Online Maths Course with Carol Vorderman

[Goandplay]

My son has just started the juniors and there is a note in the school window stating children need to practise their timetables.
Whilst looking online I found this themathsfactor.com/arithmetic-samples.aspx , has anyone else used this? Can't decide if the monthly subscription for the arithmetic course is a good idea, or the time table one off payment course or something else all together.

themathsfactor.com/arithmetic-samples.aspx

Bump

no but been using her summer camp and found it quite good and will continue mines just gone into year 2.

please note the 14.99 times tables is a 1 off payment as looked at it.

but dd struggled with a few aspects of maths and looked at arithemetic club which is £9.99 for 1st month then 14.99 per month and says if you chose thsi option dont buy the times tables option.As its all included.

I looked up percey parker times tables online as was mentioned her looked cool showed dd but she hated it so we sticking with carol and think early learning /amazon do reasonbly priced cds.

but we sticking with carol as its interactive fun games and tests which suit my dd better.

They have a child sign on and parent and message you so you can see how childs doing which is good.

compared to explore or kumon we have on offer here its a bargain.

You can also try www.edplace.com. Maths worksheets, but also English and Science.

we do carol with our DS1 who is 5 (just started Y1) and have found it much better than mathletics (which DH also signed him up to ) He has jsut started on the times tables on Monday. We call it 'Carol Maths' and it has definately improved his abilities more than textbooks or 'us' helping him. Its very very repetitive, but this is why it works. He also likes getting the certificates and knows he'll get a small treat at the end of the week and a large one after a 'block' of work (which takes about 2 months)

Hi Goandplay:

We've used mathsfactor for over 2 years and it has absolutely changed our world for the better. I've posted elsewhere on MN about how wonderful this has been - it has meant that at a school where maths is not a priority my DDs have gone on to excel at maths regardless of the poor tuition at school (by the way I'm now supported in this view by our recent OFSTED report).

We love Mathsfactor! Carol's video lessons are always cheerful and supportive and the girls love the video game style of learning.

As an older thing myself I absolutely love that Carol Vorderman turned successfully sued Channel 4 for unfair dismissal and used the proceeds toward something so positive and beneficial to so many families. I can't thank her enough!

It may not suit everyone but you do get a 1 month free trial so you've nothing to lose really. From our point of view it's been worth every penny!

HTH

i want to sign up for my dd. just marking my place

Has anyone tried Komodo Maths? We gave it a go but dd not yet interested as only reception age.

Thank you everyone. I am off to look at Mathsfactor and the other links.

Mathsfactor was what I was looking at. So general thinking is to buy the whole package on a monthly basis?

We signed up for three months-paid monthly at Mathsfactor and for those months, all she learned were the timestables!! While that isn't bad, it got boring fast!

Was that my mistake? I signed her up for Arithmetic and not just tables or so I thought...

Sorry for hijack please.

This was what I was thinking about. Can you access the parts they are doing at school out of sequence?

round table did you sign up for arithmetic club?

as they do times tables and revision clubs.

mines not started on that yet as been doing summer school and think they do winter school too.

so far dd likes it but shes only been doing it a month.

I really like the look of ixl £8 a month as covers everything they do in year grouup in sequence and gives u how to work out answer if answer wrong where as carol just says wrong and then they can watch videos on weaker subject areas.

dd likes the mole games.The repetions good but guess could get boring.

maths factor 14.99 a month
ixl £8 a month

total £23 a month which bargain compared to

£50 kumon or £80 explore.

we combining that with free bbc bitesize games I think that will be enough.

e get some work booklets too.

think maths all about repetition, practice and more practice , raise dds confidence as on bottom table in class and had no additional support in school with it.

I think the revision clubs one off 6.99 i would purchase say if sge was struggling with fractions.

im not sure now about arithmetic club as thourght it would cover everything.

wondering if im better off buying one off payment of times tables at 14.99, joining winter club when it starts, adding few revision clubs and doing ixl paying lump sum of £59 a year and picking and choosing bits from carol.

carols 1st month is 9.99 so might trial it fora month and compare to ixl and see what I think.

summer club runs out 30th september so could trial both in october.

Yes, we signed up for the Arithmetic club. I have had to unsubscribe her now.

Will look at the IXL one too.

heres ixl link

uk.ixl.com/membership/family/pricing

includes details and follows curriculum at school.

then maybe add carols winter school and revision club might be cheaper and bettervalue combining bits.

dont forget bbc website some free stuff:)

Thanks for those, mam29!

