Normally the Adventure Island section - i.e. "adaptive gamified" one. But will often head over to the Training Zone to switch up topics based on interest. TBH I'm not organized enough to manually queue up activities in advance! But the combo of the above approach seems to be working in terms of learning + interest.
Also need to stay on top of all the gamey stuff - if we're not doing it directly with her, it's very easy for her to just head over to the section where they design their outfits etc. Distracting to say the least!
With Matific specifically, pretty much with her the whole time. I'd say she's at a challenge level on average of needing help with >=50% of each question. And often the assistance we provide comes from showing her how to figure it out with fingers or objects. Oz was cute and tied in some kind of monster eating the object theme recently, but I am more boring :) The past couple of days she used it for 2+ hours which was unusual - she really was on a roll and didn't want to stop! But then today for example she had zero interest. Often it'll be 30min or so. Also if you haven't encountered it already, Matific is a little buggy sometimes and will throw the odd really inappropriately challenging problem into the mix - clearly a malfunction with their "adaptive" learning algorithm because it's often multiple grades above their level. And, they still haven't provided the best solution to customizations, and she can find it repetitive sometimes. What's been your experience so far?
Update after using it for a week or so: have found it really buggy - the ipad app will crash or not let us log in, or otherwise freeze once she finishes something and then not have saved the last few exercises so it repeats. I also found all the flashy "game" points and rewards annoying. Some of the exercises seem useful like the quick counting ones and you can tell its nice to be in an adaptive app since they can vary the speed programmatically. But then it queued up 5 digit drawing lessons in a row which sucked. Have been somewhat disappointed given the feedback I'd heard from people - she seems to like it but I have to fight through the app a lot to make it useful. Looking forward to moving on to beast academy
That sucks! We've found the browser version less buggy, but it's harder for little hands to interact with vs a tablet. We've found it does a weird thing on the iPad at login, where it takes a while to load and appears frozen, but isn't, they just don't have a good display for the "pending" status. Have you tried the Training Zone section, ie where you can choose topics? We've also had times where it hasn't presented good exercises (either too much repetition, or inappropriate levels), and that gets frustrating, but there is so much good content in there when you can find/access it!). BA is great but you'll probably find you want something to augment it to practice drills etc. Maybe also try Monster Math? It may still be a bit too advanced (haven't used it with our 3yo yet, but 5yo has gotten a lot out of it at times).
I think I put it at too hard of a level to start or something, she was fine for some but completely stumped by others e.g. subitizing one, addition one
You mean you got stuck doing so within Matific? We first worked on exposure of concepts with physical things, e.g. finger counting/adding or using various objects. Food eg almonds are fun for understanding subtraction, if you haven't tried it :) My sense is that a physical understanding really helps them develop an intuition vs intangible screen stuff. And we still use fingers and objects to figure out a lot of the arithmetic while doing Matific. I think the kiddo you're working with is 3, yeah? There's probably a decent chance that it's too tricky a concept? I remember trying it earlier with our youngest and it was clearly over her head, but she'll be 4 in the early new year and I think some recent brain development has really changed things.
what mode are you using it in? Are you. manually queuing up exercises or are you doing the adaptive "gamified" one?
Normally the Adventure Island section - i.e. "adaptive gamified" one. But will often head over to the Training Zone to switch up topics based on interest. TBH I'm not organized enough to manually queue up activities in advance! But the combo of the above approach seems to be working in terms of learning + interest.
Also need to stay on top of all the gamey stuff - if we're not doing it directly with her, it's very easy for her to just head over to the section where they design their outfits etc. Distracting to say the least!
Also curious how long typical session is for younger kid, how much handholding you do (e.g. if they get stuck)
With Matific specifically, pretty much with her the whole time. I'd say she's at a challenge level on average of needing help with >=50% of each question. And often the assistance we provide comes from showing her how to figure it out with fingers or objects. Oz was cute and tied in some kind of monster eating the object theme recently, but I am more boring :) The past couple of days she used it for 2+ hours which was unusual - she really was on a roll and didn't want to stop! But then today for example she had zero interest. Often it'll be 30min or so. Also if you haven't encountered it already, Matific is a little buggy sometimes and will throw the odd really inappropriately challenging problem into the mix - clearly a malfunction with their "adaptive" learning algorithm because it's often multiple grades above their level. And, they still haven't provided the best solution to customizations, and she can find it repetitive sometimes. What's been your experience so far?
Update after using it for a week or so: have found it really buggy - the ipad app will crash or not let us log in, or otherwise freeze once she finishes something and then not have saved the last few exercises so it repeats. I also found all the flashy "game" points and rewards annoying. Some of the exercises seem useful like the quick counting ones and you can tell its nice to be in an adaptive app since they can vary the speed programmatically. But then it queued up 5 digit drawing lessons in a row which sucked. Have been somewhat disappointed given the feedback I'd heard from people - she seems to like it but I have to fight through the app a lot to make it useful. Looking forward to moving on to beast academy
That sucks! We've found the browser version less buggy, but it's harder for little hands to interact with vs a tablet. We've found it does a weird thing on the iPad at login, where it takes a while to load and appears frozen, but isn't, they just don't have a good display for the "pending" status. Have you tried the Training Zone section, ie where you can choose topics? We've also had times where it hasn't presented good exercises (either too much repetition, or inappropriate levels), and that gets frustrating, but there is so much good content in there when you can find/access it!). BA is great but you'll probably find you want something to augment it to practice drills etc. Maybe also try Monster Math? It may still be a bit too advanced (haven't used it with our 3yo yet, but 5yo has gotten a lot out of it at times).
I think I put it at too hard of a level to start or something, she was fine for some but completely stumped by others e.g. subitizing one, addition one
Those are tricky concepts for a little tot!
how did you work up to basic adding? We tried this today and got stuck at that part
You mean you got stuck doing so within Matific? We first worked on exposure of concepts with physical things, e.g. finger counting/adding or using various objects. Food eg almonds are fun for understanding subtraction, if you haven't tried it :) My sense is that a physical understanding really helps them develop an intuition vs intangible screen stuff. And we still use fingers and objects to figure out a lot of the arithmetic while doing Matific. I think the kiddo you're working with is 3, yeah? There's probably a decent chance that it's too tricky a concept? I remember trying it earlier with our youngest and it was clearly over her head, but she'll be 4 in the early new year and I think some recent brain development has really changed things.