Here at the end of the year, I have to do some things to spice up learning for our homeschool to keep my kids interested and engaged. Luckily for my family, EdAlive gave us review access to two of their online programs, Typing Tournament Online and Maths Invaders Online. The first program acts as a typing tutor disguised as a game! The math program provides math practice that is fun and highly interactive. I received a full year online subscription for my oldest three children for both programs.
EdAlive has several different learning game apps available for a low monthly or discounted annual subscription fee, and these 2 fit in perfectly as supplements to our homeschool.
Typing Tournament Online
This program came at the perfect time for us. My oldest kids absolutely adore online gaming, but I’ve noticed something that just makes me cringe – they are hunting and pecking all the time when they type! I don’t know about you, but I loved typing class and computer lab when I was in school, and I had to practice good posture, proper hand and finger placement, and did various speed tests with my typing coursework, as well as working on accuracy. For part of my education on this subject, we did the flip books with written exercises, but about the time I was in junior high, we did some really rudimentary typing software that was a little more exciting because it was in real-time and graded our performance right away.
Typing Tournament Online is going to totally spoil me as the the teacher, and my kids as the learners, because it has taken typing lessons to a whole new level! Kids will be working on those basic skills, but intertwined within the built in games, story, and tests, there are so many other points of interest that they will learn and develop over time.
Typing Tournament Online will work on any computer, tablet, Chromebook. or other device. All you need is an internet connection and the program is available to you any time, day or night. Students will begin at their current skill level and will progressively work through exercises to incorporate the entire keyboard, teaching proper technique so they can stop hunting and pecking for good! Throughout using the app, students will work on focused drills, lessons, and games that take bite sized amounts of the keyboard to learn and practice. While your child is playing, they will see a colorful animated graphic that reminds them about proper finger placement.
They learn at their own pace, and there are grades assigned to their tests so you can see how they’re truly absorbing the information and perfecting their typing over time. You can even pull up progress reports to see the frequency of your student’s usage (This is important if you have a kid that likes to fake doing school like I discovered half-way through this review! Shame on me for not checking sooner, right?), the skills they’re working on, their speed, and accuracy. You can print out certificates as your children master parts of the program, too!
Let me just note right here, though, in case you are wondering, this program uses a single space between sentences rather than a double space. I know, I know, it seems like no big deal, but for some of us that have it drilled into us to do two spaces, this can take a little bit of getting used to as far as counting the typing exercises as correct. 🙂
For a better idea of how the program works, you can check out the video below, which describes the games. levels, and some of the skills that your child will work on:
As a parent, you have access to a lot of different reports and tools from the parent account. You can view how often your child has worked on the programs, and how they have progressed on the different skills presented to them. You can also play the games your family has subscribed to for yourself!
I decided to give myself a typing test using the program recently and did worse than I was hoping to do, but it wasn’t bad for 8:30 in the morning. Half of my errors were due to that single space after a period deal, so I think I’ll improve with some practice!
I like that students are able to set their typing goals to work on throughout the program. My kids set theirs low, I think hoping to get out of working hard, but I have a feeling they’re going to surprise themselves with better speed and accuracy quickly.
This typing app is perfect. I’ve been using it with my 14, 12, and 9 year olds and plan to continue on, especially during the summer. It’s a great way to get kids to work on specific skills without torturing them with a bunch of book work. This is one program that my kids have not complained about since we started, and I’m grateful for that.
Maths Invaders Online
If you’ve been looking for a colorful, interactive, and exciting-to-use math supplement for your student, look no further! EdAlive’s Maths Invaders Online fits the bill perfectly and kids will not mind practicing their arithmetic and more difficult math concepts.
Similar to the Typing Tournament Online, this program turns school time into fun time by using highly animated lessons and games.
To learn more about how this math learning app works, check out the video below:
You are able to choose which Zone to begin your child in. There are sample questions to help you to decide as well.
As an example, here is a snippet of sample questions from Zone 5:
To test into a zone, students are required to take a test to prove that they’re ready! Even the test is in game form. Students with test anxiety, but they love gaming will probably do well with this type of progress or skill checking.
Here is a sample of what the testing game is like. Students type the right answer to a question and then shoot at it from their ship. It erases the question and more appear until the questions have all been answered for that level’s quiz.
The game is fun and has some silly looking characters. My kids did think it was a little cheesy, but secretly loved it! You could tell that it was really entertaining to them and sometimes I had to remind them to get off of the games so they could complete other assigned coursework for the day.
Students can also play in the Space Rescue area.
This takes a little getting used to when learning to play, but it’s a lot of fun.
The game helps your kids practice their math skills as well, because as they play, they will want to recharge their rescue scanners, and they do that by answering questions from levels they’ve worked on.
Again, this is a cool way for students to work on math without looking too much like book work. It’s a simple game to learn, and the math questions aren’t too overwhelming as they are presented just a few at a time. This game has it timed, but there’s plenty of time as it is more of a drill practice style exercise.
Students can play a limited amount of games of Space Rescue before they’re required to go in and play in the Galactic Campaigns to earn more game play. In my opinion, your child will be learning either way, but this may be some good incentive to practice new skills rather than just trying to review what they already know!
Parent Reporting
As far as the parent section of the site, I like the reporting that is available in this program as well, just as the typing program had. I like being able to see how my kids are progressing in specific skills, but also overall based on grade level targets.
Another feature I appreciated was that there are worksheets that go along with the concepts the students are learning.
I’ve been so impressed with BOTH EdAlive titles that we’ll be continuing with them for the remainder of our subscription. Due to the quality and ability to get my kids to work on school without complaining, I’m looking into some of their other learning apps as well! They have a spelling game coming out next year that I’m going to keep an eye out for.
Other families reviewed these same great programs and I’m sure they utilized it in unique ways. Since the programs are for ages 5 and up, students of many different ages and grades were able to try them out and their parents reviewed how it worked for them.
To see how others liked Typing Tournament Online and Maths Invaders Online, click the banner below:
Dear Jean. Thanks so much for your outstanding review of Typing Tournament and Maths Invaders. I am delighted that the products have worked so well for your family. I must congratulate you on the presentation and writing style you have employed in delivering your review. So far I have read 40 of the reviews done by the Review Crew and to date yours is a clear winner. It is great to find an American writer who is able to express themselves clearly and with good grammar! Don’t get me wrong – I love the way that Americans express themselves but some do tend to be a little rough around the edges with their writing! Kind regards Graham East – Managing Director at EdAlive.
Wow, thank you so much for the thoughtful compliment. I’m delighted you stopped by and read my review. We are still using and enjoying the program very much. I appreciate the opportunity.