If you are looking to keep your elementary school kids' math facts sharp all summer long, the best website, hands-down is www.xtramath.org, and it's totally FREE.
Here is why I am such a fan:
Easy sign up. It is really easy to sign all your kids up under your name and email so you can have access to all their reports and progress, plus you can stay signed in so they don't have to remember passwords or registration numbers.
Intuitive teaching. Each day the kids take a progress quiz. The results of the progress quiz determine the questions they will be asked during their math session. Some problems are easy and some are more challenging, but there is a nice balance so the kids don't get too frustrated. Once they have mastered a problem, they move on to harder ones, but easy ones get rotated in to make sure they don't forget. They move up and on as they master certain equations. By the end, they really know their stuff and they know it quickly.
Reasonable time requirement. The entire session of Xtramath only lasts about 15 minutes each day. It's the perfect amount of time for kids who have a hard time committing to lots of extra homework, but it's amazing what can be accomplished in such a short amount of time, a real testament to the effectiveness of the site.
Measurable results. My kids love looking at their grid and their number to see how they have progressed. There is a grid of each addition problem asked, and if they have mastered it, it is in one color, if they know it but they need to be faster, it is in another color, and if they do not know it, it is in a different color. The visual representation along with their percentage is very motivational for all my kids.
Smart options. I love that kids can work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts separately or lump them together. It's fun to see their excitement when they pass one operation off and are able to move on to the next.
Simple tracking. As a parent, the tracking is awesome. You can see if they finished the whole session or left a part of it undone. You can also see how many days they completed Xtra Math and what their learning curve looks like. You receive an email once each week with progress updates, but nothing else.
As you can tell, we love this site at our house, especially during the summer. Each child completes one session every day and they get really great and fast at their facts. It's a fun way to keep up on math all summer long.
Do you have a favorite learning website for the summer?Labels: favorite, Mom Stuff, parenting, summer
