In the first of a series of online subscription site reviews the author takes a look at Maths-Whizz. Son of Thor has been using the service for three months and his mother has given us a detailed, careful and excellent review!

Sif The author knows of which she speaks, given her 20-year history in EFL teaching and as a TELT (Technology in English Language Teaching) consultant.

As she describes, she subscribed to Maths-Whizz off her own back:

I coughed up to use it to supplement our programme, but very quickly it became obvious that it was of a quality that lent itself beyond supplementation and it became the core of our maths curriculum. It acts as the spine if you like, upon which all other activities hang off as a response to a visible need for further practice or additional concept teaching/checking.

Which is fabulous to read. Crucially, Son of Thor seems to have regained a confidence in, and enthusiasm for, maths:

Far more than the animated format, this confidence building has been the reason why he chooses maths as the first subject every day (it used to be the last, with some hiding behind the sofa added just to help make me feel inadequate) and why he looks upon it as a fun subject that he can succeed in, rather than the particularly Machiavellian form of boy toture he used to see it as.

This, as so many parents and teachers using Maths-Whizz attest, is one of the most important changes. Maths problems can seem insurmountable without the confidence to tackle them. The fact that Son of Thor is newly-enthusiastic about the subject bodes well.

The God of Whizz has always maintained that everyone can run a marathon, which produces various scoffing noises from colleagues and friends. But it struck GoW that there is something akin to this sentiment in maths. Too many people assume that because they can’t do quadratic equations they cannot tackle the simpler stuff, when all it requires is a willingness to take the first few steps and go from there.

That’s what we’re trying to do – raise standards in maths, student by student, and little by little, by starting with what you can do, and showing you what you will do.

We’re pleased Home School in Italy agrees, and can’t say much more than her haiku-like summary:

Dead chuffed
No buyer’s remorse
Will renew

Home Educators are increasingly turning to Maths-Whizz to give their kids a complete-curriculum maths tutor. This is great stuff, so we wanted to reflect this demand with a new discount code to give home educators money off Maths-Whizz.

Donna Cowan, one of our newest subscribers, recently pointed out the dilemma facing home educators and said that Maths-Whizz might be a good fit for her home-educated child:

…If [Maths-Whizz] is a full curriculum I suggest you promote this to home educators – in UK especially we are desperately short of a good thorough home school maths curriculum; one which can be individualised. Home education is ALL about individual learning, tailoring everything to the child’s abilities and learning style, and totally going at the child’s pace, so I really am hoping Math Whizz could be the solution for us and we can leave the Workbook Tantrums behind!

Following her email, we thought we’d give the likes of Donna a better deal for their home-educated children with ten pounds off the first month’s subscription to Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus.

Subscribers just have to enter the code ‘HOME-ED-WHIZZ‘ when they sign up, and hit ‘recalculate’ to get the first month of unlimited online maths tutoring for less than a fiver!

This is something we’ve probably always known, but never really made a fuss about, until Donna Cowan (one of our newest customers) pointed out yesterday:

“…If [Maths-Whizz] is a full curriculum I suggest you push this to home schoolers – in UK especially we are desperately short of a good thorough home school curriculum. Home education is ALL about individual learning, tailoring everything to the child’s abilities and learning style, and totally going at the child’s pace, so I really am hoping Math Whizz could be the solution for us and we can leave the Workbook Tantrums behind!”

So, we’ve taken Donna’s advice and created a brand new Maths-Whizz page for home educators: http://www.whizz.com/parents/home-education.html.

The page features a link to our sample exercises, plus links to some useful sites for home educators – whether you are one already or are considering it for your child.

You can also read my blog post from this time last year, where I provided some tips for home educators using Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus. Read the full post for Whizzer mum Wendy’s own suggestions about how to use Maths-Whizz.

If you’re not already using our online maths tutor – and you’re a parent of a home-educated 5-13 year-old – then subscribe!

Here follows some tips from the, er, finest minds of Maths-Whizz and some thoughts from a home-schooling mum.

Tips for home education with Maths-Whizz:

• Rule 1: Maths-Whizz is not a substitute for good old-fashioned human interaction. Maths-Whizz will teach, test, motivate, inspire and challenge, but it won’t (yet!) take questions from the class.
• Rule 2: The more you put into Maths-Whizz, the more you get out of it. A student who pays attention during the assessment gets a more accurate learning plan. A parent who follows the reports is able to suggest weak areas for revision. Most importantly, the student who works hard to complete maths lessons earns more credits to spend in the shop!
• Rule 3: Schedule for success. Many home-schooling parents build Maths-Whizz into the weekly timetable. This allows them to make like-for-like progress comparisons, and use Maths-Whizz as a bargaining chip for reluctant children: “You can log on to Maths-Whizz if you finish your worksheets”, and so forth.

Here’s Home-schooler Wendy on her son’s use of Maths-Whizz (She has some great pointers for integrating Maths-Whizz into the home education routine):

We use Whizz once a week and then back it up with related activities during the rest of the week. We found that the programme moved too quickly if we relied solely on Whizz, however the revision section is very handy.

Louis particularly likes the report board and checks his progress at the end of each session. He understands the percentages and aims for scores in excess of 80% (his own decision). ‘Home Edders’ have to send reports to their LEAs, so we print out your information for parents as part of our submission. [UPDATE: Whilst Wendy sends reports to her LEA, we do not believe such reports are required by LEAs]

A major reason we took Louis out of school 2 years ago was because he spent the major part of Key Stage 1 being convinced he was ’stupid at maths’. Whizz was a totally new approach which removed all of his angst; we never thought he would ever say he actually enjoyed maths so we feel his present confidence is mainly due to the programme removing teacher disapproval coupled with comparing himself with other children.

[Louis] works slowly and needs quite a bit of thinking time which is impossible in a class situation, Whizz puts him in charge of his progress and removes the feelings of failure if he needs to repeat a lesson.

We’re very pleased that Whizz has been extended to the beginning of KS3 and are hoping that you’ll get to GCSE level in time for Louis to benefit.