Category: Curriculum

  • Yummymath for Kids & Cheap Help for Grownups

    Yummymath for Kids & Cheap Help for Grownups

    Daughter is into Goldfish. So much so that my brother has dubbed my car The Goldfish Burial Ground. If my Harry Potter wand worked, I could “poof” my car clean. Alas, Daughter loves Goldfish, and my magic wand is defunct.

    So when Yummymath shared these activities with me, one on Goldfish and one on HP movies, I was pretty excited. They’re long, so they put them in PDF form:

    Notice that, although there are some right and wrong answers, it’s a lot of investigation. Furthermore, in the Harry Potter worksheet, kids get to decide on their own what determines success for a movie. Both great things to do in the world of teaching math.

    Yummymath provides about three or four of these worksheets for free on their website every week. Yes, for free!

    They also provide a parent/teacher help guide…

    …if you’re a member. “Oh yeah, there’s the catch,” I hear you thinking. Indeed, at the whopping fee of $9 dollars per year (yes, per year) you have access to the solutions/help guide for all the exercises.

    Here’s what they look like:

    I’m trying to convince them to up their price. I think it should be a monthly fee. It’s extremely hard to make exercises like these, not to mention all the effort they put into the parent/teacher guide.

    They’ve informed me that they’re likely to go up to $12 per year. ARG

    In the meantime, you probably should get in quick, before I convince them of the amazing value they are offering.

    Oh – and tell me in the comments how you like the exercises and guides – I’d love to hear your feedback!

    UN-Disclaimer: They didn’t give me squat for this article except these exercises to give to you for free. I don’t even get commission on sales. (Not that they could afford it at that ludicrously cheap price!) What they’re doing is great. Yummymath is an awesome resources for homeschool and classroom teachers everywhere!

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  • Frustrations with IXL Math – A Review

    Frustrations with IXL Math – A Review

    See update below.

    Homeschooler @Ser3nd1pity requested my thoughts on the math program from IXL via twitter a few days ago.

    So I checked it out.

    When looking at the IXL sample page, I started having some concerns. Here are some screenshots that I’m running into, as well as my thoughts:

    Kindergarten Skills

    Some people say “dinner” for “lunch.” They reserve the word “supper” for the evening meal. Instead of using terms that might be cultural, perhaps they could have used breakfast.

    I was so confused by this one. I’ve never seen a graph made of two objects. Nor have I seen graphs made with giant Xs. I think a graph with lines or bars instead of Xs would be clearer. As well as having a few of the objects, not just one of each.

    These suitcases appear to be the same but zoomed in. A reference object would certainly help this.

    I didn’t know what plane geometry was until college. I’m pretty sure that five-year-olds and their parents will figure out what the answer is, but the question stem is written at a really high level.

    Grade 2 Skills

    The right answer (the pens) are very very hard to see here. And the various colors and objects are confusing. Better would be the same objects, or bigger or with more space between the lines.

    These pies really look the same to me. If I look and count really, or look at the fractions, I can see they’re different. This might be more effective without the pictures.  For a seven year old (and for me), if you had 2/10 of that pie and he (or I) had 2/11 of that pie and it looked like these pictures, they could easily be perceived as the same.

    Stopping Now

    Of course I haven’t really gotten into the curriculum. These are merely samples. I don’t know how they teach this in the IXL Math Practice program. I worry, though, that these examples might be representative of the way it is taught.

    I welcome a view into the curriculum, if they’re interested in more thoughts on their offering.

    Update March 29, 2012: IXL has communicated to me that they’ve been making changes – including some based on this article. They’ve also hired me to take a deeper look at their product and give them feedback. I look forward to seeing what they’ve got.

    I’ll post updates, so stay tuned!