Today, I have the privilege of telling you about Mathletics (from 3P Learning), an online math practice program that we have been blessed to be able to use and review for the 2009-2010 The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. My kids have tried several math programs already this year for the TOS Crew, many of them good, but this one has them genuinely excited! They couldn't wait to inform me of all the ways Mathletics was better than everything else they had tried. THAT is impressive.
Mathletics offers online math practice programs around the world, and kids actually have the opportunity to "represent" their country with their accomplishments. There are Top 50 and Top 100 categories for the kids to get that recognition, as well as a Hall of Fame - all right there on the home page for the world to see!
In addition, your child has his/her own account, and parents get a different login - that way parents can check how their kids are doing. Mathletics also emails results to the parents weekly. With the way video games seem to go, Mathletics starts out just like a game, with your child choosing an Avatar to represent himself/herself in the game. (Shh!! Don't tell the kids it isn't just for fun!) There are different categories of math practice activities, but there are also games of different sorts. Your child gets to see how s/he is doing, but there isn't a focus on how they are doing until it is done. That was one part that stressed my children out about other math games: seeing how they were doing WHILE they were playing the game became a distraction that slowed them down and frazzled them a bit. In fact, there is one part of Mathletics that allows kids to race against each other or the computer, and that part completely stressed my oldest out! While it will be good practice, it doesn't have to be the only way she practices her math.
Your child also earns points to spend in a "store" for his/her Avatar. [Much like the games kids play on sites like WebKinz, except this site's games are educational and don't play pop music!]
We did have some trouble using the program in Firefox, so I had to do most of the Parent things with Internet Explorer, but that isn't really a big hurdle for me. Plus, getting workbooks for the kids for each math topic was well worth the effort of figuring out how to get them to load! Overall, we really like this program, and I think we'll be signing up to continue our subscription. If you would like to see what my fellow Crew members had to say about this program, click here.
* Note: We were given a temporary online subscription to Mathletics for the purpose of using it and reviewing it. This review is based on our use of the program, and I have not been compensated in any way for this review.
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