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Anyone use DreamBox as a supplement?


naturegirl7
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Looking for a fun game style supplement for math. He loves Reflex but that only helps for math fact fluency. We are doing the DreamBox trial right now and he seems to be having fun. I like that it covers multiple math topics and seems to adjust to him. Does it has staying power though? Staying power in terms of it is still fun 6+ months later and staying power in terms of promoting math mastery. Any pros/cons I should consider before purchasing it?

TIA!

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My younger uses Dreambox as a supplement.  It's mostly really good.  A few of the exercises and tools are hard to use, but that is the minority.  It's true you don't get detailed problem by problem reporting like you do with IXL, but the math is a huge step up from IXL, which is basically just a computerized worksheet, all multiple choice style.  Dreambox is really conceptual, it's all about understanding numbers, place values, and operations.

 

I don't know how old your son is, but you should be aware that there are two different workspaces - younger kids use a very story-based workspace, K-2 I think. I found with that my dd tended to spend more time playing than doing math.  But the 3rd & up workspace is much cleaner - there are still games and incentives, but much more time is spent actually working on the math.

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My kids have used it and enjoyed it...what I love about it is that is assess your child constantly and changes the material presented based on how accurately and quickly they are answering.  This was great for my little guy who loves math...it bumped him up two grade levels withing a couple of days to the point where he was being challenged.  Only downfall is that he decided to "help" his little brother out and soon the math was too advanced for the little one.  A quick phone call to their very helpful customer service and we had him reset :).  There are some odd bits, some of the exercises befuddle me (invasion of "new math" I think...I'm sure it would make sense if I'd done the exercises leading up to it!), but overall it is a hit here, and it's fantastic for when I'm busy with one and another one needs to do math.

 

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Did anyone else find it too repetitive and slow? We tried the one-month trial, and after a couple of weeks my DD had just had enough, they went through the same material overandoverandover again before she was allowed to progress to the next task, ten repetitions of the same concept before her flower grew enough, or whatever, to move on.

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My son prefers the Prodigy math game to Dreambox.

 

Can you tell me anything more about how this works? Or maybe to other threads discussing, I have a vague memory of such things existing.

 

I signed Morgan up this afternoon, and 5 hours later, she is completely in love.  She's having a blast. She has been doing math ALL DAY!  :hurray:

 

But I'm not clear on if it has any kind of instruction, or if it's just for practice? She's gotten some problems on things she hasn't covered at all yet, like multiplying decimals. I'm not clear on if she's supposed to just miss those, and it helps the learning algorithm, or how it works?   I need to dig through the videos, just haven't had time to yet.

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Did anyone else find it too repetitive and slow? We tried the one-month trial, and after a couple of weeks my DD had just had enough, they went through the same material overandoverandover again before she was allowed to progress to the next task, ten repetitions of the same concept before her flower grew enough, or whatever, to move on.

 

we found it only repeated material if they were making errors or responding too slowly.  When my daughter got frustrated I pointed out that wandering off to play with the dog between each question meant the programme thought she working the whole time and struggling.  Once she actually focussed it got the message and moved her on.

 

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I agree that some of the modules seem poorly devised. Once DS transitioned to the upper-elementary environment, the activities seemed pretty hit-or-miss in terms of efficiacy and reception.

 

DD appreciates that it's not timed exercises (which causes her tremendous anxiety, even if it's just a clock counting up). 

 

I don't find it particularly useful for reinforcing arithmetic facts, but can help expand mathematical concepts. 

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Ok, here's my comparison of Dreambox & Prodigy, with the caveat that I've been around Dreambox for several months and Prodigy just for a day.  Also keep in mind I'm looking at the Grade 3-5 interface on Dreambox. The K-2 interface is very different, much more gamey/story, and I found that my dd spent a lot of time playing on it but little time actually doing math.  The 3-5 interface has been much better.

 

Dreambox Pros - the math is challenging, and conceptual. It reminds me a lot of Beast Academy. There is a ton of focus on decomposing numbers, using the distributive property, really understanding place value, and understanding how the operations relate.  Also on multiple ways to solve problems.  Example:  16 x 24.  You don't know your 16 times tables? No problem! Multiple by 8 then double.  Or multiply by 10 and then by 6 and add the results.  It gives the kids a lot of tools for problem solving. It's pretty advanced - I started my dd back on the 3rd grade material at the beginning of this year, because I wanted review, and it's been good She's worked through ~1/2 of the 3rd grade and maybe 1/4 of the 4th grade material so far.  I really like the reports, I can see what she's completed and what is coming up from the Parent dashboard. You can't see individual problems they've missed or anything, but you can see exactly what they are working on and how they are coming on completing it.

