Both Jack and Katie are using Demme Learning's Math-U-See this year, so when the opportunity to review one of Demme Learning's new Digital Packs came up, I was excited to see what this could add to our homeschool.
We received the Digital Pack for Zeta, which is the level Jack, who is 11, is working in. This sells for $38.00. What is a Digital Pack? The Digital Pack contains the videos, the score key for both the workbook and the test book, a record keeping sheet, and the digital manipulatives. It does not include the workbooks or the physical manipulatives (but we already had those). Everything in the Digital Pack is accessible online.
Jack watches the lesson online. I think he's actually answering "Mr. Steve" in this picture.
We started using Math-U-See books in our homeschool back when Annaliese and Josiah (who are both grown ups now) were still homeschooling, but when we were raising money for our adoptions, I went through the school room and sold a lot of curriculum we weren't currently using. I love the idea of having the teacher's manual and the video lessons online! You've seen my schoolroom. I don't need any more books in there, right? With the one year access to the Digital Pack, families are not left with a teacher's manual and DVD to store after a child finishes the workbooks.
The Digital Packs can also be accessed by tablet, so if one of the other kids needs the computer, Jack can watch his lesson on the iPad.
I mentioned that Katie is also using Math-U-See this year. Katie, who is five, is doing Primer. We have the physical manipulatives, and she's used to using those, but for the purpose of the review, I wanted to give her a chance to play with the digital blocks online.
The blocks on the computer are actually pretty cool. She's just started learning to count by twos, so we pulled up a bunch of 2 blocks and she got to drag them around and make different shapes out of them and count them.
You can also purchase just the virtual blocks as an app in the iTunes app store.
Jack, unfortunately, is not working on stuff that you can do with the blocks. He's doing things like area and circumference of a circle, and dividing with decimal points. But we messed around with the digital manipulatives to see what it was like, and it seems like a great option for families who homeschool on the go, as using these on a tablet would be much easier than trying to use physical blocks in the car or in doctor's office waiting rooms. They are easy to use, and the visual nature of the blocks and fraction sets really do make math easier to understand.
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