Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources ALEKKS vs Mathletics and Rainforest maths

I have been trying Aleks for a couple of hours and I understand now why is so popular...
However, the spanish translation is not very good yet and besides I think DD needs to be a little bit more independent to use it - in fact she should be able to read at least Spanish, English better (because of the errors in the Spanish version). So.... not for the time being although in the future it is worth considering.

Has anybody used mathletics? Hows does it compare to Aleks? They do not offer a free trial for parents
Now apparently Mathletics host Rainforestmaths which DD knows and she has been asking me to do it again, but I am not certain if I want to pay 99 sterling pounds for it ....

So, has anybody used both mathletics and Aleks and can tell me how they do compare?

LOL Isa, It's the Pie!

Aleks didn't help DS understand any Math, but it was great for showing me what he does and doesn't know, what to learn next, inspiring him to 'really check before he answers' and those lovely pie charts are so yummy.

We used to keep 'homework helper.com' open on a different page, and if we got to something I couldn't explain, then I'd read the directions in homework helper and teach him. Before Aleks, I couldn't teach him anything, after Aleks he got the idea that 'yes, it isn't shameful to learn something from someone else.'

Haven't used Mathletics, but call them or email them and ask for a free trial, and they Might say yes!

Grinity

Hey Isa. I use mathletics, but haven't looked at Aleks or rainforest maths so I'm not much good at comparisons but here's what I know about mathletics.

Miss 7.5 year old is primarily motivated by her mathlete character. I find it good for reinforcement, consolidation and mental maths (using the live mathletics feature). I don't let Miss 7 or Miss 4 play the additional games and they haven't worked out that they exist to date. Each exercise is normally 10 sums/equations, etc. Sometimes I feel that Miss 7 finds the pattern really easily but doesn't understand the concept. As an example, you can whiz thru converting centimetres to metres easily if you're given 10 similar examples in a row. But the next day, I wonder how much she's retained?

It's good for goal oriented kids. You can set them a goal of 1000 points a week (which is quite do-able) as homework. This works pretty well for Miss 7. I like that it is one of the few things that Miss 7 can do independently (although this has taken a while to get going). I can now tell her which exercises she has to do before she plays around with her mathlete character. Surprisingly, it works!

You can only change the levels 6 times in one year, so the subscription can't be shared among siblings. We've never "run out" of change levels but I can imagine that some PG kids might (?)

I like it (although I'm not such a fan of spellodrome - their spelling counterpart). We've used it for 2 years now and I think we'll continue for another...

jojo