sbgrace Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Those who use or have used MathWhizz-is this program conceptual math (ala Singapore type conceptual) or more rote? Did your child burn out or come to dislike the program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 :lurk5: Would like to know, we never made it fast the "testing" stage during free trial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtney.byrum Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 My kids enjoyed the free trial but I wasn't sure about purchasing so I'd love to hear info too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 (edited) Our 8.5 yo uses it. He is doing very well with it. I am not sure about the "style" question but it is more than just problems on a screen. They animate the process to explain things. He also uses Dreambox...Math Whizz is more like "paper math" than Dreambox is, but it's more illustrated/animated than some of the "math practice" sites appear to be. It is more than just problems on a screen and timed drills. But after the animated lesson and practice, they also have to do problems that are just problems on the screen, like they would get on a test. He is doing really well with Math Whizz. He is moving ahead in Math Whizz much faster than he does with Dreambox. It's teaching him decimals, money math (in pence and pounds ! :lol:), converting between cm and m, dividing by "parsing" (something I did not learn until college :eek: ). He is very proud of his progress ! He is also quite motivated through the lessons by the things he can buy with his points in Math Whizz. I am glad I found Math Whizz because he is about to the end of Dreambox. Sometimes the accent is challenging, and the words are a little different. Once he got through understanding the accent and what "naught" means, etc, he's done very well with it. Math Whizz also shows progress bars with more detail than Dreambox does, and calculates your child's "math age". I'm keeping our almost 6 yo K-er on Dreambox for a while because it is gentler and slower. I will get him into Math Whizz when he is a little further along. Edited September 17, 2011 by laundrycrisis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 I'm keeping our almost 6 yo K-er on Dreambox for a while because it is gentler and slower. I will get him into Math Whizz when he is a little further along. Thank you for replying! So is MathWhizz engaging or am I probably going to struggle with a math hater as much as I do now with pencil/paper math? My boys are 2nd grade, 7 years old. One is math resistant to put it mildly. Would you pick Dreambox or MathWhizz? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Thank you for replying! So is MathWhizz engaging or am I probably going to struggle with a math hater as much as I do now with pencil/paper math? My boys are 2nd grade, 7 years old. One is math resistant to put it mildly. Would you pick Dreambox or MathWhizz? Math Whizz is very engaging for our 8 yo. He does not like pencil and paper math because he is dysgraphic and having to do it with a pencil makes him distracted and miserable. Math Whizz does try to move along a bit faster than Dreambox does. I would not use it for a kid who is easily frustrated or needs extra time to absorb concepts before having to do problems without help. Math Whizz is more challenging for him than Dreambox. He likes math though, as long as it doesn't involve a pencil, and he is enjoying the challenge and the pace. You can get a free 3 month trial of Dreambox: http://www.savvymom.ca/index.php/newsletter/playsavvy_and_learn/ After this trial, I subscribed two kids, so it worked out well for Dreambox to give enough free time to try it for the summer. IMO Dreambox spends more time exploring something in several different ways and making sure they really understand it before moving on. Homeschool Buyers Coop currently has a 50% deal for one year of Math Whizz, and I believe there is a free trial period available for that too. I initially looked at Math Whizz because Dreambox only goes through grade 3 and he is going to finish it soon. If he was in grade 2 I would probably have just kept him on Dreambox for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabelen Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Math Whizz is very engaging for our 8 yo. He does not like pencil and paper math because he is dysgraphic and having to do it with a pencil makes him distracted and miserable. Math Whizz does try to move along a bit faster than Dreambox does. I would not use it for a kid who is easily frustrated or needs extra time to absorb concepts before having to do problems without help. Math Whizz is more challenging for him than Dreambox. He likes math though, as long as it doesn't involve a pencil, and he is enjoying the challenge and the pace. You can get a free 3 month trial of Dreambox: http://www.savvymom.ca/index.php/newsletter/playsavvy_and_learn/ After this trial, I subscribed two kids, so it worked out well for Dreambox to give enough free time to try it for the summer. IMO Dreambox spends more time exploring something in several different ways and making sure they really understand it before moving on. Homeschool Buyers Coop currently has a 50% deal for one year of Math Whizz, and I believe there is a free trial period available for that too. I initially looked at Math Whizz because Dreambox only goes through grade 3 and he is going to finish it soon. If he was in grade 2 I would probably have just kept him on Dreambox for a while. :iagree:I used MathWhizz this last year over Dreambox with my 1st grader as a supplement to her regular school math. I personally liked Dreambox better but went with MathWhizz instead because my dd preferred its style and rewards. I won't be using either this year because our school has Time4Learning for free and will be using that instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest submarines Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 My 9 yo has been using it for just over 4 months now. She started almost a year "behind" and as a reluctant math learner, but caught up in the first 2 months and learned a lot. I like how math whizz illustrates the concepts with animations, and I'd say it is definitely quite conceptual. Also, DD does most of it in her head, and I think that's a great skill. She was really into it when she did it daily. We