What do you love?
I love that I have EVERYTHING I need to teach all of my children math. This is not a book of lessons and problems. Rather, it is more of a handbook of math if you will. I have mine all in one 3-ring binder. A FOUR-INCH d-ring binder actually. It is THAT LARGE. It covers every single concept needed to be prepared for higher level math—algebra and beyond.
I love that my oldest son, who used to struggle with math after 5 years in public school (and let me add, I don’t think he was struggling b/c he was in public school), but I said that to say he was very defeated in math and since he wasn’t at home, I didn’t realize how defeated he felt until we brought him home. So I took him back in his 5th grade year using MOTL and now he is soaring. He now believes in his abilities to DO math.
He tested recently at a high school level in math. Granted, he still has to really think and it still doesn’t come natural for him, but he gets it and he feels confident. He now likes math and can think on his feet with math, which he couldnt’ do before. MOTL taught me how to incorporate math on the go (e.g. asking questions on the fly like DH asking our son tonight “what is 25% of $1200?” and our son immediately answering “$300”).
I love that I can use them with all 6 of our children through the years and NEVER have to buy a major math curriculum again. I love that though the learning curve is steep, I know think MOTL-wise throughout our lessons. “Oh, this would be a great time to revisit fractions and review while we’re working with this art project.” etc. etc.
I love the price when I consider all it comes with and all I can do with it, especially when I figure for 6 children over their elementary and middle school years. I love that I can supplement with Saxon (that my neighbor has given me to use this year with oldest who will still be finishing up concepts in MOTL and doing 5 a days) or Life of Fred (my 9YO son is using the decimals and percents book) or whatever else I want to use it with.
Or, not so much?
I really don’t have any dislikes. I do know that I need to stay ahead of the game. I don’t like the record-keeping b/c I don’t like excel, but they also give you paper copies with the curriculum. I’m still working out a record-keeping system with it that I love. I’m getting close I think (and it involves checkboxes :).
Why do home schoolers feel this is a CM approach to learning math?
I think Kris answered this already. You as the parent go at the pace that fits your child and his/her needs. It is not grade-specific. The writers stress very much that the “Beginning Math Student” should be learning math through “living” math (games, cooking, manipulatives, songs, etc.). The Math Adventures book is full of “living math” ideas. I mean, FULL of them.
For us, one aspect that is very CM is I can often teach more than one of my children at a time, even though they may be years apart in age. But I can for instance do a fraction lesson with two or more of them (even at different levels), but using the basic MOTL concepts I can teach more than one and then spend some individual time with them as needed on specifics. I can also do this approach with mutlitple children of ours who are different ages but might be at the same level on some math topics. The curriculum is not broken up by grade, but rather into 4 main books: Operations, Fractions, Geometry, and Money & Decimals.
I think it is very CMish, though admittedly I’m not a CM expert and we don’t do CM schooling exclusively, but we’re closer and closer to CM each year!
You can also join the MOTL yahoo group, even before purchasing, to ask questions there. Several of us on here are on the group! http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mathonthelevel/
HTH