Math – I have never been particularly good at it. I plugged along doing my best, and usually received As and Bs in the lower school grades. I struggled hard in high school, and while Algebra was doable, I barely passed Geometry. Neither of my parents had finished high school, so I did not have much help at home either.
While Hubby is decent at math, Genius is excelling at a rate that has us both baffled, and find good curriculum has been tough. We decided to use books from Canada this year, as their math is a bit more advanced than what is usually taught at grade level here.
When I joined the TOS Crew to review homeschooling material, I was introduced to Aleks, a no-holds-barred, every-child-for-themselves approach to math. In a good way. What I mean by this is, you pick a course where you feel your child should fit, the child does an assessment, and voila, you find out whether that is the course they should be in, they should perhaps do an earlier course, or they know the material and can do more advanced work. In other words, just because Andy, Amy and Chris are all in 7th grade, they could each fit into a different place using this math curriculum.
Done all online with a quick download to use the program, I was right away impressed by the set up of this program. The parent has a master account, where they can see their child or children’s accounts and what they have learned on a day to day basis. The billing information, reports, assessments and course information is all available from this master parent account. While you can view the reports for each child right from this account, you can also have the report link sent to you via email if that is more convenient.
After the child has done an initial assessment, and you choose to remain or change courses, the child acquires a pie. The pie is divided into how many broad items that need to be mastered, and each time your child masters an item within the broader spectrum, it gets colored in. It is a great visual tool to encourage the child to continue on in the course.
Aleks is so user friendly. The child gets a tutorial on how to enter the problem answers into the program, after they have done the math on paper. They provide a number of ways to solve an equation if the child is having difficulties with a certain concepts. Also if the student is having troubles, they have the opportunity to move on to a different topic and come back to that area at a later time.
My favorite part about Aleks is the fact that they continue over and over to review the facts already learned. Each day the child gets review from previous concepts, and during the course itself, assessments will occur again. That is so important to me, that the concepts remain fresh, and are continuously reviewed, so that they are completely mastered.
Genius loves using it, and is excited to do math each day!
One more thing I’d love to point out as a pro to this program is their customer service. They are quick, helpful and easy to deal with. That is always important to me when I purchase a product, and when it comes to something that I’m not overly comfortable or familiar with, even more so.
The only con I could find, is that there is no grading system. At the lower age levels before high school, I believe this is unimportant. If the child completes the course, they have mastery of the concepts whether they finish it in one week or one year, or two years. However, I find with high school, grades would be helpful. The transcripts are difficult enough for a parent to put together, but when no actually grading is involved a little tougher. From what I’ve understood from other TOS Crew participants there is a way that parents can work grading into the program themselves, but it would be much simpler if the program did it for them.
All in all I’m extremely impressed with Aleks. I was able to try the program out for two months, thanks to their generosity. They have a number of price points, One month for $19.95, $99.95 for 6 months, and $179.95 for one year.
They have offered a one month free trial, for anyone that is interested reading this post. If you go to this link, http://www.aleks.com/webform/
Tammy’s blog is located at Three Different Directions. Check out some posts from her Disney Vacation!
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