Math is a favorite subject in our household.  Without even thinking about it, my kids are constantly quizzing each other on math facts, especially multiplication and division.  After reviewing Mathletics from 3P Learning, an online math curriculum for grades K-12, I have been able to watch my older 2 kids blossom even more.

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Mathletics is an online resource for students to practice math skills.  It is divided by grade level, which you will assign to your student.  You can also choose from a variety of standards sets.  We chose to align ours to the State of Texas since that’s where we live and the standards that our kids would be working on in public school.  We used this for my 2nd grade son and 4th grade daughter.

This program is browser-based, meaning there is no software to download.  It can also be used on tablets.  They have apps available for continued math practice, as well, for on-the-go use on either iOS or Android devices.

While this is intended as a supplement for students in grades K-12, I think it could easily be used as a full curriculum for students if all of the resources are implemented.  You see, Mathletics includes several great features.  Not only are there assessments, graded quizzes, diagnostic tools, and more built in, but there are different ways for students to get the information.

Mathletics Student Area

There is the main place for kids to engage in activities as shown on the student landing page above.  Both of my kids love and prefer this area of the Mathletics because they get to earn points and rewards as they work through different topics.  You can use these points on fun extras, which is my daughter’s favorite part.

She loved making her avatar in the FaceMaker, and it was where she was able to spend all of her credits that she had earned from completing work.  My son likes this feature, too, but he’s way less obsessive about it.  My daughter could literally spend hours with this feature, which is both good and bad.

The good part is that she’s motivated to complete as much of the exercises as she can in a day so she can earn more credits, but the bad part is that she’ll spend just as much time browsing her options through the little store to figure out how to spend them.  It really just means more screen time for her, which she likes!

The math exercises are divided by the type of skill, and are very specific.  Each one has a set number of problems that will need to be completed to master it, and then the points are awarded after.  My kids both like this because they know there’s an end in sight and they can follow along with their progress of completion in the top left.

Once the exercise is over, the program will show them their score, including which problems they missed.  The exercise can be attempted multiple times if they don’t like their score or if you don’t think they covered the topic well enough!

A different part of the Mathletics website is Rainforest Maths.  My kids didn’t like this one quite as much, but I did have them use this one, especially to reinforce skills that they didn’t score so well on over on the main portion of the Mathletics website.

Once your student has chosen their grade level in Rainforest Maths, they have tons of colorful and fun topics to choose from.  As I mentioned, I used this to reinforce skills that they were weaker in on the main Mathletics site.  These run a bit differently than that section in that the exercises will let you practice for what seems like forever as it is not a set 10 or 20 question quiz.  It is more of a skill building, test practice kind of program.

My kids liked that this one started out pretty easy and got progressively harder for them.  They also liked the change of pace with the different colors and animals on it.

On the student end of the Mathletics website, there are many other things for them to check out and play with on their own.  For example, Live Mathletics gives students a chance to challenge other students using real-time races meant to boost their speed and accuracy.  My kids tried this a few times and decided that they are freaked out by anything timed and real-time.  I can see using this more in the future as they get a little more confident in their abilities!

Family Centre (Parent Portal)

The parent area is full of useful tracking information.  Additionally, you are able to assign tasks to your individual students to help them to target specific areas within the math curriculum.

For me, I just let my kids sort of lead the way and work on things as they wanted.  You see, we’re just beginning our school year, so my 2nd grader and 4th grader are brand new to their grade levels.  They’re essentially both beginners within the grades, so it’s a blank slate for all of us.  If we had begun this curriculum supplement in the middle of the year, I likely would have assigned them tasks that reinforced recently-learned topics or new ones for them to explore.

It’s easy to check their scores and even see how many times they have attempted each topic using the Mathletics program.  I was able to see where my daughter was attempting subjects beyond her actual skill set so I could see what kinds of things she was interested in learning about, as well as areas to work on in our regular instruction.  This was also a great place to find topics for her to work on in the Rainforest Maths area for extra practice.

Another way for students to reinforce and practice their math skills is to use the vast assortment of Instant Workbooks available from Mathletics. These are downloadable in PDF format and cover SO many topics! This is awesome for kids that work better using the pencil and paper method, or that just need a break from screen time. It also makes another on-the-go option (besides the apps available), so it’s simple to practice math skills in the car or in a waiting room or on vacation.

Each week, I also receive a weekly report for each of my students.  This tells me specifically how long they spent on Mathletics, when they logged in, which topics they worked on, and their scores.  I like to keep these for my records, and it helps to remind me if I need to have the kids spend a little more or less time on Mathletics for the next week!

Final Thoughts

Right now, all of this is available for just $59 per student for 12 months of access.  This is a great deal considering all of the resources available.  There are the assessments and placement, the various ways to teach and engage students in math, the ability to customize their grade and which set of standards to use, printable topic-specific workbooks, and the detailed reports for parents.

We enjoyed using the program during this review period, and I definitely see continuing it throughout the school year to help them to keep their skills up in a fun and motivating way!  Both my son and my daughter surprised me with how well they did on their new grade level coursework, and now I see which areas I need to focus on a bit more for the rest of our school year.

This would be great for homeschool math, but I also think it would be a great resource for parents that wish to afterschool their public or private school students.  It makes a thorough and exciting supplement to any math curriculum.