Reply to Mathnasium worth it? Not working for us..

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "Mathnasium worth it? Not working for us.."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I live outside the DMV.  I have both of my high school kids in Mathnasium at the 2x week 90 minute lesson level (about $700/month).  I put my kids in to overcome a substandard, non-tracked elementary math curriculum plus the lost curriculum time due to the pandemic.

One kid is like me - normally a good student but really doesn't "get" math.  Doesn't study as much as he should for math tests and has a tendency to do very poorly.  The other kid is better at math but lacked accuracy and formal knowledge so couldn't do some on-grade level things by 7th grade.  Both were in accelerated math tracking starting in 6th grade (algebra in 8th, leading to calculus senior year). In my opinion, Mathnasium was able to help them over time (years) in a somewhat systematic manner at great expense.  In my situation, retaining my local Mathnasium has unique advantages because the kids can get themselves to the center after school and walk home from the center.  Also the center's owner/director is a very personable young man whom my sons enjoy working with.

I think my advice will not be completely relevant to you because I think your kids likely hate math more than mine since they are flunking.  But maybe it will help some:

Mathnasium Pros:
-No drill sheet homework 
-No parental monitoring (not Kumon)
-Goal of making kids like math
-Tutors will help with class homework & test review

Mathnasium Cons:
-Learning plan often includes some rare skills that are grade-appropriate but are not necessarily what your kid most needs to work on at that time (e.g., compound interest)
-Curriculum goes up to trigonometry/second algebra class level and has some SAT units BUT in my opinion the program is strongest for elementary ages up to maybe first algebra class.  There are few kids older than late elementary at my kids' center. My senior takes his calculus work there, but they really aren't set up to teach that - they just can improvise a little to get him what he needs.
-A long enrollment (6 months to 1 year) would probably be needed to see results.

Now some recommendations:

1) You should try to figure out what the source is of each child's issues and what will motivate them to do better.  This can involve getting inputs from multiple sources (kid themselves, Mathnasium, classroom teacher, any remedial/tutoring service your school offers, guidance counselor).

2) Your children may need more practice.  Kids who don't like math usually don't want to practice and it can be hard for parents who have forgotten most of high school math to help.  However, I have two recommendations: Khan Academy (free) and ixl.com (IXL) (paid).

If you are able to do some monitoring of your children working/practicing you may be able to ensure that they complete more material in the areas of their classroom studies or Mathnasium remedial work.  At one point, my kids' middle school made IXL available to all students and it was free.  I also paid for a one-year subscription one time.  If you have friends to share costs, there are inexpensive small group classroom licences.

In order to make a decision about leaving Mathnasium, I think you should have a sit-down meeting with the center director and ask for their feedback on your kids' progress (not just the canned reports).  You do probably need more help quicker.  They can modify their templated programs somewhat.  Directly asking may improve the value/support you are getting.

If you don't mind the cost of ixl.com, sign up for a math subscription for two children (each child needs a unique id to track their skill completion) and make them do 30 minutes a day.  Even a year of IXL at full price is cheaper than one month of Mathnasium.  The program tests them and suggests modules that go with the grade level that you set it on.  The explanations of how to solve problems are about the same as Khan Academy but there are no videos (I prefer this) and the parent progress tracking is superior.  I think anyone college-educated could probably use a child's curriculum/syllabus/homework to steer the child towards the most relevant practice modules while still letting the program track progress and suggest modules.

I ended up dropping IXL after one year and going with Mathasium because I didn't have time to enforce regular daily IXL and I wanted my kids to have homework help. IXL was still relatively worth it.  The diagnostic results were similar to Mathnasium's.

3) Remind them that summer school is a risk.  Most kids don't want to do that.  In fact, if they are really flunking now, they might already be headed for summer school - so make sure you know what options they will have.  If they don't have to go to summer school, they should do more IXL or Mathnasium in the summer if they really are lacking skills.  (Like my 7th grader who couldn't remember how to do long division by hand at all.)

If you have any other questions, please ask.  I will check back.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics