Find out what Mumsnet testers thought of Eedi Family online maths lessons

[LucyBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who tested Eedi Family online maths lessons with their child in years 6, 7 or 8*. Eedi Family is an online Maths learning platform that provides interactive maths lessons for children to build confidence in maths.

Here’s what Eedi has to say: “We believe that every child has the potential to thrive in maths given the right support. Using our experience of working with 15k+ schools, we want to help every child to build the skills and confidence to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Our new product, Eedi Family helps children safely practise maths at home and build confidence. With the power of data and a team of expert teachers, we’ve created conversational online lessons with a virtual learning companion that adapt to your child’s needs and align with the national curriculum.

Join us in trying an affordable alternative to private tuition that helps your child to try their best and want to keep learning.”

Selected testers received a one month free trial of Eedi Family and were asked to complete at least one virtual lesson and quiz per week.

Testers, please give your feedback by answering the following questions as well as sharing any other thoughts you have and completing the short survey we’ve emailed you.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?
3. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?
4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?
5. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

All testers who give the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

*England and Wales - Year 6, 7 or 8
Scotland - P7, S1, or S2
Northern Ireland - Year 7, 8 or 9

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?
It was easy to access and my son was eager to try it.

2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?
The chat function for extra help if it is needed.

3. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?
I asked if they wanted to try out something to help with their Maths, I was in the room whilst they tried it but wasn't heavily involved.

4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?
Extra maths help.

5. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?
Not much, I think the lessons are well structured and it works fine.

Firstly - I don't know if I was doing something wrong but I couldn't see the lesson before the taking the tests;

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? I am sorry I didn't like it at all, it felt really test based and my child felt like a failure if she was getting answers wrong because she couldn't learn the topic until she failed.
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? The chat and support, but even if you guess the answer and the bot asks 'why did you choose D ' and you say 'I guessed' it says, 'You were right, superstar'.
3. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session? I sat with her and tried to go through it but as the questions were so hard she felt disheartened - it was tough getting her to go back on when she loves Bitesize and Carol Voderman books.
4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend? An online maths lesson.
5. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning? Start with a few lessons below the child's level to get them used to the set-up and trust it - being told they are wrong straight away is off-putting.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I liked that it had a chat function that responded really quickly.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The live chat function

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I explained to her that we were going to try a new program to add to her confidence in maths.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths tool that's difficult to use on mobile devices

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

I think when a child gets an answer correct, tell them well done, not question the answer and how they got that result. It made my daughter question herself even though she had it correct, which added more pressure on her, which wasn't needed as she's already not confident with maths.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

It allowed me to see where there are gaps in understanding.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Explanations for all the questions.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

That it was a series of lessons to supplement what she's learning in school. I sat with her for the first lesson.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

A series of maths lessons to supplement what they're learning in school.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

I have to say I've been underwhelmed by the product so far. Disappointingly because I think it has a lot of potential. The lessons are too long and too slow and my child loses interest. She gets frustrated that each wrongly answered question (taken before any lessons) results in a 15 minute lesson - and she's only getting one or two wrong. There needs to be a general overview lesson before the test and then more detailed explanations for wrong answers. Some of the lessons have been useful, others just made her even more confused. The Bot option is incredibly annoying when it asks a question, tells you the answer and then asks if you got the same! To summarise, it's a great idea but not a great learning experience. We won't be signing up just yet.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I’m sorry but I did not like it at all. It seemed back to front, only giving lessons when questions are answered wrong. The actual lessons were really long and slow and I didn’t get the ‘silent teacher’ format at all. My son thought the chat style lesson format was really cheesy and quite boring to work through. He really didn’t like it. Through school he has access to Hegarty maths which does a video lesson before testing you on what you’ve learned, and this seems a much better format.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Not sure I found a best feature!

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I was quite involved and sat with him as he really wasn’t keen. I just said we were trying out some new online maths tuition.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths lessons.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

Change the format! It would be much better to teach or recap the area of maths and then test.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?
It is ambitious in what it expects from children so I felt confident that it was teaching at least what DD was learning at school and then some.

