--BrendaM

from SusanS:

Two more sites with free math worksheets (and other free stuff) are edhelpers.com and superkids.com. I do love the free stuff.

Thank you!

our favorite math supplements

We also need to get a reader recommendation page going.

I'm adding Susan's recommendations to the 'our favorite supplements' page so they'll be where people can find them easily.

I'll also gather together the grammar, spelling, handwriting, etc. book & curriculum recommendations into one place, with links to the original reader comments. These are invaluable, so keep them coming!

Back to online math resources, also remember Carolyn's recommendation:

... These math worksheet generators can come in very handy.... very configurable; you can set the number of columns and rows of problems, and the difficulty of the problem, and the numbers of significant digits in the solution, and so forth....

We especially found the sheets for fraction and decimal long division useful. That's a skill that just takes a lot of practice.

computer learning versus paper-and-pencil

But first I should say that I'm leery of online math practice, for 3 reasons:

• Christopher has never learned well using a computer

• I've seen research showing a slight decline in student achievement in Israeli schools after the introduction of computers in classrooms

• Jakob Nielsen says people read 25% more slowly onscreen than on paper

Christopher didn't really get his math facts down cold until we started doing the Saxon fast fact paper-and-pencil worksheets.

He didn't make any headway that I could see using a software math facts program, and I don't think he made much progress using standard flash cards, either.

To be fair, we have problems using materials like flash cards, since I'm constantly having to hide them from Andrew, which of course makes it harder to find them when I need them, which, in turn, makes me tend to use them less than I would if they were easy to get to ...

So I don't know whether anyone should be drawing conclusions from my flashcard experience.

But when it comes to computers-versus-paper and pencil, if you've got time to print out the worksheets Carolyn & Susan have pointed you to, that's probably the better choice.

Online 'worksheets' may be to paper worksheets what fast food is to homemade.

That said, I've eaten plenty of fast food in my day, and so have my kids.

So here's one of the main online resources I've liked thus far.

Saxon Math online problems and math activities

• I've seen a number of parents around the web recommend this Saxon Math 'fast facts' generator. The page is clean, simple, and visually compelling. You decide which math-fact problems you want to do, how difficult the problems should be, and how many you want to do. You can also do timed or untimed problem sets. That's great, because kids love seeing their timing get faster.

• Saxon online math activities I love these things. Don't know why; I just do. They're fun.

• Here are the 5th grade activities.
  Apparently the site now tells you which activities to do after which lessons in the book; plus you can download the activities for use when you are not online.

• Saxon online equivalent fractions These are great. OK, I'm sold. Forget the Israeli kids; we're doing online equivalent fractions this summer.

• Saxon online rectangular area