FactsFirst

 

We all know that memorizing our math facts will make math so much easier, that does not make learning them fun or even easy! 

As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew I received a free 90 day trial at Saxon's FactsFirst .

FactsFirst is an online math program from the publishers that brought you Saxon Math.

factsfirst was created for children to develop fluency in basic math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through placements tests, lessons, review, and practice.  Arcade style games reward students upon completion of a unit.

your student starts by setting up their avatar. My kids like doing these avatars and had a blast creating them.This image will fallow them through the lessons.

Each lesson is divided into 5 sections:

1. Learning two new facts

2.Using the communative property with the new facts

3. Practice time

4. A quiz

                                                                  5. Scoring of the lesson
At the beginning of the lesson the student is taught 2 new facts, they practice these till they know them before more are added.

 

At the end of the lesson their is a chart to show the student his/her progress, very encouraging!

Here is a picture of this chart. 

After your child is done with the lesson they get to spend 5 minutes in the arcade games, to practice what they are learning.

So how did this work for us?  My kids want to improve on their math facts and this has really helped. First they are given credit for knowing the answer, a check mark on the chart, but if they get it fast they get a check mark plus!!! So being a bit competitive with themselves they quickly aimed for the best!!!  The lessons are quick and encourage speed, meaning they really must learn the facts well to beat the clock. This was a bit difficult in the beginning for my 8 year old but she is really picking up her speed now, and that is the goal.

A 1 year subscription to FactsFirst costs $49.99.  That price gives you a household license for up to 4 students, less than $12.50 per student for an entire year of math practice.  You can try the addition or multiplication demo HERE (buttons at the top of page).

Quarter Mile Math

We have been reviewing the Quarter Mile Deluxe Edition. This is a creative, online subscription based computer game that makes math drill fun! When kids hear about "drilling math facts" they instantly think boring! Not the case with Quarter Mile. This application is way more than flashcards. The Quarter Mile is easily installed in a few minutes and is quick and easy to learn. The format of this game is a race of either cars or horses.
(For those of us who would want to avoid the idea of horse racing and gambling I quote Christopher of the Quarter Mile) "we know that some families are sensitive to the issue of horse racing. This might be because of the association with gambling. Because of this, horses in the Quarter Mile Math don’t have jockeys and they race on a grassy meadow. (Of course, the likelihood of getting wild horses to run in a straight line in a meadow is very low, but you get the idea!) We refer to them as “riderless horses” and avoid using phrases like “horse race” or “race horse.”
The faster your child answers the problem the faster their car or horse moves. For the first 5 races, you race against "Fast Eddy" who is actually a bit on the slow side, so your child is sure to win right off the bat. From that point on your child races against his or her own best time.
One of the best features of this program is that the game is able to detect even the smallest improvements, this feature provides constant encouragement to your child. Beating their own best score is both the challenge and the motivator that keeps my kids playing over and over again and when you hear your child say, "just one more race Mom" you know they are enjoying the learning process.

The topics in the Quarter Mile go far beyond basic math facts, with skills from kindergarten level to pre-algebra, problem skills in fractions, decimals, percents and estimation. With 70,000 available math problems you kids are not going to out grow this anytime soon.

My kids are really enjoying the learning experience, and I love that they are improving their math skills. A few of the many benefits of Quarter Mile are: Game play builds confidence quickly, and my math challenged kids are having fun while learning. The children are experiencing "winning" with math and they want to play (learn) more, and that makes me happy! :-)

Here are some of the features of this deluxe program: The children can use any of our Internet ready computers, since their scores are recorded on the online Barnum server. There is also a report that you can generate for each child that will show all of their races and times, this allows you to monitor their progress. Up to 12 people can use it, this is great for large families like mine. All this is available for $19.95 per year ( or $2.95 per month)
The standard version is also available. You can see a comparison of the standard version verses the deluxe version here

The web site also has a page just for homeschoolers that will help you set up a family tournament, print out progress charts plus several articles that you can read for additional information.

I recommend The Quarter Mile Math! If you would like to read more reviews of the Quarter Mile please click here

A special offer for crew review readers from the Quarter Mile: $5.00 off of either the Deluxe or standard product with code: 7B7W7
This offer is good till September 30, 2009