TOS Review: Math Rider

As I've mentioned a few times now, my 11-year-old son struggles with memorizing his math facts.  Despite using a variety of programs, he's still having trouble with anything beyond addition.  Luckily, we've had the chance to try out quite a few different programs, thanks to The Crew.  This one - Math Rider - seems to be the best one for him.

The video gives you a pretty good overview of how the program works, but here's my quick rundown.  Math Rider is set up to resemble a magical quest.  The child is given a story line (both written and spoken, so the child does not have to be proficient at reading to play) and sent on an adventure.

Each part of the quest requires the child to complete a series of math operations to achieve the goal.  Whether it's to find the magic flower, or returning a gem, they're practicing and perfecting their math facts along the way.  Each operation is separate, and you can choose which operation your child needs to work on.  I simply started all three of my kids who are using the program on addition, because they all need to work on ALL their math facts.

Math Rider is purchased as a one-time instant download for $37.  You can have up to 10 different users for that one low price!  Even the largest homeschool family (okay, 99% of the largest families) can have ALL their kids use the program and only have to pay once.  $37 is less than you'd pay for one session with a private math tutor.  

The program offers fairly basic information for the parent/teacher to keep track of each child's progress.  The demo screen above shows the statistics for "Kim".  All the green areas are division facts that she has mastered.  Yellow are "needs a little work", orange is "needs some work" and red is "needs lots of work".  The gray areas show facts that haven't been introduced or worked on yet.

Overall, I REALLY like Math Rider.  So do my kids.  I don't have to coax them to do it; in fact, they've taken the initiative to each do their Math Rider first thing in the morning, before I'm even downstairs ready to start our day.  I like the constant practice.  My kids' only complaint was that the "hard" level of the quest is really fast, which challenges their typing skills.  A small investment in a numeric keypad for the kids' laptop computer might help that.  Oh, and my 14-year-old (who isn't using the program) said that the stories were kind of "cheesy", which my 7- and 5-year-old both vehemently denied.  But honestly, it's a math program - I wouldn't expect it to rival Lord of the Rings with its story telling.

My only wish is that the information provided for the parent be more detailed.  I can see what the child is working on and how they're doing, but I'd love to see a daily snapshot.  How long the child was on each day, or how many math facts they did total, how many they got correct and how many they missed.  Just a little more detail than what is currently provided would be nice.

The important thing is that my oldest is finally getting a handle on his math facts, and I don't have to force him to do something he hates to get it done.  For that alone, I LOVE Math Rider.

Want to see what other crew members think about Math Rider?  Check out what they have to say here.

Disclaimer: As a member of the 2010-2011 TOS Homeschool Review Crew, I received a complimentary download of Math Rider in exchange for my fair, honest and unbiased review. No other compensation was received.

TOS Review: Times Alive

"Math Facts, Math Facts, MATH FACTS!" [stomp, stomp, stomp]  "I HATE MATH FACTS!!!"

Welcome to life in my house, where I was spoiled rotten by my first child, and now I'm paying for it with the other three.  Child number 1, now 14, has always "gotten" it.  Whether it is spelling, math, grammar or history...he just gets it.  Easily.  The first time.  Every time.  In fact, until child number 2 started school, I prided myself on choosing curriculum so well, because I had obviously picked the perfect curriculum for him.

You know what they say: Pride goes before the fall.  Enter child number 2...and child number 3...and child number 4.  With every single one of them, I've dug through the curriculum bins, combed through the catalogs, pulled all-nighters reading reviews, purchased books and CDs and subscriptions and online memberships - essentially tried everything to find a program or book or service that would help them learn the things they will have to know.  Not "should" know.  NEED to know.  Those basic things that are critical to function in the real world.

Things like Math Facts.  I now have a 5th grader (child number 2) who barely knows his addition/subtraction facts and is fighting me tooth and nail when I insist that knowing his multiplication and division facts is essential and non-negotiable.

That's why I was beyond thrilled when I found out that we'd have the chance to use City Creek Press's Times Alive software.

Times Alive is a completely unique approach to memorizing the multiplication facts.  Instead of endless drilling and frustrating repetition, times alive presents the facts using unique stories and fun music.  Each lesson is interactive, giving the student a short lesson followed by immediate practice.

Here's a quick preview:

Times Alive offers your choice of either a CD-ROM (for PC or Mac) for $48.95 or an instant download (also for PC or Mac) for $44.95.  You can use the program with multiple users, no extra fees.

