Saxon Publishers
www.factsfirst.com
Holt McDougal
As the homeschooling parent of four children of various mathematical abilities and inclinations, I am always looking for interesting and fun ways to reinforce the lessons we are learning. My children are all different in their abilities, but they are very similar in their love for anything computer-oriented. So I was excited for the opportunity to review the FactsFirst.com website by Saxon.
We have not used Saxon math curricula in the past, but I have often heard good things about it from friends and acquaintances. In fact, I have nothing but good opinions about Saxon in general, so I did not hesitate to investigate a program that is being marketed using the Saxon name.
This particular program is web-based, unlike some others that are stored on your home computer. For $49.99 you purchase a one-year household license for up to four users. Obviously, this program would probably be most economical for homes that are teaching four students. Any fewer and the per-student cost would increase; any more and you would be required to purchase an additional household license. You also need to weigh the fact that the license is only for one year and would need to be repurchased in subsequent years.
The program covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division--skills that form the basis for early elementary mathematics all the way through college level. While this program is obviously designed for elementary age students, possibly through early middle school, a solid background in these skills will serve any student well throughout their educational career and into adulthood. An additional feature that might be appealing to some families is the ability to use an English version or a Spanish one.
After creating a self-portrait in the Character Creator (an image that will be used to represent your student throughout the program), your student will be taken to the lessons section. Lessons consist of five sections: new facts, commutative property, practice, quiz, and scoring. New facts are introduced as the student works toward mastery. He or she must master the facts that are introduced before beginning the next unit.
Prior to each lesson, the student takes a pretest, which gives immediate feedback regarding not only the accuracy with which he or she answers each question, but also the speed. The pretest determines whether the child already has mastery of that particular lesson or if it needs to be learned. Another nice feature is that the program tracks your student's progress and remembers where he or she is in the program. This means no backtracking is needed.
The only thing that bothered me about the pretest section was the inability to leave a fact question blank (i.e., answering with the default question mark for a fact that isn't already known). I prefer that my students tell me when they don't know a fact rather than reinforcing incorrect answers and needing to relearn later. Also, I would have preferred that the lesson sections have a pause feature so that a younger student could take a break if needed, but that was a very minor concern that I'm certain we could work around.
Overall, my children enjoyed learning their math facts in this manner. The lessons were short enough to be interesting but long enough to teach what needed to be learned. The graphics and arcade activities were colorful and fun, and there were many creative methods that reinforced what they were learning.
This is a program that I am seriously considering purchasing for the upcoming year and adding to our regular math program. No more finger counting for our family!
Product review by Melanie Bunnett, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October 2009
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