Okay! Okay! I know the title is kind of corny and obvious since the Olympics are going on, but I had to do it. I love the Olympics. I love the Olympics from beginning to ending and everything in between. I love watching the interesting and seldom seen sports. I love it when athletes from the U.S.A. win medals (sorry international readers). I love hearing the life stories of athletes. I love cheering for the underdog (as long as they're not up against the U.S. of course). I love being inspired by those that have worked hard and sacrificed to become the best athlete that they can be. I just love the whole thing!
I think that's why I enjoy teaching. I love those "aha" moments when one of my children finally "get it". I love watching my children succeed after working hard. Unfortunately, one of my children, Joshua, still has a difficult time enjoying "aha" moments with one of his subjects - math. Math is very difficult for him. He just doesn't "get it" as easily as some kids do. For example, although we are past addition, now, he still has difficulty being able to answer simple addition questions easily without using his fingers or some other method of counting objects.
That's one of the reasons why I was excited to find out that the TOS Review Crew was sending us Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy by Math Made Easy. I had heard good things about it and had high expectations. I was hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed and I wasn't. In keeping with the Olympic theme, I'd like to give you three ways that Math Made Easy wins a Gold Medal at least from the Tinkels.
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Math Made Easy wins the Gold Medal for Concept and Philosophy! As soon as I read about their philosophy I was intrigued and excited. Did you know that all of the addition table can be boiled down to 36 problems? Yep! It's true. That's one of the things that I love about this program. The creator of this program, Glenda Brown James, wanted to make learning addition as stress free as possible. She figured that addition of zeros and ones was pretty easy so, when you consider that 2+1 is the same as 1+2 and that 0+3 is the same as 3+0, then that eliminates 36 problems from the 100 problem addition table right away. Then, you apply that same principle to the rest of the table and you eliminate 28 more. After all, if 2+3 is the same as 3+2, then after you know 2+3 you don't have to worry about 3+2. So that boils down to 36 addition problems. If you take six weeks to work on those 36 problems then you only have to work on 6 problems a week. How easy is that!
Math Made Easy wins the Gold Medal for Fun and Easy! Don't you just love it when you finish something fun and you realize that you learned something along the way. That's kind of what Math Made Easy is like. It's not just a bunch of boring fill in the answer worksheets, it's a lot of fun. From their daily (one a day) pages to their review games the kids have just a plain old good time learning their weekly math facts. The pages that they do are really puzzles. One day might be one of those color pages where if the answer to the question inside of a shape is 14 then you color it green If it's 7 then the color is gray. With 8 it's yellow, 6-red, and 12-orange. When you are done coloring in all of the spaces then the picture ends up being a bunch of differently shaped balloons with a ribbon tying the strings together. What fun! Other pages might be secret code pages. Others might be cut and paste, or matching. Only a few pages are actually worksheet type pages with rows of problems but, even then, they are made to look fun. Friday is always the "Math Problem of the Week" page to challenge the kids. Put the fun pages together along with the fun review games and flashcards (all included in the book) and you have a Gold Medal winning program that makes learning so much fun that your kids won't even know they're learning!
Math Made Easy wins the Gold Medal for Effectiveness! It really works! Even after the first week Joshua was saying his math facts without using his fingers which Math Made Easy encourages the child not to do. And, as expected, he loves the different types of pages. He doesn't like regular worksheet type pages, but these pages he loves! When I was talking to him about it earlier, he said to give it "two thumbs up", so Math Made Easy wins two awards - the Two Thumbs Up award from Joshua and the Gold Medal from me!
So, you might be thinking that Math Made Easy would cost the price of a gold medal to buy, but if you did you'd be wrong. It doesn't even cost the price of a bronze medal! All of the things mentioned above - the daily pages, review games, flashcards, instructions, lesson plans, pre-tests/post-tests and more is only $24.95! Yep! Even the price is a winner. It has really helped Joshua and I know it will help your child as well. Just click here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above to find out more about this and all of the Math Made Easy products!
As usual, many other members of the TOS Review Crew reviewed Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy by Math Made Easy and other Crew members reviewed other programs by Math Made Easy and you can find what they had to say by clicking here. Happy Home Educating!
Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Review Crew I was sent a free copy of Addition Teaching and Learning Made Easy in order to use and and give my honest review on this blog.
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