|
|
By Shawna, on April 23rd, 2013 
Cheyenne has been playing Math Rider, a math drill game, this last few weeks to brush up on her mental math skills. We’ve reviewed Math Rider in the past – during our review of Math Rider from two years ago, all four of my kids were using the software – but with a limited number of computers, Cheyenne didn’t have the amount of free time then to use it as often as she does now.
Math Rider is easy to use, but with tons of complicated things going on in the background . . . → Read More: Review – Math Rider
By Shawna, on March 31st, 2013 
What did we review?
Michael and I have been trying out Algebra 2 from Math-U-See. This mastery-based curriculum includes 31 lessons, and is designed as a year-long curriculum, though it’s flexible based on your student’s needs.
What’s included with Algebra 2?
Instruction Pack
DVD lessons – Instructor Steve Demme teaches each of the lessons on the DVD, explaining many of the textbooks examples. Unlike some curricula, the video is not merely reading of the material in the textbook – differences between the two give additional insight to the topic. Instruction Manual – A hardbound book, this . . . → Read More: Review: Math U See Algebra 2
By Shawna, on November 4th, 2012 
Like many families, we spend quite a bit of time in the car – but since we’re a one-car family these days, most of our time isn’t driving, it’s waiting. Still, there’s that perpetual question: how do you keep the kids busy – and well-behaved – when they have to sit in the car?
Travel games, puzzle books, etc, those are all possibilities – but with the holidays coming up – and road trips looming in your future, let me tell you about one more little tool to have up your sleep when the Wiggly Critters in the . . . → Read More: Activity Bags
By Shawna, on October 9th, 2012 
My daughter loves online learning, and she‘s always up willing to try out the latest and greatest new educational subscriptions. Headquartered in Australia, ZooWhiz is a relatively new offering that is open to users worldwide.
ZooWhiz has questions covering three content areas: math, reading and word skills. Word skills cover content and punctuation. Parents are able to adjust the difficult level individually for each child, and math and reading are designe dot enable it to be used as a reference material; up until age seven.
When students log in to ZooWhiz, they . . . → Read More: Be a whiz at learning at the zoo
By Shawna, on September 11th, 2012 
With almost 50 years of experience of teaching math, Professor Martin Weissman knows what he’s doing. For many students, the greatest struggle isn’t the math itself, it’s fear – especially once they’ve reached the unknown realms of “Algebra”.
Professor Weissman crafted a tool for just those students – Math911 – to rescue them from their fears and save the day. Math911 includes instruction in Introductory Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and Statistics. (The Statistics course is in the process of being upgraded, and all upgrades are free.)
We were . . . → Read More: High school math emergency? Call Math911!
By Shawna, on July 29th, 2012 
It was perfect timing for us when we recently received the new No-Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials to try out. Tyler, my now-9th grader, has been wishing for a textbook-focused math for the last few months, and honestly, I’d been reluctant to provide it. He might *think* it was what he wanted, but longer, more tedious lessons would not be a positive for this active kid. And into this gulf of disparity came No-Nonsense Algebra.
No-Nonsense Algebra doesn’t waste your time With short, concise, self-contained lessons, No-Nonsense Algebra is written in . . . → Read More: Simply essential math
By Shawna, on June 22nd, 2012 
IXL is a web-based subscription service for math practice. Accounts are available for either homeschool/individual family users or school classrooms; our family has recently been trying out the homeschool side of the service. (I’m not certain how much, if any, difference there is between the two products other than pricing models – just wanted to clarify which version we used.)
IXL covers skills from preschool through 8th grade algebra; each child has access to all of this material at once, leading to both pros and cons – and in my case, some interesting behavioral observations. . . . → Read More: IXL
By Shawna, on May 21st, 2012 
Math facts.
Love them, hate them, we can’t live without them. Sooner or later, we’ve just got to give in and memorize them.
As homeschooling parents, we’re fortunate to live in the computer age, where we have tons of unique alternatives for math facts practice – we never have to resort to the simple old flash cards of our childhoods.
Software that provides practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and addition can run the gamut from basic to edutainment. At the game-enhanced end of the spectrum, certainly, there is an increased rate of interest – but . . . → Read More: Basic but effective math fact practice
By Shawna, on March 4th, 2012 
It’s a good thing that Cheyenne loves doing school on the compute; we’ve been blessed with several interesting sites for her to try out this year. Her latest foray has been into the land of K5 Learning.
K5 Learning is a web subscription service comprised of four subject areas:
Reading – to create strong readers and foster a love of reading. It covers phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Spelling – an advanced vocabulary program designed to improve language skills one word at a time, it . . . → Read More: TOS K5 Learning
By Shawna, on February 10th, 2012 
Math Rider has a new version out, and our family recently got to take it for a test run!
As a family, we had some mixed feelings going into this review – we’d tried (and loved) the Math Rider math facts game last year (that review is here) – and a couple kids were afraid they might have messed it up. (The kids’ words, not mine.)
I’m happy to report that we have come to the consensus that Math Rider, already a educational, yet attention-keeping game, has been made just a little bit better. I’m not . . . → Read More: Great math game redux
|
