maths-wizz

[SkyBluePearl]

Has anyone used maths-wizz b4? Son is almost 8 and is low in confidence in relation to his maths despite being of average maths ability in his class.

We are currently using it for DD (6.5, yr 2).

I don't know how much of an impact it is having but I do feel confident that she is practising some of the basics she may not have covered as much as she started school later in a different country and only came to the UK in October.

She seems to enjoy it and does a little most days at the moment (it's kind of a wind down routine at night when the two boys are in the bath she has a go at a couple of exercises).

We have a parents evening in March and I think she is expected to move from 2c to 2b / 2a by the end of the year. I would expect if the programme was on the money then she would have improved to that 2a confidently as the main reason she is a 2c is lack of exposure to a lot of the stuff as she seems fairly capable. Next year I might switch the subscription to my son who will then be in year 1 or I might save myself a quid or to :) We joined for 1 month and then took out the subscription before the price increased.

I'm not sure this helps much but it's where we are coming from with it.

Poppet

:)

There was a post about this very recently. I use RM Maths which is a very similar but it is a software program you can buy. It is incredibly cheap for home use (£40), its mainly bought by schools who have to pay thousands for it. You can use it for all your children and it looks very very similar to Maths Wizz.

Poppet - your teacher will improve your child to a 2b / 2a. For MathsWhizz to be 'on the money' it needs to move your DD to a 3c or 3b. Otherwise she has done twice as much maths as every other kid in her class - for the same results.

Oh ok. Thanks for the reply. Im quite happy if it just means she knows what she should in year 1 and 2 well. Would 15 / 20 mins a day really be twice as much as the others kids? Tonights exercises were very basic like ordering the months when starting later in the year. She could do it and it does give her confidence. Other exercisers are tougher and might require an extra explanation.

Her teacher is aware she's doing Maths whizz which I think is a good thing.

One thing I wouldn't want dd to do is cover all her class work at home. That seems silly.

Poppet :)

Well I think most kids do 45 minutes maths, 5 days a week in class. So if you're doing 20 mins, 7 days a week it's not twice as much - but it's a significant amount extra.

Maths Whizz will be covering her class work at home. That is exactly what you are paying for.

If your child is on track for a 2b / 2a she is exactly where she should be, and doing fine.

Wow. It might sound silly but I assumed they'd be doing heaps at school. I suppose it is still a lot.

The reason I thought Maths whizz would help is that she had never been around much Maths language and things like worded problems, no mental Maths, number bonds etc and she also loves Maths. I don't think she has gone beyond anything in class yet. It has helped her learn to count on in 2, 5 and 10 which her teacher had said she needed to do.

Perhaps every other day would be good to pace it better. Come spring / summer i hope we can be out more Thanks for the posts.

Poppet

We started recently and do about 3 40 min blocks each week - which he loves! At first the wizz scheme seemed to be going over things he already knew - maybe working out how able he is still? This made me think the origional maths ages they gave him wasn't accurate. Wizz seems to be stretching him much more now and although he is covering new exciting things the work seems very managable and far from intimidating. I hope Maths Wizz will improve my sons maths confidence quickly and ideally in the long term I'd like to see him move up a set too. Presently he is upset that he is in a middle set - while i used to always be in the bottom maths sets so am just pleased he is more able than me!