Luv'N Lambert Life

A blog about living with Epilepsy, IBHS, Homeschooling and so much more

homeschool math

A+ Interactive Math {Crew Review}

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We’ve been using A+ Interactive Math (by A+ Tutorsoft Inc.) off and on for many years now.  We’re always very happy with their program.  For this review, we used the Family Math Package.
The Family Math Package allows up to 10 users to use it.  It allows you to change grade levels as needed with your students with ease.  You can start them anywhere in the program and adjust it as needed.  This package provides you access to all of the grade levels, no matter which level your student starts with.
This program is aligned with state and national standards.  The lessons themselves provide a vast selection of audio, visual and text to make the lessons exciting for the students themselves.  It builds through interactive review so that your student keeps learning as they go and doesn’t fall behind on the skills they need to learn.
The program automatically creates worksheets as the student learns which the student completes and then it grades them so you know what your student is successful in learning and what needs extra help.  Progress reports allow your student to see their progress and help to encourage them to continue independently learning through the program.  The program is comprehensive and thorough, allowing the student to do most of the work without guidance from the parent even in the early levels of learning.
For parents, there is a recommended lesson plan for you to guide you.  Automatic online grading makes it easy for you.  Progress reports make it easy for you to see where your student needs that extra help and there are printable worksheets that allow you to give that extra help.  The program also allows you, the parent, to enter in grades that you create as you work through the program.
The program itself opens in it’s own browser and requires Adobe Flash or similar to run.  You can use this program on a tablet or an iPad if you choose.  Just make sure you have a flash program installed.
In the program itself, you will find the Multimedia lessons, the lesson plan, a drop down menu of printables, a drop down menu for eBooks, a drop down menu for online worksheets and exams, the admin panel and a help menu.  These tabs make up the program and are made easy for you to access and use.
The multimedia lessons are designed to be fun for your student.  They contain a lot of color and character as they learn.  They’re interactive to keep your student intrigued but not overwhelmed.  The amount of chapters and lessons vary by the concepts being taught.
The lesson plan section shows several tabs as well.  The lesson plan is a download or printable file for you to use easily as your lesson planner.  It sets a weekly schedule for the program.  The lessons tab shows you what lessons your student has worked on and completed.  Interactive Q&A shows what your student has completed for the question/answers section of the program.  The online worksheets online exams and review exams tabs show what worksheets and tests your student has completed along with how they scored.  These are easy to view and use to assess how your student is doing with their learning.
Under the printables tab, you will find a drop down menu.  The menu shares worksheets, exams and reference sheets.  For the first two, you can choose from the Table of Contents menu to find the links for the part of the program you’re child is working on and gain access to these worksheets and exams.  For reference, there is one file that can be viewed, downloaded or printed for use.
The eBooks tab is also a drop down menu that shares the curriculum book, the worksheets solution guide and the exam solution guide.  These also have the Table of Contents menu linked so that you can easily find the answers to the exact section your student is working on.
The online worksheets and exams tab has a drop down menu for the online worksheets, online exams and review exams.  These tabs are set up the same way as the others making it easy to follow and find the information you’re looking for.
The Help tab takes you to more information about the program, the user guide and a few other things that you, the parent, may find useful or interesting about the company itself.
In the Admin Panel, you’ll find a menu to choose your student.  You’ll find Parental Controls, Progress Tracking and a place to print off certificates for accomplishments made through the program.  You will also find a tab to completely delete all information if you choose to do so.
This is a very thorough math program.  It’s very easy to use with multiple students.  It’s challenging but not too hard that your student can’t learn through it.  We’ve used A+ Interactive Math for various years now with multiple students and a have always enjoyed the program.  They’ve learned so much from the simple format on the lessons and the easy way it allows them to answer and learn.
You can join A+ Interactive Math (by A+ Tutorsoft Inc.) Family Math Package by purchasing the program online.  It is currently priced as one student for $79 and 2 or more students for $149.  You can have access for up to 10 students for one year of the program.  There is also an Adaptive Math Curriculum Online that can be purchased instead.

