Online Math: A Review of Mathletics

Mathletics by 3P Learning is a K-12 online math program that is mostly educational, but a whole lot of fun!


We have had a subscription on and off since I first reviewed it in 2009 (for the Crew!). Malachi is good at math and I attribute his strong start and love of math to Mathletics. Even my husband has commented on how good it has been for him and has supported me in buying a subscription when I feel I need a supplement. In fact, I had just purchased two subscriptions right before Mathletics came up for review on the Crew!

Mathletics is fun and rewards kids for great performance. They get to design their own character (avatar) and earn credits that they can spend to dress up their character. They even race against other players around the world.

While Mathletics is considered a supplement, it is not just about practice and drill. The “?” support button offers an explanation if your child is stuck – thus your child has the potential to learn new concepts.

How we used it:
online math

I am using Mathletics with 4 children from ages 3 1/2 to 14.

Boaz, age 3 1/2, is my youngest student and during the course of this review, he has worked through the Virginia Pre-K program and is now working through the K program.



He has really enjoyed working through Whole Numbers, Measurement, Plane Figures, and Attributes and Patterns, but he is not ready for Whole Number Operations.

He especially likes being able to earn points to spend in the online store to buy new items to dress up his avatar. He also likes to change his background and play the Rainforest Maths games.

I work side by side with him, or he sits on my lap. I use the first few problems in each new concept to teach him, and then I let him finish the set.

Weekly Reports

The goal each week is to earn 1,000 points. Mathletics also recommends that your child signs in for 20 minutes at least three times a week.

Each week, I get a weekly progress report that tells me how many times my student logged in, for how long, and the activities they completed.

This is nice to let me know, but also to hold me accountable. Sometimes I get an email that says a student hasn't logged in at all in a week. This is normal in the summer as we have a lot going on with swimming lessons, soccer camps, and more, but during the school year it is a good reminder as our days slip by us so fast and I sometimes forget about it.

Mathletics works on an iPad using an app that I downloaded for free.

online math



Online math

Bo really enjoys doing school on the iPad and it is a great alternative method to those who don't want all the frills and distractions of the regular program. You cannot spend your points, or change your avatar or background on the iPad. However, not all of the activities available online are available on the iPad. Also, the iPad will not save your login info or password, so you will need to write it down for each student for easier access.

In Bo's level, many of the questions can be clicked to be read aloud. I love this!

Instant Workbooks

Instant workbooks are available to download and print for offline teaching. This is a wonderful way to supplement Bo's use of Mathletics!

I downloaded Space and Shape, and Bo is learning about 2D shapes.

I love that it starts out gentle by teaching that lines can be straight or curved. Then it closes the lines to form shapes.

Here he is coloring the lines that close to make shapes.



Here he is matching shapes.


Then we focus on a single shape at a time.


Each printable workbook has a content page that lets you fill in the completed date. I really like this.


Bo really loves doing Mathletics. He asks for it regularly. And when he is asking to do more school constantly, it is nice to have Mathletics as an option to coming up with activities on my own!

Malachi and Eliana have also been using Mathletics this summer as a review of 1st and 3rd grade maths. I logged them in originally in 2nd and 4th, the grades they are going into, but the levels were too hard. In fact, some of the concepts seemed quite advanced and I struggled to find a course that would work perfectly for them. I often assign tasks for them in the Parent Center to make sure they are working through the Activities which are the heart of the program. They prefer to do Live Mathletics and play the Rainforest Maths games. I prefer that they work through the Activities.

Dylan is my 14 year old, and he is doing Algebra 1. I left him in the common core course and so far it has been a good review for him.

For this review he has mostly been reviewing Pre-Algebra concepts. He was also away for 2 weeks for summer camp, but I plan to have him continue using it at least twice a week to supplement Algebra 1 this coming year. The Algebra 1 level has Live Mathletics, Activities, ebooks, videos, and more. The Interactives uses a really neat tool called GeoGebra that is used for graphing, geometry and more. (It is an application that we downloaded to use with Mathletics.)

My Thoughts: 

I've liked and used Mathletics on and off for 4 years.

The big change that I noticed compared to previous years, however, is that while Mathletics supports homeschooling, it also strongly supports common core. I had a little trouble choosing a course that would work for us, but thankfully, Mathletics does offer alternatives to common core, such as various state standards.

I don't mind that it is online based because we are not using it for our core math program, however it means that more children are competing for the computer. Thankfully, Mathletics can be used on the iPad and we plan to continue using it as a supplement throughout the year.

I like that it includes a Student Guide and a Teacher's Guide, though the program is relatively easy to figure out.

I like that it is mostly educational, but a lot of fun! My students like the frills and are motivated to do math because of them. Even my three year was motivated and did far more than I imagined he would be able to!

Pros: 

  • lots of kid appeal!

  • colorful, high quality graphics

  • students daily progress is tracked

  • student receives immediate feedback

  • concept support is available in the Support Center

  • students work at their own pace

  • student progress is rewarded with points, awards, and certificates

  • parents can assign tasks to be completed to help students find a balance between the full curriculum section, Live Mathletics, and the games

  • ability to switch courses if a course becomes too easy or too hard

  • Mathletics supports homeschooling and offers a student guide, teacher’s guide and “instant workbooks” that can be printed for continued practice off the screen.

Cons: 

  • requires an internet access and computer or iPad (this was more of a problem before we had an iPad, as we only have one student computer)

  • strongly common core aligned and not easy to choose just the right course (see more below)

Price:

An annual student subscription is $59 and can be used K-12.

During your one year subscription, you can change your course 5 times. This means, I can change the course from Common Core to TEKS (Texas State Standards) or other state standard, or I can change their grade level. It was a little hard to figure out what course will be best for each student, so I wish that we had an unlimited number of course changes to determine the best course the first week, and then once we decide have only 5 changes (I highly recommend you do the free 10 day trial to determine the right course, but also see if it will work for your family). Each time you change the course, all previous work is erased, so once you decide on a course, it is a good idea to stay the course until your student is ready to advance to the next level or course.

Is it worth it? 

As I mentioned, I have purchased a subscription on an off for over four years. I once bought a subscription for Eliana but she struggled with it, so I changed her course and let Malachi have her subscription. This summer I bought 2 subscriptions on sale for Malachi and Eliana both, and they are both enjoying it now, but I only paid $45 because of a summer sale they were having. I thought that was worth it. When a subscription comes up for renewal, you have the option to renew for $49 for a limited time only. I missed the window for our last renewal so I jumped on the summer sale price.

I was disappointed when it came up for review a very short time after I purchased it, but I am glad that I had the chance to review it with Bo and Dylan and will continue to use it this school year. Bo will do mostly instant workbooks until he is ready for Whole Number Operations, but I am scheduling it 2 days a week for Dylan for Algebra 1. I plan to have Malachi and Eliana use it 3 days a week for 20 minutes each.

Technical Requirements:

  • Windows XP* SP3 (or higher)*, Mac OS X 10.6 (or higher)

  • 1GB of RAM minimum (for best experience we recommend 2GB or higher of RAM)

  • Supported web browsers – Internet Explorer 8 or higher, Mozilla Firefox 12 or higher, Safari 5 or higher, Google Chrome.

  • Minimum usable screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher

  • Adobe Flash Player 11.6 or higher

  • Pop-ups enabled

  • JavaScript enabled

  • MP3s enabled

Please note: Support for Windows XP is being discontinued by Microsoft so 3P Learning recommends that XP users upgrade their operating system to use Mathletics.

Mathletics Online Math Review
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