Math on the level...

[hsmom]

I just got an email from old school house and this was mentioned in it. Has anyone ever used it? What is your opinion on this program? I was jsut curious to see. The program looks very interesting, yet I am learning waht something looks like is not always best.

 

https://www.mathonthelevel.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=129&Itemid=100015/

[lollie010]

I have been looking at this for months. It looks like a great resourse from what I have seen. I am not sure how it would play out day to day, but hope that someone can share with us. I am wanting to add some resources that we can use for multiple levels with multiple children. I haven't seen it though and wonder if it really would be a "complete" math program or if it would best be used to go along with another program.

[hsmom]

That is what I was wondering, if it could be a complete or supplement.

[ProudGrandma]

I can help with this....I bought it last year...at first it looked awesome...but with 3 kids it QUICKLY became so overwhelming that I sold it promptly. The basis is this: you choose from one of the 5 (I think) books of skills to teach. You teach until you hit a road block with your child and then you go to a different book and do the same. All the while you are creating daily a worksheet with 5 problems on it based on what you have taught and what the child needs to remember. So let's say that you have been working on basic fractions this past week and previously you have had adding, subtracting and measuring with inches. So your "5-a-day" worksheet will have one of each of those problems plus one more...some days you may not need to do the adding, so you skip a day with that type of problem and maybe your child needs lots of practice with fractions so you do that one daily for 2 weeks. Does that sort of make sense? So in other words, I felt like the bookkeeping and teacher time was SOOO demanding and although they had forms to use, I just simply couldn't do it with 3 kids...maybe with one...

 

I guess the pros are that you custom make the curriculum to your child and his or her needs, there are some really good ideas for making math fun and how to use in dayd tot day life, but it was still too much for me. I like simply and to the point.

 

I am sure I missed some information...so if you have questions, I would gladly answer them.

[prairie rose]

We use it and like it. We had a lot of trouble with traditional math texts because it would move on before my kids were ready and never provided enough practice. I was constantly coming up with my own stuff to teach them to the point that I wished someone would come up with something like MOTL so I could just teach them from the support of a pre-planned backbone. MOTL has been perfect for us.

 

We skip around in all the books to keep things interesting. We will work a couple of days in the Operations manual and a couple of days in Fractions and a day in the money one and so on. Every six weeks or so I check the main list and check off anything that has been mastered and generate a new list of topics to cover for each child. When I decide what we are going to do for the day in math, I just pull an idea or two from my list. They might be two ideas from the same book or two ideas for different books.

 

I make up 5-a-days ten at a time per child on the weekend. I leave one or two blank problems for adding current review topics and I just fill in the extra problem slot in the morning before they receive their 5-a-day. I have 3 children currently receiving 5-a-days but I only do one child per weekend so I'm not doing 30 5-a-days at a time and I'm not overwhelmed by trying to do them all on different levels.

 

On that note, sometimes I teach MOTL as a group and direct different questions to different children. For instance, I would ask the youngest child to identify fractions we are working with, I would ask the next child to add them for us and the oldest to reduce the answer to lowest terms. The oldest is getting a review of prior concepts as I teach the youngers and the youngers are getting exposure to more advanced concepts by watching their older siblings work through the problem. I love this aspect of MOTL. They do work separately on some lessons as well, it just all depends on what I decide to do that day. ;)

 

I'm currently teaching kids ages 11, 9, 8 and 3.5yo with MOTL. It took a while to find my groove with it but we like it a lot. I would also say it's not for everyone. If you are doing fine with traditional textbooks or if you want to just open the book and do the next lesson, you should probably pass on MOTL. It does require more of the teacher than traditional math texts and some people would not enjoy that but I do so it works for us. ;)

 

If you have anymore questions just let me know. ;)

[prairie rose]

That is what I was wondering, if it could be a complete or supplement.

 

Yes it can be complete, or you can use it as a supplement or alongside another program. It really depends on if you want to use a full blown living math program or just do living math along side another traditional program.

 

Here's a great review from a mom who uses it as a complete math program: http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/2009/11/math-on-level.html

 

We used MOTL along side ALEKS for a long time. ALEKS and MOTL was a great combo for us but ALEKS is so expensive when you have multiple children, I'm not sure we can continue to use it year after year.

[Momma H]

I bought this and really really liked it. But alas, I have adopted two little ones and was not on top of it like I should have been so I bought a curriculum I know will happen (becuase it is not up to me to get it done!).

 

I actually am going to be selling mine if anyone is interested. You can email me if you are :).

 

It really is a great program--I think it is really complete and you can adapt it to different learning styles but it requires someone who can be consistent with it. I wish I were able to do it but I needed to be realistic about my little one's needs too.

 

Stacey

[rwjx2khsmj]

We have loved MOTL and have found it to be a perfect fit for our family. I make the 5 a days first thing each morning for the 3 oldest dc. My dd13 is actually doing LOF Algebra but likes the 5 a days anyway.

 

There is record keeping you can do with MOTL and the forms are pretty easy to use. I kept good records of my 5 a days for the first 4-5 months but let them a bit go as I've gotten more and more comfortable with the program and have a better understanding about the concepts my children need to work on. I love the concepts chart and find it's a great way to track what we know and what we need to learn. I'm constantly referring to it.

 

As a pp mentioned, one of the great things about MOTL with more than one child is that you can teach the same topic to all but go deeper for the children that are ready for more and keep it simple for the youngers. For fractions, dd10 got "the works" while ds7 got a lighter version that didn't include multiplication or division. For Roman numerals everyone was on a pretty even playing field and that was a fun topic to explore all together.

 

I love the flexibility and the hands on aspect for me and for the dc.