Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources online math programs

Can someone give me a brief rundown on some of the popular online math sites.

So far we have done very little organized "academic" stuff at home. DD6 started 1st grade today and I am starting to feel like it may be time to introduce her to some more challenging things. I am guessing school will not be doing this although it is too soon to know anything yet.

DD has always been more into reading and imaginative play and not math. We did stumble across IXL a year ago and she loved it for a short time. She would randomly pick a topic between K and 4th grade though usually 1st or 2nd and if needed I would explain it and then she did it. At first she requested it frequently but if we were busy and didn't do it for a couple weeks then she would forget about it and stopped asking and I never felt like pushing her.

I have been seeing people mention Aleks and EGPY and dreambox and khan academy as well as some books that sound interesting (life of fred, zaccharo, beastmaster). I would guess that with very little effort she could be up to the 3rd grade level quickly although if gave her an assessment tomorrow, I think she has a smattering of skills from 1-3 grade at least. I also think she would be less likely to do any kind of worksheet or book learning but something online might be fun enough to catch her interest again.

Any suggestions on a place to start?

Although you can do a smattering of stuff, if there is stuff she doesn't know you will have to do that grade. That is what happened when DD started CTY and did her assessment. She knew most of the grade 2 material, she was starting grade 1 but there was a section she had never seen before. Not that she couldn't do it when explained, but it had to be explained, so she had to start at grade 2.

I believe you can do a free trial of Dreambox. DS6 has enjoyed it (though he was sad when he "graduated" from the early math, which has cute stories, to the next level up). He is currently doing what they call 4th grade math and is a bit stymied because their presentation of decimals is hard to follow. But worth a try.

He also really likes the Beast Academy books, too.

we did this exact thing as summer as prep for homeschooling! DD5 is quite mathy, but we'd never done anything at home outside of whatever comes up in conversation, so while i randomly know she can add fractions in her head... i figured we'd hit some gaps. i set her at Grade 1 in the DreamBox parent dashboard and she went hell for leather until her perfectionism kicked in somewhere in the middle of Grade 3 with some time and money stuff she'd just never seen.

it was SO useful. and aside from All The Fun Math, DD is keen on the rewards, too - there are fun little games the "work" part unlocks for you, but you have to spend your earned tokens to play them, so they're not unlimited. she also really likes having the ability to pause the lessons - because like she says, "online stuff that won't wait two seconds while i pet the cat drives me completely bananas."

all in all, she's having a great time, and i'll certainly keep it for her beyond the six months we signed up for... ha - if there's anything left of it by then, i guess!

Doubtfulguest which app is this?

ha, whoops! apparently i edited that out - it's DreamBox! thanks, MumOfThree!

I should setup a Youtube channel for DS to review math apps and sites. I'm going to estimate the amount he's tried to be approaching a couple of hundred. I'll poke around to see which ones made it to shortcuts and which apps haven't been deleted yet.

ZS - i would watch that channel...

Many of the online learning sites you mention have course demos or free trials. Look at those and the comments about them here in the forums here to help you decide what might work best for your DD.

Art of Problem Solving's Beast Academy doesn't begin until grade 3 and only runs through level 4A so far, and they are book program, but your DD may be more open to books by the time she reaches that level.

You might combine an online learning system with some books and other enrichment activities. I put together a Math Enrichment Family Resource Book for my daughter's school (grades 5 and 6). You can download it as a pdf for free here:

https://sites.google.com/site/polan...o-math-enrichment-family-resource-book-1

Many of materials cover early grade levels as well, and a gifted child can quickly reach the point of handling upper elementary-level materials.

You'll find tons of other enrichment resources in the forums here as well.

Good Luck!

I like Time for Learning for my 1st grader ds6. He likes it ok, but thinks its slow and get aggravated by that. You can pick the "grade". (Last year, I picked second and then you can use grades 1-3.)

My ds liked Dreambox much better, and thus if given the choice picked Dreambox every time.

I bought a Life of Fred book. He likes it ok.

Depends on what your dc likes.