Matific Galaxy ~ Encouraging Math Mastery Through Games {Product Review}

I have a math-loving child. He cannot get enough math and is always asking for more. I have tried several math websites, and while they were very good, they weren't "gamey" enough to keep his attention for an extended time. I also was looking for something which could review a broad spectrum of skills, and encourage mastery. When we were asked to review a one-year subscription to Matific Galaxy, an online math resource, it initially looked like it could fit the bill of what I was wanting. Join me today to learn what our official opinion is on this math mastery promoting the online resource.

About the Product

Matific Galaxy is an award-winning, fun and engaging online learning program. It has hundreds of curriculum aligned mathematics
games and activities for kids in Grades K - 6--ideal for support learning in the classroom and perfect for the homeschooling family. The program is designed to be self-guided, so children can learn and explore on their own; however, parents can stay as involved as they want in their child's learning, through the parent zone where they can check their child's progress and achievements through the reports. On the desktop version, parents can set up weekly learning goals, as well as send a cheerful motivational message to their child.

The idea of Matific Galaxy is for your child to work through the planet levels in order to unlock the next planets. This can only be done once they have “rescued” the planet’s leader by earning back all of their pixels, which were stolen from them.

An example of a learning path

To earn pixels, the child must play games that are on the planet. Successful completion of the game earns pixels. If the child earns a full 5 stars for the game, they also earn the full pixel count. They can replay the games as many times as needed in order to earn more pixels and increase their star score. In addition, successful completion of the games gives them coins which allows them to “level up”.

Planet Sweetie

Throughout their use of the game, they will earn new ranks, trophies, and achievements which can be viewed in their Achievements page.

As a parent, you can set up what grade you want to have your child work in, as well as how long you would like them to be on the program each week. This can be adjusted as needed.

At any time, you can also view your child's progress--including areas they are excelling in, as well as needing more work. You can see how their progress is compared to others in the same grade level.

In the report above, I can see what my child's average score is for all the things he's completed thus far. I also can see a list of his strongest subjects. There are additionally recommended practice games that I can direct him to, in order to increase his mastery in certain areas.

Additionally, the report shows me what he's been working on, as well as his overall completion percentage for the Grade 4 level. The topics coverage shows me the maths that have been worked on thus far. Some of these reports can be printed out if needed.

I also set up our account so that I could receive a weekly progress report, which shares how long he's spent on the program, as well as his current overall percentage. 

What topics are covered for each level? That can be seen on the Math Skills page of the Matific Galaxy home page. Clicking on each grade level shows what maths will be covered. Here is the list of math skills covered in the Grade 4 level.

As you can see, there is a WIDE range of topics and skills that are reviewed for Grade 4. Looking through these skill lists can help you determine which grade is the best level for your child to work on. 

For the entirety of the review period, my youngest son (age 8) was working through the Grade 4 level program. 

Our Thoughts on the Product

I’m just going to start off by simply saying that my son loves this program. I have to actually ask him to STOP playing it. The games are short and several of them are quite fun. And that’s the joy—they are “games” but he’s learning! I picked Grade 4, as I was very confident that he was in grade level material. I was happy to see that he did VERY well, and even if he didn’t understand something at first go, he would ask me questions or click the highlighted text to be able to figure it out. Once he figured something out, he rarely forgot how to do it. As of this week, he has successfully completed the entire grade 4 work, freeing all the planets. What is nice, is that he can go back and replay games where he didn’t get 100% to earn more coins. He can also go back and play games again to earn presents for the planet characters. There is additionally a game planet with new games every day for his grade level. There is also a hatchery planet with additional math practice.

The photo above shows you that there are ten math skills planets. Each of the planets increases in difficulty and quantity of games to be completed. 

Once all the planet levels have been completed, there are additional math skills practice games in the Hatchery Planet, but these can only be done once a day, as you cannot move to the next egg until the one you unlocked has hatched. 

The Game Planet, however, can be played daily and the games change.

So what did he struggle on?

