This week's topic for the Virtual Curriculum Fair is "Discovering Patterns: Mathematics, Logic, and some Science. This theme can include anything to do with mathematics, mathematical thinking, numbers, arithmetic, symbolic logic, critical thinking, and math-y sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.)."

We love science in our house and I have a few posts about out Physics studies in the following posts:

• Not Back to School Blog Hop - Curriculum Week
• Weekly Wrap-up week ending 08/06/10
• Busy Hands Make Busy Minds
• Physics Class - K'nex Education 

We have done chemistry a few times too. We do not use the "typical" curriculum for science classes. For this Curriculum Fair though, I have chosen to talk about the Math choices we made for my son this year.

Christopher started the year doing Teaching Textbook Geometry. Nathan did the same curriculum a few years ago. Christopher was really struggling. He was using the CD's and even that did not seem to help. I went overs his errors with him and tried to help. Things were better for a little while then he really started to struggle. I had talked with a friend and she had suggested that we do the curriculum but skip the proofs if we had to, but not to change curriculum. I took her suggestion and it did not really seem to help at all. He was still struggling. I did terrible with High School level geometry when I took it and so I could sympathize. We do not encourage our children to give up on things but some times we just have to do what WE think is best for our students. After talking it over several times with my husband and praying about it we decided to switch Christopher over to Key To Geometry and Patty Paper Geometry. 

We already had the Patty Paper Geometry book, I just had to make copies of the parts of the lessons. As for the Key To Geometry we ordered the Student books, except for book 8 (I already had that one). I already had the books with the Answers and Notes because this was the curriculum we used for our non-math oriented girls when they were doing school.
Patty Paper??? What it that? Well, patty paper is the squares of waxed paper that are used by fast food restaurants to separate uncooked hamburger patties.... thus the name for my post! LOL These papers are the perfect size for tracing and folding and this curriculum uses them for both. This curriculum uses the patty papers to help the students investigate and discover most of the properties of High School Geometry. It will help them answer questions like What do we know about an isosceles triangle or What is true about the diagonals of a rhombus? Any properties that can be discovered using a compass and a straightedge can be discovered by using patty papers. Trace one angle to see if another angle is congruent. Take an angle and fold it in half to find the angle bisector. The investigations get more and more detailed and complicated. The student can do guided investigations where they are given more explanations and guidance or the open investigations which are more independent. Christopher is doing the guided investigations. After the investigations there are exercises so the student can practice the new information he discovered.

 Here is a sample from one of Christopher's assignments. This was what the Exercise said to do...

"Sketch and carefully label each figure. 3. Equilateral triangle DOT with L, I, and P the midpoints of DO, OT, and DT, respectively and segments LI, IP, and LP."

There should be lines over the letters for the segments but I could not figure out how to get my computer keyboard to let me put them in. Christopher did a great job on this. You can see the lines from where he folded the paper to make the equilateral triangle and to find the midpoints. He labeled everything correctly. If you would like to see the picture larger just click on it... it should open in a new tab so you don't loose your place here. This was investigation 4 out of the 12 in the book. I am spreading the lessons out through the year between doing booklets of the Key To Geometry. I hope getting to see an example of one part of an exercise helps you understand how this curriculum works. If you have questions, just ask.

Christopher is also doing Key to Geometry® from Key Curriculum Press. Key To Geometry is listed for grades 4-12. Most people would not count it as a math course for the college bound student but so far none of our children are interested in college. When they finish, students have been introduced to 134 geometric terms. It says they are now ready to handle proofs. I just don't see the need for it now. Christopher is doing really well with these 2 curricula. If Christopher changes his mind later he can pick up extra Math if he needs to. If he has a goal and needs more math then he will apply himself and get it done. When we add in the Patty Paper Geometry I think it is fine... more than fine. I do not remember any of the Geometry that I had and never found a use for it. Nathan made it through the Teaching Textbooks Geometry but the girls did this Key to and we did what we thought was best for our kids.

