#reflex math

Mighty Machines (I’m not Canadian, my grandparents just had a bunch of dvds of the episodes for some reason)

Leapfrog

Pet Pals on the LeapPad

Fetch with Ruff Ruffman

Reflex Math

Watching my dad play Metroid

Sid the Science Kid

Wild Kratts

Playing the games on the Wild Kratts & Fetch websites

Signing Time

Get Smart

Geronimo Stilton

So I was to premise this by saying I haven’t used it in a few years. And when I did use it it had improved significantly from the first time I looked into a few years prior to that.

I like ABC mouse for some things. I think it’s great if it’s the first thing you use and keep with it. The kids get to create an avatar and they earn tickets for completing tasks, which they can use to buy stuff for their avatar. (I think they can buy stuff for their pet too? I may he confusing that with another program though) So in that respect it’s fantastic.

My personal issue with when we started using it, my son was in the middle of a grade. So he was bored when he started. And it wouldn’t allow us to jump past the beginning stuff. He did enjoy getting th tickets and stuff but he wasn’t getting as much education out of it as he needed. And bc he was already working on the first grade level, that was it. It didn’t go beyond that so it wasn’t like he could just jump to second grade and play there.

ABC mouse seems like a program you need to start at age 3 and not age 5. I have known others who used it and loved it. So I think it definitely has to it’s positive qualities. Plus it’s not expensive. As much as a Netflix account.

That being said, I recent saw an ad for a new program coming out for older kids by the same people. Adventure Academy. It looks great and I’m on the email list for it. My kids both think it looks like fun so I’m really hoping it provides for older kids what ABC mouse provides for younger kids.

For homeschooling, I have used Time4Learning in the past and I really enjoyed that. As did the kids. I think we’ll be going back to that next year. There are some other great resources out there like Reflex Math and Freckle. My kids really enjoy those programs. They have fun playing the games and learning but they love earning tokens and then buying new outfits for their avatar. And actually I think our local public school uses them too.

If you’re looking for physical stuff for math, I really like the stuff from Math-U-See. They have great counting manipulative blocks and stuff. Even if that’s all you get from them, it’s worth it. It’s a great way to teach kids the basics, especially borrowing with subtraction.

Since I got such a good response to my last post about Reflex Math, I thought I would share this screenshot of my students' progress so far. All students are currently working on Multiplication/Division 0-12. As you can see, there has been a huge gain in their fluency. We started on 9/10 I believe, so it's been almost 3 months. One of my students is at 100% fluency, and another is right behind her with 99%.

4th Grade Stackers- My speed stacking club is a huge success. I have 7 of 11 students in my club, and 5 of those 7 have purchased their own cups to use. We have had 3 meetings so far, and I think I'm getting the hang of planning out the 45 minute sessions. I can see the students getting faster, and the proof lies in the record book I keep for the club.

Our Teacher is Crazy- We've recently written our first book for the year. This week students worked on the drawing conclusions skill. To see what they'd learned, I gave them a writing prompt: Draw a conclusion about Miss B's teaching style this year in 4th grade. Use specific evidence to support your conclusions. They illustrated their work as well. I decided to make a photobook storybook, and I ordered it today. I can't wait to get it.