Exploring CTCMath with Elementary and Middle School {Product Review}

Math. That word can dredge up oh so many emotions in our children. One of my sons gets excited and will share his love for it. The other spits it out like it tastes bad when he says it. Over the years we have tried and discarded many math programs for my oldest son. One company, however, has made frequent stops along the way. Today I'm going to share our THIRD experience with 12-month Family Membership, from CTCMath and show you why this is one of the few math programs that my oldest son is willing to use.

About the Product

CTCMath is an online program designed to be used as an online math tutor. The program allows the student to work at their own pace, to stop and "rewind" the teacher during a lesson until they get what is

Simply Music: Online Piano Lessons for All Ages {Product Review}

I have been playing the piano for 35 years. I taught piano for about 10 years. But in that time I haven't had "time" to teach my own children. I have one son who isn't interested at all, so I haven't pushed it. My youngest son, however, is more drawn to learning music. When we had the chance to review Simply Music and their Music & Creativity - Foundation Course, I decided it was the perfect time to get him started.

About the Program

Simply Music was created to offer students of all ages the ability to learn music and to love music without the traditional approach of music reading first. Designed to immediately immerse the

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

IXL Learning~ An Online Resource for Practicing K-12 Skills {Product Review}

We first used IXL Learning several years ago. When we had the chance to review the annual membership to IXL again, I was curious to see how the program had changed and if we would like it. Both the boys enjoy online learning opportunities, so I hoped that this would be something we could incorporate into our routine. 

About the Product

IXL Learning is a comprehensive online resource for grades K-12 to use as a supplemental program to check on skills in Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Spanish. While not a complete curriculum, it can be used as a practice or review resource to see how your children are doing in different areas within these subjects at their grade level.

Strengthen Math Skills with I Know It {Product Review}

Whether you are wanting to have your children practice new math skills for mastery, review old skills, or have something to keep the skills strong during the school breaks or summertime, finding a math program that ISN'T a workbook can be challenging. We recently were introduced to I Know It and have been reviewing the program with both of my boys for the last several weeks. Today I'd like to share with you why this online math program has been working well for us!

About I Know It

I Know It is the latest offering from the creators of the award winning website Super Teacher Worksheets. (Read my review of THAT website too!) I Know It is an interactive math practice site for elementary aged children. Not only are their interactive lessons, but you are able to assign lessons for your children to do. The program also provides progress reports so you can check on how your child is doing. 

An Introduction to Latin Vocabulary with Picta Dicta Natural World from Roman Roads Media {Product Review}

We recently had the chance to review the Picta Dicta Natural World, a beginning Latin program from Roman Roads Media. The program is designed to be an introduction to Latin that is interactive. It is ideal for elementary-age students. We have had some experience with different Latin programs in the past and I was curious to see how this one compared, and to give my youngest son a chance to try his hand at foreign language for the first time.

About the Product

Picta Dicta Natural World is one of the Latin instruction products from Roman Roads Media. Designed to be an interactive introduction to Latin, it is ideal for elementary-age students. It focuses on vocabulary specific to the natural world. The students will learn the Latin (and

Reading Kingdom: Online Reading Program Teaching Phonics-PLUS! {Product Review}

I have discovered that using online reading programs have helped boost my younger son's reading skills. We've used several different programs before, and have been using one we LOVE for almost a year now. When we were given the opportunity to review another reading program--one which is supposed to be more unique and better in its reading and writing instruction, I was eager to try Reading Kingdom and see what it was like. Would we like it even more than the beloved one we use now?

About Reading Kingdom

Reading Kingdom is an online K-3 grade reading program which uses the new Phonics-PLUS system, making it different from any other reading program out there! The art of reading consists of six skills: sequencing, writing, sounds, meaning, and comprehension. Teaching phonics in reading teaches just ONE of these skills. Most programs teach via phonics, but Reading Kingdom teaches with all six skills!