The Patty Paper Geometry page of the website says,

"Use Patty Paper Geometry as a supplement to your geometry program or even as a major course of study."

I think, combining the 2 programs, that it is enough geometry for my son. I can tell you one thing for sure... we are both a lot less frustrated and he is learning.

Get more information from the publisher, Key Curriculum Press, HERE
or check out this link to Amazon Patty Paper Geometry
Get Patty paper from Key Curriculum Press, or get some from Amazon, HERE.
Or check out the same products at my favorite company Rainbow Resource.

Now here is your chance to check out some more Math/Logic/Science posts. This is a Virtual Curriculum Fair and there are a bunch of us participating. Click on the first one to get started or click on the one after mine if you already did the first few or just click a random one... whatever floats your boat!

Math Lapbooks---Virtual Curriculum Fair Week 2 Angie Wright @ Petra School

Virtual Curriculum Fair Week Two: Discover Patterns, Mathematics, Logic and Some Science by Leah @ The Courtney Six Homeschool

Our Choices For Math by Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

A Magnificent Math Manipulative by Letha Paulk @ justpitchingmytent

Our Math Choices - Virtual Curriculum Fair by Tristan @ Our Busy Homeschool

Math Literature?!?! by Christine @ Crunchy Country Catholic

Learning Math at My House by Jessica @ Modest Mama

Math Using Hamburger Paper by Debbie @ Debbie's Digest THIS IS ME>>> YOU ARE HERE

Math Facts or Fun? Why Not Both! by Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Heart of Dakota- The Fine Details- Part 2 Science by Lynn @ Ladybug Chronicles

Learning Math Block by Block by Laura O in AK @ Day by Day in Our World

Plugging Along with Math by Cindy Horton @ Fenced in Family

What's Working and What's Not: Math Edition by Leann @ Montessori Tidbits

Math Anyone? by Cindy @ For One Another

Ahh, Math. by Nicole @ Schooling in the Sun

Flying Without a Parachute: Math with no Curriculum by Pam @ Everyday Snapshots

Math in Our Homeschool by Christine T @ Our Homeschool Reviews

Math, Math, and More Math by Dawn Chandler @ tractors & tire swings

Thinking Mathematically- How I Choose Math Curriculum by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Discovering Patterns: Math, Logic, and Some Science by Christa Darr @ Fairfield Corner Academy

The Science of Math by Brenda Emmett @ Garden of Learning

"Mom, did we do math today?" by Chrissy at Learning is an Adventure

Math, Math, and More Math by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory


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According to Dictionary.com virtual means, "temporarily simulated or extended by computer software"... perfect!! Virtual Nerd is on the net... accessible by computer/internet. Are you a nerd??? Do you want to be one??? A nerd is defined as, "an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd." Well Virtual Nerd is run by nerds who just love math and they want to share their love with you!!Smiley Face 

Virtual Nerd has lots of sample videos on their site, since the program is all video that makes sense, so PLEASE check out the links in my review to see more about Virtual Nerd. I have each link set so it will open in a new window... that way you don't loose your place on my blog!

If your child loves math or physics they may love Virtual Nerd. If they are struggling with upper level math or physics maybe Virtual Nerd can help. Their online nerds (tutors) will guide students into new understanding of difficult topics in Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Intro Physics. They expect to launch expanded coverage of Physics, as well as Chemistry, Pre-Calculus and Calculus in time for the 2011-2012 school year. They use a whiteboard and a teacher to explain topics that otherwise may stump your student.

A good first video to watch is the Intro Video on their main page.

Their Dynamic Whiteboard is unique... check out the link to see a demonstration. There is a section of the whiteboard that has the tutor and the whiteboard, this area is called the Video Window. The nerd writes on the board and you watch. It is just like watching a video on YouTube. But the Dynamic Whiteboard has more.

