TenMarks: A TOS Crew Review

As a member of the TOS Crew, I was selected to review TenMarks, an online math program for students in 3rd grade -- high school.  This quote from the website sums up what the program is all about:

“TenMarks is on a mission to build a stronger foundation and a stronger future for all children. TenMarks was founded by entrepreneurial parents searching for a better way to help students achieve their potential in math, and supplement and enrich their classroom learning.” 

Though I could explain how TenMarks works, this video does a better job than I ever could, so why don’t you take a look and then I’ll tell you a bit more about the program? 

 

After you take the first step and sign up your child,  you’ll receive a weekly email with your child’s assignments, a series of worksheets. (My children each had four to complete.)

Your child simply logs in to their homepage where they can see their progress, their assignments and any rewards that are available, and get started. Below is an example of a worksheet.

On the left of the screen, you will see the problem, which is multiple choice. Your child can work out the problem and give their answer. You’ll notice on the right of the screen, they can ask for a hint (limited to three) or watch a video lesson. For my children, this is perfect. If they don’t understand a concept, there is no need to dig through a textbook to figure out how to work the problem, the tools they need are right there, a click away. 

    

After they have completed their worksheet of ten short questions, they simply submit their assignment to be graded-- which takes seconds.  I can’t tell you how much I LOVE this feature. Despite my best intentions, grading my children’s papers has never been my strong point. With TenMarks, they have immediate feedback with the opportunity to view their mistakes and correct their answers right away, while the concept is still fresh in their minds.

Below, you see a Worksheet Summary. The first time your child corrects a worksheet, they immediately see what questions are correct or incorrect, much like the screen shot below.  The large red button on the right would allow them to correct their answers, or they could choose to go to the Home Page.

My child chose to correct their answers and this time around, you can see that my child got 8 out of 10 questions right. Again, they see what questions are incorrect, can view an explanation as to why they missed it, can review all their answers (but not correct them) and can return to the Home Page or simply Log Out.

From the Home Page, your child can select to complete another worksheet, see when one is due, play a game or go to their Reward Center (which we have not utilized).

Each week, you will receive an email showing your child’s progress or, if you prefer log in at any time to see how things are to make sure your child is staying on track.

As a mother of high school students, I’ve discovered that you really do lose what you don’t use. Personally, I haven’t used higher math for years and to be honest, at the detriment of my children, I’ve not been interested in learning it again. It was rough enough the first time. My children have all fallen behind in math while waiting for me to “catch up” and get my act together. Math just isn’t my strong point. I may as well be learning a foreign language. I’m lost. As a result, so are my kids. We need a program like TenMarks to walk us through, step by step. A program that can give my children the help they need without me. TenMarks fills that need for my family, specifically, for my children.

You can gain full access to the site for a free trial to see if you think it would be a good fit for your family as well.   

TenMarks works at your pace, on your time frame, and is affordable at a cost of $10 a month, $49 for six months or $89 a year. You can visit the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what the other crew members had to say about TenMarks. 

If your current program isn’t working as well as you’d hoped, you’re looking to try something new or you just need to supplement your current program, why not take a look at TenMarks and see if it would work for you?

*I received this program free of charge as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest review.

ALEKS: A Perfect Math Program for Roadschoolers

I’m going to cut right to the chase here. I recently reviewed ALEKS, a complete web based math program, and I have to say, I LOVE this product.

I’m even convinced that I’ve found a new market for ALEKS-something they’ve probably not even thought of- Roadschoolers. That’s right. This product would have been so helpful when we were on the road, traveling in our motor home! Why? I can think of several reasons.

• The program is web-based and available anywhere via your computer as long as you have internet access, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• The program is fully self-contained. You do not need a textbook for any of the courses that ALEKS offers and as all full-time RVer’s know, books are heavy! Now you can leave them behind!
• If you are on the road and your child finishes a book there is no need to fret over where you’ll have the next level shipped. When you subscribe to ALEKS you have access to the entire program! You simply continue to the next level. You don’t even need to pay an additional fee!

Sounds pretty good so far, doesn’t it? But what about those of you that are not on the road? What else do I like about this program? 

Now that I have your attention, you may be wondering just what is ALEKS? As defined from the website, ALEKS- an acronym for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces- is a Web-based computerized program that assesses your child’s level of understanding quickly and efficiently by prompting your child to complete a series of questions or problems to identify the level of mastery. Since no two children will be at the same skill level, an individualized program will be tailored for each child.  It can be used as a core curriculum , to supplement your existing curriculum or as a tutor in areas that your child struggles.

This program is very user friendly. We literally logged in and started immediately. While my son was taking his assessment to determine where he was, I was watching the 12 minute video that explained the ins and outs of the Master Account which is included with every subscription.

Think of the Master Account as your game plan. It enables you to:

• Manage multiple students at once
• Monitor your child’s progress through automated reports
• Assign quizzes
• Access customer service
• Send messages to your student,
• and even send the student reports via email which is a great option for those of you that live in a state where an annual assessment of your student is required or for those that are working with a tutor.

My 15- year old son loved that the program is computer based. The questions are clear and easy to understand.

If he makes an error, he’s alerted right away. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am by this. This means that if he messes up, he doesn’t finish the entire lesson or the next or next before I get around to grading it. He knows right then that he messed up and he can make the corrections necessary.