A+ Interactive Math: A Program that Identifies and Closes Learning Gaps in Math {Product Review}

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!
Math is one of the only subjects where I wouldn't mind if the boys had assessments every year for homeschool. Why? Because it would be nice to know how each year how they are doing in their respective grade level work based on a third party review. When I first learned about A+ Interactive Math (by A+ TutorSoft Inc.) and their Adaptive Math Curriculum Online and Individualized Lesson Plan program, I was very interested and eagerly asked to review this product. I used it with my oldest son at the time at the end of his third grade year--and it was very revealing to how he was doing in math based on a standard third grade math assessment. Now here we are again with a chance to review the same product--THIS time I am using it with my younger math loving child. We've been using three different math curriculum because he just loves math--but I'm always afraid that he's got a hole somewhere that I don't know about. Thus, having HIM work through the 2nd grade math assessment was just what I needed as we wrap up our 2017-2018 year! Would the test find any holes? This is what I hoped our review of this product would find--and I was curious to see if any of my cons from the previous review had been addressed.

Teach Your Family How To Type with UltraKey Online Family Subscription {Product Review}

While I am a firm believer in my children learning cursive and handwriting, I can't deny the necessity to also be skilled in typing. There are many different programs out there, and I have tried several of them. I *know* what style works best for my children: a program that is online, has lots of practice, provides encouragement, focuses on actual typing, and doesn't have lots of bells and whistles. Thus far, I haven't found the "perfect" program, but when our family was given the opportunity to review the UltraKey Online Family Subscription from Bytes of Learning, I was hopeful that this one would be what we needed.

About UltraKey Online

UltraKey Online Family Subscription is a typing program designed by Bytes of Learning. The program provides clear voice instructed lessons with animation and videos. The Family subscription lets a parent or mentor oversee the use of the program while family members use the program. This is ideal for homeschoolers, or for just additional practice for schoolchildren in general. The ideal age

Thinking Like an Engineer~ For the STEM loving children in your family! {Curriculum Review}

We have noticed for awhile that our oldest son demonstrates strengths in engineering skills. He loves to design new LEGO creations and carefully plans and constructs them—far beyond any pamphlet included in a kit. His drawings have always been remarkably detailed and proportionate to real life. He’s most content designing or making something. When I was given the chance to review Innovators Tribe Thinking Like an Engineer self paced course I jumped on it. I hoped that it would be just the thing my son would thrive in doing, and open his mind into considering a degree in engineering in the future.

About Innovators Tribe

Innovators Tribe was created to provide parents and teachers the curriculum they needed to intentionally help revive innovation, creativity,

Strengthen Reading Skills with Reading Eggs {Product Review}

If you have a child and have ever mentioned that your child struggles in reading, or that you would love a website to help boost reading skills, I'm sure that someone has mentioned Reading Eggs to you! This online learning resource is ranked high in the list of "must-have" reading programs--I had done the free trial when my youngest son was 6, but was curious to explore it more thoroughly. Over the past few weeks I have been able to review the full Reading Eggs website to see all the things they offer!

About Reading Eggs

Reading Eggs is an online reading resource designed to boost your child's skills in reading and reading comprehension. With the online reading games and activities, reading will be a FUN

Taking to the Skies with Doctor Aviation {Curriculum Review}

We recently completed an in depth unit study on the Wright Brothers, which led to my oldest son becoming fascinated with all things aviation. Immediately after we concluded that unit study, we were told that there was a six month aviation course from Doctor Aviation that was potentially up for review for us. Even though we were below the recommended age for using the program, after one sample lesson my eleven year old was begging me to be able to do it. This led me to "beg" on his behalf for the chance to review this product as a family, and I am happy to say that we were granted his wish. The question now became--how would a course geared towards a high school student or adult work for our family? I am happy to say that it passed with "flying" colors!

About Doctor Aviation

Doctor Aviation is an website dedicated to providing instruction to those with an interest in aviation. The instructor Daryl Smith, aka Doctor Aviation, was in the Air Force for 24 years, where he "traversed the sky" as Command Pilot in a whole host of aircraft putting in over 2,000 flying hours. Many of these were accumulated while he was an instructor pilot and research pilot. He has also served as instructor at the United States Air Force Academy teaching aviation as well as other courses. He also has authored an aviation book published by McGraw Hill. He's a current college professor who wanted to make an aviation course that could be accessible to life-long learners across the globe--and so the Doctor Aviation website and aviation course was created! 
The course is geared to anyone with a desire to learn more about aviation, whether looking to it as a

K5 Learning ~ Online Assessments and Lessons for English and Math {Product Review}

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!
As a homeschooler living in a non-testing for homeschoolers state, there isn't the pressure to have my boys at a certain level academically. BUT, as a mom who does want to make sure they are on track I have always wondered where they would fall. I haven't yet given them any grade testing, but had considered it for the future. Enter our review of K5 Learning's online program.

