This post is sponsored by MathsOnline.
MathsOnline Reviews
Up until this Christmas, we never had iPads in the house. There are a few kids apps on our phones, sure, and the TV has Youtube on it but there was very little purposeful screentime. For the six months leading up to Christmas though, I felt like the kids were really wanting to spend more time online and although I know what I should have been doing (investing time and money in setting them up with good quality online content and activities) it just wasn’t happening. MathsOnline Reviews
We had a chat, decided that it was time and bought them an iPad each. With the intention of encouraging conscious screentime consumption. There are so many great resources out there and we should be taking advantage of them, rather than just letting the kids watch other kids open stuff on Youtube. MathsOnline Reviews
So when MathsOnline contacted me to see if I would review their product – It’s a subscription-based online maths tutor – I figured I may as well give it a shot. I didn’t expect too much considering the fact that we weren’t actively looking for tutoring… but I did want some good-quality iPad activities for the kids.
Both of the kids are doing fine at school, I mean, it’s a bit early to tell with the little one, but we have never had any reason (yet) to look into tutoring for any subject. I am always aware though, that it doesn’t take much to fall behind in maths. And when you have kids who travel comfortably in the middle of the class and don’t make a lot of noise, then they can very easily just cruise short of their potential, or start slipping below. So I set it up and sat with my daughter to do one of the lessons. Within the first minute, she said, “oh, I didn’t understand that really when we did it in class.” MathsOnline Reviews
It was such a light bulb moment. That one lesson could easily have been the thing that put her at a disadvantage. In year two they are learning the basics of everything and without a solid base – progressing can be really difficult. MathsOnline reviews
The way the program works is, the maths curriculum of each state (k-12) is broken up into individual lessons that all come with a video and group of questions. You log in, choose what year your child is in (or what level they are working at) and pick the lesson you want to learn/repeat. It basically gives every parent the ability to become their child’s maths tutor. Game changer, right?
I can see how valuable it would be for any child who is struggling and looking for an online maths tutor – that’s a given. But it’s also good for kids who aren’t really being challenged and could benefit from working ahead. And if you’re homeschooling it would be THE hugest help!
Because it’s not an app (you access the website online) there aren’t really a lot of colours or bells and whistles to get kids hooked, so I did need to sit with them and do it so they stayed focused but there is no other reason they couldn’t have both worked independently at the ages of 5 and 7. MathsOnline Reviews
From my perspective (as someone who has worked in classrooms a lot) it was very easy to support Scout in the learning. Because of this I actually asked hubby to have a go, just so I could get the opinion of someone who hasn’t ever taught kids maths before. He was so impressed. Like, legitimately stoked with the platform.
Here are the MathsOnline Features
- Parent hub where you can set tasks and review results.
There are some really cool features in this, my favourite being that you can set a task and remove the label of what ‘year’ it is for. So if you do have a child who is working behind, they don’t need to be reminded that the work they are doing is for a younger grade level than them. - Child paced programs, and from a Montessori perspective – this is everything.
Because when you purchase the subscription, you are free to travel around the programs as you see fit, there is no limit to what your child can do. If they are really good at some aspects of their math’s curriculum but behind at others, then the same child can work at two different levels simultaneously. - Choose to skip, or repeat different lessons. MathsOnline ReviewsMathsOnline Reviews It’s all there so you can skip over things they know, repeat lessons they really love and basically just double down on what needs to be done.
- Weekly email reports.Life gets busy and it can be hard to really be on top of all the things, you know? SO the weekly reports serve as a great update, but also a reminder to keep up with your child’s needs and schedule in tasks.
- Audio options. A lot of the time, kids who have trouble reading can score worse than they should at maths because they don’t understand what the question is asking of them. There is a little speaker icon next to all of the questions so kids who aren’t quite there in the reading stakes can still do their work independently. My five year old loved this feature.
So how do you get it?
Maths Online is usually priced at $197/12 months for a single student or $297/12 months for a family but they are giving Patchwork Cactus readers the chance to receive 18 months online maths tutoring for the price of 12. And if you’re not impressed they have a 12-month money back guarantee. Just click here if you want 18 months for the price of 12.
I feel like we are on the right track when it comes to consciously consuming screen time, now I have a bunch of apps to encourage their creativity, they are texting the whole family and that’s helping them with their reading and the new rule is; make sure you do some maths before you’re allowed on Youtube.
Happy days.
FYI, I actually hate the term ‘screentime’, more about that here.
