Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources What fun yet educational program would you choose?

We have EPGY already (thanks to information from this forum) but now we want something less school-like and more playful for DD8 and DD9. If you could pick just one online program like Study Island, Dreambox, Brainpop, etc. which would you choose? I'm sure there are many more options than this meager listing, so if you can think of others please do so. I just can't think of anything else right now.

We've already looked through Khan Academy and they might actually have Study Island at school - I will have to ask. We don't mind paying for something at this point. Both girls are at least 2 grades ahead of their peers and neither is getting much out of school at this point. We'd like to supplement with something fun they can do as after-school enrichment. I'd really like to find something they can move through at their own pace.

Please give me your opinions - has your child(ren) used that program and why you would choose that option. Thanks!

We are doing the 2 week free trial of Dreambox and they have an app now so the kids can do it on the iPad. That is a huge plus for us, but we haven't tried the app yet (just downloaded last night) so I can't write to how the app actually is. My DD is also much younger so handling a computer for her is more difficult. I am assuming thats not a problem for you! But just wanted to mention the Dreambox app since it was just released. Also, I couldn't find it by searching, I had to go to the Dreambox website, click and it re-directed to my iTunes to download.

Fun depends a bit on their aptitude and interest. DS8 enjoyed BrainPop for about six months, still uses Art of Problem Solving's free Alcumus for intersting math problems, the school has quite a few different subscriptions that he explores on and off. Wikipedia fills gaps here and there on all sorts of topics. He also had fun with a Lumosity subscription. Howstuffworks.com has some great material. If you are looking more for hands on, instructables.com has a ton of user generated material of varying values. If you have Amazon prime or Netflix, they both have a wide range of videos. Some of these obviously are quite open ended and require some self-driven curiosity to get the most out of.

DS7 got bored with the higher levels of Dreambox-- it got very repetitive with the manipulatives and lost the "fun" value.

He still likes the Marble Math app, but it's not really a curriculum. Just pleasing.

We have Study Island and Brain Pop for free. I definitely would not pay for them. Study Island is way too basic and probably more geared toward remeial. Brain Pop can be fun but again very superficial.

My DS really enjoyed iCivics when he was 7 (2nd grade). Khan Academy has some appeal for both DS and DD when they were 8/9 (3rd/4th grade) as their subject matters are rather broad. Both DS and DD enjoyed Duolingo currently at 10 (5th grade). There is an Apple app for basic single digit 24, but it is not as fun or challenging as the real card game.

Thanks everyone!

DD9 says she has had Study Island for a couple years now at school and doesn't really care for it, so we marked that one off our list. She also poo-poo'd Brainpop.

I signed up for Alcumus and we will give that a try. We are also going to try the 14 day free trial of Dreambox to see if we might want to put the app on an iPad. They have Duolingo already and DD9 likes it (DD8, not so much). I think Lumosity has a free iPad version we can test out. I also bookmarked howstuffworks.com. Instructables.com looks similiar to DIY.com. We have played around some on DIY, but will add Instructables too.

I'll try to remember to come back to this and let everyone know how the girls liked these new websites.

I got the girls to try Dreambox a few times over the last couple days and neither really cared for it. DD8 said it was just okay, but not interesting enough to pay for it. They have several more days of the free trial, so I'm going to see if I can bump it up a couple levels to see if that makes any difference.

My son liked it.He didint spend so much time to play but, definetly liked it. Especially when He got bored and asked me "momy What can i do next". It is a good option to have it.
I am looking for something like Dream box but for chemistry or physics.

We have both Dreambox and BrainPop for my DS8 (and BrainPop Jr. for DD6).

DS liked Dreambox for the first few months, but it became very repetitive, so he's pretty much stopped using it.

DS loves BrainPop, although I agree with a previous poster that it can be somewhat superficial. But it's a great way to introduce a topic that we might not otherwise cover. DD enjoys the Jr. version, but I find it to be way too simplistic; next year we'll just get the regular version.