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Category Archives: Math

Review of Math Rider

If you need a resource to help build your child’s accuracy, speed, and confidence in calculating math facts, Math Rider may be what you are looking for. math rider logo

We downloaded the program for this review to our PC desktop quickly and easily. Kenny took to it like a duck to water. He has used it every day as speed drill practice to increase his recall of math facts- addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of numbers 0-12. Seeing his progress on the map, riding over obstacles, watching his score and a graph of his increasing improvement has given him a much needed proficiency boost. As the youngest child, he has to deal with discouragement at times that his older siblings have mastered so many skills that he is still trying to conquer. Math Rider has helped him increase his speed and accuracy of recall and mental calculations, and I can see his confidence rise every time he plays.

Math Rider, which can be used with up to 8 students on a single license, has a broad appeal as well. Both boys and girls will enjoy riding their horse Shadow through the varied terrain of Mathland and completing tasks such as finding a flower that cures a virus, returning a diamond to the elves, and, of course, rescuing a princess. It is recommended for ages 6-12, but would be a great resource for an older child struggling with math mastery.

$math rider screen shot$

The background music is calm and pleasant. There are no weapons, nobody dies, and nothing blows up. Even so, Kenny enjoyed the fantasy background and the noble adventures, as well as the instant feedback of rewards for answering correctly and completing the quests. The scenes of the Land of Ray are beautiful and provide an interesting backdrop for the journey.

math rider product picture

The controls are simple- type the correct answer and press ‘enter’ to jump their horse Shadow over various obstacles. This means the student can focus on calculations and recall instead of handling complicated controls. At the desk that Kenny uses, we have a computer with a wireless keyboard that doesn’t have a number pad, so we are either going to get a new keyboard that includes a number pad, or just add a wireless number pad to our set up to make entering numbers a bit smoother and easier.

For the parent, Math Rider makes it easy to track progress and spot trouble areas. Graphs are provided that show not only correct/incorrect answers, but how quickly the child is calculating and recalling math facts. The game uses intelligent software that senses what the student has mastered, and focuses on the areas where they need more practice. The four operations are separated into their own quests so that students can work on a particular area and master that first before moving on.

math rider screen shot

We used Math Rider on our Windows Vista desktop, and it also works with a Mac. It uses Adobe® AIR™ runtime, and requires a screen resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels. You can read about the specific system requirements on the Math Rider website.

Math Rider is a one-time download with free updates for life for $47. It is backed by a 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee. Or you can go to the Math Rider Home page, enter your email address, and receive a 7 day trial registration key and instructions to download Math Rider so you can try-before-you-buy.

Others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew used Math Rider- click on the banner below to check out what they had to say

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Posted by Susan Raber on April 24, 2013 in Math, Online courses and programs, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews

Tags: download math software, increase math proficiency, intelligent software, math games, math mastery, multiplication and division

Review of Math-U-See Stewardship

01 Apr

It’s always a relief to find a curriculum that fills a specific need for you and your student. Math-U-See Stewardship accomplishes more than any other consumer math program we’ve tried. It provides detailed information about how money works, our responsibilities as stewards of our resources, Biblical principles, and practical application. It is called “Stewardship” because it doesn’t just cover the mathematics of finance, but addresses our attitudes – what we believe and how we feel in our hearts about money, because our attitude will determine how we act.

Math-U-See offers K-12 math curriculum using a multi-sensory, mastery-based approach. We reviewed Math-U-See Stewardship. The components of the Stewardship program are - The Instruction Pack ($57) which includes the instruction manual, detailed solutions, a devotional book, and a DVD with lesson-by-lesson instruction. The Student Pack ($27) contains the workbook with lesson practice pages, and the Test Booklet.

Among the basics covered:

Earning Money
Percents
Taxes
Banking
Investing
Budgeting
Credit Cards
Comparison Shopping

There are also several lessons about owning a car, from purchasing to planning for repairs and buying insurance. The section on Buying and Maintaining a Home explains the real estate market and the purchasing process, renting, calculating materials for repairs, and negotiating price.