There is a Diagram Window, next to the video window, in the upper right. It gives you a visual summery of the key points. If your student is unsure of what a term means during the demonstration on the white board, they can hover their mouse over the Diagram Window and a new window will pop up with definitions and links to other topics, to further explain things. Any link you open during the presentation will open in a new whiteboard on top of the one you are currently doing. That way when you are done exploring that new topic you can go back and continue with the original topic by just clicking the x to close the top window.

Then there is the Feedback button... if you have further questions or still don't understand something there is a feedback button on the bottom of that pop up window. The feedback button also shows up at the end of the tutorial.

There is one more section to the Dynamic Whiteboard. The Step-by-Step window. This window takes notes for you during the video... if you click on one of the steps it will jump forward or backward in the video. Great for rewinding if you need to hear something over again or you can use the slide bar at the bottom of the window. There are also links to click in the Step-by-Step window that will take you to other topics.

At the end of the video they suggest other topics you may want or need to watch next.

The minimum requirements, for your computer, to use Virtual Nerd are:

• High speed Internet access and the ability to access the virtualnerd.com website
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) or above OR Mozilla Firefox 2 or above OR Apple Safari 2 or above OR Google Chrome 2 or above
• Flash Player 9 or above
• A computer capable of playing streaming video from the Internet (e.g., YouTube)
• Screen/display resolution of 1024x768 pixels

If you need access to any of these components Virtual Nerd has links on their Technical Requirements page.

So... how did I use Virtual Nerd in our homeschooling. First I looked at the topic my son was currently covering in his math program. Then I went onto the Virtual Nerd site and tried to find videos that covered the same topic. I found this extremely difficult. The curriculum we use and the Virtual Nerd site do not call things by the same name. There is a search box but that did not help much. I ended up just guessing about where he was and having him watch a couple of the videos. Then I did the same with my other son.

One of the problems I have with Virtual Nerd is that there is no way to track which videos you have watched unless you write them down yourself. The next day when we came into the site we had no idea what the boys had watched and where they should start now. It would be nice if under the main subscription name you could add the names of your students and track their viewing of the videos.

Another problem we had was that the videos were organized in such a way that topics lower down on the list were sometimes easier and already covered by my sons and so you could not even go down the topics in order... you had to skip around.

The actual videos were well done. The topics were well covered and explained and so the website is helpful if you could work out the other problems.

My boys did not really like Virtual Nerd and so we did not really use it much. But, my boys don't really have many problems with math and I am good in math. So, using the program we already have, we do really well. But maybe Virtual Nerd is just what you are looking for.

If you have more questions there is an FAQ page here... or you can check out the other reviews by my TOS crewmates... the link is further down.

So... how much does Virtual Nerd cost???

1 Day $5
1 Week $19
Monthly $49
3 Months $129
If you'd like to try them they offer a 2-hour free trial.
All subscriptions and the free trial can be found Here. One subscription does give you access to all the levels so if you have more than one student in the upper levels of math they can all use it.

Because of the price of Virtual Nerd I have to give it my Break the Bank button. I know that the price compared to private tutoring is probably great... it is just something we could never afford. One of the other problems I have with the service is that after your subscription ends you have nothing to hand down to younger children. You cannot save any of the tutorials and you have nothing tangible in your hands to keep.

To see what my other crew members have to say about Virtual Nerd check out the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

***Virtual Nerd provided me with a subscriptions to their site so that I could do my review. Though I received this product for free I have given an honest review of it here in this post.

all content on my blog is ©

UPDATE 02/10/11:
I meant to post this last week. I was going through my Google Reader clearing things out and looking at my friend's blogs and I saw someone's posting of this.

