Monday, December 28, 2009

Mathletics


As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

Seriously. I have reviewed a. lot. of math products over the last year and a half. I feel like every time I turn around I'm writing another post about math. As a matter of fact, in the next couple of weeks I will be writing at least two more posts about math. Which is really kind of funny because I don't like math. But I have to admit, I do like Mathletics.

I was first introduced to Mathletics a couple of years ago when G9 participated in the World Math Day event that they host at their site. This is a fun event where students can compete against students all over the world doing timed math problems. It was really neat watching my then 7 year old compete against other 7 year olds from the United Kingdom, Australia, and more. I had no idea that a subscription to Mathletics.com would allow him to do this all year long!

But that's only the beginning of what you will get with a Mathletics subscription. First, your student will get to create their own Avatar. (This is like creating a Mii on the Wii games.) I'm not sure what the attraction to this is, but our kids absolutely love creating these cartoon versions of themselves. Once they do this, they will begin to "play". But actually, they are really reviewing math facts!

Your student will be given categories of math facts to review based on their grade level, but the Mathletics will adapt the categories to your student offering more problems in their weak areas and less in the areas that they have already perfected. When they complete drills and tests they are awarded with printable certificates and points that can be "spent" by "buying" extras for their avatar (like backgrounds, clothes, and accessories). Like I said before, they can also compete with other students around the world in Live play, but there is no communication among students keeping a safe online experience.

As a parent, you will have access to your student's reports, allowing you to see and print the work that they have been doing. You will even get a weekly progress report via email.

Mathletics is being used in schools and homes around the world. You can read through this brochure about the benefits of using Mathletics with homeschool.

Truly the only thing that I'm not necessarily thrilled about is the price of the subscription. A year long subscription to Mathletics is $59 per student. However, you can get $10 off that price if you know the Human Calculator's favorite number (it's 9 btw). Still that's awfully pricey for a large family like mine. It's not that I don't think Mathletics is worth $59 per student per year, it's just that I can't afford it! That's why I was absolutely thrilled when another homeschool mom contacted Mathletics and was told that they could get the reduced school rate (only $10 per student per year!) if they could get 25 subscribers. Sign me up, because that is SO worth it!! You'll need to contact Mathletics yourself to get the details, as I couldn't find any on their site. Apparently one homeschool mom will need to organize and collect the money, but each parent will be able to manage their own students' accounts.

Like I said before, I've tried a lot of math products. So far, Mathletics is our favorite!

For more reviews, check out the TOS Crew blog.


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