 

Cons - at first, it offered very little variety. I guess this was during the initial diagnostic phase, but for the first week or two, she got the same, very limited selection of the kinds of problems she was given to work on.  That has resolved, now there is a lot of variety and she can choose what she wants to do.  Also, a few of the tools are really wonky and hard to use - I've found that for one or two of them, the frustration factor in trying to figure out the tool outweighs any benefit. In one case I just went in and did all the lessons that used that tool, so she wouldn't get bogged down and discouraged.  I had a hard time doing it, too! So it was definitely a bad tool.  Also, for 3rd grade mastery you do get timed tests for multiplication. Some of them are really hard, not just basic facts, they require decomposing or using the distributive property.  My dd gets really flustered with timed tests, so this is another component I will let her skip over.  

 

All in all, it's been a good tool for independent, conceptual math practice.  It has held her attention for a couple of months, pretty solidly.

 

Prodigy

Pros - the game!  My dd loves it. She loves the character, the world, the pets.  She finds it really fun and thus spent many hours solving math problems yesterday. We'll have to see how long the interest lasts. But they've definitely created an engaging game and world, so huge kudos for that.  

 

Cons - The math is definitely easier than Dreambox - basic problems checking understanding of the algorithm.  They do have to type in the answers rather than just picking a multiple choice, that is good, but it doesn't have the deeper number sense type problems. Dd placed into 5th grade in Prodigy, and quickly showed her mastery of basic arithmetic, so now it keeps giving her more of the problems she "struggled" with.  Decimals and multi-digit multiplication.  Well, see, we haven't covered that yet, she's just a beginning 4th grader, and we won't cover that stuff till later in the year. Will it keep giving her problems like that, that she doesn't know how to do, and get her frustrated? Or will it learn that she doesn't know that and back off a bit? It doesn't seem to have any teaching component at all, it just provides practice over what the student has already learned in class, it seems.  You can override what it wants to give your student by setting assignments, but the assignment problems I could choose from all looked pretty basic, at least at the 4th grade level.  I had to go to the 5th and 6th grade assignments to find problems that would practice what we are covering in Beast Academy. So I'd definitely not consider it accelerated.  I'm also not loving the reports, it seems to just show me what she's "struggling" with, not what she has achieved or accomplished, other than telling me she has tested into 5th grade.

 

That's my admittedly fairly ignorant 2 cents.  If I'm mischaracterizing Prodigy, I'd love to hear more from someone who is using it.

 

ETA: Ok, I stand corrected, dd found the teaching component of Prodigy, and is now busy learning how to round decimals.  :lol:

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Did anyone else find it too repetitive and slow? We tried the one-month trial, and after a couple of weeks my DD had just had enough, they went through the same material overandoverandover again before she was allowed to progress to the next task, ten repetitions of the same concept before her flower grew enough, or whatever, to move on.

 

This is what happened here, too. We tried it last year and dd was about ready to throw the computer out the window. It was fun for about a week, then she got so, so sick of dragging circles into the grids over and over. K5learning and Prodigy are much better choices, imo. 

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We've used it for several years with my DD8, and started last spring with DS5. I wouldn't say either of them love it, but it is an effective screen-time fun math. DS5 uses RightStart B and I think Dreambox is a great supplement to that program in particular. If you asked my DD8 if it is repetitive and sometimes boring, I'm certain she'd say yes. I don't think that's a bad thing when it comes to the basics. Lately, she's been doing a lot of double-digit addition and subtraction problems, and the repetition has really sharpened her in mental math skills. She always had the algorithm down cold on paper, but didn't stretch her mental game much. Dreambox is forcing her to do that now.  

 

I agree with Rose that the math is pretty challenging and definitely conceptual in approach. For us, it's an unqualified success as a supplement, since we use two programs stressing this style of math. Definitely worth the discounted price through HSBC for kids who find the program appealing.

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We used dreambox as a supplement in first. I thought it did a good job enforcing or reviewing math concepts similar to Singapore concepts. It was not good for fluency. And if concepts are solid it does advance the student and teach. It was good for us in a limited fashion but I realized DS doesn't really need it. He understands the concepts so he doesn't need a fourth way to regroup though it's not a bad skill. I think it would be helpful if you want a solid fun math program that enforces concepts. We usually do read alouds during free time but having a math game option is good too.

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We have used it for almost two years now. It is supplemental to our main math. It isn't necessary, but I do find it a nice way to add a supplemental approach/problem topics without over-doing math each day. My preK just started using it, and I think it really will be better after she gets some more RS A under her belt. The subutizing in the beginning is still too hard for her, and she guesses a lot.

 

My 3rd grader is working mostly 5th grade topics, and my 5th grader is working a range from 4th to 8th grade topics. I like this aspect of differentiation. Also there are topics we've already covered in their main math book that become a nice review when they are on DreamBox.

 

My kids sometimes ask to play DreamBox, but more often I assign them an amount of time doing it (15-30 minutes depending). On crazy days with major interruptions, we're traveling, or if I have to leave Dad as substitute I have them do DreamBox for 40+ minutes and that's the extent of their math that day.

 

We got subscriptions through HSBC.

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