Virtual Nerd has announced a special offer to home educators on their 1 month and 3 month subscription service . Here is the offer they left me, you can see the original offer in the comments below also:

"We are pleased to inform you that because Virtual Nerd (www.VirtualNerd.com) has received such significant interest following your review of our online tutoring service, we are offering a special discount to homeschool parents. Homeschool parents can receive 50% off the 1 and 3 month subscription plans. Just enter the discount code: homeschooldeal when you sign up for service. That is a huge discount, and hurry - the offer is valid until March 31, 2011!"

The regular price for the 1 month subscription is $49.
The regular price for the 3 month subscription is $129.

Click HERE to get to Virtual Nerd's sign up page and don’t forget to enter the discount code so you can save 50% when you check out. Here is the code again in case you missed it: homeschooldeal

Leave me a comment and let me know if you decide to sign up, I'd be interested to know that.

When we did our Christmas Units I tried to do everything Christmas for those weeks... even math.  If you missed the post on the Unit Studies we used go HERE - Holiday Bliss - Day 3 - Christmas Unit Studies

Here are some links to Christmas Math (these are mostly for younger kids K-about 7th, maybe stretching it to 8th. By then my kids usually did their regular math book, as they were in pre-algebra by then, along with whatever study we were doing for the other subjects in Dec.)

These were the kids favorites -  http://www.kidzone.ws/math/christmas/index.htm

Others that are good -

• http://math.about.com/od/christmasmathworksheets/Christmas_Math_and_Worksheets.htm
•  http://math.about.com/od/christmasmathworksheets/a/xmaswp.htm  
• http://math.about.com/od/sudokupuzzles/ss/xmassud.htm   
• http://www.math-drills.com/christmas.shtml 
• http://www.northpole.com/Clubhouse/Games/Flashcards/ 
• http://fi.edu/school/math/holidays.html 
• http://fi.edu/school/math/merry.html 
• http://www.animaljr.com/free-printable-christmas-math-worksheets-addition-and-subtraction/ 
• http://www.classroomjr.com/christmas-math-worksheets/ 
• http://www.googolpower.com/content/free-learning-resources/seasonal-math/christmas 
• http://prek-8.com/holiday/Christmas/ChristmasMathWorksheets.php

Below are various links in sets by website: 


Kids will have fun learning their math family facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) with these...

• Snowman Math Families Twos 
• Winter Math Fact Families Threes 
• Gingerbread Math Fact Families Fours 
• Christmas Math Fact Families Fives

then there is this too...

Mitten Multiplication Math Worksheet 

******************************************************************

• Counting Ornaments - counting numbers to nine, Christmas theme 
• Christmas Addition - single digit, sums to 18 
• Doubles Addition - kindergarten, Christmas theme 
• Christmas Addition - no regrouping 
• Christmas Addition - regrouping 
• Christmas Addition - adding three digit numbers, no regrouping 
• Christmas Addition - adding three digits with regrouping 
• Christmas Multiplication - facts to 12 
• Christmas Multiplication #1 - 2-digit by 1-digit, no regrouping 
• Christmas Multiplication #2 - 2-digit by 1-digit, with regrouping 
• Christmas Division Practice #2 - 2-digit by 1-digit with remainder 
• Christmas Division Practice #3 - 3-digit by 1-digit no remainder 
• Christmas Division Practice #4 - 3-digit by 1-digit with remainder 
• Christmas Division Practice #5 - 4-digit by 1-digit no remainder

*********************************************************************************

Below you will find individual links to Christmas math stuff from Super Teacher Worksheets website but it may be easier to go from their main site so here is that link... the math stuff is partway down the page

• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas.html

or you can use these individual links...

• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mathpicture-additionnoregrouping-christmastree.pdf
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-addition-candle.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-counting-candle.pdf
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-counting-stocking.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-subtraction-stocking.pdf  
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-subtraction-candle.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mathpicture-subtractionnoregrouping-christmastree.pdf
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/math/christmas-fractions.pdf
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/math/christmas-money.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/Christmas-add-subtract-word.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-multiplication-candle.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-division-stocking.pdf  
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mathpicture-divisionremainders-christmastree.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-division-candle.pdf  
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mathpicture-2digitmultiplication-christmastree.pdf 
• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/christmas/mysterypicture-division-stocking.pdf

*******************************************************************************
I am giving you only the completely free stuff at edhelper... there is more if you have or get a subscription... I don't and never did. There is too much other free stuff online for me to justify paying for a membership here.