Hi

this is for TheRoundTable:

I've just checked on my parent dashboard on Mathsfactor for DD1 - there are 69 homeworks for multiplication. So about 14 weeks (at 5 lessons per week). Now that is a long time but lets review what that covers:

1st a DC has a practice - say with x2 in order going forward to x 12 and then back down to x1.

2nd a DC has a practice or two where it's mixed - so sometimes 6 x 2 and sometimes 2 x 6, but in order.

3rd a DC has a few practices where it's all mixed up - so 1 x 2, 10 x 2, 12 x 2, 2 x 2, etc...

Then a DC adds the next times table.

Once you have a family (so x2, x4, x8 or x3, x6, x9) there's some practice with them all mixed.

4 x 12 = 48 (48 practices on each times table)
4 x 2 = 8 (8 practices reviewing times table families - 2/4/8 adn 3/6/9)
There's some extra review for the tricky ones you just have to know - like x7
There's then some review with all the times tables mixed up together.

So that makes 68 + the Grand Genius text 69.

Aside from this there are games available on the mathsfacctor arithmetic school that also help revue multiplication facts.

I'd say that at the end of that 14 week multiplication unit my DD1 had the idea, but when she started division (inverse multiplication) that's when she really bedded down her times tables. By the end of that session she knew it.

Yes, times tables go on and on and on. But I'd say once a week or so, you're moving on to another times table or reviewing a family (2/4/8 or 3/6/9 or the whole of x1 - x12).

It was about 5-6 months of work before this multiplication unit in the arithmetic school was complete - and yes it did drag a bit - but the point was the learning was rock solid and helps so much now DD1 has gone on to do work with fractions/ decimals and percentages.

Everyone's circumstance is different of course but at our school 1/4 to 1/3 of Y6 students are still learning their times tables upon going up to Senior School and have no division (inverse multiplication, let alone division with remainders). x11 and x12 tables are not taught at our school, which isn't the end of the world, but I'm not really clear why not.

I'm definitely considered a PITA, but I personally wasn't happy for my DDs to leave primary unable to multiply let alone divide. So, at least from our perspective this seemed a speedy, successful and logical approach to teaching/ reinforcing learning of times tables/ inverse division facts.

HTH

Oops - I meant to say 5 - 6 months for multiplication + inverse multiplication (so simple division using multiplication facts [no remainders - i.e. 49 divided by 7 = 7]).

Sorry about that.

Thanks past by date think will do both then.

Then i know everythings covered.

maybe she be next carol at end of year.

Thank you Pastsellbydate. I'll have a look again as I don't know what games you mean . Just kept doing lessons and homework...

games is opposite skills check has pic of mole on summer camp.
I rang maths factor other day and had chat they very freindly and helpful or you can email them im sure it cosists of fun games too.

Have you thought of doing it yourself with the free resources available online? There are free games for multiplication all over the place.
I particularly like mangahigh Sundae times for practising each times table individually before trying them all mixed together and multiplication.com has quite a lot of games to play too.

Add in a couple of cheap workbooks (most supermarkets have them in atm) and you will probably have roughly the same effect as paying out all that money for an online course. I would happily spend money on a tutor as they tailor activities for your individual child, but most online courses don't seem to do that which leaves children either moving on before they are ready or getting bored as they continue practising things they have already learnt.

Edalive is offering a free download of maths invaders which covers times tables practice plus more. You set different levels of difficulty for different children.

www.edalive.com/

In addition to these (and agree mangahigh is a lot of fun).

Mumsnet has also put up a link with some fun practice games from Pearson here: www.mathschamps.co.uk/ - and these are grouped by age rages.

What I will add is that the games are great fun, but if your children fundamentally haven't been taught the underlying principles/ concepts then something like maths whizz/ mathletics/ mathsfactor and/or workbooks that go through first principles is really necessary, especially if you want your child to have some sort of appreciation for number patterns/ families.

Although in part it is learning by rote, there is more to it than that and it is about recognising that 3 x 8 is the same thing as 4 x 6 ( 3 x 2 and 2 x 2) or 12 x 2 (3 x 2 x 2 then x2) all of which = 24 or that if you know 8 x 7 = 56 (mmnemonic 5678 by the way helps with remember 7x 8 or 8x 7 is 56) then 9 x 7 is just 7 more (if you're not quite sure & very useful for working out 13s x anything (just add the number on) or indeed higher numbers - so DD1 yesterday said she worked out 25 x 9 by simply adding 10 x 9 (90) twice to 5 x 9 (45) = 90 +90 + 45 = 225) and of course critical to have speedy recall of these number facts to go on and work with division with remainds, and 'long' multiplication/ division.

It's not just memorisation or developing speed.

HTH