City Creek Press says that Times Alive will:

• Increase retention to 95% with our interactive method
• Eliminate boring repetitive drills once and for all
• Bring success to students with learning disabilities

Times Alive doesn't teach the function of multiplication, it's simply a tool to help children memorize the multiplication facts.  

Unfortunately, Times Alive didn't work for child number 2 any better than the CDs, the worksheets, the online programs...  For us, it's simply a "push came to shove" issue where we're going to have to go with something that he will have to do whether he wants to or not.  I think the Times Alive is a little...childish...for an almost-12-year-old, so I probably won't use it when I push him to memorize his multiplication facts.  However, I plan to continue using it with child number 3, my 7 year old, because it's the perfect tool for her to learn with, and she's a good age to appreciate it, even though she doesn't really understand the mechanics of multiplication yet.

Find out what other crew members think about Times Alive here.

Disclaimer: As a member of the 2010-2011 TOS Homeschool Review Crew, I received a complimentary download of Times Alive in exchange for my fair, honest and unbiased review. No other compensation was received.

TOS Review: Math Facts NOW!

I've probably mentioned this before, but I've been seriously spoiled by my firstborn.  Read early, learns easily, interested and dedicated...  I figured all kids were like this, but then along came the other three.

If Ryan learned his math facts easily, then Aaron is the polar opposite.  He fights me every step of the way, and nothing I've tried so far has really been "his thing".  I've lamented over and over that someone needs to write a computer (because Aaron learns best using the aural/visual/kinetic environment of computer learning) program that teaches and drills the math facts.  But not just that.  It needs to keep track of what the child is and isn't learning.  It needs to be a lot more than that, but those things are the basics.

And Math Facts NOW! does a pretty good job of covering the basics.

Math Facts NOW! is not a game, it isn't full of sound effects and cheesy music.  It's a straight up math fact drill program that you get to control.  The program can be purchased via online download ($15.95) or on a CD ($15.95 plus $3.95 shipping).  You install it on the computer in less than 5 minutes and then go through a very simple setup.  You can input as many children's names as you'd like, and then you can set up the lessons you want each child to work on.  You can choose from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  After that, you choose the numbers you want the child to work on.  Then you get to choose how many seconds they get to input each answer, how many times they have to re-do a problem they get wrong, and how many problems they have to get correct to finish that lesson.  The best part is that you then get to decide whether they earn a reward for doing that lesson, and what the reward is (something you give them).

I like the idea of rewards and it definitely appeals to Aaron as a "learning tool".  We decided that I would assign 25-problems at a time, and each lesson he completes earns him 5 pieces of a LEGO set.  He can try to earn a 50-piece set, or he can work towards a gigantic 1000+-piece set, if he wants.  When he passed the 50-piece set in one day and kept going, I was pretty sure that he was willing to do the thing he hates (work on math facts) to earn the thing he really wants (big LEGO sets).  This is unprecentented!  I couldn't PAY him (yes, embarrassingly, I tried) to listen to the math facts CDs I purchased, and no amount of bribing (embarrassed again) with Nintendo DS or Wii time would induce him to play the math facts games I'd bought.

Anyway, after you set all this up, the child can open the program, select their name, and then select their lesson and get going.  Once they've finished, the program records the lesson results, including the time and date they completed the lesson, how long it took them, how many they answered correctly, how many they answered correctly, how many they answered too slowly and the average time it took them to do each problem.  You can print these results, if you want.  You also have the option of viewing a progress report on each child, which details this same information for ALL the lessons in one place.

Overall, this is a very good, inexpensive tool for children to work on their math facts.  I had just a couple minor issues.  One, when the child gets a wrong answer, they have to input the correct answer a minimum of 2 times before they can continue.  But they don't just re-answer the question, they actually have to type out the entire equation.  If they miss 11+3=, for example, they don't just re-type 14.  They have to type out 11+3=14.  My 11-year-old is not familiar enough with the computer keyboard that typing the symbols is easy for him.  It would be nice if they only had to input the numbers and the symbols were already in place.  The other thing I would like is if each child, once they select themselves as the user, would only see their assigned lessons.  Right now the child selects his name, then selects a lesson, but the lesson list shows ALL lessons that have been created on that computer.  I've "fixed" this issue by naming each lesson with the child's name and a number (Aaron1, Aaron2, etc).  So it would be nice but it isn't by any means necessary.

Interested in finding out more about Math Facts NOW!?  Click over to their website and check out their free trial or click over here to find out what the rest of the crew thought about it.

Disclaimer: As a member of the 2010-2011 TOS Homeschool Review Crew, I received a complimentary download of Math Facts NOW! 2.0 in exchange for my fair, honest and unbiased review. No other compensation was received.