Math Resource Review: National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and Aleks.comby Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger 03 Feb 2008 04:43 PM National Library of Virtual Manipulatives The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a National Science Foundation supported website that provides, as the name appropriately implies, online manipulatives. The site is a subscription site but you can download a free trial to see how it might work out for you. What I like about this site is that it has things for grades PK all the way through Grade 12. I often find that high school is missing from things for homeschoolers. . .but this site is extremely comprehensive and does it all. What I wouldn't like is the fact that since it's on the computer, really only one child can use it at a time. For larger families like mine, this could easily be a pretty big issue. One way to squeeze in all your subjects on a given day is to combine grades for certain subjects. To teach math, you can have children working on manipulatives and adjust the tasks you're giving them by age appropriateness. That wouldn't be an option on the computer. (On the other hand, I'm sure if you really like the idea of working with a computer, you could make it work somehow.) Aleks.com is a new interactive online K-12 math curriculum. It stands for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces. It's artificially intelligent system uses adaptive questioning to determine what you know and don't know in a given subject area. What I liked: It is very, very thorough in terms of topics covered. I also like the idea that they cover one specific topic and show you were you need to go next. ALEKS is a math worm who guides you through the activities. Since it is interactive, it keeps track of progress and you can go as fast as you'd like through the program or as slowly as you like. It comes with a 30 day free trial and so I definitely think that if you've been looking for something for math--try it. What I didn't like: My biggest complaint is that I think there wasn't enough actual teaching and/or help. It was there, but it just wasn't quite enough. There is also no spiraling or build up to a concept that I find to be very helpful with teaching children math. It is clearly student directed so depending on your student, that could be a positive or a negative. One last thing to mention is that it's a whopping $180.00 per year for one student per year. (They have subscriptions available for one month, 3 months or 6 months.) For a family like mine, I'd have to pay almost $700.00 per year just for Math! (That is close to what I pay for all 5 children for their entire in-home curriculum!) One last note: I could see this program being very helpful in prepping for a standardized test if you felt like you needed to do that. Related Articles: New Math Curriculum iLearn Offers Free At Home Trials How to Use Saxon Math Without Going Nutty (Part 2) How to Use Saxon Math Without Going Nutty! Why Saxon Math Drives People Crazy Tips to Build Number Sense in Your Children 5 Tricks to Get Your Kids to Memorize Math Facts Learn more about Valorie Delp  Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line. Relevanthomeschooling tags User Comments MNMom99 (5) 06 Mar 2009 09:17 AMHi Valorie, My DD (10 years old) likes to do math :). She hardly has any homework from school. So, I am looking into good online site or math material for her to work on, especially for the summer time. I came accross three sites aleks.com, noetic-learning.com and time4learning. Thank you for reviewing aleks.com. It is very helpful. Would you review noetic-learning.com and time4learning also or do a comparison? Thank you!  Valorie Delp (49340) 07 Mar 2009 04:10 AMI don't have experience with those but I do like artofproblemsolving.com for gifted math. Hope that helps. Valorie Delp (49340) 07 Mar 2009 04:10 AMOh I forgot to add that Andrea, our homeschooling blogger, used Time4Learning. . .I'm sure she'll pop in with a link or two to some of her reviews.  Andrea Hermitt (5512) 16 Mar 2009 04:37 PMtime4learning is a great supplement and will help your child reinforce what was learned in school. Here is a link to my latest review. http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/why-i-used-time4learning-for-elementary-level-homeschooling Community Tags curriculum reviews, homeschooling, math resources Discuss this article
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