HELP! Please!! ATTN. MOTL USERS

I know there are others with more experience than I have that will be able to give you more information, but since you have been waiting for a reply, I’ll throw in what I can.

I started using MOTL by looking at the “Concept Chart” which is found at the beginning of the manual.  I just went down the list, looked up each skill (the page numbers are given so it’s easy) to make sure I know what each was about, and then determined whether my DD knew the skill. 

Some of the skills I already knew that my DD understood them, so I just checked them off.  Some of the others I gave her a couple of sample questions to figure out what she knew.  There are four strands, so I looked at all of them.  Then, I picked 2 or 3 skills in each strand that DD wasn’t solid on yet.  I wrote these on a looseleaf page, picked one, and started teaching it.

Many of the first skills are not ones that need 5-a-days.  They are concepts that will be just used in life and other math lessons (recognizing and writing numbers, for example).  If your children are old enough to be further along in the list, then you can start creating 5-a-days for the skills that they already know, to keep them in constant review.  I just listed these on another piece of paper and started going down the list, 5 at a time, and did 5-a-days.  I didn’t worry at first about how often each skill needed to be reviewed.  Once you get going, you can refine the system and eventually use the record keeping from the manual or the spreadsheet or another method.  I just wanted to get into the habit.

The next place to look is the appendix for the “Suggested Teaching Sequence” which gives a possible sequence to follow as you get started.  This is only one possibility, and you should adapt it as you go for your own children’s needs, but it gives an idea of how you can progress through the program.

Also, I planned a specific day to do some ‘math adventures’ since I knew that if I didn’t plan it, I wouldn’t do it.

We actually haven’t been using MOTL exclusively for the past few months.  We use Life of Fred as well.  So I don’t use the record keeping and the 5-a-days right now (my kids are only 7 and 5, so we are doing more just oral math, living math books, Life of Fred, games, IXL, etc.)  Once my children are to the point of doing more paper and pencil math, I intend to use MOTL to keep us on track and make sure we address all the different concepts and don’t miss anything.  The overall concept is great, but we are also enjoying lot of other sources of learning along the path.

Anyway, even though we are not using MOTL completely, hopefully this will give you a starting point and help you start learning how it all works.

Also, have you checked out the MOTL yahoo group?  The archived posts are a wealth of information, and everyone is very willing to help.

Joanne

this might be helpful..

http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/2009/11/math-on-level.html