It is worth noting that a working knowledge of Algebra is important in order to understand the formulas for making such calculations as estimating and purchasing materials for home construction and repairs, so this program would work best for a student with a solid understanding of basic math, and some grasp of algebraic principles.

The instruction book concludes with lessons about traveling, keeping score in different sports, specifics about printing, calculating grade point averages and wind chill factors, and choosing shipping options.

The workbook, which is 3-hole punched and perforated for use in a 3-ring binder, provides real life, sensible examples of problems for each lesson with space so that students can work them out in the book. The DVD enriches with program with an actual classroom presentation by the teacher who explains the content of each lesson and asks discussion questions. The focus is on the teacher and whiteboard, and the class is off-camera, but you can hear them answer questions.

To round out the program, there is a devotional type book that has 30 lesson explaining Biblical Foundations for how we should think about money and stewardship of the resources we have. It was written by as advice about finances to his four sons, and contains many life principles for deeper thought and discussion.

The test booklet pages are also 3-hole punched and perforated.

Noah started using Stewardship three times per week, in addition to his regular advanced math studies. He enjoyed how the various topics were presented in the instruction book, and was happy that it covered many aspects of money, such as tax and insurance information, that he wasn’t expecting. He said he found the material easy to understand and thorough. It is written in a conversational tone with many examples from the author’s own life, and contains practical tips learned by years of experience. Noah also thought the DVD added a lot to the program, with the further explanations and thoughtful questions by the teacher. He used the workbook for review and practice, but wrote the problems in his notebook so that we can use this curriculum with his younger siblings. The devotional book covers topics that we have discussed before in our family devotions, and since Noah has been working much more independently the last year as he prepares for college and career, he read the corresponding chapters on his own.

I was pleased to see him interested and encouraged by Math-U-See Stewardship. It’s the attitude a parent hopes for when their children approach such important and foundational topics as financial responsibility.

Check out the goodies on the Math-U-See website, such as free newsletters, and the E-Learning page which gives you a worksheet generator, an online drill page, and loan/investment calculators.

Math-U-See offers a full-line of math curriculum, and the Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed several levels. Read about them by clicking the banner below.

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Posted by Susan Raber on April 1, 2013 in Bible, Math, Parenting & Family, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews

Tags: budgeting, consumer math, DVD math curriculum, finance, stewardship

Review of Lone Star Learning – Target the Question

05 Mar

Motivating students in the morning is sometimes the most difficult part of the day. Want a great jump start activity to get mental muscles warmed up for school? Among the many educational products offered by Lone Star Learning, we were given Target the Question Digital to review, and found it to be an enjoyable way to engage our brains and enhance our thinking skills.

Target the Question Digital is an online program geared to systematically practice and strengthen problem solving skills using real life scenarios. It isn’t enough that students have memorized math fact families, or learned to add, subtract, multiply, and divide – they need to know when and how to apply these operations.

After you choose the desired grade level (from grades 1 through 7) and purchase the subscription ($59.99 for one year), you have access to your dashboard which shows your subscription and the date it expires. You can also view your assigned product licenses and basic account settings.

We worked with the 4th grade level of Target the Question Digital. The program itself starts with the Problem of the Week screen, with boxes numbered one through forty, one for each week.

It is important to work through this program in order, as each week the problems increase in complexity. Choose a week, and you will see the question and the menu for the week.

At the top of the screen the basic problem is presented, based on every day activities like monetary transactions, or calculating time or distance. Also included is a visual, such as the receipt pictured for Week #23, as the basis for the questions. Others may have a chart, graph, or map to illustrate the Problem of the Week.

I learned a long time ago not to take for granted that my kids understood common terms just because they heard these words on a regular basis. Each Problem of the Week makes a great little vocabulary lesson. For the above question, we talked about the parts of a receipt and the purpose it serves as a record of your transaction. We also noted the way items are described and packaged- as gallons, jars, loaves, by the dozen or the pound.

