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Math on the Level
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I’m researching MOTL and wondering if anyone is using this and how you like it? I recently joined the Yahoo group and spoke with Carlita on the phone regarding the program.
Are you using MOTL as a supplement or all in one curriculum?
Approx. how much time do you spend per day on math?
For those who’ve used long term, how are your older students transitioning into higher level math?
Thanks,
Melissa
Thanks Sheraz….she did e-mail me 🙂
Is this what RobinP uses?
Blessings,
Melissa
I have been using it for a little over a month. It took me forever to figure it out and I still have questions. However, my son doesn’t hate math now and he seems to be grasping concepts quite well. I like it too mostly because there are no tears over math now. There is definitely more prep time involved now though.
As for time spent, that varies daily. I would say we spend only about 15 minutes on the 5-a-days. We are also working on multiplication facts and playing different math games too. I have only been teaching a new concept about once a week and it takes us longer on that day.
Hope this helps a little.
I used MOTL last year with my two boys. Although I admit I adored the philosophy behind it, I found it too cumbersome to keep up with. I made out the five-a-days ahead of time for the week, but then found out some concepts hadn’t “stuck” as much as I thought they had and the frequency needed to be changed. Then I tried making them out each morning, but that only seemed to bog down my mornings.
I also struggled with how much time to spend trying to explain a concept in several different ways before deciding to “table it” for a later date.
We have since switched to another curriculum with no regrets. Frequent review built in, but I don’t have to make out the five-a-days each morning. On the concepts that I know they have an extra-good grasp on, we skip some of the review problems. Lessons are short, but have variety.
That being said, I still hold on to MOTL because I still use it at times. For example, my son became quite interested in Roman Numerals. So I just opened up to that section in MOTL, picked up an applicable book at the library, and within about 2 days my 9-year-old can read Roman Numerals faster than I can.
In another example, my oldest seems to have a good grasp of fractions. Rather than learn “1/2” in kindergarten, “1/3” and “1/4” in first grade, etc., we used MOTL for fractions because he caught onto them so quickly and instantly recognized certain equivalent fractions (1/2=2/4). So we just worked through most of the fractions information until he was satisfied for the moment.
My not-so-good experience was when it came to teaching regrouping/borrowing. My son who had been multiplying from the age of 5 could not wrap his brain around this. I explained it with money, with base 10 blocks, with pen & paper, but it only brought tears over the course of several days. Just when I thought he grasped it, the next day’s review problem would show otherwise. Once we switched curriculum, he got this concept without any problem. I’m not suggesting it was a fault of MOTL; it was merely not a good fit for me because I was left wondering if I should continue to try to explain a concept a different way…or leave it for a later time. Either way, I second guessed myself.
Lastly, I do so appreciate how MOTL opened my eyes to seeing math around me in ways I can have my boys apply it. Just recently they wanted to rearrange their room. So it became an exercise of measuring their beds, making a kind-of-to-scale map, figuring area, etc. activity.
I think it’s a great program; it just didn’t work well with my Type A personality. Thankfully both of my boys are very quick with math concepts so a workbook directed curriculum works well here for our main program.
Thank you for your comments!
tmagee….may I ask what program you switched to? We are currently using Math U See and dabbling with RightStart. I’m thinking MOTL may make a good supplement to MUS, but not sure I want to invest that kind of money for a supplement. I too love the idea of MOTL, but with my type A personality, I’m not sure it would be a good fit.
Blessings,
Melissa
Tmagee, I too am curious what you switched to. I am not looking to switch but since you stated that the lessons are shorti am interested just in case I decide to switch in the future.
Sorry for the delay in posting. I haven’t been checking in lately. Anyway, the curriculum I switched to is by Christian Light Publications, called Christian Light Education (often referred to as CLE math).
It is most definitely NOT Charlotte-Mason style; it’s very “work-booky.” I have one boy who is very sequential in his thinking; the other is very random. BOTH do wonderfully with this curriculum. It’s spiral in its approach, with lots of review built in. Each day’s lesson takes between 15-30 minutes. Speed drills and flash cards are part of the lessons, but we’re weaning off of those as the boys are pretty quick with all of them. Sometimes I change up the drill portion with a computer game, board game, wrap-ups, etc. The worktests teach to the student, so they are able to do their lessons on their own, unless something is unclear to them. I do do the lessons with my first grader as this level is written assuming the student is not a proficient reader yet. But grade 2 and up can be entirely independent. They teach a short lesson, have a practice problem or two, and then the rest of the lesson is review of many topics. For example, my third grader is just beginning a section on comparing fractions to their equivalent decimals. After a brief explanation and 4 or 5 practice problems, that same lesson then reviews multiplication, word problems, volumetric measurements, Roman Numerals, etc. Only one or two problems each.
It’s very “old school” as I see it. Personally, I preferred to teach my children math facts first, the reasoning behind them second. My reason for this is I feel children learn “Mom” is Mom first; they’ll learn why later. I realize that is not everyone’s preference, but I thought I’d mention it as this curriculum fits that philosophy.
The other thing I’d like to mention is that each booklet (there are 10 per year) has a theme. For example, one that we just finished had the theme of “Farm animals.” So each day’s lesson had information about various animals. Both of the boys found these pretty interesting…and their mother learned a few things too!
I’d be happy to answer further questions now that I remembered to check off the box to be notified of further posts. Sorry about that. Oh,and we also use Life of Fred for fun as well as Singapore’s Challenging Word Problems.
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