they’re ready for at the time and the amount of review depends on how much they need, not how much some unknown outsider thinks they need.  I can customize their learning to suit their needs.  It also gives me lots of ways to teach each concept so I can choose what works for them and their learning styles.

    March 3, 2011 at 5:56 pm
    aylin
    Participant

    I am also looking into MOTL. I joined the MOTL yahoo group and it seems like most of the Moms take 5-8 minutes per child to prep each night. That doesn’t sound bad to me, because I currently need to look the math lesson book and teacher’s manual over each night and decide what to teach and how to teach it and pick out problems. Plus I hate not using ALL of a book I paid for!!

    Anyway, you might want to join that yahoo group and ask any specific questions. The MOTL author is on there and posts quite a bit.

    March 3, 2011 at 6:39 pm
    Cindie2dds
    Member

    I don’t know anything about MOTL, but Math Lessons for a Living Education has been a lot of fun for my kindy girl.

    March 3, 2011 at 9:04 pm
    Jenna
    Member

    I purchased the MOTL starter kit last year, and we just haven’t used it to its full potential.  I think it is a wonderful program in theory, just not practical for our family right now.  I might be interested in selling if you are interested.  You can email me at jennaraymond@comcast.net

    March 4, 2011 at 10:43 am
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    I really think Math Lessons for a Living Education will be great for my 4 almost 5yo. He will be starting more school type work after we move but he is not ready for a more “formal” kindy.

    I am really thinking about MOTL for my older son and then all the rest after.  He realy wants to try something else.

    Thanks for your input.

    March 4, 2011 at 10:46 am
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    Robin-

    How many kiddos do you have? I will have 5 doing school eventually so I really can’t prep a whole lot.

    March 4, 2011 at 12:28 pm
    RobinP
    Participant

    I only have 2 that I’m homeschooling, both 7yo boys.  One of the 7yo’s was adopted from China last year so we’re really working from the ground up.  I probably spend about 5 minutes total most days in prep.

    March 4, 2011 at 1:23 pm
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    I am usre it would take longer until I get the hang of it, but 5-10 min is workable.

    He is begging for a change, and I don’t see why a 7yo should hate math so much he would offer to scrub a tiolet to avoid it.

    I just think mathusee is still to workbook-like for us!

    March 4, 2011 at 1:24 pm
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    Thanks so much!

    Ohh one more question do you use it with the organizer?

    March 4, 2011 at 1:45 pm
    houseofchaos
    Participant

    I am not wanting to hijack the post here, but just wanted to say that we use Math U See with our five school aged children.  I have had to go more slowly with two of them, as they struggled also.  I am glad we stuck with it, however.  Our oldest (twelve, turning thirteen) has a very good comprehension of math now, and when and how to use it – and he even likes math.  Initially with him, I tried a couple of other programs (though I do not remember what they were) after his struggles with Alpha, but we ended up coming back to MathU See.  Our other child who struggles with math is only seven and a half, but she has really come to love math with Math U See.  With her, we ended up trying a math page (or half of one) every couple of days, and just playing a few games in between.

    I know you will discover what is best for your children, but I wanted to share our experience.

    March 6, 2011 at 9:15 am
    thehauserfamily
    Member

    Thanks for that insight. I am still trying to decide and will use the summer to do so.

    He gets the concepts fine, though he doesn’t remember his math facts that well. He can do it on his fingers or if he thinks it through…he is just bored of the way it presents the info. Perhaps I am just going to slow for him and should allow him to move on faster.

    I have been re-reading an easy start in arithmetic by Ruth Beechick.  She talks about presenting concepts in grade 1 and 2 and doing more focus in grade 3 to memorize and such. I think this will work for us. Also I will use our move to focus on this as we won’t be able to do our whole schooling day.  I am just focusing on math and reading during that time. Starting next month until we are settled at the next place.

    March 6, 2011 at 12:31 pm
    RobinP
    Participant

    I use the MOTL organizer loosely.  I don’t keep quite the meticulous records that they show you, but I do use the list of what we’ve covered and mark what each child is working on, how often for review and when it’s mastered.  The suggestions for teaching each concept are very good and varied.  I also get ideas from Ruth Beechick, Games for Math by Peggy Kaye, and the living math website.  Living books to introduce a concept are very effective with my boys as are hands-on activities and real world examples.  Those make the greatest difference, I think, and the lack of them are why I struggled with math throughout school  I also try to give them problems that require them to think a bit diffently about a concept.  For example, with telling time, I might ask them what time it is and what time would it be in 10 minutes.

    March 6, 2011 at 9:23 pm
    blessedmom
    Member

    What about Professor B for your older?  This is a quote from their site:

    Children learn a story because its verbalization permits their perception of its internal connections and flow.   When teachers’ verbalizations in their math lessons permit children’s perception of internal connections, their mastery of math is as inevitable as learning a story.   Memorization in math education conditions children into becoming “non-thinkers.”   Emphasis on structures conditions children into becoming thinkers.

    http://www.profb.com/homeschoolers.aspx?Unique=3/6/2011

     

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