At the bottom of the screen are the days of the week. Choose the day and a question appears highlighted below the problem graphic.

Another feature of the program is the ability to ‘draw’ on the screen itself, or use the ‘drawing pad’. We used a mouse or touchpad to sketch out the process of finding the solution, or work relevant math problems. Above, on Monday, the question was “What is the cost of 1 gallon of juice?” You can see on the receipt that 4 gallons of juice were purchased for $12, and as we discussed how to solve the problem, we drew it on the virtual pad on screen. We could also use different colors of ink to work out different parts of the problems. It’s a great way to show how to think through a problem step-by-step and discourage guessing.

On Wednesday the question involved working with time, and we examined possible ways to find the solution. You can see how we chose to work out the answer. Then on Friday we again focused on the information we needed for this particular problem.

If you or your student have questions about how to use the Problem of the Week screen, the Help button creates a graphic that shows the purpose of each feature of the menu.

Even though we used Target the Question Digital for the 4th grade level, it was fun to talk about the different scenarios together, or have my older kids coach their younger brother through the various problems presented. Each week became more challenging, with complex problems and situations to work through. Programs like this offer a unique opportunity to evaluate your child’s critical thinking skills in small daily doses that only take about 10-15 minutes to complete. We used it as an opening exercise for school, but it would also serve as a great warm up before using one’s regular math curriculum.

There were a few days that the kids just wanted to keep going and work through the whole week’s problems. When kids say “More!”, I say “Why not?”

To see other reviews of educational products from Lone Star Learning,
click on the banner below.

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Posted by Susan Raber on March 5, 2013 in Math, Online courses and programs, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews, Thinking skills

Tags: critical thinking skills, online math programs, real life math, Schoolhouse Review Crew, teaching math concepts

Review of A+ Tutorsoft Multi-Sensory Interactive MATH

22 Feb

A+ Tutorsoft Multi-Sensory Interactive Math had me at “time saving”.

We are currently homeschooling three children – two of which are in high school – which means some subjects must be self-directed to a significant degree. Math has always been the subject for which I focus on finding a curriculum that requires little parental involvement. However, math mastery is an essential skill, so it isn’t a subject that parents can get scrimpy about.

Kenny is at the 4th-5th grade level in math, and the only curriculum I had for this grade level was a very tired textbook/workbook, worn to a frazzle by three previous students, and not as self-directed as I would prefer.

Enter A+ Tutorsoft, Inc..

I received the CD 4th grade level program for A+ Tutorsoft MATH to review, and installed it on my Windows Vista PC without a hitch. The Start Up Guide explained the process step-by-step with lots of clear screen shots. However, if you are familiar with how to install basic software and set up profiles, the process is fairly intuitive and self-explanatory.

I set up a profile for Kenny and a parent profile for myself. The parent profile gives password protected access to the admin panel that allows you to input grades for your student’s quizzes, worksheets, and exams. You can set parental controls so that the student does/does not have access to solutions for worksheets and exams, or the program’s calculator.

When the student wants to use the program, they log in with their profile with one easy click. To access the admin panel or parent profile, the student logs out, and then the parents logs in with their user name and password.

Since we planned to use this as our main math program, I approached it in the same way as I would have any other curriculum. Kenny began at Lesson 1.1, but was able to very quickly do the quizzes and exams until he reached a lesson that contained material with which he was not as familiar. It always helps to use beginning lessons to familiarize and become comfortable with a program. Not only does it allow the student to focus more on challenging material when it is presented, but it also helps the student become accustomed to any particular vocabulary or methods used to explain various concepts.

A+ Tutorsoft offers complete math curricula for grades 1st through 6th, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra 1. We reviewed the 4th grade level CD program, which has the capability of tracking five students. Using multimedia lessons composed of audio, visual, and printed onscreen instructions, Interactive Q&A, worksheets, and exams, the program is indeed multi-sensory and comprehensive. To determine which grade level your student should start with, A+ Tutorsoft offers free placement tests.