About K5 Learning

K5 Learning is an online program for grades K-5th that offers free assessments of English and Math skills, as well as lessons and worksheets in English, Math, and Spelling. The program was designed to provide parents with the best of education software that is used in schools throughout the US. Many game based learning

Revisiting Exploring Cultural Art with ArtAchieve {Product Review}

Last summer, we had the pleasure of reviewing the Entire Level I from ArtAchieve. We enjoyed trying the art lessons, and the boys had asked me if we would be doing them again. They were happy when I shared that we would be reviewing the Entire Level II for a few weeks, and hoped they would enjoy this new level for ArtAchieve as much as they did the previous level.

About ArtAchieve

ArtAchieve designed their art lessons for children in order to help them be inspired by art around the world, and to enable teachers without art backgrounds to still be able to teach exciting art classes. ArtAchieve isn't just focused on art--they also include mini social studies lessons with their lesson as they explore the part of the world the inspiration came from, dabbling in social studies, science and language arts!

Creating a Masterpiece: An Online Art Program {Curriculum Review}

Our family loves art. We love doing arts and crafts and trying new mediums. But when it comes to creating from scratch? Nope. No can do. My boys can sketch quite well--vehicles that is. But birds? Beautiful Landscapes? Frameable Art? That would be a no. Enter our review of Creating a Masterpiece. This art program declares that no matter the age, students are capable of creating a masterpiece following the simple instructions provided by the teacher. As we reviewed the Monthly Plan to this program, I wondered if this was true. Could anyone--including my 6 year old create a masterpiece with this program? We dove in with both feet to find out!

About Creating a Masterpiece

Creating a Masterpiece is an online video instruction curriculum taught by master artist Sharon Hofer. Sharon teaches not only technique, but equips students with the skills to produce excellent results. The program was designed so that each student can move on and do their own individual projects. Because of the way it's filmed, it's just like sitting in one of Sharon Hofer's studio classes--but in the

Times Alive: Making Learning Times Tables More Fun {Product Review}

I am always seeking ways to make learning fun, and one of the main places that needs fun, is math. My husband and I believe that it's important for our boys to have some basic math facts memorized, but getting them in our boys heads is where it can get tricky. Can you find a way to memorize math facts--like the multiplication tables and still have it be fun? Enter my review of Times Tables the Fun Way and their online program Times Alive.

About Times Alive

Times Alive is an online program providing online lessons with animated songs and stories to learn times tables the fun way. Times Alive teaches the times tables from 0 to 9, and includes even coloring pages to help reinforce the stories. With cute animation, clever stories to offer audio and visual learning techniques--the program is easily perfect for all types of learners. Scattered periodically in the program are reviews and quizzes to check that the lessons are being understood. Lessons can be repeated at any time if something isn't sticking.

Times Alive is offered as a monthly online subscription of $9.95/month with a one-time $6.95 installation fee. It can be accessed on any computers as it is through an online website, and can be used for different kids in the home as long as they log in the same way on the same computer each time.

Clever stories to help remember the facts

Reviews right after the lesson on the facts learned

 A progress report is available to the parent at any time, which will show the child's progress through the lessons as well as their scores and completion times for each quiz.

A progress report from my 6 year old. You can see his scores and lessons that he has completed.

This program works with all operating computer systems. Times Alive will work on iPad if you have a FLASH app like Photon--but when the student logs out, all progress will be lost.Times Alive online will not work on any mobile devices that do not support flash programs.

We were given a 3 Month Subscription to Times Alive through Teaching Times Tables the Fun Way to use with my boys ages 6 and (almost) 11.

Our Thoughts

The program was easy to get set up once log in information was received. Once I did a standard log-in, we got to the welcome screen. From here a child can log in. This is simply where they enter whatever name they want their work saved as--noting the EXACT way they did their log-in in order to retrieve their progress at the next log in. Once logged in, they arrive at the basic lesson list screen that shows all the work that will be done during the program.

This is what my son's log in looks like now that he has worked through the program.

