As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, my seven-year-old first-grade daughter Rebecca and I are reviewing two Math Mini-Courses (Time and Money) from A+ Interactive Math. We received free access to two mini-courses for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own…unless they are Rebecca’s, because we don’t always agree…unless it’s about dessert, in which case the answer is always “Yes, please!”
If you’re a homeschool parent who hasn’t been afraid of leaving gaps in your child’s education, you’re the envy of the homeschool community. Of course, we all know that every single education has gaps, and that a truly educated person learns how to fill in those gaps himself as necessary throughout life, but that’s beside the point.
I remember a friend once telling me she was afraid that, if she homeschooled, her kids would be standing at a checkout counter not sure how much money to use to pay for their purchases because Mama had forgotten to teach about making change. Big gap.
That’s where Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math come in.
A+ Interactive Math offers assessments to identify the gaps in your child’s math education. They then provide 20 separate mini-courses to fill in those gaps. Each course offers affordable access for a full year, although the course should only take two or three months to complete. No more fear of your child not knowing how to make change!
Money Mini-Course
And speaking of making change, the course Rebecca is working through is the Money Mini-Course.
Working with a seven-year-old review partner has its challenges. Clarity is sometimes…lacking. Following is the interview I held with her:
Do you like A+ Interactive?
What’s that?
The money course you’re taking on the Behemoth (the family computer).
Oh, yes, I really like it. I get all the answers right all the time except once.
What are you learning?
Nothing. I have no idea what’s going on.
Uhhhhhh…but you get everything right?
Yeah. It’s easy now.
(Five minutes later…)
Mommy, you have three quarters and a penny there, and that’s the same as 76 pennies…just so you know.
How do you know that?
Frog math (A+ Interactive).
Rest assured the child is learning. She proved it when she took all the change out of her tissue box bank, counted it out, added it up, sorted according to value, reorganized in piles totaling a dollar each, tithed, and played store. Not bad for not knowing what’s going on!
Beyond understanding the value of money, there are lessons on budgeting, taxes, commissions, and other topics I wouldn’t have necessarily breached with my seven-year-old, but which she will someday need to know. Pretty nifty, eh? Of course, those lessons are a little harder than the “how many nickles in a dime” conversion lessons.
What does it take from me?
I have to get her set up and, of course, answer the rare question. Logging on and getting started is a little confusing for her, and the program doesn’t automatically update her results for the report if she doesn’t tell it to. It would be great if getting started with each lesson were a little more automatic.
The lessons themselves only require a small learning curve and then she flies on her own. In fact, the Quick Start Guide reassures, “Relax! You don’t have to teach math or do anything. This program does everything for you.”
It’s true.
Time Mini-Course
The other math mini-course we reviewed is Time.
It delves into not only how to tell time in hours, minutes, and seconds, but it discusses days, months, years, and seasons. It also deals with more complex topics, such as converting units of time, adding time, and determining how much time has elapsed. (Maybe I should take this course so I can stop counting on my teeth.)
Summary
The mini courses are great for filling in gaps that perhaps your math curriculum might leave. We won’t be switching from our current math program, but we definitely appreciate the extra support in our weak areas.
The mini-courses are more in-depth than other math programs I’ve seen on these individual topics. Through our current program we learn the topics, but pursue further study through life experience. That’s fine, too–excellent, in fact–but this is faster and more thorough and leaves fewer gaps right from the start. Real life does offer more practical application, though–duh.
Could we have learned about time and money without a program at all. Of course we could, but remember this quote:
“Relax! You don’t have to teach math or do anything. This program does everything for you.”
As long as Becca can read, Becca can do most of this program on her own.
While I will never say a computer program is a replacement for a parent, I do appreciate the support now and then. That way Rebecca and I can spend our time together using her newfound money skills buying ingredients to make mother-daughter cookies.
Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:
While you do need an internet connection to run the mini courses, this program is not a huge data hog. They do offer physical options if internet access and data are continual challenges for you, as they are for us.
Since the courses we reviewed are online, they are light as a feather and takes up a feather’s worth of space.
You can print some extras, or you can complete them right on the computer so you don’t have to unearth the printer and find space for yet more papers. That’s what we do.
For more opinions about Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math, click this lovely box below:
