When I look back over this year on the Homeschool Crew, I’ll always remember it as the math year — the on-line math year. I have had the opportunity to review lots of math products this year, and Math Galaxy was somewhat at a disadvantage with its review being later in the year. When I first went to the Math Galaxy website, I wasn’t impressed. I didn’t think my kids would be impressed either.
However, as I got more into the product, I discovered there’s a lot more to it than I thought. I made the mistake of assuming that the simple graphics meant that the program itself was too simple to be valuable. I was wrong. Math Galaxy is not a simple math fact drill program. It actually teaches the mathematical concepts! There are step-by-step demonstrations of hundreds of different types of math problems.
There are programs available in all levels. These include:
- Whole Numbers Fun
- Fractions Fun
- Decimals, Proportions, % Fun
- Word Problems Fun
- Pre-Algebra Fun
- Algebra Fundamentals
These programs all work the same basic way. The student chooses a topic to study. He is presented with a problem, and then solves the problem step-by-step as the program directs. With each problem, the student earns a robot. There is a labyrinth game to play, and each of the robots earned by solving math problems is equal to one life in the game. This was very motivating for my 8 year old son. (The fact that he isn’t very good at the labyrinth game is helpful. He isn’t able to play very long without dying, so then he has to do more math problems to play the game.)
In addition to the Math Fun Games, Math Galaxy also has Math Riddler worksheet generating software. The software automatically generates worksheets for your choice of practice topics. The worksheets each have a fun riddle on them that the student fills in as he solves each problem.
If this sounds like something that would be helpful for your child, visit MathGalaxy.com to try out some of the games on-line. The software is available to purchase for $19.95 for each of the different levels. This is not a subscription, but a one-time purchase price.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
By Kristen H.