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Family & Adaptive Math Online {A+ Interactive Math Reviews}

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Math Mammoth: Light Blue Series for Grade 1 {Crew Review}

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As a homeschooling Mom, I am always looking for products which are easy to use with my children but are also thorough for their education.  We were introduced to Math Mammoth years ago through the Homeschool Review Crew.  So when this vendor came up for the year, I knew I wanted to do this review.
What We Chose for Review:
I chose the Math Mammoth Light Blue Series for Grade 1 for our review.  This was the perfect grade level to use with Laycie.  We’ve been working on Math concepts in her homeschooling but I felt she was ready for something a bit more structured and I wanted to cover a few things she still gets mixed up about like money and time.  This grade level provided just the right mix of things for us to work through.
What We Received for Review:

For this review, we received the digital download version of Math Mammoth Light Blue Series for Grade 1.  This was a downloadable link which gave us access to all the files we needed to use this curriculum.  This series is a full curriculum, containing a full set of concepts for the grade level.  Once these files are downloaded you are able to immediately get started.
To begin, you can locate the User Guide file which explains what you need to do to use the curriculum.  This document shares the basic principles for using Math Mammoth then goes on to explain how to use it, how to set the pace for the curriculum, how to use the tests that come with this curriculum and so much more.  There’s also review of the curriculum included and a worksheet maker for extra practice in learning.
Lessons in this curriculum are designed to be used over a span of several days with your student.  Each lesson contains several pages to help your student thoroughly learn the concept being taught.  These lessons are very easy for the parent/teacher to teach the child and help them complete.  In fact, there is no teacher’s guide for the lessons.  You and your student just work through the course.  And yet, these lessons are still challenging enough for the student to learn from.  
Math Mammoth Light Blue Series for Grade 1 contained two worktexts for our lessons: 1-A and 1-B.  1-A was for the first semester of learning and 1-B for the second.  There are also answer keys provided in a separate file.  Tests are also provided but these are completely optional for your use.  They could instead be used as review but there are also review lessons included with the curriculum for you to use.  Editable versions are also included.
The chapter on Money is included in a separate file as well and can be used for different grade levels.  This chapter covers different currancies from different places around the world.  Tests are provided for this chapter as well.
How We Used This Product:

This was a pretty simple product for us to use in our lessons.  I was already looking for Laycie a program for Math and we’ve had such a great experience with Math Mammoth in the past that I knew this would be a great fit for her.  The lessons don’t require a lot of time which doesn’t overwhelm her with her ADHD.  The worksheets keep the concepts simple and the instructions are easy for us both to follow.
Laycie worked on these pages daily for the most part.  There were a few days we missed due to life but overall she worked straight through them.  She enjoyed some of the online games that were included as suggestions to complete and practice throughout the lessons.
Mostly we just enjoyed the simpleness of the program.  The clean lines of the worksheets and the designs of the objects and animals used to represent the math problems kept her from feeling overwhelmed, yet there was enough color to keep it interesting for her.  It fit very well with our laid back, eclectic, delayed academics approach to learning.
Where You Can Buy This Product:

You can buy Math Mammoth Light Blue Series for Grade 1 for $37.50 for the Full Grade Set as a digital download.  You can buy just Worktext Part 1-A or Worktext Part 1-B for $18.75 each.  You can also purchase this product on CD for $42.50.  Printed copies are also available in various places mentioned on the Math Mammoth Website.
Math Mammoth offers other grade levels as well for all grade levels.  The Light Blue Series offers curriculum for grade levels 1-7.  A placement test is also available for help in choosing the right level for your student.
Don’t forget to check out the other Math Mammoth products available as well!
Where Else Can You Find This Vendor:


Click Below To Read Other Reviews For This Vendor:



