Online Maths Advice...

[time4tipple]

I am interested in signing up to a online maths site for my yr1 dd. I struggled with maths throughout school & would like to give her a little extra confidence with her maths. She's bright (in the top sets) but her teacher last year felt that maths didn't come naturally to her - like mother like daughter!
I understand the way maths is taught is very different to when I was at school so would also like a site using the new methods as not to confuse her.
I've looked at mathswhizz & mathletics & also at the new Carol Vorderman mathsfactor site too, but can't decide. Does anyone have any experience of the former two sites good or bad?

watching this with interest as I am in a very similar situation to you time4tipple, but with 2 DDs who need to work at maths.

We did sign DS up to mathswhizz which he enjoyed while he was on it, but it was always us encouraging him to go on it rather than him asking to go on it.

He now goes on BBC Bitesize (I think that's what it's called!). The best bit is it's free

Have you seen the piece on Carol Vorderman who is starting an online Maths school?
It was launched yesterday and will be starting tomorrow.
I have signed grandson [10 and home educated] up for it.
It's for 4-12 at the moment but they plan to extend it for older children at some point.
It's called The Maths Factor.

sorry for hijacking but am I right in understanding that all these sites (except good ol' BBC) charge you money?!

Have to say though that Carol Vorderman thing looks pretty good. Still, £15 a month is an awful lot of money

Better than Kumon anyway.

Some of those sites are horribly expensive if you're paying as an individual. I don't know if maybe there's a way of your school subscribing as a whole and whether this works out cheaper?

We use education city - the ds really like it, I think it's a bit repetitive but I guess I'm not 6 years old. From memory I think that's about £30 per annum?

We have been using Maths Whizz for just over a month now having previously used Educationcity. I'll share my thoughts...

I have twin boys - summer born in Year 2 - both similar average ability.

When you subscribe to Maths Whizz your child does an online assessment which gives you a Maths Whizz Maths Age - the starting point for exercises. Maths Whizz make an ambitious claim to improve your child's Maths Age by 2 years in 12months as long as your child uses it for 90mins every week.

Thing is IME Maths Whizz assessments under report your child's Math's Ability - so both my kids scored a Maths age just above their real age. Sounds OK till I realised that all they have been tested on is Year 1 material and not even the whole year's worth. They are pretty confident with Year 2 work but the assessment somehow didn't get that far.

Consequently my kids have managed to improve their Math's age by a year in one month - miracle? and are predicted to have a Math's age of 16 by the end of the year

So I would take their success statistics with a big bucket of salt!

On the plus side my kids really enjoy using it - they enjoy earning credits to "buy" items for their online bedroom. The revision of a year's curriculum hasn't done them any harm - probably has added to the enjoyment by consolidating their knowledge and building confidence because they can more easily earn credits but I don't know how much they will enjoy it when the Maths becomes unfamiliar and the real learning takes place.

I also like the gradual build up of difficulty and the tutoring element of the program - educationcity relied on one level for each year group and lacked any teaching element - so the challenge was too great at the beginning of the academic year and too small at the end.

We do mathletics (DD,7 and DS,11) as we get home access via school, but I don't think it's too expensive. My kids love it and regularly spend far more time than they have to on it (and neither are particularly brilliant at maths). They really enjoy playing against others online too - that's the "treat" bit at the end. I would definitely recommend it.

There is another (free) site called rainforest maths recommended by our school.

Sunny, we have just started with mathletics, dd loves it! But she has done all her level, do the school reset her level/put her up a level do you know?

tTe teacher who has then for math isn't in at the moment, so can't ask her. She is desperate to get back into it.

Our school has registered all the children on Mathletics(at no cost for the parents). Maybe you could see if your school would be prepared to do the same investement?

i also thought carol vorderman's website was a pricey.
my dc like coolmathforkids.com. Free and good (learning) games.

i also thought carol vorderman's website was a pricey.
my dc like [www.coolmathforkids.com] Free, and imaginative maths games.

third time lucky

www.coolmath4kids.com

Thanks for all the replies ladies - much appreciated. I will use the free sites mentioned but still think I would be happy to pay for a site where they give me feedback and my dd structured learning. I'm still undecided between mathsfactor, mathletics & maths whizz though. From what I can see from their sample lessons all seem to be using the old approach to addition (columns)Having spoken to Y2 parents at DD's school the school uses the newer vertical way of addition. I don't want to confuse DD & create problems. For any mums with experience of Mathletics does it include teaching too or is it purely just practise iyswim!

My dd1 does mathletics and she does enjoy it certainly more than normal sheet maths homework! There is not proper teaching from what I can see but if my memory serves me right, there is a button which demonstrates how you do a particular maths problem and also explains what certain maths terms mean.

With the mathsfactor site, it is suppose to offer actual lessons hence the high price.

I don't think Maths Whizz does promote colomn addition - in any case you could contact them for confirmation, they are really very good about responding to queries and open about making changes to their programmes based on consumer feedback - makes a change from the brick wall you often meet when discussing similar problems with teachers.

We do both as the school sets maths homework via mathletics and we have been charged to join but at the school rate.
IMO Mathletics reinforces learned topics from the curriculum and is good as practise and if your child likes maths then the "find me a game" competing worldwide is a buzz.
Mathwhizz on the otherhand is something we started in year 1 independently & it has been fantastic for my dd in advancing her concepts. The explaintions are very clear and easy to understand. I have found this has helped her tremendously.It has also helped me to understand how schools now teach maths.
( Mathletics does not have such clear explaintions for new concepts)
If I could only afford 1 then without a doubt it would be Mathwhizz
.. yes it does column addition!

I've just heard that a Numberjacks maths site is launching soon. That would be fantastic as my sons are BIG fans! I'm sure something that is familiar and they love would make them want to learn more. Can't find out more about it at the moment though.

We have done maths whizz for years, I like it because it closely follows now maths is taught in school and has helped me learn how they are taught. It does do column addition and subtraction but not till they have learnt how to add by partitioning

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