A TOS Review: Math Mini-Courses (Money and Time)

Do you ever feel as if there are gaps in your child’s education? It might be that they need extra attention in one area or another or a little more time to work things out. It’s easy to get “gappy” with math.

I speak from personal experience. There were a lot of math classes I spent daydreaming, my friends. 

A+ Interactive Math has come up with a pretty great idea. They are now offering new Math Mini-Courses.  I asked for Money and Time to review.

A+ Interactive Math is an online curriculum that we’ve had a chance to review in the past. They have covered all the bases with their Math Mini-Courses.

You can choose from…

Counting and Identifying Numbers (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons

Place Value and Number Combinations (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons

Naming, Comparing and Arranging Numbers (1st-3rd) - 17 lessons

Early Elementary Fractions (1st-3rd) - 10 lessons

Early Elementary Addition (1st-3rd) - 17 lessons

Early Elementary Subtraction (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons

Elementary & Middle School Multiplication (2nd-6th) - 13 lessons

Elementary & Middle School Division (2nd-6th) - 15 lessons

Tables, Charts and Graphs (1st-6th) - 17 lessons

Elementary Geometry (1st-4th) - 19 lessons

Elementary Algebra (1st-4th) - 27 lessons

Advanced Geometry (4th-7th) - 35 lessons

Advanced Fractions (4th-8th) - 26 lessons

Decimal Numbers (3rd-7th) - 20 lessons

Percentages (5th-8th) - 13 lessons

Time (1st-4th) - 20 lessons

Money (1st-5th) - 18 lessons

Number Types and Conversions (3rd-6th) - 35 lessons

Ratio, Proportions, Probability & Statistics (3rd-6th) - 14 lessons

Measurements and Conversions (2nd-6th) - 23 lessons

I decided on the Money and Time courses, because Josiah still seems to have gaps and I wanted to provide him with daily practice. This seemed like a great way to do it! To begin our classes, I opened up Josiah’s dashboard.

This is the Money class, but the Time is set up the same way. You can see that there are quite a few options. We focused mainly on the Interactive Lessons and Quizzes.

It does take a few times around the block to figure out how to navigate the program. It’s easy enough once you get the hang of it. For example, you have to go in and check a box before it adds it to the student’s report. Josiah would forget where he was or needed to go next. It would help if there were some sort of check system to let him know what to do next without my assistance.

The lessons themselves are easy to follow. They are short and don’t drag it out unnecessarily. I don’t know about you, but not only was I a daydreamer…I’m raising one as well.  After the student completes the lesson there is a little interactive quiz available to take at the bottom.  What is great about the lessons and the quizzes is that they can be repeated as often as necessary. In fact, Josiah didn’t want to “complete” a lesson until he had achieved 100% on his quizzes.

In addition to the interactive lessons (which I think are the best part!) there is a digital worksheet generator for more practice and PDF files of the lessons themselves. The tests are available to print out and are more cumulative in nature.

Let me talk a little about the individual courses.

The Money Mini-Course certainly builds in difficulty. It is 18 lessons long and begins with basic coin counting and moves to calculating  and interest rates. I need a refresher myself! We haven’t gotten that far in our course work.  I believe in mastery and Josiah has been working through approximately 1-2 lessons a week. Over and over if need be.  

The Time Mini-Course has 20 different lessons. This Course talks about more than reading time on  an analog clock, but deals with days, weeks, seasons, etc. Josiah has had an easier time with this course.  Towards the end of the course the lessons turn towards Elapsed Time Units.  I appreciate the different methods used to explain certain concepts.

For example, this lesson uses a t-scale to help the student organize information. This is very helpful for my very visual (and hands-on) boy.

These are such great little courses. We have been using them in conjunction with our regular math. I know that Josiah can log in and work on those skills that he has struggled with without having to take time away from what we are studying at the time.

I do want to tell you that A+ Interactive Math has a very good "try before you buy" plan. They offer some of their programs FREE for one month before you make a commitment. There are FREE software downloads available as well, but they don't have all the bells and whistles. However, I didn't see the Mini-Courses in the free trials so maybe that is coming.

The Mini-Courses are online courses so you will need a good working computer, a faithful internet connect and a set of speakers or headphones. There are options for printables, but we found we didn't need them. 

You can connect with A+ Interactive Math via the following social media outlets. Don't forget to click on the banner below to read more reviews. Other members of the crew also reviewed some of the other mini-courses. I'm sure there is one that will peak your interest! 

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