  

If he needs additional help, he simply clicks on the button at the top of the page for more information. 

After each lesson your child will see how much progress they’ve made with easy to read pie charts. I really didn’t expect this to have as large an impact on my son as I thought that it would for someone who has struggled with math this feature serves as both an incredible motivator and confidence booster.   

As the parent, you also receive regular updates on how your child is progressing.

There are two other reasons that I really love this program:

• We may lose books at my house from time to time, but I guarantee, my children will not lose the computer! As long as we have the computer and Internet, there is no reason that they can’t complete their work.
• I’ve homeschooled, unschooled and roadschooled for a combination of 12 years and the exception of when they were very young, my children have never asked me when they could ‘do’ math. EVER. Until we began reviewing ALEKS. Right there makes this program a winner in my book.

ALEKS has a number of courses from early math to higher education and add new courses regularly. There are even a couple chemistry courses.

This innovative program is available by a subscription month-by-month basis or 6 or 12 month increments. Beginning at $19.95 per month, per child, I’m thrilled to tell you that ALEKS offers family discounts as well. And if you take a break for the holidays or need time off due to an unexpected circumstance, you can even put your account on hold so you can come back to it later and pick up where you left off.  

ALEKS has generously offered homeschooling readers of Live the Adventure access to ALEKS for a FREE 30-Day Trial which is much better than the 48- hour trial you’ll find at the company website. 

Go ahead, check it out and tell me what you think.  I hope you’ll love it. We do.

You can see what other reviewers had to say about this program at  The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew review blog.

This product was given to me free of charge by ALEKS in exchange for offering my personal opinion about the product.

Math Tutor DVD: a Review

As a homeschooling mom, I sometimes worry about gaps in my children’s education. Though some subjects don’t necessarily require a sense of mastery to continue, when it comes to math, that is simply not the case. Basic math concepts have to be fully understood and mastered before your student can successfully continue to a higher level of math instruction. If there are gaps, by the time your child begins pre-algebra or algebra, you may begin to see some frustration like I have in my own home. The beauty of homeschooling is that you don’t have a classroom of children pushing your child ahead if they aren’t ready, you don’t have the pressure to unnecessarily rush your child along when they aren’t ready. We have the luxury and ability to slow down, back up or start over if needed and when it comes to math, we’ve done just that.

One of the products that I discovered to give my children a boost in their math comprehension has been the DVD’s sold by Math Tutor DVD, so I was thrilled when I received not one but two videos from the company free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of the product.

Before I continue with the review, I’d like to mention that the company, Math Tutor DVD is known for their award winning DVD’s. In fact, their slogan is ‘Press play for success.’ The company is so confident that your child’s grades will improve that they offer a money back guarantee. Math Tutor DVD is exactly what the name says it is; a math tutor on a DVD. With the purchase of each DVD, your child will have access to a math instructor in the comfort of your home 24-hours a day for a mere fraction of the cost of a live tutor. Your child can watch each segment over and over again until they have mastered the material and are confident to move forward.

Pre-Algebra Volume 1 is a two disc set that contains 5 hours of video instruction in the following areas:

· Real Numbers

· The Number Line

· Greater Than, Less Than, Equal To

· Absolute Value and Adding Integers

· Subtracting Integers

· Multiplying Integers

· Dividing Integers

· Powers and Exponents

· Order of Operations

This DVD is currently sells for $26.99.

I also received The Texas Instruments T1-83/T1-84 Calculator Tutor which is a 3 DVD set that contains 8 hours of instruction. I was really excited about this because I’ve not seen a similar product on the market. In all fairness, our family does not own a scientific calculator, and though I’ve tried to use one in the past, I was never quite able to figure it out. I wish I’d have had this product then. The step-by-step instruction is perfect for students that learn best by seeing and not reading a lengthy manual.

This program can also be purchased for $26.99.

Though I did watch part of the DVD’s that I received with my children, I thought I’d share some of their thoughts.

What my children like about this program

· The instructor walks your child through each problem step by step.

· The instructor speaks clearly and concisely and is easily understood.

· The instructor is thorough.

· The instructor does not complicate things, but systematically teaches in a step-by-step fashion, simplifying the procedures as he goes.

· The instructor assumes that your child has no knowledge of the subject at hand so he starts at the beginning when walking through a concept.

· My children enjoy the DVD’s offered by this company better than others we’ve used in the past.

· The sections on the DVD are clearly labeled and easy to skip back to if they feel that they don’t quite understand something.

· If they have a math question, they can simply watch the DVD instead of waiting for me to figure out how to help them.

What my children did not like about the program

· The instructor is thorough meaning the video may contains too much repetition- depending on your child may or may not be a negative factor.

If you are a homeschool parent that is fumbling to teach basic math, algebra or physics or if you have a child enrolled in a program outside the home and are looking for a product to reinforce what they are learning, allow me to encourage you to check out the products offered at Math Tutor DVD. The website offers sample video tutorials, articles and free mental math podcasts.

I was also excited to learn that Math Tutor DVD now offers a member’s only area that allows you to view all video courses online for only $19.95 a month which is perfect for families with children of varied ages and grade levels. As a member you are also able to access new material as it is released, as well as participate in member’s only discussion forums.

Math Tutor DVD has programs for all ages and can be purchased online at their website or by calling 1-877-MATH-DVD.

You can read other reviews of these products at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew blog.