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Posted By: GGG Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/02/15 07:17 PM
I have been looking through previous posts, looking for this answer, I apologize if it's been answered one hundred times already. I am wondering if anyone has experience using Redbird Math (EPGY) for a four year old.

My just turned four year old is obsessed with math. I looked up our state standards and he's speeding through 1st grade math and interested in higher math, however, there are so many gaps because he's doing this mostly on his own and some days I spend time with him actually sitting down and addressing his interests. Most days, he is asking us math questions from morning until night as we go about our day. I do not have a strong math foundation and have not been trained in Common Core Curriculum. I am worried about these gaps and how it could affect him later.

Posted By: Loy58 Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/02/15 08:16 PM
Hi GGG, I really think it depends on the kid. DD was 8 when she first tried EPGY, and although she used it for a while, she found it to be slow moving (even on the gifted setting) and glitchy. We recently tried Redbird since we still have a subscription, and it was VERY glitchy. Both were a "fail" for DD (who now prefers AoPs).

DS started on Dreambox at 5. I'd personally prefer Dreambox for a younger child, but as he has advanced past 3rd grade, he does not like the format as well. So it may work for you for a while.
Posted By: GGG Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/02/15 09:00 PM
Thank you so very much for replying. I'll look up Dreambox!
Posted By: GGG Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/04/15 10:34 PM
We have tried DreamBox for three days (there was a 14 day free trial). It worked well for a few days, but today he said, "I need a game with more math and less games."
What is AoPs?
Posted By: Loy58 Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/04/15 11:42 PM
Yep, AoPS Beast Academy has books starting at about the 3rd and 4th grade level (and many books beyond). Of course, many around here have tried them for younger children, but, again - depends on the child.
Posted By: Careena Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/08/15 04:58 AM
Have you looked into ALEKS ? It's what we use in my house, your child can go as fast and as far as they want to during your subscription. It's a spiral based, "intelligent" program that I think is just awesome.
Posted By: Ivy Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/08/15 07:17 AM
Positives to ALEKS are that they have a pretest, fill-in model. You take an assessment and then it only gives you the topics you don't know. Plus, if you're getting questions correct, it only gives you a few before you move on. It's also quite affordable.

The negative is that all the teaching is through wrong answers. That is, if you don't know an answer or get one wrong, it will then explain the method to you. This turned out to be surprisingly stressful for our DD, trigger her perfectionism. But that's specific to a particular kid and can't be generalized to everyone.
Posted By: Anonymous Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/08/15 01:54 PM
We tried both EPGY and the "new" Redbird with my 4-year-old. Redbird is heavy on repetition and fancy graphics, and in my opinion, moves at a very slow pace. They started with a pretest for DD4. Even passing all questions in the pretest, she had to go through the following levels: Count 1-4, Count 1-5, Count 1-7, Count 1-10 (this is where she started answering all the questions wrong out of boredom), Count 0-10, Represent 0-2, Represent 0-5, Represent 0-8, Represent 0-10. Each level had at least 5 questions. This is just the first unit. DD was practically banging her head against the table. It may have been different if I had started her at a higher level of math, but I was silly enough to think that the program would be more responsive. We switched back to EPGY.
The presentation of EPGY is a bit dry (at least it seems like it to me, not that DD complained), but it moves from concept to concept very quickly upon mastery. It flies by the areas which have been mastered, and adjusts the pace slightly when more reinforcement is needed.
That said, DD does do Dreambox happily. It's the closest we'll ever get to having a hamster in the house.
Posted By: aeh Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/11/15 02:06 AM
Figure I might as well add here what I just posted elsewhere, which is that Singapore Math is planning to release a digital subscription version of Primary Math grades 1-5 this year. It looks like it is designed for homeschooling parents to do with their children, so not an independent program, nor a computer-adaptive program, but a curriculum-that-is-online. But it should be as flexible as you want it to be, since the parent-teacher controls what and how quickly you do. It includes animated teaching modules, so you don't have to have prior knowledge of the Singapore method to teach it.
Posted By: GGG Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/11/15 03:18 AM
Thank you all so much!
Posted By: ndw Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/14/15 02:15 AM
For all of those comparing online maths programs, Davidson has produced the following table doing a side by side comparison of the most popular ones that is a good resource.

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10642.aspx
Posted By: GGG Re: Online Math Program for 4 year old? - 03/20/15 05:36 PM
Ndw: thank you, I'll check that out!
We have started on Redbird Math. We paid for the Independent Study option, 60/3 mos. He likes and so far, it's what he needs. I did have to chat with customer service to change the level, it started out at counting 0-5!
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