• http://www.edhelper.com/Christmas_Logic72.htm 
• http://www.edhelper.com/ChristmasMath80.htm 
• http://www.edhelper.com/ChristmasMath81.htm 
• http://www.edhelper.com/ChristmasMath82.htm 
• http://www.edhelper.com/ChristmasMath83.htm 
• http://www.edhelper.com/ChristmasMath84.htm 
• http://www.edhelper.com/ChristmasMath85.htm

That should get you started LOL... there may be more on Google but these are ones we have used and liked and this should be plenty for this year and many years to come.

*******************************************************************************
Update: A fellow blogger in one of my Yahoo Groups had a link on her blog for some online Math games Here is her blog...http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2010/12/advent-calendar-of-math-games.html
and here is the link to an Advent Calendar with a "mathematical game for each day during the build-up to Christmas.


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I was sent two Math Tutor DVD's to review for the TOS Crew. These DVD's are not a complete curriculum but would be a great as a supplement. The lessons are just like a teacher would teach with numerous examples for each topic to make sure the student understands how to use the information in as many ways as is applicable. No teacher prep is needed for using the DVD's. Just select the section your child is covering at the present time, or the topic he needs to review, and push play.

The Pre-Algebra Tutor: Volume 1
My son and I watched a number of sections of the Pre-Algebra DVD. You can see from the Sample Clips that the color DVD is of a teacher teaching using a white board. The lessons are thorough. Very thorough. They are intended for those studying pre-algebra. Age does not matter as much as readiness for this level of Math. My sons both covered this material in 7th grade. My daughters, however, did pre-algebra in 9th. The total run time of the DVD's is 5 Hours. 
Topics include:

• Real Numbers
• The Number Line
• Greater Than, Less Than, Equal ToAbsolute Value and Adding Integers
• Subtracting Integers
• Multiplying Integers
• Dividing Integers
• Powers and Exponents
• Order of Operations

Since Christopher already covered this level of material last year we only watched a couple of sections. Christopher said, "If I was still doing this level of math and if my curriculum did not already have DVD's then I would find these most useful." For him that is a complement. I agree with him. If your child is struggling of if your math curriculum does not have DVD's that go with it then I think these would be especially helpful. 

At this link you can find Sample Clips for Pre-Algebra
Price $26.99


The Texas Instruments TI-83 / TI-84 Calculator Tutor
Wow, these are awesome DVD's. We only wish we had the money and the need for the TI-83 or 84 to go along with them. Thanks to a crew mate we did find a way to download a calculator program with all the same buttons as the TI-83 for free so we could use these DVD's and try them.

My son soooo wishes he had this DVD when he was covering Geometry two years ago and last year for Algebra 2. He said, even so, that he learned some things about his cheaper calculator that doesn't have the graphing parts. If your child is going to be using a graphing calculator you just must buy this DVD. It may even be worth it to get if you only have the less advanced calculator. Some of the functions are the same.

These DVD's are sooo, sooo much easier to use than trying to read the booklets that they send in the packages with the calculators when you buy them. Having the visual of the calculator on the screen and seeing the buttons that are pushed, doing the same on your calculator makes it so easy to do and learn. There is a sample on the Math Tutor page that will show you how this DVD is set up and show you how wonderful it is too.

I will not list all the topics covered by these 3 DVD's. There are many of them and they are all listed on the TI-83 / TI-84 Calculator Tutor page.