Geometry. He had issues with most of the geometry games with his first go. I discovered that we hadn’t really gone over geometry in our 3rd-grade math, so it was nice to have this revealed. But, he quickly picked up on the skills he needed to successfully accomplish the games. He now knows what a trapezoid and parallelogram are, as well as a trapezium in general. Or a converse trapezoid. He also had his first experience measuring angles which he picked up very fast. We had JUST started learning Fractions in depth when we quit for the summer, so I was happy to see he remembered what we had learned and didn’t have any trouble with the fractions work.

There was one game that ALWAYS stumped him, and honestly, it stumped me as well. It was the Cut n Paste for Geometry. You are given shapes and told to cut and reattach them to make a specific new shape. This was a challenge for him and I discovered it really wasn’t that easy myself when I attempted to help him.

It is here that I will add a suggestion—I think it would a benefit if there was a “skip problem” option for the games. There were some of these geometry puzzles that he COULD NOT get without my help at all, yet when we finally got it, the next one would be fine for him. So since they can go in and redo it, I would like to see a “skip problem” options so that they don’t get frustrated when they get stuck. If you don’t know, and you can’t skip it, you aren’t ever going to get it right.

He did like being able to go back in and replay the games as many times as you needed to get your full star count. This also improves his overall percentages that show up on my end in the Parents Zone. He also appreciated earning coins and presents for the characters with everything he did.
Now that he’s finished grade 4, I will allow him to keep playing it for a little while before switching his grade level to Grade 5. I think he likes the practice to gain mastery, which is always a win when it comes to math.

Every day they can go to previous planets, where they can clean, feed, and play with the characters for more prizes

One of the games on the Game Planet that I thought was the most valuable was one called Sky’s the Limit. In this game, you have a creature who needs to get a key to open a treasure chest. The character does this by navigating steps through jumping up. The math aspect is that it works on multiples practice! To get your character to the key, you have to click on the sequential multiple for whatever number they say. So if it says—click on the multiples of 3---then you click the next number in the sequence to make your character move. Once they get up to 3x10, they reach their key. But that’s not it—they then have to navigate the multiples BACKWARDS to get back down to the treasure chest. I LOVE this game and think it’s an EXCELLENT practice for learning times tables without it being simply memorization.

can choose what level of game difficulty

Here is a video I made of the game so you can see how it works:


(click here to watch if it doesn't embed properly here)

I highly recommend this program as it is one of the BEST math practice programs I have experienced. I think it is absolutely important to gain mastery in math, and this program definitely supports that with allowing the child to play the games over and over and over, yet still allowing them to “earn” rewards. The graphics are super cute and the concept of saving the characters from the evil villain is fun—especially when you win a game and thwart him.

And the cost is simply $39.99 for the full grade access (K-6) for a YEAR! That’s an incredible price! Worth every penny! Although based out of Australia and aligned to a schools curriculum, I found that the material was on par with what should be covered in the USA for grade level work. The program also reads the directions to the child--this is a big win for my son, even though he can read it himself.

We will be continuing to use this program for the full length of our year’s subscription. I will adjust the grade level as needed for my son, as he continues to master the work.

Before I go, I wanted to share my son's progress report as of this week with the completion of the Grade 4 levels...

His overall score thus far. This fluctuates as he completes and retries games.

I'm very satisfied with the overall topic scores. 

An example of how it shows you their scores based on each planet level completed
--this can help you determine which games they should do over.

Because he hasn't gotten 5 stars in every single game yet, he hasn't fully reached all his achievements.

There is the option to add the program to your devices, however, it didn't work on my Kindle Fire. I've heard from some of the other crew members that it doesn't save your work between the device use and PC use either.

Want to Know More About Matific Galaxy?

For the last several weeks, my son has been thoroughly enjoying our review of our one-year subscription to the fun and engaging online math program Matific Galaxy. We've been working through the Grade 4 level, so I encourage you to visit other crew members to see what the rest of the K-6 grades offer!

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It really amazes me that this program is so inexpensive. It truly is a fantastic "game" to encourage and improve math skills. My son snickered several times AND called to me to watch him play because he enjoyed it so much. I really think this should be at the top of the list for anyone who wants to give their children grades K-6 a chance to improve their math skills.