2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?
DD really liked the chat functionality and I thought it was a good idea. The recent upgrade was well received but it would be useful if children could type in a response and Eedi could recognise a range of responses and respond accordingly.

I liked the short videos attached to the questions, explaining how to do them if DD got stuck.

3. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?
I pitched it as a trial of an online maths tutor similar to Maths Factor (which DD was familiar with). Initially I wasn't involved at all, just let her get on with it, but realised that the progression from Lesson to Quiz etc wasn't overly clear so we worked through that together.

4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?
An online, progression-based maths tutor for early KS3 (a welcome addition IMO as there's not as much around as there is for KS2).

5. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

• allow users to choose which subjects they work on - its value to us reduces if we have to wait each week for a new lesson that may or may not be relevant to DD at the point that it is released. I would imagine that different people will use it in different ways. If I were home educating then maybe I'd be happy with a new module being released each week and the order being dictated to me, but if I'm using Eedi to underpin and reinforce DD's learning at school then I want to be able to choose the subject based on what she's learning that week.

• DD is pretty focused and very able at maths but the video at the end is far too long and in fact unnecessary if you've watched the shorter videos attached to each question. It wasn't always clear quite how and in what order everything was supposed to be done and there seemed to be two tests effectively?

• Each session just felt far too long. If I were home educating DD then this would feel like a home tutoring session and might be ok, but as a tool to reinforce learning at school it was too much at once. Better to have two or three shorter sessions (and therefore more regular practice) rather than one long one - or at least the choice. Also more in line with what we are used to with other similar products.

• Don't just release a module a week - better to give people a choice - some users may want to jump forward and back, depending on their DC's area of weakness, others may want to align with their DC's school schedule.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Unfortunately nothing

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

I couldn’t find one.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

My daughter is very clued up with computers. Also very eager to reinforce her maths skills.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths lessons

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

We didn’t understand it all all. Barely anything on there. My daughter was adamant one answer was wrong. She did a couple of quizzes. Very unlike her to say she didn’t like or enjoy it. Unfortunately not something I’d recommend.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Not much.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

I guess it was pretty intuitive, but I'm grasping at straws.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

She was super keen - both my children are maths geeks, and both love any opportunity to try new things. We all sat together for the first session.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths - but unfortunately couldn't recommend it. The contrast colours were awful, both my daughters and I (two neuro diverse, one nuero typical) struggled. The systems and explanations were confusing, the feedback was overlly negative and the lessons were too long.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

Honestly, if it were me I would pretty much start from scratch. There's nothing that could make me pay £8 a month for it as it is now.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I really wanted to like this, it sounded like a great programme.

Unfortunately the reality was not great at all. I read all the parent stuff and then sat down with my daughter to do the child side. For the questions she got wrong we went to the lesson but instead of showing us how to work it out, it showed us an even more difficult question and the explanation was so confusing that both our brains just couldn't cope and my daughter ended up in tears. Neither of us are stupid, I am quite capable of understanding most maths ideas and my daughter has a good brain. It was just not helpful at all.

I had also told her the session would be short but it was so long, by the time we had read everything and worked through the questions and the lesson it was easily well over an hour.

After our first lesson, my daughter did not want to go back on it, so I decided to venture on myself and look at the next lesson before I tried to convince her to try again. I was presented with a question that I did not understand what it was even asking and could feel my anxiety rising. I decided that neither of us need to put ourselves through this!

The silent stuff was just weird and didn't help at all.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The quick response on the chat when we had a question, they were really kind and helpful.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I told her it was a new maths programme we could try. My daughter is home educated and we have one we use already - Mathswatch. I had wanted to try Eedi family as it sounded more interactive and thought it might encourage my daughter more. Sadly not.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Possibly helpful if you want to test what you know already but no use if you want to learn maths. But you can't pick different areas, there is just one lesson a week available and the explanations if you get it wrong don't necessarily help.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

The programme we have gives a lesson and then asks questions to check you understand what you have watched. It has all the different areas of maths at all the levels and you can pick and choose what you want to work on. It is basic but works. I don't know what Eedi could do as the way the whole programme was set up is supposed to be different to what we use and should be good but it just didn't work for us at all.