• Logarithms and Square Roots
• Sin, Cos, Tan
• Graphing and Tracing Functions
• Drawing on a Graph
• Graphing Statistical Scatter Plots
• Calculating Mortgages and Loans

The total DVD run time for this set is 8 hours.
Price $26.99 Math Tutor promises that the DVD's will improve your usage of the TI-83 / TI-84 calculator or your money back! You can't beat that!

Please, also, check out my previous review of Math Tutor dvd's from last year's crew.

There are many, many levels of Math DVD's on the Math Tutor site, from counting to trigonometry and pre-calculus. Check them out, there may be one, or some, for you.

Out of five stars I give these Math Tutor DVD's that I received:
To see what my other crew members have to say about the Math Tutor DVD's check out the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

***Math Tutor provided me with the two DVD's above so that I could do my review. Though I received these products for free I have given an honest review of them here in this post.

WORLD MATH DAY, MARCH 3rd, 2010 - SET TO BREAK A GUINNESS WORLD RECORD.

World Math Day is free and lots of FUN!

Join in the celebration of numbers as students from around the globe unite in their quest to set a world record in answering mental arithmetic questions. Be a part of this great education event involving more than 2 million students from over 200 countries.

It's Free and Fun!

• Brand NEW format.  
• World Math Day is the education event for the world!  
• Your students will love it! Be part of setting a world record!  
• It will create an amazing buzz around Math  
• Designed for all ages and ability levels. Simple to register and participate. All you need is internet access.  
• Great prizes 

And it’s absolutely free!!
 
www.worldmathday.com

They have a blog with all kinds of interesting information about the
event, participants, media coverage, and statistics. And, of course, you can register, get
more information, or start practicing at www.worldmathday.com.

When we were sent Quarter Mile Math Deluxe Version my first thought was, oh no, more math stuff to review! This made the 4th math product for my son to use this year, so far.

However, this one is a keeper. It is fun for everyone!! Getting the rest of the family to join the boys and I, yes I played too, will be a challenge though. The girls and Court do not like Math. Hopefully we can get them into the spirit of things by challenging them to try and beat our time, and then we can all improve our math skills and speed.


Quarter Mile Math is a mental math, skills, practice program. You can choose to race with riderless horses in a field or with race cars. It is easy to install, easy to set up, and easy to play. You can race yourself and try and beat your previous times or race other family members. It made me want to race my kids on the same topics as they have done and see if I could beat them. They win at most everything these days, they are much smarter than I am, and way, way smarter than I was at their ages. I was so excited to find that I beat both of them... "Come on boys. Don't you want to play some more and try and beat Mom's time??" LOL

Christopher has been using this daily as part of his school. Just a few minutes to do a couple races and then on to other things. Nathan has just started using it, he was trying to beat my time... and lost. HA! We are trying to get the rest of the family involved.

On of the cool things about this program is the encouragement you get when you try and beat your own time or the time of others. It will track and average your best five races for you and if you improve by hundredth of seconds it can tell and proclaim you the winner. Check out some of the video on the Overview and Features pages, also check out the pdf list with the massive number of topics covered.

Quarter Mile Math:

• Was chosen for use in all 1,300+ Sylvan Learning Centers in the U.S. and Canada
• Is a self-competitive format—a top motivator
• Has a race format makes mental math practice exciting
• Has topics that cover K through pre-algebra
  (K-9^th grade)
• Has 70,000+ problems to keep boys, girls, and teens on their toes (adults too!!!)

The Deluxe Version has access to all the levels, all the math problems, for as long as you pay the subscription price. To see a comparison between the Deluxe and Standard see: Deluxe Version vs. Standard CD Version Comparison

Quarter Mile Math has just started a new page just for Homeschoolers Here. In that section you’ll find helpful resources like…
--- “Getting Started” (Information that will help you understand the basics of the Quarter Mile Math quickly and easily and help your kids jump right in to using it.)
--- “Tips & Info” (This will be an ongoing series of emails to help you make the most effective use of the program. Once emailed, they will be posted on this page. Anyone can sign up to receive these emails.)
--- “Printable Progress Chart” (Helps you keep track of students’ progress in The Quarter Mile Math.)
--- “Users’ Forum” (A place for homeschoolers to see how others are incorporating The Quarter Mile Math into their curricula.)