The multimedia presentation of each lesson explains math operations and concepts in an understandable manner with several examples. The lesson presentations so far have averaged between 10-15 minutes in length.

$Fullscreen capture math lesson$

Each lesson is followed by an Interactive Q&A, with some multiple choice and some type-in answers. On multiple choice questions, choosing the answer automatically submits it – there is no opportunity to change the answer first. The student has the option to view the solution for review of wrong answers (or right answers for that matter, especially if child is unsure and guessing). On type-in answers, the student must click the ‘submit’ button on the frog’s stomach to submit answer and see if it is correct.

We had a moment of confusion over one question on an Interactive Q&A. Kenny had quickly chosen an answer that was correct, but the program said it was wrong. We went back and looked at the quiz questions, and realized that all of the choices were correct, so he should have chosen “All of the above”. This showed him the value of reading all the answers first instead of jumping on the first one that looked right.

For even more practice and review, the parent has access to worksheets for each lesson, usually with 10-15 problems that focus specifically on the concepts covered in the lesson. This is a great way for kids to reinforce and demonstrate what they’ve learned by working problems with pencil and paper, and showing each step of the solution. After all the lessons have been covered in the chapter, there is an exam (printable) with 25 questions.

Another bonus is the curriculum book that is included- an ebook version containing every lesson that you may print or your student may view onscreen.

I kept track of the number of answers Kenny got correct on his Interactive Quizzes, worksheets, and exams to enter into the Progress Tracking fields in the Admin Panel, as this is not done automatically in the CD version. This does, however, maintain a record of all his scores and calculate his percentages. The parent can also reward their student with Certificates of Accomplishment.

Some parents balk at having to print papers out for school because of the cost, so here’s a helpful hint: Invest in a printer that uses separate cartridges for each color and for black, does automatic duplex (2-sided) printing, and plan ahead to purchase inexpensive replacement cartridges in bulk from reputable online sources. This not only makes printing pages easy, but also economical. However, if you do not have the ability to print quickly and cheaply, you can order the workbook, which is the worksheets and exam pack, from A+ Tutorsoft MATH.

We have quickly and easily adapted to a regular schedule with A+ Tutorsoft MATH each morning. Kenny is very comfortable with it, and is progressing quickly. I’m free to oversee my Algebra students… or do the laundry.

All of the features and different formats available make this program very flexible. The colorful interactive lessons, curriculum book, quizzes, worksheets, exams… the ability of the parent to track and reward student progress… you can see that they thought this program through, making it comprehensive but user-friendly. Other than setting up the program and profiles, doing some printing, and entering scores, this program was entirely self-directed for Kenny. All traits for which homeschool parents are often looking for in their curriculum choices.

A+ Tutorsoft Interactive MATH on CD Standard Edition is $99.99 per grade level. The Premium Edition is $124.99, and tracks up to five students for each grade level. But right now you can REQUEST A COUPON CODE for 50% off the regular price. An awesome deal for any homeschool family. (This offer expires at the end of March 2013).

A+ Tutorsoft also has an online version of this program with a few different features. Use the link below to read more reviews about the CD version, as well as the online program.

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Posted by Susan Raber on February 22, 2013 in Math, Online courses and programs, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews

Tags: homeschool math program, interactive multi-sensory learning, online math programs, Schoolhouse Review Crew

Review of Wealth Quest for Teens

18 Oct

How hard can it be to teach money management to our children- after all, we are just talking about balancing the checkbook, right? Don’t spend more than you have, don’t be selfish, don’t be foolish… but how many of us as parents have exercised those principles in our own lives? How do we go about ridding ourselves of wrong attitudes and faulty ideas about balancing our budgets and creating wealth, and then teach good habits to our kids?

Wealth Quest for Teens offers a cut-to-the-chase finance curriculum for just that purpose. For $39.95, parents and students receive access to interactive online video seminars with printable study notes, and .pdf downloads of the Basic Seminar QuickStart Guide, and a 60-page parent guide, Your Teen’s Financial Literacy in Today’s Economy.

