Mathletics for able 8 year old

[Suki2]

My son loves mathletics, and I'd like to get him a subscription (his school only uses it for one week a year).

My concern is he's working two years ahead of himself for maths; has anyone got any experience with this and the mathletics site? If I register him at his current year, I'm worried it'll be too easy, and I'll be wasting my money.

I'm not overly familiar with the site as I've only seen it in operation a couple of times, so I don't know if my concern is a real one or not.

Mathletics goes up to GCSE level though, doesn't it? Maybe even beyond (I can't remember).

I got it for my HE'd ds but he didn't take to it (prefers Conquer), but iirc with Mathletics you work at the level you're at rather than sticking to an age band.

Could you ask the school, or email Mathletics admin and ask for advice?

Me and my (little professor!), 9 yr old son just road tested Maths-Whizz for one month for my maths blog, and I've just published a video review - Maths-Whizz Testers Needed!

Overall I gave it 9/10. What is excellent about Maths-Whizz is that it continuously works out your child's maths age, and presents your child with work based on that.

We are currently signed up to Conquer Maths which again is really good. The main difference is that Conquer Maths is more grown up (no cartoons!) and is not self adjusting (although the system makes a note of which topics have not been "passed")

The strengths of both are the parental reporting system, you can login to see how your child is progressing.

I haven't test driven Mathletics, but from the login that my children got from school, it was great for competitive practise of topics, but would I recommend Conquer or Maths-Whizz for teaching new concepts to your child.

(My Maths Whizz review has a direct link to a free child assessment and 5 free lessons if you want to give it a go for yourself.)

Hope this helps

I second Maths Whizz, would go for the trial and see how your boy likes it. We used to have a combination of Conquer and Whizz but Whizz only goes up to age 13 and once ds passed that we went on to Mathletics because there's a discount code for home educators. but he couldn't get into it - no idea why, as it's quite similar to Whizz in many ways.

Thanks for the ideas; I've looked at maths whizz, and like it's flexibility; I just want him to work at the right level for him. Have noticed their rates go up in December, so will get him started right away!

You can set the levels of things on Mathletics, and also set homework that they have to get through before they can get onto the games against the rest of the planet thing as well (much to kids' disappointment)! Obviously you need to be more savvy about what you want to achieve from it is the only thing.

Thanks emptyshell; I'm still a bit unsure about how the levels work on Mathletics. DS is in year 4 but working at year 5/6 level.

If I enter him for year 5 level, is it possible to make it harder if it's too easy? Or, for some areas, make it easier ie I'm sure he's working at year 4 level for some things.

I think (had a brief inset on this but I wasn't at the school long enough to use it) you can lock the homework part down fairly tight - to areas/levels of work you want him to go through, but the games part when I've seen it has been much more open.

Our school subscribes so mine can go on when they want. DS is also year 4 and there are options for easier and harder on his page. He is working above average and finds some challenging. I think it is worth it as DS loves it and is having fun while learning. I would give them a ring (if there is a customer line) and ask or try get a free trial maybe.

Thanks for your replies. Now I don't know whether to go for Maths whizz or Mathletics! Decisions, decisions...

Mathwhizz by a long shot.
School has compulsory mathletics daily homework so have to use it but we use math whizz for learning new concepts and advancing.
Mathletics exercises don't engage as well as math whizz.

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