Math is one of the more difficult areas to teach in homeschool if the conversations I have with my homeschool friends is any indication. It is usually not that we moms do not understand the concepts, but conveying them to our kids in a way that makes sense to them can be daunting. When difficulties arise it can be even more frustrating! Adaptive Math Curriculum Online from A+ Interactive Math (by A+ TutorSoft Inc.) is an excellent alternative from traditional book lessons for mathematics. My daughters really enjoyed their time using this program.
The best part about this particular curriculum is that it is adaptive, meaning it adapts to your individual child's needs, not requiring them to waste time reviewing material they have already mastered. This intuitive learning structure is excellent for homeschoolers. I can't tell you how many times I have said, "It's complicated," when discussing grade levels. Homeschooling is so wonderful in that we have the opportunity to teach directly to our children's level, but with math it gets complicated. It is harder to assess if a student knows something already or what exactly they are missing in a concept. This online program really takes our the guess-work entirely.
All three of the girls used this curriculum to try it out. One of the things they really liked about it was that neither my husband nor I had to be available to complete the work. They like the independence and since everything is tracked fully online they could complete this at any point during our school day.
Rose has used the grade-level programs from this company before, but she said she really liked the fact that she could take a pretest for a concept so it would place her exactly where she needed to be. She does prefer pencil-to-paper learning for math, but the printable worksheets are a great for kids like her.
Grace is fairly advanced in mathematics so I appreciated that while she is technically a 2nd grader, she could move forward to the 3rd grade level and still refine this even further to specific task skills she still needs to master. She especially liked having more computer learning time because being younger she is not on the computer as much as her older sisters.
Overall I think this is the highest quality and most user friendly of the many online math courses we have tried. I asked the girls and they all said that while they liked it, they still preferred the pencil-to-paper method of our traditional learning. If I were looking for a program to take math learning off my plate, this would without a doubt be the one I would choose. The individualization and tracking makes it so very easy. I can see the answers my daughters gave and exactly how they are doing on any given concept. The teaching is clear and easy to follow. It also does not take extensive amounts of time. I'm all about quality over quantity!
If you have never used an online math program or even if you have, but haven't tried out this company, their free trial is definitely worth checking out for your family. If you don't think the Adaptive Math Curriculum Online is the best fit, take a look at Family Math Package. While students are not tested for placement, all of their grade-level options are available so you are free to move grade levels at any time. Both of these math options are incredibly affordable no matter how many students you have in your family!
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