Mathletics.com is an online math program for Kindergarten through 12th grade, put together by 3PLearning.com. As such, you will receive login information and you are ready to go.
What is neat is that when you purchase your subscription to Mathletics they give away a year’s worth of education called “school-in-a-box.” It is a UNICEF sponsored program.
UNICEF will send a physical kit containing education essentials to teachers in schools that have minimal supplies or right after a disaster and all that thanks to your signing up for Mathletics. It makes one feel good when one contributes to somebody else’s development.
To learn more about this initiative, please go to www.3plearning.com/unicef.
The kit I received came in a pretty box tied with a red ribbon. Inside, I found a folder with my login information for me, as the teacher, and for two students, my two children. They are in Kindergarten and in second grade, so they worked on lessons from their levels. However, they could navigate around and choose lessons from other levels.
Every week, I received a report in my email Inbox, showing me my students’ activity, the amount of time they logged in and their results. If they achieve 85% or more in activities, for instance, they receive a gold bar. As they work through curriculum activities, they also get points. All those stats are sent automatically to the teacher once a week. Pretty cool, right? I don’t have to monitor every single minute of their Mathletics experience to know what they are doing.
This curriculum is definitely hands-off and if are trying to foster independence in a child, this might be the route to go. The math concepts are presented clearly, though for my kindergartner I had to be there to walk her through some of the steps. I would say that you would have to be there in the beginning of each lesson to find out if they got the concept or not and then let them spend some time on their own, working through the games and the extra practice.
Not everything is a game, but the whole experience feels fun, like a game. I have written here before that I don’t particularly want to push computer learning in my homeschool. It’s too easy, especially in the early grades. Too many colors and dancing teddybears. What happens when things get really tough later on?
I think it is a matter of perspective, too. If you have a lot of children in your homeschool, Mathletics might just save your sanity. Get each of them situated or at least one at a time on the computer and you have one less student to supervise for the next 20 minutes, while you can work with somebody else. I just recommended Mathletics.com to a homeschool mom on a Facebook forum, who was saying she is at her wits’ end and she needs an online math curriculum for her children, otherwise she will not homeschool next year.
But even if you are not desperate, you might want to invest in Mathletics because it only takes 20 minutes three times a week to achieve 1000 points. That’s a Bronze Certificate. So even people like me, who stay away from computer-based curriculum, might bend for only one hour per week on the computer if it means more independence for the child and more time for the mom to work with the other student.
Last but not least, the kit comes with a trophy and several wristbands to show off your Mathlete pride. I suppose those would really help a struggling math student change their whole impression of and outlook on math.
The opinions expressed here are my own. I received a free subscription to Mathletics.com in exchange for my honest review of this product on my blog. I was not required to write a positive review. I was not compensated in any other way. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.