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?

DD does Maths Factor. She did the initial test and they put her on to times tables. The times table course was really good. She then moved on to adding of double digits. Although she briefly did cover the 'new' way (is it partitioning?), she prefers the old way, so it is mainly taught in columns. I thought this section went on a bit too long, so I moved DD on to a different part of the course (which you always have the option to do). She is now doing fractions instead, which is also very good.

I think that the whole course is very good at teaching maths. My main issue with it is that is a very long course. I want DD to have completed all of the topics by December in time for the 11+. Other parents would want all of the topics completed by the end of primary school. Either way, we all want an idea of how long it will take to complete the course.

There is a topic menu that allows you to change what you are doing, but it only gives the topic names, not the sub-sections. I can't work out how long each topic will take. There are 20 topics after times tables.

Another issue with it is that it only teaches arithmetic (decimals, percentages, fractions, the four operations). It doesn't cover area, angles and so on.

But I still think it is a good course and worth the money.

When I wrote 'she' prefers the old way, I meant Vorderman not DD!

On the curriculum children need to fully understand partitioning before they move on to column addition and subtraction.

RA, I've just looked it up. Column addition is a form of partitioning in Maths; it just isn't called partitioning by most primary school teachers. Column addition just presents partitioning in a different visual way.

Im thinking of the old fashioned column adding, where you add numbers and put them under each other.

The earlier methods of partitioning is where the numbers are still across the line and you select the hundreds and add, the tens and add then units and add.

ie 4338 + 622 = 4000 + 900 + 50 + 10

vs

4338

• 622

the first method is taught before the second method, but most older parents will try and show children the second method and they get confused

Mathsfactor has been a huge help for my 8 year old. This time last year (when in Year 2) we began to realise that our child couldn't even take 1 away from 10. There simply was no understanding at all about the concept of subtraction. Worse yet she had somehow absorbed that if you guessed basically near to the right answer it was correct. So in fact if she answered 5-3 = 3 her teachers would say 'well done, that's right'.

When we had a meeting with the school to discuss our confusion about our child's subtraction, we explained that we thought our child needed more practice and asked if they could recommend anything or if we could purchase the text book(s). The school's response was to say they don't recommend additional work or practice books as a general rule. We were basically told that 'children develop at their own rates' and left to our own devices. Worse yet, our daughter was convinced she was 'no good at maths' because one of her teacher's had helpfully told her so. Perhaps we're overly ambitious, but we wanted our children to be able to leave primary school able to add, subtract, multiply and divide and possibly have some geometry/ early algebra to boot (which clearly is asking for the moon at our school). We just felt that if things continued as they were we'd be lucky if she could multiply 4 x 4 when she went up to secondary school.

Mathsfactor happened to be starting up just as we hit these troubles and we tried the free 1 month trial. We were in total despair and felt it couldn't hurt to try it out. My daughter took to it like a fish to water. She adores video games and loves timed challenges. Yes, the homeworks run 20 - 30 minutes. And yes, if they're under 8 you probably will have to sit there and type in their answers. Sure, the homeworks can seem a bit repetative and occasionally (like the x1 and x10 times tables) she 'already knows this' and has to weather the repetition. But I wouldn't have passed up the joy of seeing her pride at genuinely beating her father to subtract 9 from 63 for all the tea in China. She was over the moon and Dad was proud as punch.

The school our daughters go to isn't awful, but it isn't great either. Maths homeworks are few and far between and for whatever reasons the way they teach math (which primarily seems to be giving them the same test week after week until they pass it) just doesn't suit our child.

One year on and our daughter can add and subtract 1 - 10 from numbers up to 100 (and frankly beyond now) with ease. She's working through her times tables now and loving it. To see her full of pride and hear her say 'I love math now' is just bliss. Mathsfactor may not suit everyone and may well be geared for us oldies - but boy oh boy has it made a difference for our child.

One final thing - there seemed to be a lot of complaining about mathsfactor, which is why I felt I should write in, because our experience has been brilliant. One of the main issues in the discussions seems to be that the practices started at much too easy a level. You can adjust where your starting point is now.

We too are using Maths Factor and I have/had mixed views, but only because it is so very different to other programmes I have tried.

My criticisms were the games were too easy/boring, or if you got a question wrong, it didnt tell you why. The advise was that the games support the learning and you needed to do the tutorial first.

However, it is definitely growing on me. The videos are hilarious and it makes light of the teaching, but the messages are very very clear.

Because it concentrates in one area, ie algebra, or multiplication/division you get a really good clear understanding of the process right from the beginning and like all programmes moves up in stages.

It is just like having the tutor in the room, Carole asks questions and pauses for the answer, she does explain the strategies clearly.

So for anyone who is negative about the idea, I would definitely recommend trying it, but making sure you move beyond the basics to get to where your kids are at to make a worthwhile judgement.

Roadart, in both methods you are still partitioning thousands, hundreds, tens and units. It is just one method partitions in a horizontal direction and the other is vertical.

The first method seems more difficult because 1999 + 1999 = 2000 +1800 + 180 + 18. The answer itself then has to be added up again, and it is fairly difficult for a child to add that up in their head.

I have shown my children the second method because otherwise they can't move on to things like 5.97 X 8.32, which rely on the column method for both the multiplication and the addition of the parts of the answer.

the maths factor have their winter club on now til end of March fixed price £14.99 but there are 5000 discount codes WCDISC12 which take off £5 so it's £9.99. Good value for 3 months.
www.themathsfactor.com/offers/

So DD (6) has been using maths factor for over a month now. We had manga high from the school and she wasn't doing well with maths in class. The problem with Manga is that while it has amazing games, there's no teaching going on. If you don't know your 2 times tables, you won't succeed in the game and the child fails, heartbreakingly so. So we were stuck with a growing hatred in maths that I needed to stop.
MF, allowed her to get on with the lessons on her own. I don't interfere, and she gets a number of questions right which indicated to me her understanding of the subject. When I see she's getting things wrong, I go in to see why, by observing and then working on the specific issue that she has with her before it becomes a hate thing. The independent working here is really good for her confidence.
Some of the vids are unhelpful, like adding 6 to any number from 1 to 9 is a challenging concept which in my opinion should be taught after number bonds have been enforced, instead of counting up but it has taken the fear of counting up larger numbers so there's a plus and a minus. Other videos are fabulous, ones which DD seems to connect with.
I move her up to more difficult modules, (no need to call support ) when I see she knows the answers well and is getting bored.
I also limit the number of these short sessions to 2 at the most per day so it doesn't become tedious for her but we do maths every day.
The tests don't tell the kids that they've got the answer wrong until the end so as not to discourage. Even if there are 10 mistakes, the child is still congratulated.
So after she's understood a subject we go back to manga high and play games and pass challenges there and her confidence is high and she does well.
So what's happened now is that DD loves maths which was important to me. She's not the best in her class but she loves it and works at it. That to me is worth £10 a month while we use it (not sure how the higher modules will be). What more can I ask for?
I'm short I would recommend the maths factor but, you'll need to keep an eye on the modules and your child's successes so that theydon't have too much repetition. It is £10 but if you consider the learning videos and explanations, the really good printables and games it is a good way to help your kids with maths. It also beats a private tutor at £30 once a week which is what one of my friends is doing.