Affordable Quality Math {Math Mammoth Reviews}


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TouchMath {Crew Review}

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Laycie is turning 5 next month and with her impending birth date, comes the realization that it’s also time to start a more structured version of homeschooling with her.  As I was researching curriculum ideas, the opportunity to review TouchMath came.  Needless to say, I was estatic to be offered the TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool program for product review.
TouchMath is a multisensory mathematics program developed to be used with children in grades Pre-K through 3rd.  The TouchMath program uses TouchPoints to teach children important counting skills, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and more.  This innovative math program allows children to touch, count and repeat which reinforces the math problem with audio repetition to better establish fact mastery.
Since this program puts all of Laycie’s senses to work, I immediately knew it would be the perfect curriculum to use with her!  We began with the TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool program which covers counting, number sense, comparing, classifying, sorting, graphing, patterning, identifying and so very much more.  Since we were given this product as a review, we were gifted several of the basic manipulatives to use along with our TouchMath Pre-K lessons.  Laycie absolutely LOVED the manipulatives and I must admit that I do too!
Our absolute favorite of the manipulatives has been the 3-D Numerals.  These solid plastic pieces are vibrant in color and sturdy for even the most active child to handle.  They have the signature touch points on them to be used specifically with the TouchMath program.  But even better, they are in the shapes of the actual numerals which allows the child to see and feel the number shape, better allowing them to absorb and learn each specific numeral.  
Another favorite manipulative for us was the Texture cards.  Being able to touch the numbers and touch points with various textures helps Laycie to learn the numbers through sensory.  She loved the cute character drawings on many of the cards.  This manipulative really brought learning to life for her and coincided so well with the actual printed lessons from the Homeschool program.
The bulk and best part of the TouchMath Pre-K Homeschooling program is the actual curriculum itself though.  As great as the extra manipulatives are, they work best with the program itself, allowing the student to get the maximum sensory learning experience.  For purpose of this review, we received the full Pre-K unit download of the TouchMath program.
As I mentioned above, the TouchMath program is designed to teach counting numerals through touch.  Numerals one through five have single TouchPoints meaning each point is touched once while counting, and numerals six through nine have double TouchPoints meaning each point is touched twice while counting.  As students learn the numbers they also learn the number value by counting the TouchPoints.
The TouchMath Pre-K lessons are broken into 6 lesson modules containing around 15 workmats to be completed in while using each module.  Each lesson module focuses on a different aspect of Math.  Module one teaches counting and number sense, module two covers comparing and classifying, and so on as the modules are broken down to teach important concepts.
The workmats are blackline masters which is really nice since they don’t take a lot of ink to print out.  The programs PDF download itself is in color and black and white but does not need to be completely printed out.  It can simply be viewed on a computer and only the blackline master workmats need to be printed out for use off the computer.
The workmats are fairly simple, yet challenging enough for the Pre-K child.  Coloring skills are implemented throughout helping the child develop better writing skills and also occupational skills.  Simple activities like color one pig pink and color the group with four milk cartons.
Laycie really loved completing her workmats.  She enjoys coloring and caught on really easily with the materials, allowing her to work through fairly quickly.  I found as she worked that she knew quite a bit of the material in the lessons.  Had I begun using this product a year ago when she was 3 turning 4, we would have benefited from it greatly.  The lessons were great for me to use with her to ensure that she has learned these important early math skills though and we will continue to use this program for her math for this year and possibly into the future.
The TouchMath Homeschool program is available online.  TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool Program cost $59.95 for the program unit download.  This includes the implementation guide, workmat activity sheets, module guides, answer sheets and more.  It does not include the math manipulatives to use with the program.  The manipulatives are a wonderful addition but they are not necessary for completion of this program.  If you are interested in using the manipulatives, you can find the links to each specific one at the bottom of each product download page.  Many of the manipulatives can be used with each subsequent product download.
For more reviews of the TouchMath Homeschool program and to see other reviews of different Math grade levels with this program, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!


Math Made Easy {Crew Review}

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Math Made Easy is a wonderful program created to be simple in teaching children to do basic math without using their fingers for counting, adding, subtracting, multiplication and division.  A new way to teach an old subject, Math Made Easy provides simple techniques to build strong math processing skills for any age.  Once put into place, Math Made Easy makes learning math fun.
For this review, we were given a copy of the Math Made Easy Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy book.  The program proclaims that math skills can be built and developed in six short weeks.  The program diminishes redundancy in learning math facts by teaching the student to eliminate addition facts dealing with simple math like +0 and +1 as well as teaching a student to quickly recognize redundant facts like 2+3 and 3+2 so they can quickly process a math problem.
This program includes a thorough teaching process including well-written yet simple lesson plans for each step.  An addition pre-test is included right away so that a student’s ability can be measured and progress in learning addition can be seen throughout the six week program.  The entire book is black and white but is accessorized with cute images throughout to help capture the interest of a young child.  Activities, games and simple flashcards are also included for the same purpose.  The goal of Math Made Easy is to keep the program simple, while educating the child on the simple concepts of every day math, leading to an enjoyable math experience for all.
This program was perfect for my children, who like things that keep learning simple.  They enjoyed the activities throughout and quickly completed their work without boredom.  Math Made Easy was easy to incorporate into our eclectic homeschooling style too.  It isn’t a hard to use program, nor is it invasive or overly structured.  It reminded me a lot of the older programs that used to be used in Public Schools when I was growing up and learning there was sort of fun.
Math Made Easy can be purchased via their website at www.mathmadeeasy.org.  They have both an addition and a multiplication package available for homeschooling.  The addition package that I have reviewed here is available for $24.95, not including shipping.
For more reviews of Math Made Easy, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!
*Disclaimer – This product was provided to me free by Math Made Easy and the Schoolhouse Review Crew!  Only my honest opinion of this product was required in a blog post for this review.


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