Carol Vorderman the maths factor - perhaps I missed it, but can't find a thread on this..

[Peaceflower]

Is anyone's dc currently on this, and if so, what are their experiences?

I'm seriously considering it, but don't want to make a mistanke. My ds spent 6 months on Kumon and gave up because of too much repetition and writing.

Good or bad, or too early to tell?

[Peaceflower]

Good that I made a typo on mistake

[brimfull]

I looked at website-it is very expensive isn't it?

I have no exp of Kumon though.

I was interested because ds enjoys maths but don't want to fork out £15-20 a month

[Peaceflower]

It is cheaper than Kumon which is £50 per month, and you need to trudge to the Kumon centre twice a week.

If it's good, it may be worth trying. Hopefully someone will come along to share their experiences...[hopeful emoticon]

[brimfull]

be good if there was free trial for a few days

[Bonsoir]

Gosh, that looks good.

My DD has done the Carol Vordermann Maths Made Easy books for her age group and loves them.

[Peaceflower]

Looks like all the ads on MN for The Maths Factor are not paying off for Carol Vorderman?

Has nobody enrolled on it?

[Marjoriew]

There is a thread on it somewhere. I use it for grandson. It's great. We used to do Kumon. Found it boring and had to get the bus there and back halfway across town.

[Marjoriew]

There are lots of games sites around which are excellent if the child already is familiar with the concepts.
Some of the free sites I use are:

www.arcademicskillbuilders.com

www.tutput.com

www.mathletics.co.uk [subscription]

The Maths Factor explains the concepts clearly on the screen. There are warm-ups too and they have 5 homeworks a week.

[Marjoriew]

Peaceflower, it's under Primary - extra curricular activities.

[Peaceflower]

Thank you, will have a look.

[inycon]

I subscribed to the mathsfactor for my daughter age 6. The three tests that she had to take to establish her abilities at the beginning were ridulously hard for her and nearly put her off straight away. Because she was just entering any old number as an answer she was placed as only being capable of adding ones - too easy for her. She was keen to go on the site for the first week but the homeworks became too long and uninteresting ie adding two to numbers appearing on the screen 50/75 times. Finding the correct keys on the keyboard became frustrating and she'd press the wrong number by accident which registered as a wrong answer. By week 4 she was refusing to go on the website, so I cancelled the agreement before being charged for another month. Maybe mathsfactor would suit older children as a refresher rather than a younger child who is really struggling with maths.

[SofaQueen]

I had a similar experience as inycon. I was initially interested in the Maths Factor because it seemed like it actually taught maths using methods currently used which I am not familiar with in a fun manner. I avoided Kumon for my son because it was repetitive, boring, required work every day, and initially started children at a ridiculously easy level which would have quickly turned off my Yr 1 son.

I even changed his age whilst signing him up to avoid the too easy levels and yet, despite acing the three initial tests, they started him off on subtracting 1 from 10. After going through 300 questions in 2 days, he gave up as it went from subtracting 1 from 10, then subtracting 1 from 10-30, then subtracting 1 from 30-100. This is a child who already knows his times tables! I called customer service and they bumped him up the the times tables level which he flew through during the holidays. I have a subscription until the end of this month and am waiting for a benefit for my son - so far it has been a decent review in a more formal manner of his times tables.

When I called to complain about the easy level and repetitive homework calling it Kumon-like, the person on the phone did admit that that was the point of their homeworks. Fair enough - it is the only way to really know number bonds and multiplication cold, but it doesn't mention this in its advertisement.

Negatives aside, Carol did point out nifty patterns in the times tables which I wasn't aware of, and the system is flexible enough for the parent to move levels if their child has been placed at an innappropriate level. Also one doesn't have to do it every day. In summary, it is a flexible version of Kumon with some teaching.

[Peaceflower]

inycon, sofaqueen thank you, it does sound very "kumonesque".

inycon your comment about frustration on finding the keys rings very true!

sofaqueen it looks like the jury is still out...

[HeavyMetalGlamourRockStar]

I had a look at it too. I felt Carol is trying to appeal to parents who want a more traditional back to basics approach to maths teaching - it screamed Kumon all over it and from what I can tell it'll certainly meet those parental expectations - even if that makes the kids miserable.

I lost quite a lot of respect for Carol, following the ads she presented on TV for easy loans - all pastel coloured and serene - appalling really - I think she's money -centric and feel she'd do anything for a fast buck.
She's got a degree in Maths but she's not a Maths teacher and imo there's a world of defference. From what I've seen I wouldn't trust her with my child's Maths education.

My kids do Maths Whizz, have been since January and although they started off on the ridiculously easy levels too - I felt that they could do with the practice and confidence building - other kids might not need that. They have now reached the more challenging material but Maths Whizz are still making it fun, which I feel is important, especially when it's extra stuff you're hoping they'll do at home rather than a homework set by a teacher.

