SaraY

Hi all,

We're an unschooling family up here by Bangor. My 10 year old son is now interested in trying out an on-line math program. something, ideally, with some games as part of it and something where he can build skill from bottom up. He has a lot of the basics with math, but now has an interest in trying to be 'caught' up (whatever that means to him ) to his grade level (going into 5th grade).

So a program where he can start maybe at an earlier grade or difficulty level and then 'test out' or go through it quickly for what he knows...and take more time over what he doesn't.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Sara in Maine

Sandie D-S

Hi,
Khan Academy is a great on-line resource for free. My kids love it, even thought it's not a game format, they do get stars when they master a level. Brainpop is also a cool resource. Google searches bring up all kinds of sites. When my kids ask me about finding something, we google together, and they almost always find something that leads to something that inspires us/them which may or may not have anything to do with the original quest !
Sandie in Seattle





To: [email protected]
From: midgelayas@...
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2012 13:05:55 +0000
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] on-line math program suggestions?


























Hi all,



We're an unschooling family up here by Bangor. My 10 year old son is now interested in trying out an on-line math program. something, ideally, with some games as part of it and something where he can build skill from bottom up. He has a lot of the basics with math, but now has an interest in trying to be 'caught' up (whatever that means to him ) to his grade level (going into 5th grade).



So a program where he can start maybe at an earlier grade or difficulty level and then 'test out' or go through it quickly for what he knows...and take more time over what he doesn't.



Thanks for your suggestions!



Sara in Maine


















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pam Sorooshian

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 6:05 AM, SaraY <midgelayas@...> wrote:

> We're an unschooling family up here by Bangor. My 10 year old son is now
> interested in trying out an on-line math program. something, ideally, with
> some games as part of it and something where he can build skill from bottom
> up. He has a lot of the basics with math, but now has an interest in trying
> to be 'caught' up (whatever that means to him ) to his grade level (going
> into 5th grade)>>>
>

You might want to talk with him more about why he wants a program to do
this - at 10 years old he'd be better off doing other things - real things
- and letting the math learning just happen along the way.

Do you not really know what being caught up means to him? The concept of
"caught up" doesn't really make a lot of sense in an unschooling context -
I would assume he thinks he is behind schooled kids. He might benefit from
some conversation about the very idea of "ahead" and "behind" in life!
Grade levels are very artificial and pretty goofy ways of classifying
people - convenient for mass education, but not natural at all.


>>>So a program where he can start maybe at an earlier grade or difficulty
> level and then 'test out' or go through it quickly for what he knows...and
> take more time over what he doesn't.>>>
>

You could get the Mighty Math series of computer games from Edmark. Zoo
Zillions, Carnival Countdown, Astro Algebra, Cosmic Geometry - there are a
couple more. They're not grade specific - they're fun - and in playing the
games the player learns and uses pretty much all the math normally taught
up through elementary and into middle school.

If you plan to continue unschooling, I'd try to move him away from thinking
of himself in a grade level - that's kind of a hindrance to free and
wonderful unschooling.

-pam


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Meredith

"SaraY" <midgelayas@...> wrote:
> My 10 year old son is now interested in trying out an on-line math program. something, ideally, with some games as part of it and something where he can build skill from bottom up.
****************

Does he have a particular goal or is he looking for interesting puzzle games in general? A fun series of logic games is the Myst series - some of the games are so old that the first "logic puzzle" is how to get them to run on your computer, but they're fantastic games with good replay factor. The first time through, it helps to consult a walkthrough, but once you get the hang of the particular logic of the games, they're a blast... and interesting stories, too.

---Meredith