At this point, you simply click on the lesson you want to start on--a brand new log in will start at a "show what you know" kind of test which records your answers to 0-9 times table problems. Once completed, the child simply hits "next" to be taken to the next lesson. As you can see from the lesson list, the times tables aren't taught in order exactly. They do jump around, but that doesn't really matter.

My youngest got started and he was hooked right from the get-go. He kept asking for more and more time. I think he did the first three or four lessons all in one sitting and reluctantly quit when his time was up. My oldest was the same--loving it right from the start.

I found the "music video" songs to reinforce the lessons very...hokey. But the boys were fine with them, so I just...left the room. LOL. I especially liked the reviews that were scattered throughout the course which always were inclusive of past and current lessons. When it came to the final test, my oldest requested that I print it out for him. It was nice to have that option for EACH of the quizzes.

Now this doesn't record the completion time, but it would be easy to calculate that if you wanted to. My youngest preferred to do all of his work online. it took him a bit longer--and the program would tell him that he was taking too long--and that he needed to review earlier lessons--yet it still let him keep on working through the quizzes.

The program was very good for us--they loved being able to just spend an agreed amount of time on the program and would help each other out with remembering the stories. They rarely remembered the songs--but they usually could work together to remember the math stories.

Cons?
Just a couple things I wanted to mention.
#1 You HAVE to make sure of a couple things on your browser in order for the program to remember your child's progress:
a. All cookies are able to be saved.
My browsers are set to clear some data at the end of each logging in. I don't like to save all my history. Unfortunately, my settings made it so that the progress reports cleared out the minute we quit or closed the browsers. This happened several days before I finally figured out the issues. Once I change my settings, we didn't have the problem any more.

b. You must use the same browser on the same computer each time.
It doesn't matter if you log in with your parent information on a different computer--your child's progress won't be saved. You have to use the same browser and the same computer each time.

c. The log-in name has to be exact
If you use all lower case the first time--you have to do it the next time. If you use all caps the first time, you have to do that every time. It must be the exact name each time.

This was actually pretty frustrating. It seems like that with a log in subscription, it shouldn't have to be so exact. I don't like to have to keep changing my cookies settings just to use this program. I also wish that my boys could use ANY computer and have it save their work in our subscription account. It's something that I consider pretty major, because of the frustration it caused.

#2 The stories don't...go together?
This is much more of a personal preference. But I think it would have been MUCH easier to remember each of the math stories, if each number character was the same thing. But a 6 in one story meant something TOTALLY different in every single other story with a 6. That requires more effort for the child to keep them straight. My boys had a tricky time remembering some of the characters in the stories because of this, so each story had to be learned as a separate entity, where the characters meant different things.

#3 You can't SEE what they get wrong on a test, just their overall score and completion time.
If I am sitting with them, I can look when they get their results. Or the boys would usually TELL me what they missed. But if I wanted to go back and look when they worked on them independently, I could not see the actual problems. This would be nice to know where to direct their focus--which times tables are they not quite getting.

Okay, now let me share the boys thoughts.

Little Britches says, "It was easy to understand. I didn't really love it. But I didn't not like it. It was okay and I didn't mind doing it."

Baby Britches says, "I liked the songs best. And the stories. I just liked it."

LOL. So I guess you could say they thought it was--good, but not great.

The real question...did it work? Did it makes learning the times tables easier?
Yes....and no.

The boys DEFINITELY picked up some new things to help them remember times tables but they can't remember all of the stories, because they found a few of them a bit more tricky to remember. That being said, I found the most VALUABLE trick was in regards to the lesson on the 9's. My boys can now remember how to do the 9's using EACH of the two methods that was taught--I was thankful they taught the fingers trick and the adding the product digits trick. In fact they have taught several different times tales using fingers which is great, because they will have THOSE with them forever! (hopefully!)

