Review: Mad Dog Math

Mad Dog Math was developed by a third grade teacher, Julie Kotoff, to help her students with multiplication and division facts.  The ‘pencil – paper’ program soon evolved into computer software enhanced with all four math facts, including addition and subtraction.
It is designed as a supplement for grade K – 5th and students older who struggle with their math facts.  Mad Dog Math has taken the basic math facts and broken them down into bite-size pieces for mastery.

1. All four math operations (- + x /) – just chose what your student needs
2. Bite-size pieces of facts for mastery – less frustrated kids!
3. Progress through a series of timed practice sheets at the child’s pace
4. Tracks the progress of multiple students through all levels
5. Allows students to earn ‘Student Club Stickers’ as they pass levels
6. Brief, timed lessons – only 5-10 minutes each day

Mad Dog Math levels: There are three levels and a challenge level.  The student can take the school year to progress through one level. 

My thoughts:  My girls used Level One which is broken down by ‘fact family’ – addition or subtraction. There are about 20 problems in each lesson.  The lessons are brief and fun for them.  I had them do 3 of the “2 Minute Club” lessons.  They enjoyed being timed and we motivated to try and beat their time next round.  Mad Dog Math is the first and only math drill program my girls have enjoyed.

1. Brief lessons that are fun
2. Simple program and easy for the kids to use
3. Easy key strokes – key the answer and the tab moves to the next fact
4. Super for kids who are competitive   

I enjoyed that I could check their progress by clicking the ‘progress’ button.

Mad Dog Math at Home – click here for more details
Watch a video about the program on their website here

• 1 year license download for ALL levels – $19.99
• 2 year license download for ALL levels – $29.99
• Perpetual license download for ALL levels – $39.99
• (available in both a 32-bit and 64-bit format)

Check out the Mad Dog Math website  - http://www.maddogmath.com/

Don’t forget to check out what others on the TOS Crew had to say about Mad Dog Math over here!

Math Facts Now! - Review

Vendor: Math Facts Now – download your free trial here !

Target age: K – 6 or anyone who needs to review any of their math facts                    

Format:  Download or CD – $15.95 – Guaranteed or your money back!

Product overview:

• Drill facts – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Create your own lessons, save them and review
• Each child can have individual lessons created for them
• Progress report is available after the completion of each lesson
• Child is required to retype any problems they missed at least 2 times
• Any trouble problems during a lesson – the child sees a “be careful” note
• Drill any facts needed – chose only one too!
• Ability to review each child’s performance and trouble problems
• Drill 10 to 100 problems – the parent sets the number!
• A child can take from 60 – 90 seconds to answer each problem
• Reward system at the completion of each lesson

My thoughts:

Initially my girls would tire after 30 problems during a lesson.  The company worked with the CREW reviewers and redesigned the program to drill fewer problems in a lesson.  That tells me that Math Facts Now! creators are willing to work with their customers needs.  My girls enjoyed their lessons more when they only had to drill 20 problems. 

I think the program is easy to use – both for the parent and child.  It is not a busy and noisy program like many educational programs.  I also liked that I could create lessons with only one math fact:  like +1 or  -9. 

My girls enjoy the reward system that I can enter when creating a lesson.  The rewards are received at the completion of a lesson.  We discussed the rewards and came up with:  Wii play time or a candy cane.  This made the lesson more fun for them.

I was able to download the Math Facts Now! program to a USB drive.  This made it easy to do lessons either on the desktop or laptop.

See what other CREW member’s had to say about Math Facts Now! here.

 

Disclaimer:  This product was given to me free of charge, not to be returned to the vendor.  All opinions expressed in this review are mine.