Mathletics by 3P Learning is a motivational online, world-wide math program for K-12 that includes competitive, curricular, and game components. Its aim is to inspire a delight in mathematics and to improve students’ performance.
Live Mathletics—Competition
Live Mathletics is cool. Our children were introduced to it when they participated in World Math Day last March, and they had a lot of fun with it now as well. This is how it works: you sign in, choose your level, and ask the computer to find people to play with you. It finds suitable competitors anywhere in the world, and then you get 60 seconds to compete with them, online and in real time. Correct answers are rewarded with points.
Our children loved this. They practiced mental arithmetic, learned geography, and experienced the thrill of playing with students throughout the world. It’s especially illuminating to realize that the student from Australia really should be sleeping at 2AM, but has likely snuck out of bed to put in just one more game. Occasionally my children would even start to recognize their competitors. Not the players themselves, mind you, but their first name, country, school or team, and their online presence—their mathlete. (Note that there is no communication with or between students.)
Getting Gold Bars—Curriculum Work
For each level from kindergarten to grade 12 a whole curriculum is available to the students. Each section starts with a pre-test, includes a variety of topics, and ends with a test, but students can choose the order in which to do their work. They can even skip straight to the test. While working on the different activities, students have access to instant, animated help and to a concept dictionary. If students wish, they can choose to do easier or more difficult work. Success is rewarded with points and a sparkling gold bar for every activity done perfectly. A pie graph on the home screen shows students how many of the available gold bars they have obtained.
Our children worked on this, learning and reviewing concepts, and collecting points, but they did not enjoy it as much as Live Mathletics.
Taking a Break—Math Games
Lower level students can access fun, animated math games. Upper levels do not have a games tab, but the problems in the curriculum site are animated and interactive. All students may access Rainforest Maths which is for levels 1-6 and includes all sorts of brightly coloured interactive activities.
Most of the games were fun and my children enjoyed them. A few of them were violent and I did not let the children play those. Often, however, the children preferred working for points to playing games.
The Pay-Off—Best in the World, Best in the Country, Points, Certificates, The Store, and More
What’s the big deal with the points, you’re wondering. Well, Mathletics keeps track of a student’s score, starting fresh each day, and a diligent student has a chance to be top in the country or even the world for that day. (Of course, this requires mom to allow uninterrupted computer access for a ridiculously long time, but, hey, I only gave each child one day to do this.) My children reached 4th, 5th, and even first in Canada, and one placed 4th in the world, competing against thousands of other kids worldwide. Now THAT is cool!
Also, every child who reaches 1000 points in a week gets a bronze certificate, and after four weeks of bronze certificates, a child gets a silver certificate. Gold certificates are available after several silvers. After our 45 day trial, we have two silver certificate winners in the house.
The kids enjoyed earning points to buy hairdos, clothes, and backgrounds from the store to dress up their mathletes. One of my girls really liked the fancy, animated backgrounds, because she said they distracted her Live Mathletics competitors. There’s strategy for you!
For Mom and Dad—the Parent Center
Using the parent account, parents can check out their children’s progress, including the number of points they earned each week. The Task Manager shows a student’s work in detail and can be used to control what activities a student is allowed to do next. Parents can also download the Mathletics Instant workbooks. These are available for all levels, with tests, but seem to be more for review and extra practice than for teaching and learning.
Miscellaneous Info—Try it out for Free, Scope and Sequence, and More
If you are interested in Mathletics, check out World Math Day late in the winter when children worldwide have free access to Live Mathletics for several weeks. When the time comes, I will post about it.
To see what’s involved, including screen shots, look at the student guide. Under ‘About Mathletics’ on the website, you can see the contents of each level, from kindergarten to grade 12, as well as the system requirements.
Note that if you visit the Mathletics website, you will automatically be linked to your own country’s website, which may be different from the Canadian one I reviewed. Therefore, if you live outside Canada, do check out the other Homeschool Crew Reviews for information relevant to your country.
Bottom Line
Mathletics is a lot of fun, especially Live Mathletics. It improved my children’s math ability and had them involved with math a lot more than they would have been. I consider it a great curriculum supplement, but we are not extending our children’s trial memberships because of the high cost of Canadian memberships.
Purchasing Information
Purchasing information varies by country. As far as I can tell, Mathletics is available 24/7 in any country, and has a 10 day money-back guarantee.
For Canadians, the cost is $99 Canadian per year for the first child. Each additional child gets a discount of $9.50 Canadian. This family discount is new and is to be put into the website purchasing system very soon.
The US cost is half of this, and it will come up automatically if you live in the US. I’ve been given permission to tell you, though, that to get this special deal, you need to know that the human calculator’s favourite number is 9.
Policies
Disclosure Policy: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received 45 days access to Mathletics for each of my children.