10 Reasons My 5 Year Old Loves Maths-Whizz
Do you have a child who will only do something if they think it’s fun? Well my 5 year old definitely fits in that category! He won’t go anywhere near a Kumon workbook, and tries to flick to the “interesting looking” pages in his “Cars” workbook. If your child is aged 5-13 years old and hates maths worksheets, take a look at Maths Whizz.
My son is actually having fun with our weekly maths and English routine. He plays on Maths Whizz one day, then on Reading Eggs the next and looks forward to it, even on the weekends! He’s doing the UK version of the program, but there’s a US curriculum version as well.
I’ve reviewed Maths-Whizz on Maths Insider before and even awarded it the Best Online Maths Program award just a few months ago, I’ve been a fan for a while now, but here are 10 real reasons why my 5 year old is looking forward to doing his Maths-Whizz today!
1. Bedroom decoration
Each Maths-Whizz student gets a “bedroom/playroom” as a launchpad to other activities. My son often changes the color of his room (the purple and yellow combination is a particularly painful one!) and plays with the animated objects in his room.
2. Shopping
My son loves to shop! With the credits he earns for doing the exercises and test, he’s straight into the Maths Whizz shop to buy toys, accessories and pets for his Maths Whizz playroom. His Maths-Whizz cat needs regular feeding, so he has to do the exercises regular to earn credits to buy cat food for his pet!
3. Only 10 questions
Each exercise only has 10 questions (some have less) so he can literally whizz through his work. The tests after each exercise are also short and at his level only have 5 questions.
4. Easy to click around
Navigation around the site is super easy. My son rarely asks “What does this do?” He’s able to login and access all the exercises, tests, games and activities independently. (I’ve set his password as “dinosaur”, but now that he’s learnt how to spell that, I can change it to another tricky spelling word.)
5. Show and tell
There’s always a step by step example of how to do the questions at the start of the exercise and the questions increase in difficulty gradually, making it easy to follow. Each time he does get a question wrong, both the method and the answer are given making it less likely that he’ll make repeat mistakes. The video below shows how Maths-Whizz guides kids to the right answer.
6. Mini games
If your child likes computer games, they’ll be rushing to earn credits to access the arcade style games in the Mini Games section. My son loved these quick bursts of fun at first, but has now decided that he’d rather spend his credits on his Maths Whizz pets.
7. Only 45 mins a week
Maths-Whizz recommends that the average child spends 45 minutes per week on the program. My son usually takes around 5-15 minutes to do 1 exercise and the accompanying test, but will sometimes do 2 or 3 sets if he’s in the mood. He still has plenty of time to play!
8. Getting better
My son can see a summary of his results presented with a screenshot of the activity as well as a pie chart, in his console. On my parent’s dashboard I can get a more detailed breakdown of his results, including his current and historic maths age. By virtue of doing Maths Whizz a few times a week, my son can see that his maths age is increasing.
9. Goofy animations
The animated characters are really childish in a good way. My son chuckles when he sees the “Super Ant” and often calls me over to see what slapstick antics the characters are up to in between questions.
10. Challenge time!
Maths Whizz encourages kids to review and repeat exercises through the “Challenge” feature. My son can choose a topic, then challenge another player to see who can score the most points in that exercise. He likes this non-threatening competition, especially since it’s on a topic that he’s covered before.
This Maths Whizz/Reading eggs combination is working really well for my 5 year old. There are days where I find he’s already started on his online “homework” without being reminded, which makes for one less thing to nag him about. I’ve also spoken personally to parents of older children whose kids are also fans. It’s my first recommendation for friends of mine who call me and ask how they can support their child’s maths.
You and your child can play around with Maths-Whizz on the free trial. Let me know what you think!