Today I decided to see how they did by running through multiplication flash cards at breakfast. We just made a game where they both came up with their answer and on the count of 3 shouted it. It was interesting to see that if one couldn't remember, the other offered up a story to help--BUT it wasn't usually a story from Times Alive--rather a different times table story they had learned previously. So even though this was the MOST RECENT multiplication story tool, it isn't the one they remember the best. That is why I say it didn't necessarily made things easier to remember--BUT, perhaps if it was the FIRST multiplication story tool they had learned it would be...I don't know. It did help for the times tables that they DIDN'T already have stories for. I can simply say "bigfoot" for my 6 year old and he can remember the answer to 6x3 or I can say "dirty pig" and he can remember the answer for 8x4. Like wise I can remind my oldest by saying "high jump" and he can remember 6x7. So I think they remember ENOUGH of the stories to find their answers. My youngest liked it enough to want to review some of the stories he doesn't quite remember--and with our subscription he can easily do this.

Would I Recommend This Product?

Yes---and no. LOL. As I said above, there are some things that I DON'T like about the program--mainly that it won't remember your progress unless you have certain cookie settings, having to use the same computer and browser every time, and having to have the exact log in. BUT if you are looking for a one-size fits all method to learn all the times 0-9, want to be able to use it with all your children, and want to be able to see their progress, then this would work perfectly. And the cost makes it okay--especially since you can cancel your subscription at any time.

Want to Know More?

We have spent the last month reviewing Times Alive from Times Tables the Fun Way in an effort to help memorize our times tables. You have seen our thoughts on the program, but why don't you see what my fellow crew members had to say about it!
If you would like to learn more about the company or stay up to date on any sales or promotions they might have you can follow them on Facebook and YouTube.

I hope you will join me tomorrow (2/8/2017) at 1:30 EST where I will be hosting a Facebook LIVE video to briefly chat about the program.

A+ Interactive Math~ Math Mini-Courses to Help Close the Gaps {Product Review}

It is no surprise that most children have gaps in their math skills. Sometimes it is difficult to find where they are--but other times, it's easy to pinpoint a math area that needs more work. A+ Interactive Math has created Math Mini-Courses to help parents with this problem! Because I know a few areas where Little Britches has gaps, I was interested to review this product and see how it helped us.

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

About the Product

The Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math are designed to provide you with an affordable way to effectively close learning gaps in your child's math skills. Each mini-course gives you a logical group of math topics--specific for the several grade levels. It then offers an in depth review of the information within that topic from basic to a more advanced level. There are 20 Math Mini-Course available and they range in price from $9.99-$19.99. You receive a one year subscription to each mini-course which allows plenty of time for learning, and because each course should only take 2-3 months, you have extra time for review!

Each math mini-course includes:
*Multimedia Lessons that teach math concepts with animated video lessons, audio and text.
*Interactive Review for each lesson
*Worksheets that provide extra practice to help reach mastery of each concept.
*Automatic grading and tracking with easy-to-read progress reports.
*Solution Guides if your child wants step-by-step information on how to solve a problem
*Full text versions of lessons
*Printable worksheets and tests for practice offline.

Here are the math mini-courses available, with their target grade levels noted:
Counting and Identifying Numbers (1st-3rd)
Place Value and Number Combinations (1st-3rd)
Naming, Comparing and Arranging Numbers (1st-3rd)
Early Elementary Fractions (1st-3rd)
Early Elementary Addition (1st-3rd)
Early Elementary Subtraction (1st-3rd)
Elementary & Middle School Multiplication (2nd-6th)
Elementary & Middle School Division (2nd-6th)
Tables, Charts and Graphs (1st-6th)
Elementary Geometry (1st-4th)
Elementary Algebra (1st-4th)
Advanced Geometry (4th-7th)
Advanced Fractions (4th-8th)
Decimal Numbers (3rd-7th)
Percentages (5th-8th)
Time (1st-4th)
Money (1st-5th
Number Types and Conversions (3rd-6th)
Ratio, Proportions, Probability & Statistics (3rd-6th)
Measurements and Conversions (2nd-6th)

We were given the Elementary & Middle School Division and Ratio, Proportions, Probability & Statistics to review with Little Britches.

How Did We Use the Product?

Because we were familiar with A+ Interactive Math, it was very easy to get set up. We already had our account from last year's review, so the company simply added in our new courses. At this point, I simply was able to open them and get started!

Because we have already used A+ Interactive Math, I didn't bother with reading any of the informational links that are provided in the red boxes--but I highly recommend it to anyone who is new to the program. It provides excellent information on how to use the program.

This is what I get in My Dashboard when I sign in. I am able to make changes to my students log-in on this page and be able to see how he is doing. To launch from here--I can simply click the "view/launch" link. 