Thank you for the opportunity though. And I do feel bad that we can't be more positive.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Not much really. I was hopeful it might make my son want to do lessons, but doing a test first and then having a video on the subject seemed counter intuitive.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Hmmmm.... can't really think of one. Which is a shame, as I'd love to find a good online maths course.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I explained it was for extra maths help. I tried to leave him to it, but it kept glitching and I had to sit with him as he was losing patience with it.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths lesson which didn't particularly inspire my son.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

It was glitchy in that sometimes, even though we'd finished the questions, it made us do them again to get out of the lesson. The lessons weren't in sync with what he was learning at school - and I couldn't see how to change that (we used to use the Carol Vorderman online help and that was very good for being able to choose what to study). It asked how it matched what he was learning in school, but none of the subjects covered have been covered yet by his year 7 class. There was also no way - that I could see - how to do a general test of his abilities before it started.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Easy to set up

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Easy to set up (isn’t that the same question?)

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I told her it was to help with maths. I was quite involved.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

An online platform that’s not good and would not recommend.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

I didn’t like Eedi at all. My daughter got most of the questions wrong and I watched the lessons and struggled to understand it myself and I teach maths. There was very little help when questions were wrong and it crushed my daughters confidence and made an already difficult situation much worse.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Not much. I signed up to the trial as it was stated this would help a child develop confidence in their maths ability. After 1 session my sons confidence was crushed so I told him he didn't have to do it again.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Not much again it crushed his confidence massively so I didn't make him try again.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I explained it as something that would help him grow in confidence and it just did not deliver on that.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Maybe OK for a child who is confident in their maths ability but I wouldn't recommend it for a less confident child.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

It should maybe start with things that are at a much lower ability. My child is hitting all targets in maths and his teachers want to build his confidence in the subject so they can push him further. I thought this would help with that but it didn't. Had he started with some questions he could whizz through and built up to more difficult ones he would have been ok but that wasn't the case.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

It covered the same topics that my daughters school was covering at that time which she found very helpful, she found it quite easy to use and enjoyed using it, so although i asked her to do an exercise on it she didn't mind the prompt. She also felt that is was helping her.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

When my daughter got something wrong the tutor gave her a help video which always helped her understand the issue. I liked the emails i was sent about how my daughter had done and how many issues she had in her lesson.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I explained that is was an online maths help tool (shes quite familiar with online learning for some reason this year ......) and i thought it might help boost her confidence in maths and i'd like her to give it a go. I logged on first of all and had a go before i spoke to her to see if i thought it was ok and then remained in the room while she had a go and then we talked about it afterwards.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Intuitive, easy to use online maths aid, involves you as a parent by sending focused emails.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

We had one instance where it said they would get my daughter a tutor and she waited for almost 10 mins and it never materialised - so maybe a few glitches but this only happened once.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Nothing the site is very underwhelming and looks like it just starting off and their is barely much to do on the site and for the price its not worth it.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

There was none

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I explained that it was a online maths site to help improve. We both sat down and looked around the site and had a go at doing the questions.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths learning site

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

To break it down in simple terms and to be more child friendly.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Online, tracks progress, content sound, progresses logically

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The how confident box. Makes them think about it I guess, although I have to admit, we didn’t really enjoy it much overall so I’ve got more to say on tne downsides!

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I said it was some fun maths games. I was fully involved. I think i bigged up - she said it felt more like work and switched off super quickly

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths work

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

Don’t test them first! My daughter was pretty demotivated from the start. Complete a lesson with some examples first. Bud up their confidence and then test or check at fhe end. Lots more animation or colour for the younger age group too.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I liked the chat based format, my son also liked this. I also liked getting the progress email which highlighted where there were issues

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The chat explanations

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I said it was a maths lesson to try and help him gain confidence in his skills. I was in the room and did the lesson with him.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths lessons

