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

Does EPGY actively instruct? I think he might be okay with it being dry. It's a bit of a risk, though. Is there a free trial option?

He will get a better curriculum starting in grade 2, but he needs something till then. It would be good to have something in place for next year.

Yes, EPGY does instruct. They have short "lectures", and they also have smaller reminder-type instruction during the problems. Child can repeat lectures whenever they want.

I do recommend that you sign up for the open enrollment option, which is MUCH cheaper. It doesn't include a tutor that you can call, but its not like your son will be able to talk to a tutor during class anyway. There is a thread somewhere on this forum where someone offered to be an administrator, which you need to sign up for the open enrollment option.

I recall from another poster that individuals can now register as "groups".

http://epgy.stanford.edu/for-parents/epgy-open-enrollment

Your son sounds like mine - does quite a bit in his head and LOVES to be quizzed on math that the older kids are doing ("ask me a times table!" "Ask me a square root!" He thinks it's fun!). One of the reasons we started Xtra Math was that he was clearly learning times tables by osmosis or something (DD had learned them), and I was frightened that he might be doing it without mastery of addition and subtraction facts. Xtra Math is actually a bit of a challenge because you need to answer in less than 3 seconds and it is a challenge to even type that fast! So this might keep him busy...for a little while.

I think you will need to experiment a bit to find out what he likes - I think at this age you want him to enjoy whatever he does, so if he won't mind the drier format, go for it! I agree that you should try open enrollment and try to get it set on "gifted" settings if you use it, though. I haven't tried it with DS yet, because he still feels like math is just FUN! When I hear DD doing EPGY - it doesn't sound like much fun (sorry, EPGY!). Truthfully, EPGY's lecture-style just will not appeal to every bright younger child, but some younger children would probably be fine with it. You'll have to experiment and see what your DS likes - I think flexibility with these kiddos is key, because they learn and change so quickly!

We use Dreambox and the kids and I all love it. It instructs only when needed, it does unit pre tests and then you get to skip those sections. You can move ahead to the next grade in certain areas and not in others (if that is what is needed). There are enough games and fun visuals to keep it fresh and fun and enough practice problems to ensure a full grasp.

If your son loves to read, what about the Life of Fred books as well?

I'm going to give them a call to inquire directly because the main page I linked for open enrollment doesn't state a minimum number of students per group.The only comment is, "Students can join a pre-existing group (where students in your community have already joined) or create a new group that other students may join." Under FAQs for open enrollment they say, "The Open Enrollment program is available to anyone supported by an adult volunteer who will serve as the School Support Associate (SSA)."

DS's first grade teacher puts him on Adapted Mind Math most days. It is similar to ixl.com but it has optional videos with some/most of the lessons (some of them stolen from Khan). They also can move through it much more quickly than ixl, in that ixl tends to drag kids through tons of questions for each skill. There are also worksheets that can be printed out from each topic. We have the password so he does it at home as well. I was shocked one day when the teacher emailed me and told me to tell him that he needs to use scratch paper because he makes too many computational errors. She was checking his account on her end. The school paid for the subscription for all the kids in the class. We had an ixl.com subscription for a year but the kids lost interest in it after a few weeks when the novelty of the prize board wore off. They did still do it occasionally after that but it involved bribery. It's really just like online worksheets, it's not a game or particularly interesting in any way. Adapted Mind Math has cute "badges" that kids can earn, but if I didn't have Adapted Mind free from DS's school, I probably wouldn't bother paying for a subscription because Khan Academy is not much different and it's free. It doesn't seem like it's worth the extra cost for not many more features. Same with ixl. Adapted Mind might be better than Khan in terms of keeping kids on task because you can set it to adapt to the child, so the child doesn't have to choose anything. It just keeps going through topics in the correct order based on whether they are answering correctly or incorrectly until the child exits. Unfortunately DS has discovered how to switch the settings and he now picks his favorite topics rather than doing things in order.

If it came down to a choice between paying for another ixl subscription or Adapted Mind Math, i'd choose the latter. DS seems to be much more cooperative with it because it moves faster and there are optional videos. I think they are around the same cost.

DD's (age 8) school doesn't use Adapted Mind Math but she likes Khan Academy and sometimes does it at home. DS sometimes also watches the videos with her. Both of them really like the videos for some reason and DD pokes fun at the guy and makes sarcastic remarks. She goes to the grade level I tell her to go to, and pulls up a list of skills for that grade. They have to get 5 in a row correct (I think Adapted Mind is 6) before passing the skill.

DS took the Khan pretest and scored higher than I thought he would. I am not sure he is ready to learn independently where it placed him, but I guess we'll see. His teachers have been giving him some different written work anyway. They are awesome. But I heistate to ask for anything requiring a subscription, as funds are very limited and DS is not tested yet and has no formal accommodations in math.

DD tried just going along with what it threw at her but it was so random and all over the place. One question would be something from high school Algebra (she's in third grade), and then it would ask her to calculate the perimeter of a square, which she knew already. So I just click on "Learn" and then "Math" and then 4th grade and we are going through it section by section, skipping things that are too easy.