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Sharpen Mathematical Skills While Having Fun with Interactive Word Problems, Games and More.
- Jun 30, 2009 at 1:48 PM
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- Comments (3) Total Views (392) Everyone can see this journal post.
Here is a great website we discovered, while doing some research on helpful homeschooling tools.
Name of Product: Math Playground
Link to Product/website: http://www.mathplayground.com/logicgames.html
Description of Product: “Math Playground is an action-packed site for elementary and middle school students. Practice your math skills, play a logic game and have some fun!”
Description of Product: At Math Playground, there is no sign up or membership fees of any kind required for families to be able to find engaging logic games, including old favorites like Sliders and Tower Puzzle. The purpose of this site is to provide you with these games to use as tools for enhancing your child’s mathematics experience. Playing these games will help sharpen your child’s ability to use critical thinking skills that are an essential part of mathematics and are an important part of learning in all subject areas. Parents will need to download Adobe (free) in order to play the games. Although this site is rated for elementary school-age children, the logic puzzles are definitely aimed at grade six and up. For younger children, the games could still be played interactively with parents or siblings to ease any frustration.
Homeschool Uses: By including logic puzzles found at Math Playground in your curriculum, you will strengthen your child’s capacity to independently develop problem-solving skills and apply strategic thinking skills. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has done research on the benefits of more exposure to solving “multi-step and non-routine” problems–i.e. logic puzzles/games will not only enhance a child’s mathematical abilities, but his or her ability to perform in sciences, such as physics, will also improve. Therefore, playing these games will not only benefit your child in mathematical studies; these games could help in many other subjects as well.
Content and Safety: Math Playground, according to their privacy protection page, works hard to ensure the anonymity of students that are using this tool. If families have any confusion with math concepts, Math Playground has a section that allows you to send math problems to them for help. The form does require the first name, school name, state and grade level. However, last names, email, and personal addresses are not requested; therefore, they have no way of contacting a child directly.
Experience Using the Product: After reading the research done by the The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in which they state: “One of the reasons I find the Sokoban puzzles so especially interesting is that the puzzles can help students develop the type of visualization and spatial reasoning skills that could serve them well when they later study high school and college physics. Not only can the puzzles help students learn about the concept of “forces acting on a body,” but the puzzles can also help sharpen and hone students analytical abilities,” I was excited to find Math Playground. This site has everything that a math site should. It has drills, tests, and videos, as well as a large selection of logic puzzles. My children and I tried them all and found that they all loaded fine on our dial-up connection. They were all challenging, especially for mom, and the different activities were well explained in the instructions.
For added fun, my children like to challenge each other with competitions. Who can get the least amount of moves in Sliders, for example. Up until now, I never considered how much forward thinking was needed to complete these kinds of games. We will definitely be playing them more often and including them in preparation for stretching our son’s mind so he will have an easier time with science topics, such as physics.
Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: For families that enjoy tutorial videos, there is a wide selection of them made by students (for students) on the site. Families can also submit mathematics problems by email and they will create a step-by-step math video to teach how to solve it.
Summary: Overall, we found Math Playground to be a fun and a very useful tool. The games were all age appropriate, they all worked and the site was easy to navigate. I would recommend adding these games to your child’s school lessons.
Editor’s Note: Read these FREE Logic and Critical Thinking Skills Tools:
Free online mind mapping tool - great for all ages and learning styles!
Learn Basic Physics Principles through Interactive Games - FREE tool
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I include this webiste as part of our homeschool day. We all enjoy it. The logic games help keep us sharp. Thanks! Love! Christ 1, Renee
- ShalomAdonai
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