Mathletics - A Review

Product: Mathletics

Company: 3P Learning

Price: $49.95/year (Just answer the human calculator's favorite number. It is 9.)
10 day unconditional guarantee

Where to purchase: Mathletics.com

Brief Overview: Give your student access to math curriculum activities and enjoyable fun math activities 24 hours a day. The activities are grouped by grade level and provide immediate feedback. Students can also compete live against other students.

In-Depth Look:

Mathletics.com is $59/ year. If you enter the human calculator's favorite number (9), the fee is $49.95. It comes with an unconditional guarantee. This provides access to the site 24 hours a day.

Your student enrolls by grade level, so the curriculum and mathletic challenges are geared towards the appropriate skill level.

Your child designs their own avatar to identify them. My children always enjoy designing their own character. Using credits, they can open up new features for the avatar. Credits are earned for doing various activities, such weekly participation certificates or setting new high scores.

In the practice section, you can choose from several categories and finish off with a test. In 2nd grade, some examples under "modeling numbers" are "count backward patterns" and "compare numbers to 100". Each practice section ends with a test. The questions are pretty straight forward, nothing fancy. Each set is in groups of 10. If you get a question wrong, it shows you the correct answer. At the end of the 10 questions, you can click on help for any of the questions. And some cute little characters will walk you through the problem. I thought this was really cute. If you complete the section more than once, you can begin to compare your performances with graphs and such, which is neat. If you set a high score, you earn credits. At the end of each section, there is a 24 question test. Nothing too fancy, but nice and colorful. You get a test score, help on problems at the end and credits for high scores.

The site has a problem solving section. In 2nd grade, some examples under "money" are "honeys money" and "skip jump". The problems are so cute and colorful and encouraging. It actually makes doing word problems fun. It is very interactive and makes it so much easier to "see" what the question is all about.

There are some cute games in the "game" section. They are cute and simple, but allow for good review. In 2nd grade, I found a "bead the necklace game", following patterns, and a "tally the score" game, where you add up similar items and tally the results.

I found a link up top to Jenny Eather's Rainforest Math. I spent a few minutes looking around. The activities are sorted by grade level. The activites are colorful, with onscreen "manipulatives". Some of the 2nd grade activities are counting blocks and number lines.

If you click on "concept search", you will find an amazing tool called "Animated Maths Dictionary". You click on a concept; the dictionary gives you a definition and an example. Click on "Concepts" and you will find an even cooler tool. First, pick the grade level that you want, which will limit to relevant topics. Then click the topic. You will get definitions and animated graphics illustrating the concept. It is fun to randomly click on items, just to see the graphics.

The most popular section is probably "Play Live". You compete with other students in your grade level. Usually 2 or 3 other children. It is completely safe as there is no interaction or communication with the other kids. You simply compete for the best time, answering questions as quickly as possible. My daughters enjoyed watching to see what countries they would be up against. They played against other students in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and more. If you get 3 strikes, you are out of the race. You can pick level 1 - 5 and can also choose to play against the computer.

The parent will receive their own login information to a dedicated parent center. You will find a task manager, where you can select up to 4 activities that your student must complete before they can move onto other areas. This is good as a way to review, to push your students to try harder tasks, or to lock out the games to be used as a reward upon completion. You can view weekly progress reports, print certificates of completion, check-up on your child's progress.
You can print instant workbooks, from Level A to M. You can also print the parent's guide to go along with it. The workbooks can be printed in individual chapters or as the whole book. The books have graphics and are in black and white.

In summary, this site has a little bit of everything. Practice, tests, games, problem solving, competition, concept dictionaries, printable workbooks. The kids' section is colorful, animated, interactive and provides immediate feedback and lots of help. A reward system helps keep kids motivated, with earning credits and printing certificates.

At approximately $4/month, I think this site is well-worth the value.

Check out what other crew members had to say here.

Disclaimer: I received an online membership to Mathletics.com free of charge to review, as part of the TOS Crew. The above is just my opinion. Please remember that opinions may, and do, vary.