Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Need help with online elementary math program

We're just starting on this road with our eldest, who is in 2nd grade and just turned 8. We're trying to find a lower-cost psychologist to administer an IQ test, and we're looking at the Johns Hopkins test to assess his achievement. In the meantime, I'm looking for an online math program for him to work on here and there at home.

He did the Aleks assessment today for Level 3, and did quite well, but when we went to a sample lesson, he thought it was a bore - to read the lesson, rather than have it as a video or cartoon. In poking around, I took a look at Time4Learning, which he thought was fun, but I'm not sure how adaptive it is, and what reports it can give me on what to work on.

Does anyone have an online math program that combines the adaptive nature of Aleks with some decent reporting on skill sets (and areas to work on) but has at least lessons that are video-based? I'm indifferent as to whether the activities are game-based or not, since I have several math-booster games on my iPad for him. I'm looking more for lessons on the material he doesn't yet know so he can work on his own with some direction/guidance from me.

Thanks!

Khan Academy has both videos and a skill-ladder based practice section.

Khan Academy has some bells and whistles. The drawback is that it requires a lot more practice to go up the ladder than Aleks.

We do Aleks and supplement with Khan when my son needs more explaining (or rather more patient explaining) than I can do, but having the Khan button in Aleks would be great...

How far ahead is your son at this point? Last year we did Dreambox with mine (also 8/2nd grade this year) and he loved it -- Flash based, game-like, and all instructions verbally given. Lots of virtual manipulatives to get the concepts and number sense down. They have added a 4th grade level a few weeks ago, so you might still be able to benefit from it.

Minuses: little to no actual instruction on concepts (probably slightly worse than Aleks on that front, so keep Khan available), and doesn't cover the full curriculum (up to last year no time, no money, no geometry, although that's changed with the last upgrade). We also had to drill on math facts separately, since after a certain point Dreambox seems to assume them known, and that generated a lot of frustrations. xtramath.org, and that thing where you are a green lizard like monster in the dungeon?

Another free game-like option is MathWizz. It goes higher in grades than Dreambox but felt a bit less polished visually and... harsher, somehow (mom's judgement here, I was looking for something that would also be suitable for then 4yo #2).

We like the Khan lessons, but DD did feel the progess was too slow and was not motivated by all the repetition necessary to earn a badge or whatever it was. We've just used Aleks for one day, but it seems to be more at a quick learner pace. What if he just does Aleks 15 minutes a day or so? Our situation (maybe yours too) is that DD is a very fast learner but has not been exposed to many concepts above 3rd grade level (she is finishing gr 2).

I'll post this in all the math threads for awhile because it's cool. Bedtime Math co will e-mail you a new word problem every day if you scroll to the bottom and join the e-mail list. It's not even a sales pitch, just a friendly public service math problem every day. I. <3. Them.
http://bedtimemathproblem.org/

I used to ask DS8 to do one Aleks pie item a day, which translated to an average 15mn/day, including the review question(s) from the day before. If I let him go for one hour or more the review questions piled up so much he would be exhausted before reaching new material. For him slow and steady seems best, especially since this is all afterschool work for him.

But it can vary wildly. Yesterday he spent nearly 40mn on "division involving quotients with intermediate zeros" because he kept misaligning his columns, not writing down the intermediate steps and *then* forgetting to put in the zeros where they belonged (I finally stepped in when frustration reached max and told him to use the d@mn lines on his board). He managed to unwind himself and finish with minimal fuss after that, always big for him. A few days ago he did prime factors in less than 12 mn. He loves new concepts and those tend to fly into the pie.

We also print worksheets and he will do 4 items per day (I have to limit him, he loves the worksheets and we use them as carrots to get him through the LA...).

This is a child who rates at bright but not quite gifted on perceptual reasoning and flunked the EPGY screening test. YMMV.

FWIW I've never made DS do ALEKS review questions (I do sometimes remind him that he can if he wants, but he practically never wants to). Most things get revised anyway by doing harder topics based on them, some of the rest turn out not to have needed review, and if he gets the odd topic taken off his pie at the next assessment, well, that's how it's supposed to work.

If I had a child now in one of the elementary grades, I'd definitely look at AOPS Beast Academy, based on a positive opinion of their other stuff.

Uh? You can bypass them? They pop up as soon as my son log in (one more question from whatever he did in his previous session).

See, I like this thread, because I learn new stuff...

Yes, just click on the pie at the top!

Hmmmm... I wonder if I should tell my son