Learn Math At Home with the Smartick Online Math Program

Smartick provided us a free trial to use this program for review. Opinions are my own.

This is my first year homeschooling my kids and one thing I’m always worried about is getting them enough math practice. I’ve tried numerous online math programs with them over the years in order to enhance their math skills, but nothing seemed to really hold their interest. Then we found the Smartick online math program.

What Is Smartick

Smartick is a fun and entertaining method to learn math. Daily 15 minute sessions, which adapt in real-time to the student’s responses, make it easy and fun to learn math by keeping kids engaged. My 10 yr old daughter and 5yr old daughter used the program consistently. My 12 yr old son tried out Smartick but due to how he prefers to learn, we did not use it consistently with him.

If you have younger kids, they don’t need to know any math, or how to read. The program walks and talks them through everything, like learning numbers, counting, etc. If they don’t have much computer experience, you may want to help them at first, but they quickly figure out how to work a mouse and what to do!

Do Kids Like The Smartick Method?

A 10 yr old girl: My daughter has always loved school and excels at most things. She was highly motivated to use this program because she loved learning more and more every day.

This math practice was a fun way for her improve math skills, plus she got to earn rewards after earning a certain number of ‘ticks’ (ticks are the stars you see above the green line, rewards are set by parents).

My daughter also really loves virtual worlds, so the fact that you could play inside the virtual world at the end of every session was a really great motivator for her.

A 5 yr old girl: My youngest was thrilled that she got to ‘do school’ just like the older kids, and was really excited that she was able to use the computer. She knew the answers to many of the questions which kept her engaged. This program really does understand the level that your child is at and adapts to what they need to work on and learn.

She did say a few times she thought “it was too long”, meaning she thought the sessions lasted too long before she could go play inside the virtual world. For her age, I can see why she would think that.

A 12 yr old boy: My son will be the first one to tell you that he finds math hard. He did try to use the program once (because I asked him to), but anything that is out of his normal routine is difficult for him so we didn’t continue to press him to try it and are sticking to just his normal math curriculum.

Online Math For Kids – What Smartick Offers

When your child first starts the Smartick online math program many of the lessons will have them practice skills in order to learn what level they are at. The better they do, the harder the problems will become.

Eventually, there comes a point where you need more help – which is when the tutorials kick in. The program is “smart” in that it can detect what skills have already been mastered and where more work is needed.

Visuals and explanations via a voice tutorial will accompany many of the lessons. For the one below, my daughter was working on multiplication skills by listening to the instructor, looking at the visuals provided, and answering questions along the way.

Once done, they get their final results, which can include bonus ticks for completing lessons on consecutive days (to encourage daily use).

Your child will also have the opportunity to make corrections. If they choose to do this, they can earn extra ticks. My daughter usually always does the corrections because she really wants those extra ticks (ticks = rewards).

About Rewards or ‘Ticks’

One of my favorite things about the program is the ability to set rewards as the children progress. You can customize them for each child so they have something to look forward to by meeting goals. Since we are using this program as a supplement to our regular math curriculum, it’s a great way to motivate them to do extra math beyond our “math class” time.

One of the things my daughter also likes is the ability to visit her “room” after the lessons have been completed. She can customize it however she likes by spending ticks she’s earned on fun things for her avatar, decorating the room, and more.

You can also compete against other users in games, or play games on your own. My daughter is always telling me about the competitions she is in with other players. She is pretty competitive so she loves trying to do better than other players.

For Parents

Parents have their own dashboard within the Smartick program. You can click on each child individually to see when they logged in, how long they were logged in, what their progress is and what they have worked on so far.

If you drill down into the results, you can see that on this day my daughter did pretty well. She needs works on a few areas to do with lines and shapes, but her addition, subtraction, and multiplication skills are great.

Drilling down further into the results will show you the questions they worked on that day and whether they got them right or wrong.

Learn More

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog and read even more reviews on the Smartick online math program.