[inycon]

HeavyMetalGlamourRockStar
Thanks for the pointer towards Maths Whizz. Will check this out - especially if its free!

[inycon]

Oh, £14.99 per month again
Maybe someone has come across a free site for helping someone with maths?

[RachelWells87]

Found a good site to use with my son, wwww.10ticks.co.uk/homelearning.

His school use material by the same company so he understands the format quite well. It's only about £8 a month and you get all their worksheets, guides, tests and games for that and you can create your own course and add stuff of your own. Warren seems to be enjoying using it and is gettign a lot out of it. His maths used to be awful but he seems to be improving with work now.

Hope that helps!

[magentadreamer]

Are you the same Rachel Wells that is the buisness developement officer for 10ticks.com?

10ticks might well be £8 a month but you do have to subscribe and pay up front for a 12 month subscription.

[EllaR]

why not try www.mangahigh.com

Games are great for kids to pick up what they have learnt from school. Covers all curriculum.

[Carolinemaths]

I've just finished editing my video review of the new "Mighty Algebra" product from The Maths Factor. Disclaimer: I was given free access to it in order to review it.

I thought it was a great product - as an ex teacher I think that if taught well, algebra doesn't need to be scary - it takes algebra from the very basics up to solving simple simultaneous equations. It's aimed at primary kids aged 9-11 but younger and older students could get a lot out of it.

Yes it does have loads of practice questions and uses traditional ideas but the games, context and interactivity knock the edge off the repetition and having all that algebra in one place is a really good way to study the topic.

I'll be publishing my video review tomorrow at Maths Insider along with a special offer for those really interested in the product.

Hope this helps anyone who was looking for info on here about The Maths Factor

[RoadArt]

I had a look at Carol Vorderman site a while back and there was too much talking. At the time I decided it was too expensive.

We use Math Whizz and I/my kids think is fantastic. You start off with an assessment, but you have to say how confident you are at maths to give a starting guide, and depending on where you move the marker indicates how hard or easy the questions start at.

At the time I thought the questions were too easy, but in fact, it did mean the knowledge and strategies were taught properly from a basic level. I found that my kids had huge gaps, which I hadnt been aware of, and by watching them play the games, now understand how they are taught, learn and understand maths.

Whizz covers every aspect of the curriculum, some areas in more detail than others. SOme topics might have five or seven activities, others might only have one. They cover approx 17 topics four times in each school year.

The gimmick is maths age, similar to a reading age, but this isnt used in schools so doesnt really help, other than let you see how they progress in each topic and its very motivating to a child to see his/her maths age improve.

Reports are basic but adequate. All sites have different ways of showing you the information.

The teaching methods are fantastic and very easy to understand.

Just off to have another look at Carol's site. Its been a while.

[RoadArt]

The other feature of Whizz is that you dont/cant pre-assign what level of maths your child learns. It will depend entirely on how they do in the assessment.

Most sites you decide whether your child is going to do Year 1, 2, 4, etc maths but sometimes the child is way below or way above their own year.

The other advantage of Whizz (that some kids wont like) is you have to do the tutorials in the order they appear, which means they have to do the ones they dont like as well as those they like. You do have revision sections and challenge sections as well

[RoadArt]

Ive just done the trial lesson on Maths Factor for algebra and it just expects you to know the answers without any teaching. DOnt know if this is typical.

I deliberately answered one wrong, but it just excluded the answer and expected me to try again. No explanations as to why or how or what you do to work out the answer.

[Babelange]

My DS 7 and DS 9 did the times tables during the summer hols. IMHO it was well structured and they both felt a sense of achievement when they finished the programme. Times tables is definitely worth considering to see if it's for you rather than commit to the more lengthy subscription programme payable monthly. (Amusingly, they have both developed a loathing for Carol and are unconvinced by her credibility!)
Since they finished times tables, I let them choose a couple of different modules (one-off payments which compare favourably with workbooks) eg. decimals, column adding/subtracting etc. and they have to do a little each day (5-10 mins) to earn time on the computer. Unsurprisingly their keyboard skills have also much improved!
I actually think the three levels are a bit misleading as even on decimals, it can get quite hard quite quickly and be discouraging.
DS1 tried Kumon; 20 pages of sums +1. He was so insulted he refused to do it.

[Carolinemaths]

Yes RoadArt, that is something I would have liked to have seen - Mighty Algebra showing you what mistakes you made and showing the correct method. I made that point in the video review (sorry, another 5 hours 'til it's published!) It'll be interesting to see if they add this feature into this or other future products.

They make up for it by having clear and concise reviewable lessons which students can review - the questions in the exercises are therefore more of a "test" rather than exercise questions. Whatever people think of Carol personally - she and her team have developed a great way of demonstrating and teaching algebra to young children giving young children a chance to get comfortable with algebra and helping older students to get "back to basics"

I also agree that Maths-Whizz has superior parent reporting ( my Maths Whizz review here ) but both are excellent products which if used consistently will produce results.