Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Online Math??

We have a DS6 who loves Khan Academy. We like it since it helps to assess what he already grasps and focuses in on areas that need more attention. We also like that it isn't just math, but a platform for many other disciplines. So, since he is used to the system for math, it's easy to cross over into history and other subjects. IXL drove us up a wall with it's repetitive tasks that paid no heed to his ability.

We augment Khan academy with some workbooks and other online videos.

Last weekend my 8yo son, after using Khan Academy for math, watched a video on the Korean War . I joined him. I'm glad he is taking an interest in history, and we both learned something.

Here is something I wonder about, though. Salman Khan has degrees in electrical engineering and computer science and an MBA. He is an amateur when it comes to history, as most of us are. Ideally there would be a free set of short history videos recorded by (or least reviewed by) historians specializing in the topics. They probably exist on the Internet, but I suspect many people view what is on Khan Academy out of convenience. So a general question, which has been discussed in the context of textbooks, is how important is it for instructional materials to be prepared by subject matter experts?

To paraphrase:

Who would you like to teach your kids?
[ ]An expert.
[ ]Some random guy on the internet.

I know what I pick.

(This has been a complaint about the coverage/approach of Khan for some more advanced math topics, actually-- we found Khan singularly unhelpful for some trig topics, for example, and nearly so for some in college algebra.)

Just a note that IXL can exacerbate perfectionist tendenciea. Their smart scoring drove my daughter to distraction. Even when she knew the material, the thought that one wrong answer at the very end would drop her score 10 points or more made her nervous enough to make errors.

Your mileage will obviously vary.

This happened with my kids as well and I was worried they would give up.

We did a trial of dreambox last year (maybe just DS? I don't remember) and I thought the version for his age was kind of dumb, but now that he's on more advanced grade I like it more. It has some glitches and is not perfect, but one thing I like about it is that is very visual, and lays all the concepts out in pictures. It continually assesses to find the right level for a kid, though I made the mistake of putting DS in third grade level. Some of it is fine but I had to go through and do all multiplication and division sections on my own to get it past that, so he wouldn't have to suffer through it endlessly. The pace can be kind of slow for gifted kids, even if they pass material in the pre-testing. But it has been more successful with DS than any of the other online programs. We will probably go through Khan Academy just as a review or to cover missed or unclear topics.

DD9 was assigned IXL for homework last year, and my understanding is that it is "review-focused" and does no teaching. I am not sure how close to grade level it is - DD asked to, and was allowed to work above grade level.

DD doesn't seem to be a perfectionist, so we haven't had problems there (but DS might be, so I'm making a mental note of the comments of others - so helpful!).

I think for a bright kid, the early "grades" in math in many of these programs are just too simple.

For example, DS6 uses Dreambox for enrichment at home. He flew through K-2 ridiculously quickly. He complained a great deal when he got to "3rd grade" on Dreambox, because the format changes (it is less "cutesy," probably because many of the kids using it are older), but he is working through it. Dreambox seems to have a teaching component - it is not just testing the kids.

EPGY has lectures - I sometimes cringe a bit when listening to DD use it in the other room, because they DO sometimes sound awfully dry. I have not tried DS6 with EPGY yet, because of the "lecture-style" - seems focused on a slightly older set IMO, because of this. DYS DD9, uses EPGY for enrichment at home, and recently asked if she could try algebra - it is nice that EPGY has all of that (we use OE). Since DD's recent MAP test scores suggest she could be ready, I let her play around with algebra (apparently, it starts kind of slow, too, because DD grew frustrated with it and started telling the EPGY lecture - "I already KNOW this - blah, blah, blah!!!" Um, patience is not her strong suit...). If your DC can handle the lecture-style, EPGY provides a great deal of learning, although I'd definitely try the OE route - MUCH more reasonably-priced and FINE for how we use it.

Loy58 (and any others). Any thoughts on how EPGY OE would be as a stand alone program?

I thank you all for your responses. To update, we stopped ixl after our first month. The perfectionist in him couldn't take it. We dabbled in Khan for a bit and then started EGPY at the very end of June. He grew frustrated after about a week, at which point I realized that he wasn't on the gifted setting. We fixed that and he is enjoying it quite a bit, even though I find it pretty dry.

KTPie, could you tell me how you changed the setting in EPGY OE to the gifted setting? We are trying the OE version again (subscription from last fall) and I don't know how to change the setting.

I need to see if it would work for my son use at school as a math acceleration program. I don't know how often he will actually get to use it, so would rather not pay for the full version if the OE version will work. However, he found it really boring in the fall, and I only recently realized that there is a "gifted" setting, but I don't know how to change it.