Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Let's Go Learn/Unique Math

I am soliciting opinions on behalf of a friend who doesn't use the computer much thus I am the discussion board person, not her.

My dd9 has been using EPGY's math program (thank you, Melissa) which we really like. I recommended it to df for her dc as well and they used it for part of the year last year but felt that it wasn't as good of a fit for their needs.

Her dc is quite strong in the verbal realm but seems to struggle with math in terms of retaining what she has learned, being able to apply the concepts, and fully understanding the "why" of it all.

Df is feeling somewhat unable to fully teach math at this point (her dc is a 6th grader) and may want a computer math program similar to EPGY but more simple. Her issues with EPGY primarily centered around her dc not being an accelerated math student and her feeling like there were too many concepts.

Her preferred approach would be to cover one topic at a time for some time (like fractions for a month with little else). I know that spiraling is a popular concept with math curriculums right now, so I'm not sure if she's going to find something that takes that approach. It seems that her dd forgets and gets overwhelmed with math curriculum that switches from a one concept to another every few problems or even every few weeks, though.

She is going to have her dd do Let's Go Learn's online basic math assessment (DOMA) for grades K-5 that someone recommended on another thread here a week or two ago. We're trying to ascertain if their Unique Math online program might be a good fit for what she wants after the assessment piece (http://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/Unique_Math/parents/).

Has anyone used this program and what did you think of it if so?

The fact that it tops out at 5th grade shouldn't be a problem right now in that she ended 5th grade last year by finishing up 4th grade math and df isn't sure that she's retained all of the 4th grade info in any case.

I can't help with Let's Go Learn, but if she is open to a book-based programme, the "Keys To" series does stick to a single topic at a time (Key to Fractions, Key to Decimals, Key to Percents, etc.). The workbooks are very inexpensive, and answer keys are available.

Here's the address: http://www.keypress.com/x6469.xml

Hope that helps!

peace
minnie

Thanks, Minnie. I'll pass that suggestion on to her.

I just wanted to update in case anyone else considers this program. I am helping her out b/c my friend isn't superbly comfortable with computer. So, I was at her house today and helped her dd get in to do the DOMA assessment which came out right about where we both would have expected it to. We also got her signed up for Unique Math and you can, apparently turn off some of the strands and have it only give the child problems from one area such as measurement or fractions.

Hopefully this will work well for her. We'll see!