The Homeschool pages were just started this week so the forum is practically empty, but if you sign up you can become a part of the community and add your ideas to help other homeschoolers.

Out of 5 stars we give this:




Because of the following, I also give it my good value icon:
They recently added more affordable options for subscribing to the Deluxe version. Subscribers can now get it for…
--- $2.95 per family per month
--- $19.95 per family for one year (save $15.45 over one year) and
--- $34.95 per family for two years (save $35.85 over two years)


Go to the Order Now page and then click on each" order now" box for more details. With the Standard version you get a CD but with the Deluxe version you can get a CD or just download it if you want... saves $5.

You can also give it a try with a free Demo, then you can see if your kids (and you and your spouse) like it as much as we do, I know you will want to keep using this product.

What is ALEKS?

The following quote came from the people at ALEKS. "The acronym ALEKS stands for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces. It is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system."

Wow! that is a mouthful. ALEKS, to me, is an online, complete math program you can use with your children. You choose the level you think your child should start with. They will assess their current knowledge and then choose what things they should learn next.

Note: the screenshots below came from ALEKS and are not the ones from my kids account, with the exception of the e-mail from Christopher and the Create a Quiz screenshots. They are, I assure you, a very accurate picture of what my kids and I have found in using the program.
Below you will find a description of the essentials this program offers:

Student Account - these are some of the features the student gets to see and use.

Assessment: Students begin in ALEKS by taking an individualized, adaptive assessment to determine what they already know and what they are ready to learn next.

MyPie" src="http://www.aleks.com/homeschool/Student-Account_MyPie.jpg">

My Pie: The ALEKS Pie summarizes a student's current knowledge and offers topics that the student is ready to learn next. The darkened portion of each pie slice represents the topics that the student has mastered and the lighter portion represents what the student has yet to learn.

Christopher is trying to get as much of his pie done as he can. This is a great motivation to my kids. To see what they know and what they have left to cover to "graduate" to the next level.



Input Tools: ALEKS provides a free response environment and sophisticated input tools that avoid multiple choice and require students to demonstrate content mastery. Christopher loves the tools, especially the protractor.



Learning Mode: The Learning Mode provides students with practice problems, and offers explanations of topics and procedures as needed. Once a student has demonstrated mastery in the Learning Mode, the item is added to the ALEKS Pie, and new material that the student is now ready to learn becomes available.

One of the features Nathan likes most is the dictionary. In the lesson you can click on green underlined words to see what they mean. Nathan also likes the Explain button. If you are stuck on a certain type of problem it will tell you how to do that type of problem, then you can go on with your lesson.



Feedback: Students receive immediate feedback and, in some cases, suggestions for correcting mistakes. This is very helpful. I have been having a hard time getting my son Christopher to always reduce his fractions. I am hoping using this program will help him with this problem in particular. Immediate grading of each problem in the lessons makes it so the kids learn the correct way to do their math and helps them progress well. One of the things I was lax in last year was grading the boys math and so they, and I, did not know what they were getting wrong which just compounds the problem of wrong thinking upon wrong thinking with their math. Daily grading and correcting of their math is one thing I am determined to keep up with this year.

Master Account - these are the features for the teacher/parent


Master Account Homepage: Easily manage all student accounts, monitor student progress, view customized resources, and more. This is the part I use the most, of course: checking to see how much time the kids have spent doing their math, making quizzes for them, and checking their progress on the pie chart.

Teachers can see the same pie charts the student sees above with a few additions. The pie chart is especially useful. You can click on an arrow and see previous pie charts. See details of the other pages below.



