I've been feeling a little guilty about the neglect of my blog. I've had a hard time sleeping at night (I go to sleep fine, but then I wake up around 3am and can't get back to sleep until 5 or so), so I've been sleeping in and there is just no time for blogging. The last two nights have been better though, so hopefully the weird sleeping patterns have passed.
Right now, I have water starting to boil so I can make my kids some oatmeal and we can get going to choir, but I quickly wanted to write about a pretty amazing site that my friend, RaNae, told me about. She told me she was kind of addicted to it and was having a great time freshening up on her math. My other friend, Mary, told me that her son was on it for about 4 hours the other day and he loves it. They told me it was just pure math - no frills and whistles. I was intrigued because I really didn't want to create a "video game" atmosphere in learning, even if it was for math, so I liked the "no frills" concept. I was very curious to see the site and I finally got on it a couple of days ago.
I had fun doing some of the math problems myself and seeing what I could remember. I thought I'd see how Bud liked it so I opened an account for him and he tried it. He really enjoyed it. He was looking forward to trying to get 10 in a row right yesterday (if you get 10 in a row, you are "proficient" in that concept and you move on to the next one), and he wants to try again today. I signed myself up as his "coach" so I can log in and see his progress from my account whenever I want.
It's free and the math concepts are explained in a clear manner through video. The website is Khanacademy.org - Here is the TED video in which Khan talks about why he created the site:
I'm very excited about it and if the excitement doesn't wane, I'll try it on Spice (she likes Aleks math, but Aleks math doesn't have videos that explain the concept, and it costs money!) I'll have to let you know which one she likes better.
Anyway, thanks RaNae for the great discovery!!!
Looks awesome! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome! Glad you like it!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting! I want to try it with my kids for sure - I bet they'd love it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you heard of the Trachtenberg system of math? My mom just told me about it, and I want to learn it and teach it to my kids.
Just had to come back and say thanks for sharing. My whole family (except the two and one year olds) are using this site and really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great find! I've been working my way through the topics and re-learning a lot. Thanks!!
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