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Syncletica
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| Posted: March 16 2009 at 12:13am | IP Logged
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The Old Schoolhouse has a rave review of this program, and I'm just wondering if anyone here has tried it and/or would recommend it?
Math on the Level
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Lisa in WI
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| Posted: April 27 2009 at 12:08pm | IP Logged
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I own this program and have read through most of the materials. I haven't actually gotten started yet. My oldest is 4.5yo so we will be starting near the beginning. Do you have any specific questions that I could try to answer?
Lisa
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Syncletica
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| Posted: April 27 2009 at 10:26pm | IP Logged
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Well, nothing specific, really. I'm just wondering if it really will be as good as they say. Will it be good for someone who as yet hasn't put together their own math course? (I've been doing Saxon.) Can you give an example of what a lesson might look like?
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Lisa in WI
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| Posted: May 01 2009 at 7:14pm | IP Logged
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I started out with Right Start math and though I love the philosophy behind it the "lessons" just don't jive with us. We do much better in all subjects when things feel more natural. We learn best by playing games and learning through real-life. And that's what we'll get to do with MOTL. At dd's level, many lessons are learned through games, cooking, and using money and clocks. We'll learn about patterns by stringing beads, coloring patterns, and through chores, among other things. We'll learn about half and whole by cutting sandwiches and sharing toys and other food. We'll learn about money by playing store and going to a real store and about fractions by cooking. If you let me know what level your dc are at I could look up some of those lessons.
I like that it gives me more natural ideas to teach math, and that it has paperwork to keep me accountable. There are forms to fill out so that you can keep track of what your dc has already learned, what you might want to teach next, and what topics should be reviewed. I think that the record keeping forms could help anyone do a good job with the program. It will take more time for mom than a typical program though. Mom will have to do the planning. Mom will have to pick out review problems. Mom will need to be present and interact for the entire lesson. But it does make it easier to combine siblings if you want to. And lessons can take place while doing things that you would already be doing (or at least probably wish that you had time for!). Let me know if you have anymore questions. :)
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Lisa,
mommy to E (9/04), O (3/06), C (1/08), & Baby (due January 2010)
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Syncletica
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| Posted: May 04 2009 at 10:58pm | IP Logged
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It sounds good. My dc who are currently doing math are 8 and 6 1/2. I'd love to see what a couple of lessons are like. (My dd8 is doing Gr. 4 math, and my ds6 is just finishing up gr. 2 math.)
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Lisa in WI
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| Posted: May 14 2009 at 9:09am | IP Logged
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Sorry I didn't get back to you yet. I've been really busy. I hope to be able to post more info soon.
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Lisa,
mommy to E (9/04), O (3/06), C (1/08), & Baby (due January 2010)
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Lisa in WI
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| Posted: May 28 2009 at 3:22pm | IP Logged
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Division:
There are several lessons on division. The first one teaches division with manipulatives. The kids divide the manipulatives by hand, so that they actually understand what they are doing when they do division. First they do problems that come out even and once they understand this they do problems with remainders. Then they work on division facts (there are some memorization tips in one of the books or you can purchase a separate resource from them for memorizing division facts). Then they learn to do simple long division problems (no remainders and first with no zeros in the answer and then with zeros). In these problems they don't even have to bring the numbers down. The next section teaches a little jingle to help them remember the steps to do in long division and then teaches them the steps. There are two different sections for this step. One is for students who get division easily and the other one goes more step by step. Shortly after there is a section showing the kids that they can use multiplication to check their answers from division problems. There is also a section in the money book about teaching division with money and decimals.
Converting units (customary to customary and customary to metric):
Again, this is covered in several lessons. First they learn to manipulate equations. They learn the two basic rules: that you can do anything to an equation as long as you do it to both sides of the equation and that you can multiply or divide any part of the equation by a form of 1 and the equation won't be changed. They try out these two rules using equations with only numbers so that they can work the equations out to prove to themselves that the two sides are still equal. The equivalancies (2 cups = 1 pt, etc.) have been memorized previously. First they just practice manipulating these simple equations to 1 = 1 pint/2 cups and 2 cups/ 1 pint = 1. Once they understand this, they actually convert between two units. They are given an amount in one unit and are asked how much it would be in another unit. They make a note to set up an equation where all of the units that you don't want cancel out.
__ yards = __ yards x __ feet / yard x __ inches / foot
I can't do it on the computer, but on the right side of the equation the yards and yard would cancel and the feet and foot would cancel. Once numbers were put into the equation you would be able to determine how many inches are in a particular number of yards. A similar procedure is used to convert between customary and metric units.
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Lisa,
mommy to E (9/04), O (3/06), C (1/08), & Baby (due January 2010)
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Lisa in WI
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| Posted: May 28 2009 at 3:31pm | IP Logged
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There are also extra things in the Math Adventures book. There are ideas for how to incorporate math into games, cooking, while you are traveling, unit studies, and while using money. There is also an extensive math vocabulary section and they suggest that you learn so many of the words each year. Many of the words have a math definition and a "rest of the world" definition and they are similar. So it helps to first talk about the word in a context that they already might be familiar with and then discuss how it is slightly different in the math world.
Each topic is practiced until the child fully understands it. It is not until this point that it is added to the 5-a-days. Each day the child has a sheet of 5 review problems (in addition to any teaching problems that he or she might have). These problems come from a master list of concepts. When a concept is started on this list it is at first reviewed every day, then every other day, then once a week, then every two weeks, and then every three weeks. Unless the concept is practiced in another more difficult concept (such as subtraction being used in long division) that concept will stay on the review list and be reviewed every three weeks. If the child misses a problem on a 5-a-day and it is due to a misunderstanding and not a silly mistake, you begin to review it more often again and possibly review the teaching of the topic as well.
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Lisa,
mommy to E (9/04), O (3/06), C (1/08), & Baby (due January 2010)
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pattonhouse6
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| Posted: May 28 2009 at 5:53pm | IP Logged
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I am intrigued! I have never heard of this program, ever. I would love to hear from anyone else using this program.
Thanks bunches!
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Karen
+AMDG+
...wife to Dave ('92) and mom to Katie ('95), Missy ('96), DJ ('02), Janie ('04) and Ricky ('08)
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Math on the Level