Attendance Report: Track student time spent in ALEKS per day, the topics attempted, and the topics mastered and added to the ALEKS Pie.




Student Progress Report: Track student progress made throughout the course. The blue bar represents the percent of course material that the student has mastered during an ALEKS assessment; the green bar represents the percent of new topics the student has mastered in Learning Mode since the last assessment; and the yellow bar represents the percent of topics the student has yet to learn in order to complete the course.


Create a Quiz

Taking the quiz... that is the students job... creating the quiz... that is Mom's job.

Click on the picture above to see a close up.

ALEKS makes it easy for mom's to create quizzes for their kids by including a button you can click to "Create a recent knowledge Quiz". This automatically creates a quiz based on information your student has recently been reviewing. You can, of course, do a quiz topic by topic, but this makes it so easy that I have done all the boys quizzes this way.



Quiz Results: Quizzes are automatically graded and the results are available to both the parent and student immediately. An e-mail is sent to the parents inbox when the student has finished his quiz. View a detailed quiz results sample report (PDF).



E-mail

One of the things the boys and I have enjoyed is the e-mail. We each have our own e-mail but using the e-mail in the math program has been fun.

Please click on the screen shot below so you can see the details of this e-mail my 12yo son sent to me.

This is the best sales pitch for ALEKS math. This was not fabricated. This was sent by my son on August 11th and I did not even start my review until this week. When you have a 12yo boy who not only likes to do his math but wants to do more quizzes... well what more can be said.

They do have a family discount program which gives you a discount for each additional student you enroll. My sons like this program... in fact my youngest son loves it! Unfortunately the cost is out of our price range, even with the family discount. The other thing that makes it hard to spend the money for this is the fact that there is no tangible book or program to hand down to younger children. The math programs we have used, except for High School math which we borrowed from a friend, have been used by all my children and handed down and reused and most of them were purchased used to start with.

ALEKS is a Research-Based Online Program:

• Complete Curriculum Solution for Math with Access to Full Course Library
• No Textbook Required
• Artificial Intelligence Targets Gaps in Student Knowledge
• Assessment and Individualized Learning for Grades 3-12
• New and Improved Master Account - Includes Quizzing, Attendance Tracking, Automated Reports, and More
• Unlimited Online Access - PC and Mac Compatible
• QuickTables - Complimentary Math Fact Mastery Program for Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction

Out of five stars we give this program:

Since Christopher mentioned, in his e-mail to me, a problem we have with the program I will tell you what it is... the only problem we have is... the cost.

A subscription to ALEKS is

• $19.95 per student, per month, or
  
  
• only $99.95 every 6 months, or
  
  
• only $179.95 every 12 months.

They do have a family discount program which gives you a discount for each additional student you enroll. My sons like this program... in fact my youngest son loves it! Unfortunately the cost is out of our price range, even with the family discount. The other thing that makes it hard to spend the money for this is the fact that there is no tangible book or program to hand down to younger children.

We love this program... wish we could afford to keep it going at least for Christopher... but we can't. If you only have one child, or your student is having a struggle with a certain portion of math, this may be a good solution. Or, if money is not a problem but math is, than this would be perfect for you!

But because of the cost I have to give this my break the bank icon.

ALEKS has been kind enough to offer a free 1-month trial ($19.95 value) to my blog readers who are homeschoolers. They only offer a 48-hour trial directly from their website so this is a special offer only for homeschoolers who are new users to ALEKS!



You can always click on the box, sign up for your free month, and see if you like it enough to put out the money. I wish we could afford to keep it going after our review period is over. Christopher will greatly miss it. We were all grateful to have been able to try ALEKS Math and if our financial situation changes in the future a subscription to ALEKS is one thing I will be putting at the top of my wish list.

I hope you enjoyed this review,
I hope you will consider ALEKS math,
It truly is a great product,

Debbie