A+ Interactive Math gave me the opportunity to review some of their Math-Mini Courses. Since we are pretty set on what we do for our core mathematics, I thought it might be fun to use the mini courses for teaching Daniel (5) time and money. Daniel is roughly halfway through 2nd grade math with his main math curriculum, so I thought he would be ready for these concepts.
- Multimedia Lessons that teach math concepts with fun, colorful and engaging computer animated video lessons, audio and text.
- Interactive Review for each lesson that helps students/parents identify and close learning gaps.
- Worksheets that provide extra practice to help master each math concept.
- Automatic grading and tracking.
- Easy-to-read progress reports.
- Solution Guides that provide detailed step-by-step solutions with visuals to each problem on worksheets.
- Full text versions of lessons that provide additional flexibility for those who like to read through the lessons.
- Printable worksheets and tests for practice offline
For the TIME Course there are 20 interactive lessons.
Daniel started the course, eagerly. He loves anything on the computer. But right away I noticed a problem. It jumps into the topic as though the student has some base knowledge. It uses terms like: Midnight and then asks: “Do you know when Midnight is? If you said Twelve O’clock at night, you’re right.”
“Do you know the days of the week? If so, let’s say them together. Do you know the months of the year? If so, let’s say them together.” And it immediately discusses 12 months in a year, how many weeks are in a year, etc.
In the end of the lesson it reviews: 1 day =24 hours, 7 Days=1 Week, about 4 weeks = a month, 365 days = a year, and 52 weeks= a year were all covered in one brief lesson. Even though Daniel is broadly familiar with all these ideas, it was a lot of words and a lot of numbers for him to hear in one lesson. He was overwhelmed. After the lesson, there are quizzes to make sure the concepts are understood.
Here’s how the first question went:
What is true about a day:
- A . A day starts at midnight and ends the next midnight
- B. A day is how long it takes the earth to rotate on it’s axis completely around.
- C. A day is 24 hours long
- D All of the above.
Since Daniel had just heard from the video that a day starts at midnight and ends the next midnight, he picked that answer. It immediately told him: I am sorry, that is incorrect. Then the program repeats the entire section of the video for all of the correct answers. He was very confused by this because the first answer was actually correct. Once he was told he was incorrect, he really could not follow the immediate explanation that said exactly what he had chosen. The video does continue to explain all the answers, but by then, he was lost.
For an older student, or one more familiar with all these terms, this would have been a pretty quick and easy review. For Daniel, it was not helpful. He actually got agitated and declared he did not want to continue. This was very unusual for my very eager learner, who typically loves math and computer learning games.
I realized I had chosen a program that was not suitable for him, so we switched to the program on MONEY. The money program has 18 lessons.
It began with Pennies, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters. It uses the term: US Currency. Then says: Can you tell me all the coins used in US Currency? If you said, Penny, Nickle, DIme and Quarter, you are correct. (Daniel stared blankly).
Then it went into the characteristics of each coin (the metal and it’s physical characteristics) including how much each one is worth.
Then it immediately quizzed them on the interactive video. “How much is a dime worth” (Pause) “If you said ten cents, you got it right! Good job:” Again, he started blankly. It was a lot of new words
This brief video covered lots of words and the worth of all the coins, including their descriptions so quickly, that when it was time for the quiz, he failed to progress. “What U.S. Coin is brown, made of copper and worth one cent?” From the video with so many unknown words, he had no idea what to answer. Very quickly he started soliciting the his of his siblings to get through the quiz. No one likes to miss every question.
For these reasons, I did not feel like the program was a good fit for Daniel. I think it might be better suited for an older child who can absorb the material very quickly, but I did not have an older child to test on this because they all already know time and money concepts. It may be a very good review for a student who knew some things about time or money, but who needed a refresher or review.
The video did have crisp, clean great graphics and a very clear narrative voice.
The good news is that if you are considering A + Interactive math, they have many opportunities to try things for free using free trials, so if you get into it and love it, your child can get into it, but if you try it and realize it is not a good fit, you have not wasted any money. I really appreciate free trials of products that I have not used and often find some of our favorite things this way.