This program is aimed at teens in the 14-19 range, but in my opinion, it would also be helpful and appropriate for tweens.

The Basic Seminar covers these topics:

Module 1: Welcome, Intentions, and Overview of the Program
Module 2: Your Habits and Attitudes Determine Your Net Worth
Module 3: The First Thing You Need In Order to Become Rich: Income
Module 4: The Second Thing You Need In Order to Become Rich: Knowledge About Money
Module 5: The Third Thing You Need In Order to Become Rich: A Great Money Management System
Module 6: The Fourth Thing You Need In Order to Become Rich: A Really Good Reason!
Module 7: A Look at Financial Freedom

I started by reading the parent guide. It gave me the information I needed to know about the underlying philosophy behind this program and instructions about how to teach it. Then I printed the student workbook, and went over the plan for completing the program with my daughter Emma. Watching one video module per day, including pausing to answer the questions with each section, averaged 15 minutes. Then she set aside 5-15 minutes for the daily assignment. This easily fit into our schedule.

The online video seminars are narrated by young people, as well as the program creator, Jill Suskind. Unobtrusive but upbeat background music, cool graphics, and interesting slides makes them engaging and fun. The questions posed inspire some honest introspection about one’s beliefs, and help the student take the first steps to right thinking about the role of income, investment, work, and accumulating wealth. Emma said she enjoyed them very much, the course was easy to understand and use. She felt that she learned a lot and is determined to continue to use the steps to financial success that she’s learned so far.

While the name of this program is Wealth Quest, this isn’t just about seeking monetary success for the purposes of selfish gain. This curriculum teaches and encourages financial success – but – it lays a firm foundation by quickly dealing with and dispelling wrong attitudes about wealth and bad habits that keep people trapped in economic bondage.

For example, Module 2 is titled, “Your Habits and Attitudes Determine Your Net Worth”. Students learn that in order to change how much money they have, they must first change their attitudes and habits. There are exercises to help kids honestly assess their current attitudes about money. The acronym TFAR helps them remember that their Thoughts lead to Feelings, and Feelings lead to Actions and Results. This is a great principle to learn for any area of life, but it seems that it is seldom applied to managing money.

This is the kind of groundwork we must lay for our kids so that they can not just understand the ‘math’ of managing money, but what it takes to be a good steward. It is also a lesson that many parents have yet to learn, but what better way to internalize solid economic teaching than by showing our kids how to implement these principles in our own lives?

Module 4 is a real eye-opener for many kids, including mine. It explains how compound interest works to help create ‘passive’ wealth – having your money work for you while you are doing something else. The kids are now highly motivated to learn more about how investing works, scoping out websites like Motley Fool (the book The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens by Tom and David Gardner is recommended on p. 20 of the parent guide), and checking out books from the library.

The course also encourages kids to create a work ethic. In essence, ‘you have not because you work not’. The seminar teaches kids to look around for folks who need a product or service and finding inventive ways of fulfilling those needs.

As a hands-on way to learn how to budget, this program recommends that kids use ‘silos’ to divide their income into categories: necessities, future financial freedom, charitable giving, saving for ‘big ticket’ purchases, college or vocational training, and ‘fun’ money. Kids can use cans, shoe boxes, envelopes… whatever works so that they can divide their income, learn self control, and plan for their futures. A sensitive topic that is also covered is the trap of misusing credit cards, and just how much that can cost a person in the long run.

Wealth Quest is a program we will be using again as a family. As it is not a ‘Christian’ curriculum, we will be interjecting Scriptures that support principles of financial stewardship. But this is not a down side at all- the program is basic but thorough, substantive and enjoyable, and gives a solid foundation for future teaching and training in money management.

We also noted a recommendation for an allowance and money management program for parents and teens called MoneyTrail. “Free” is always a great price, and allows you to give it a whirl without risking any $$$.

Want to know what the rest of The Schoolhouse Review Crew thought about
Wealth Quest for Teens?
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