Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Independent math program for DS6 to use in class

DS6 (K) has been given the opportunity to do independent work on the computer during class math time. Any recommendations? I don't do stuff like this with my kids at home, so I'm kind of clueless. I am assuming it needs to be free, though perhaps I could pay for a subscription and have him use the password at school--not sure.

I don't really know his level. I guess he's kind of all over the place, but probably not above 2nd grade. It would be good for whatever he uses to assess him.

Oh, he is an extremely competent reader and works well solo, but he does not love games that test mouse skills rather than actual skills.

Hi Ultramarina,

I'm new to all of this but my DS6 just started using ixl at home. He's an independent reader and has been loving it. It's all drill from what I can gather but it does give you "prizes" to uncover at the end of a skill. It also tells you how many points you have (1-100) per section and my son LOVES to see how his score goes up. I paid 9.95 for a month trial but I know a lot of schools already have memberships.

Others have mentioned Dragon Box, Khan Academy (free- we may do this when our membership runs out), Mathseeds, and some others.

Does he have access to an iPad? DS5 (K) has been using a combination of Xtra Math and Dreambox lately, depending on his mood. I would only suggest Xtra Math if he is getting pretty quick at adding, subtracting, and or multiplying (you can change the settings). It builds automaticity with simple math facts - no teaching. It is free.

Dreambox has a free trial, but then there is a small fee. It is adaptive, so it will adjust to a child's level. DS enjoys it, but your DC may outgrow it pretty quickly. DS zipped through K-most of 2nd pretty quickly, but has been using other things for math the last couple of weeks. I am waiting to see if he shows interest in this again soon, because it is no longer free! I would suggest an iPad for this, though, because it sounds like some little ones have trouble with the mouse and DS handles it easily on the iPad.

IXL is more drill based - I don't know that it gives any instruction. I don't think I would recommend it unless your DS likes to just "quiz himself." DD's school uses it to reinforce what is taught, so we don't pay for it.

EPGY is pretty dry and the technology is not terribly up-to-date, but very solid on the math. We have DD8 using this as enrichment at home when she can find time - I wouldn't suggest this until your DS is a bit older.

My DC have both enjoyed Dragon Box (we have both versions; algebra game), but I have no idea if they actually understood the math they were doing. It is fun, though!

HTH!

No iPad. I do not see IXL on the list of school-offered sites. I am looking at Khan now. Has anyone used it for a child this age? I think he would like to be taught something new rather than doing only drills. (Sounds reasonable!)

He did most of DragonBox at home. I am not sure if he finished it, but if not, then close to. He saw this as a game, not "learning something new."

I've tried Khan with both DS and DD. I think it depends on how interested your DC is in a given topic - DS liked it for a few topics, but then he lost interest. Most of it appears geared towards older students. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to use it if it has a topic we are working on - it is free.

DS is expressing interest in learning new skills, so that why Khan seems good. However, what I watched seemed to move kind of slowly. He is in a weird place with skills, I think. He has a lot of mental math abilities from playing games for older children (can add large numbers accurately in his head using...I guess you'd call it decomposition skills..."1300 plus 850...I know 1300 plus 700 is 2000, so then another 100 is 2100, then the 50 is 2150" ). He could not do that problem on paper in the traditional way, though. And there are definitely holes in what he knows. I don't think he really knows much about fractions, for instance, and he can't tell analog time past the hour and half hour (no analog clocks in our house--oops). Similarly, he randomly knows a lot of multiplication stuff but hasn't been systematically taught anything.

My son used IXL quite a bit early on and it was a very good tool for him to increase his knowledge. The downside is you only get instruction on something new once you miss the problem. Not an ideal way to learn but it works pretty well.

He finally moved to EPGY and it is good up until Geometry which is very poor due to their Proof Environment. EPGY is a good program and is fine as long as there are no issues. They have staffing/personnel issues so if your son has a problem or there is a technological issue it gets real bad real quick. The Proof Environment was his first and only issue and unfortunately they could never sort it out so we moved to Art of Problem Solving.

One thing to consider is if your son is smart and disciplined he can cover a lot of material in a short time and you will end up many grade levels ahead. Be sure to consider how the school will handle this as he progresses.

My DS6 just started EPGY math from Stanford about 6 weeks ago and he loves it! It does seem dry, but it moves quickly and mixes it up enough to make it more interesting. We started him at Grade 1 to make sure there were not any gaps and he has progressed to Grade 2.5 already. It's $95 for 5 months to try it out. He started out doing 20 minute sessions, but asked for more so we had the administrator up it to 30 minutes. There are also two setting to be aware of, regular and gifted. You can have the administrator set it for gifted from the start. It moves at a quicker pace. You can also up the level yourself by 1/2 grade increments if it's too easy for him. It also tracks, in detail, what grade equivalent, topics covered, percent correct, how he did on a particular session day, etc.
I would think it would be easy for him to do this at school as long as he knows how to log in to his account. My son's principal was working on having him do this at school too, but that's a whole other story,

His K teacher would not supplement of give him more challenging math so we resorted to giving it to him at home. He's so happy to be doing something other than adding 2+2 and then drawing picture after picture on a worksheet for simple addition that it was totally worth it!

On a side note he just started the Language Arts component of EPGY and loves it too! It sounds like your son is a big reader so he might enjoy that too!