Making Math R3aL

Shhh! Don't tell! I went to DVD Baby (or something like that) and bought a copy of the Overview for the program. Okay, it didn't have all the exclusions that the rest of the materials do at their site - no, you can't order them unless you Have Been Trained. I have been looking for structured, multisensory math for a long time. O-G meets math. This says it's referred to thusly. It also has the same elitist attitude. If you can't fork over the big bucks, don't do it at all.
I have mixed feelings about this. I do know how important training is in multisensory stuff. Figuring out how to teach students whose minds work differently than your own means doing some things that are very counterintuitive. (I have an article on multisensory structured language that says more about this.
However, practically speaking, excluding everybody who can't afford to take the time and money for training means excluding the students who need it most. Now, you tell me that these folks have donated training to folks working with The Algebra Project or the like, and I'll remove the doubt from the "benefit of the doubt" umbrella. As it is, I just can't help but notice the demographics of teh folks involved in these training materials.
Interesting that he teaches 25 as two "french fries" (tens) and 5 "cheese bits" (ones) before really making them see how many ones that would be. Which makes sense to me ;) Going from "french fry" to the ones therein is something often glossed over. In this program, the connections taken for granted are taught directly.
I like his imagination :) "Body mnemonics" is the term of the day... one of those things elementary teachers without knowing it ;)
I don't like that they aren't doing fractions in the video... gotta go to the store now. Oh, and it seems fast forwarding to the next chapter makes the cmputer think it's "damaged," unless it's damaged.
Facebook page would say "Susan is going to the store now before it gets dark ")