Alternatives to Zearn

[Anonymous]

Our school is using this program. I hate it and think it’s a terrible program for teaching math to 1st grade. There is very little teaching, lots of repetition, easy for kids to make typos and get the wrong answer or guess to get the right one. Are there any other online platforms people recommend? My child is struggling and this program is making things worse.

[Anonymous]

Funny. The things you complain about are the very things I think Zearn does better with than other math apps.
Happy Numbers teaches a little less. IXL and Iknowit are purely drilling, no teaching. All of them are worse with repetition than Zearn. But the absolute worst for repetition is ST Maths, just look at the thread in the VA schools forum. Khan Academy is a bit dry for kids less than 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Math shouldn’t be done on an app, period. The whole thing is so ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

We just switched our youngest to private. For the 1st time in 10 years I received a math text book!

It might be worth purchasing a book and the accompanying workbook and working through it with them?

[Anonymous]

My DCPS (and I am assuming most) is using Zearn because it tracks very closely with the Eureka content so it can be used to reinforce and shore up skills taught during F2F instruction and show teachers how well kids are picking them up. It will get harder as the Eureka content gets harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Math shouldn’t be done on an app, period. The whole thing is so ridiculous.

If it weren't for the apps, my kids would believe maths is the slowest and most boring subject in school.
Now they know that F2F math is the slowest and most boring subject in school, but math can be exciting and challenging. Of course, that only make F2F appear slower and more boring as the weeks go by. It is what it is. DCPS, please allow for some small group pullouts for the kids who learn a lot faster and are bored.

[Anonymous]

I like Zearn. It tracks with the Eureka modules and lessons, so it's a good way to reinforce the teacher's instruction. It's not the only, or even the primary, way that my kid learns math, but we find it useful.

Also, DCPS does use workbooks for the problem sets, both in-class and the homework.

[Anonymous]

App or no, math DOES require a ton of repetition. Tons. So you may hate seeing it, but it has to happen regardless of on paper or screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math shouldn’t be done on an app, period. The whole thing is so ridiculous.

If it weren't for the apps, my kids would believe maths is the slowest and most boring subject in school.
Now they know that F2F math is the slowest and most boring subject in school, but math can be exciting and challenging. Of course, that only make F2F appear slower and more boring as the weeks go by. It is what it is. DCPS, please allow for some small group pullouts for the kids who learn a lot faster and are bored.

Seems like it works for your kids. It doesn't work for mine and for OP's child. For us it's simply another cartoon to click through.
Op, print out worksheets or write them by hand. Plenty of examples online. Ignore DCPS math. Whatever you do at home is a lot better than what DCPS offers in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:App or no, math DOES require a ton of repetition. Tons. So you may hate seeing it, but it has to happen regardless of on paper or screen.

Yep. In order to master concepts and develop fluency, kids need lots of repetition. And Eureka/Zearn quite explicitly build in the repetition and the fluency-building problem sets. That's how you get to the point that you can solve problems quickly and easily.

Also, kids can guess on worksheets, too. That's not remotely unique to Zearn. What is unique is that Zearn won't let you move on until you get the right answer. It also teaches concepts in chunks that build on each other, in order to build understanding and not just rote ability. It sometimes seems like it's moving slowly, but I'm fairly impressed with the way that it tries to help kids develop deep number sense, to understand why a given method works.

The only problem I can see is if your school is using Zearn exclusively, rather than in conjunction with teacher instruction and paper problem sets. That would be a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math shouldn’t be done on an app, period. The whole thing is so ridiculous.

If it weren't for the apps, my kids would believe maths is the slowest and most boring subject in school.
Now they know that F2F math is the slowest and most boring subject in school, but math can be exciting and challenging. Of course, that only make F2F appear slower and more boring as the weeks go by. It is what it is. DCPS, please allow for some small group pullouts for the kids who learn a lot faster and are bored.

Seems like it works for your kids. It doesn't work for mine and for OP's child. For us it's simply another cartoon to click through.
Op, print out worksheets or write them by hand. Plenty of examples online. Ignore DCPS math. Whatever you do at home is a lot better than what DCPS offers in elementary school.

I think Eureka is actually a very solid curriculum, and has plenty of worksheets and problem sets for kids to do, as well, so no need to go hunting for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math shouldn’t be done on an app, period. The whole thing is so ridiculous.

If it weren't for the apps, my kids would believe maths is the slowest and most boring subject in school.
Now they know that F2F math is the slowest and most boring subject in school, but math can be exciting and challenging. Of course, that only make F2F appear slower and more boring as the weeks go by. It is what it is. DCPS, please allow for some small group pullouts for the kids who learn a lot faster and are bored.

Seems like it works for your kids. It doesn't work for mine and for OP's child. For us it's simply another cartoon to click through.
Op, print out worksheets or write them by hand. Plenty of examples online. Ignore DCPS math. Whatever you do at home is a lot better than what DCPS offers in elementary school.

Worksheets is not what OP is asking for. OP is asking for instruction, not drilling (fluency building). Zearn does that better than the others I've listed. Although Happy Numbers does also 'teach' but with less hand holding than Zearn.

A lot of the others are just digital cartoony worksheets with little gif-like 'rewards' in between repetitions.

I'm with you that ST Math is absolutely a cartoon to click through. It might feel less so if it were cued to each student's grade level when they start, or if it were only offered to kids in 1st grade as an app that grows with them through the rest of elementary.

[Anonymous]

My son (K) loves khan academy. It is fairly dry as someone else said but it provides actual instruction in the videos in a straight forward way. Might be worth sitting through one or two lessons to see if it might be useful.

[Anonymous]

My K DD isn't a big Zearn fan either. It doesn't make it fun for the kids at all (letting them choose between exercises like Lexia, e.g.) and it doesn't have an assessment at the beginning, so getting through the content that is truly way too easy is mind numbing.

[Anonymous]

Mom of a kindergartner here and I find Zearn soul-destroying. 50 exercises of counting 1-5 followed by 50 exercises of counting 6-10, followed, presumably, by 50 exercises of counting 10-15, then 15-20. I started to do some of them for my kiddo so she wouldn't have to do all of them, and I felt the life sucked out of me after doing 4 exercises of counting 6-10 and had to stop. It would be much better if there was (i) an assessment, and (ii) some variety in the types of exercises. I worry this is going to turn her off to math.