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

DS found the lessons too long and a bit boring, he much preferred the maths resources he uses as part of school (Dr Frost/ My Maths). We had also used Oak Academy lessons during lockdown which he found useful. I think for a child who is phobic about maths this really wouldn’t do much to help as it’s not going to be able to give that reassurance that a good tutor would. The premise seems that practice will make them confident I don’t think that this is the case for a lot of kids. For a child like mine who wasn’t particularly phobic just more distracted and a bit lazy it needed a lot of encouragement to actually do the lessons It’s much more affordable than a tutor but it will only suit a specific type of child and I’m not sure targeting those who aren’t confident is the type of child it will help iyswim. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to try it.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

The reassuring, accessible, ‘can do’ mentality of the programme and communications.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? The parent trial excersises and general ability to see what’s going on in the lessons.
2. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session? I told them that we would be trying out new online maths lessons with no pressure, group or time constraints.
3. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Great to try and see if it suits your child. Potentially brilliant.

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

Give more than one option in how to conduct the learning. My child was actually very anxious about the method used onscreen (with the coins) as it was familiar. May seem ‘soft’ of me not to persevere and enforce the learning of a new method, but trust me, it would have been counter productive.

unfamiliar not familiar.
For some reason I can’t edit my comment.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

My child doing more maths at home is always a bonus.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Just that it is supplementary maths to my child's education.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

My daughter struggles with maths so anything to help her is always a bonus for us parents. I did struggle with eedi myself and I know she did too. I was there but not directly involved. It is a bit harder as she is now just 13 so trying to be more independent.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths learning tool with aid

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

More questions.

Am sorry but none of us (my husband and I and our daughter) weren't the greatest fans of eedi. We have used smartick before and found that engaged my daughter far better.

I would like to thank you all (& eedi) for choosing us though as, as I say ANY additional maths is a bonus for my daughter who struggles with it

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Not much. I signed up because my child has had some difficulties and I wanted to help him build his confidence. This did the opposite.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Not much again it crushed his confidence massively so I didn't make him try again.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

Online maths to support his skills and build confidence

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths lessons and quizzes

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

It should maybe start with things that are at a lower level until the child is confident using the platform. It was hard to navigate and sometimes we wanted to skip something and couldn't. There were a couple of sections where the words used were not familiar to my son (possibly not used in the Scottish curriculum). Also we did it at the weekend and the chat function was offline.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

My son didn’t enjoy it

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Help feature was useful

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

Ask him to finish the session while I was sitting beside

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

It is a Maths app that has tests to do and lessons in it

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

Review mails should be more detailed towards your child strength and weaknesses

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? It can customise for kids and keep daily bite size test
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? The interactive lesson
3. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session? They are very involved. But it is better with a iPad app
4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend? It is a math app that can customise for kid’s ability
5. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning? Better feedback with real person voice to keep kid engaged

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I liked that when my daughter wasn't getting it, she got a private lesson with a tutor rather than just a bot.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The private lesson is definitely the best feature.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

My kids already do another online maths thing so I said it was a bit like that but aimed at year 6 and up and more like a text message chat than a video lesson and quiz.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Extra maths tuition for years 6-8

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

The bots just ask if you got the question right, which I did catch my daughter cheating on a couple of times when she wanted to cut it short and go play instead of doing extra lessons. It would be better if the answer was actually checked instead of relying on children to be honest.

Q3 - I forgot to say I wasn't really involved in her first lesson. I showed her how to log in and access it and then just stayed in the room in case she needed me, but she didn't.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

Being able to track progress easily. My daughter initially liked the messenger style chat and videos but unfortunately didn't enjoy the lesson itself. The silent teacher section was quite confusing for her, even though she had quite a good grasp of the topic beforehand, and this really turned her off the rest of the lesson and doing any more - sorry!

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The concept itself is good, but lessons need to be more engaging and more obviously link to national curriculum.

1. How did you explain Eedi Family to your child and how involved were you during their first session?

I said it was a fun maths game to help with the maths she is doing at school. I sat with her and worked thro the first session.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

A supplementary online maths programme -

1. What could Eedi do better to help your child build confidence in maths and to support you as a parent in home learning?

Make the lessons more engaging - might just be my daughter's learning style but she really didn't like the Silent Teacher - found it confusing and boring