recently had various family members visit, and then we went on a trip, so she lost her rhythm. She does seem a bit burnt out now, but I'm not sure whether it is the program, or the fact that she hasn't been doing is consistenly in the last month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest submarines Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Thank you for replying! So is MathWhizz engaging or am I probably going to struggle with a math hater as much as I do now with pencil/paper math? My boys are 2nd grade, 7 years old. One is math resistant to put it mildly. Would you pick Dreambox or MathWhizz? I'd say a lot depends on the level they are at, and attention span. I like how Dream box has short exercises, and gently switches to another exercise, after several mistakes in a row. I also really like how they instill a very visual and organic understanding of numbers. I think it is a wonderful, solid base for future math. I'd definitely start with the free trial on dreambox, and see how they are doing. Another advantage of dreambox, you subscribe for 6 months at a time. It ends up being the same price as MathWhizz (if on sale via the co-op), but you are not tied to it for the entire year. If Dreambox is not working, I'd go with Math Whizz. I believe that Dream box is much more beneficial for K-3 than MathWhizz for the same years. Math Whizz is great for grades 3-4 (and hopefully the subsequent grades as well), but can be too tedious for younger kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 My 7yrs old daughter who hates math and struggles with it wanted me to teach her multiplication all of a sudden so she can answer the problems correctly on Mathwhizz. In fact school was technically over and she and her sister both signed on mathwhizz for fun. They really want those pets and to feed them. So so so cute. Is the subscriptions worth it? Right now it is just the free trial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Math Whizz is very engaging for our 8 yo. He does not like pencil and paper math because he is dysgraphic and having to do it with a pencil makes him distracted and miserable. Math Whizz does try to move along a bit faster than Dreambox does. I would not use it for a kid who is easily frustrated or needs extra time to absorb concepts before having to do problems without help. Math Whizz is more challenging for him than Dreambox. He likes math though, as long as it doesn't involve a pencil, and he is enjoying the challenge and the pace. You can get a free 3 month trial of Dreambox: http://www.savvymom.ca/index.php/newsletter/playsavvy_and_learn/ After this trial, I subscribed two kids, so it worked out well for Dreambox to give enough free time to try it for the summer. IMO Dreambox spends more time exploring something in several different ways and making sure they really understand it before moving on. Homeschool Buyers Coop currently has a 50% deal for one year of Math Whizz, and I believe there is a free trial period available for that too. I initially looked at Math Whizz because Dreambox only goes through grade 3 and he is going to finish it soon. If he was in grade 2 I would probably have just kept him on Dreambox for a while. Anynoe try to sign up for this trial lately? It's not working for me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 RightStart people will love DREAMBOX! We are using the trial Dreambox and definitely adding it to our home. This is exactly what I have been looking for! My older daughters love Math Whizz. We will probably add that to our home. They are playing these on their day off from school!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted November 24, 2011 Author Share Posted November 24, 2011 I did the dreambox trial after it was posted in this thread (thank you!) It's been a great success here. I knew very quickly it was going to work. So even if you can't do the 3 month trial I think the shorter trial period would be enough to see if it fits the child. My math hater gladly does dreambox and it's really well done as a program--conceptual math, heavy on place value, adjusts to the child, etc. I am going to invest in the program when our trial runs out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hope in God Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I really liked Math Whizz for a few months but I find they just move too fast and don't get the hint that a child is not ready to learn a concept. The problem that we are having with both children is that Math Whizz continues to give the same problems, even if the child gets all of them wrong. It can't seem to scale back to easier concepts so both of my children have hit a wall and no longer want to do Math Whizz because they "hate it" and "it is too hard". Interestingly, my friend is having the same problem with her daughter. I will try dreambox. It may be a better fit. Is it more like reading eggs in that it progresses slowly and comfortably- for math of course? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I will try dreambox. It may be a better fit. Is it more like reading eggs in that it progresses slowly and comfortably- for math of course? Yes, Dreambox is more dynamic about adjusting the difficulty depending on how the child is doing with the problems. Math Whizz seems to only go forward. When our son gets stuck in Math Whizz, he has to take some time off the program while we work on it at the table, and then go back into the program. With Dreambox, if he hits a wall, it detects that and circles him back to earlier concepts. IMO Math Whizz is better practice for practicing school-type paper and pencil problems, but Dreambox is better for really getting concepts nailed down. I love Dreambox and I wish he wasn't almost to the end of it. I know they are working on a program for beyond 3rd grade, because I got an email about beta testing it, but I don't know when it will be out. I have also wondered about Aha math and how it compares to Dreambox and Math Whizz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggermom Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 My 10 year old son (5th grade) is using Math Whizz as his only math curriculum and is doing great. I am very satisfied with it and we will continue with until he maxes it out at the 13 year old level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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