From My Dashboard, I can access all the programs that I have subscriptions for with A+ Interactive Math...at this time the only active one is the mini-courses. This will be the screen I use to check on his status and get reports...I will come back to that.

When my student logs in, his screen is nearly identical and he also will click the view/launch link to get started. This will take him to any mini-course that he currently has a subscription too. We have two and from here, he can open up whichever one he wants to work on. Clicking the word "launch" opens up a second screen with all your lesson options.

Each choice is clearly marked--you can do your lessons, do online worksheets, view written lessons, printout worksheets, check your progress, and then a generic--get started. This menu is the same regardless of what program you choose to launch.

To begin- you obviously want to do the Video Lessons...which opens up yet another new window. But this one is the one where all the video lessons and interactive Q&A questions will be. When the window opens up, you will see a side bar on the left which contains a menu of all the lessons for the topic. You need to click the little + to get the drop down list. At this point, your student can simply click one of the lessons and get started!

An example of what the lesson looks like from a ratio lesson

The lessons are totally interactive and completely animated. They can be paused and repeated as much as needed. Once the lesson is completed, your child will click on the "interactive Q&A" arrow to now practice what was taught.

The Q&A are multiple choice. If the answer is correct they are given a nice smiley face and a good job. If they aren't sure how they got it right, they can click "view solution" for more information. And if they are wrong, it gives them an explanation for how to do it correct.

Their score is added at the top of the window

When the questions have been completed, the child is given a scorecard with their results. This will show their attempts--I am going to talk more about this later.

There are worksheets available for every lesson. They can be completed by printing them off and doing them by hand, or through the online worksheet generator. They can both be accessed on the Student Dashboard that I showed above. They are simple to figure out--just follow the prompts and pick the worksheet you desire. If printing, it will pull up the pdf worksheet and click print. If you want to do it online and have everything recorded for you, simply follow the prompts given to find the worksheet you want. Once it has been generated, you will see a screen like this:

These are all either multiple choice, or a fill in the blank answer. As you see from the blue buttons above, you can move through the text without having it finalize your answer until you are ready. You can even save your work and come back later. If you want to check your answers right away, you can do that too. Some can even be marked for you to check back on at the end. Once your test has been completed, you can hit Finalize Worksheet and it will tally up your score and tell you how you did.

The final stage is the reports. Here are the four categories for a student report page:

This is where you can print out your scores for each section. Here is an example of what shows up when I click on "view generated worksheets summary report" for the Division mini-course:

the pink writing can be clicked on and you can be taken to that worksheet results

This is very straight forward--just a summary of how you did on each thing. Each of the reports follow this pattern. All of this information is also accessed in the parental log in...The difference being that on the worksheets, the parent can actually go in and override answers if they need to. Here is what a report looks like for the Interactive Q&A from the parental log-in:

Everything on this program is very straight forward and we found it easy to use for the most part.

As of right now, we have completed 10 lessons and 10 worksheets for Division, and 2 lessons and 2 worksheets for Ratios. We are working 2-3 days a week doing a lesson each day. This is a good rate of speed for us.

What Are Our Thoughts on the Product?

Little Britches:
"Well, I don't like it. But it's not horrible. The lessons are short and easy to follow and the lesson questions are simple. The worksheets can be a little harder, but I like that mommy lets me pick whether or not I want to do them as paper or online. That makes it easier for me. I already knew how to use the math program because we did A+ Interactive Math last year--so that made it even easier."

Me:
There are several things that I want to mention about this program.

1. It's very straight forward--not a lot of gimmicks or bells and whistles
This program isn't the latest and greatest and at times feels old fashioned with it's style and presentation. The animation isn't "fun"--just a step up from boring, but then we've used a lot of other online programs, so we have a lot to compare to.

2. It works
Yes, it's pretty dry in style, but it still works. I found that it helped Little Britches practice his division and gain strength and speed as it moved further in the topic. Ratios was something he was a bit unclear on--but then made the connection to fractions and reducing fractions which was something we had been working on. He consistently is getting 90-100% on all his worksheets, so I am seeing mastery happen.

3. It's very independent for your child
Once your child figures out how to use the program, they can work through it nearly independently even as a younger elementary. The lessons are a mix of audio and visual and answers are clearly explained. It is possible to do it totally online without any printing of anything. Results are tallied by the program and reports can be printed.

4. I don't like how it records scores and completion
I mentioned above that I would come back to this. Here is the thing. When your child is working through the lesson question and answer--it will only record them as having a 100%. Even if they initially get it wrong--it will only record the 100% answer- even if they NEVER got it. You can see that here:

If you look, he actually got 4 correct and 1 wrong...he only did the questions ONCE. Yet it shows that his score was 100%. It's marked as such at the top. it does this EVERY single time. Even if they get them all wrong! Fortunately, they do allow for me to go in and manually enter scores using the "update Q&A score". I simply enter the date, and the accurate score. It will then save it for this Q&A.  This is very annoying. The program needs to save the REAL answers--not give 100% every time. The report for the Q&A is totally pointless with all 100% when they aren't the real answers the child got (unless they legitimately did).

I wrote the customer service about this. Though they replied quickly, their answer was not helpful as it didn't assist me with the problem and their solution did not fix the problem, because we were already doing what they suggested (clicking the frog belly to submit answers--or clicking next on other lessons). This still does not record the actual score for the Q & A.

Secondly--even when the lesson video has been watched, and the final scores given for the Q&A, the lesson is not marked as completed--it will remain "in progress" until I manually again go and change it to completed through the updating of the lesson status. Yet another annoying aspect, but perhaps the program is set up for the PARENT to determine when the child has mastered the lesson...if so then I guess I can see where manually doing it every time would be okay. But I think I would definitely prefer if once the lesson was viewed and the Q & A is completed, the program automatically would mark it complete.


5. The lessons completed do not get marked off on the menu
The lessons are listed in a drop down menu as I stated up above. To view a lesson, you simply click on the one you want. This is easy for the first few--but once you start doing more, it can be hard to remember what you did last because there is no marking denoting what lesson has been completed already on the menu. I would like a way to have the menu marked with what has been done already so it's easy for my student to know where to start the next day.

6. We found a wrong answer.
One of the online worksheet problems had a wrong answer. We snapped a photo of it and sent it in. They responded that they will make a note of it and fix it. This is where the option on the parental dashboard to review the worksheets and override answers is very helpful.

7. You can skip the lesson and go to the Q&A.
My son was happy with the option to skip the lesson and go right to the Q&A on a few of them because the material was familiar to him. Because I had to manually change the status of the lesson, it didn't matter if he did one way or another.

8. The worksheets can be printed
There are some math lessons that a printed worksheet works better than an online one, and in those cases I'm happy that the option is there. But I don't necessarily enjoy grading the printed ones--though answers are provided. I solved that problem by manually entering the answer he wrote on the printed copy--into the online generated worksheet. The problems were exactly the same for the first 9 lessons--and I just had a bluff a few of the 10th one to make it work. This takes the grading away and still allows me to get a report with his status. Yes, it's more work for me, but I can do it a lot faster than waiting for him to.

Finishing his lesson with his worksheet printed and ready to go

So will we be continuing to use this product?
I think so, but maybe not right at this moment. I will have Little Britches finish the Division unit, but I might have him wait on the ratios for a while longer. I am thankful for the 1 year subscription in this case.

Would I Recommend This Product?

If you are looking for a very engaging, fun and exciting math program to catch your child's attention, then no. This is not super engaging, nor is it fun and exciting. But it definitely is better than a textbook and it does do the teaching/scoring/recording for you. I think that it will help your child fix any gaps you might be aware of and it does promote mastery. Because everything is read out loud, reluctant readers and younger students can still use it successfully without feeling burdened by math reading. 

Want to Know More?

We reviewed two of the Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math. You have seen what we thought about them--but how did other families use them? Check out the rest of the team's posts about this product for more information!

You can stay in touch with all the latest news from A+ Interactive Math including any new products and sales through these social media outlets!

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While we don't LOVE A+ Interactive Math, I have found them to be very easy to use, and they have assisted in helping identify and fill some gaps in the math Little Britches has been working on. I always think of them when someone mentions needing help filling in gaps because they really do work. I really recommend their placement tests with lesson plans for anyone wanting to know what their child's grade level is in math right now. You can read our review of one of those Adaptive Placement Test and Individualize Lesson Plan programs from last year.