Typing Tournament Online & Maths Ivnaders Online by EdAlive ~~ A New TOS Review!!!

Are your kids always wanting to play games on their phones, iPads, computers or other devices? Mine do too! So when we had the opportunity to check out two "games" that EdAlive had I jumped at the chance! We had the opportunity to try out and review two of their 'apps' in the library -- Maths Invaders Online and Typing Tournament Online.  I will be talking about each of the programs and how each of my three children used the programs during this generous one year subscription we have to review.

Typing Tournament Online:

It is a typical typing program to use all 10 of your fingers to accurately and quickly type. It is designed for ages 6 to adult and you can jump in at your own level from not knowing ANYTHING on the keyboard to strengthening your skill and increasing your WPM (words per minute). There are 128 lessons that you progress through on your own pace through a series of lessons, games, and drills. You are to beat the Dark Knight and you have to master your skills through a medieval tournament setting.

You start out in Level 1 learning the left 4 middle keys (a,s,d,f) and then as you progress you will learn all the letters on the keyboard. Each child/student gets to pick the words per minutes (WPM) they want to shoot for being able to type at by the end of the program (so my eldest picked the highest level of , my middle is shooting for 86, and my son is shooting for the 45 WPM range) and the lessons and skills taught help the child/student to reach for their goal.

Drills before test

Immediate results and encouragement.

At this point none of mine have made it very far, but I think they set their goals too high. The great thing about this program is that we can go in and adjust their goal and they won't lose their progress! That is very important, especially for my 13yo daughter who would get VERY DISCOURAGED if she had worked this long and couldn't keep the progress she's made.

The rate of progress is changed based on the end WPM goal. This is called the Multiple Progressions Model and was designed to help with the negative cycle of learning the same information again and again with no progression. Instead here the student can select their path of learning, access that learning path at any point, and then raise or lower their goals at any time on the learning journey.

Progress report

The hardest part for her is the test you can't fix the ones you type wrong, but you can during the drills in the level. She is thinking she is going to reduce her WPM goal so that she can finally pass. I have been letting them all work on it and then suggest they might want to lower their goal, but not making them so they can make that decision on their own.

Drill 2 - shows he already received his token, but they can go
back to do the drills again if they don't pass the test.

My son has worked on this as well, but with a lower goal. He likes that it's set in the medieval times. He gets to defend the castle and put our dragon fires! He also likes the end of the drills when it looks like you earn armor pieces!

Ari working on the initial lesson.

My eldest (15) has had some typing experience so she set her goal for the highest level of 108 WPM! I think that might be too hard for her, but as of right now she seems okay with her progression. I like that she can change her goal at any

Maths Invaders Online:

This is set up more like a cross between space invaders the old Atari game and battleship. It is for ages 5 up through 15 and covers the 4 basic math operations as well as fractions, decimals, percents, square roots, positive and negative numbers and exponents. The game builds quick recall for math facts by having them answer the problems before the problem disappears and they get "invaded". 

Being invaded.

Battleshipesque

Charge your scanner to scan for ships on the screen above (right)

You can view their progress at any time by going to the main menu and pushing view progress. Here is how you can see what they've been working on -- it turns from faded to a darker color.  You can see the progress here for 2 of mine on the math. There is also a worksheet generator that can be for a specific topic OR for times tables. This is a great resource!

Progress Report

Front screen

My son LOVES this game and tries to play it whenever there is some spare time! He loves math and loves games so this one has been a home run for him! He says he likes the battleship part where you have to decide where you think the alien ship is but to get to guess you have to do a series of math questions. And he enjoys the Galactic Campaigns and is currently a Level 9 Defender! LOL!

Space Rescue Map

Working on the game.

Got some stars!!

My eldest is working on Level 8 and it's a bit harder since it mixes in fractions and square roots. She also is a perfectionist so not being able to write it out and work it out on paper is very hard for her to wrap her brain around. It's been more slow going and she doesn't like the 'quick time' you have to answer the problems in, but she's doing it a few days a week. I suspect after some time she will get faster and the questions won't be as 'hard' as she believes they are.

Her math is a higher level.

You can access both Maths Invaders Online and Typing Tournament Online from any device and since it is an online subscription you have access any time any day! As a parent you can view progress reports and adjust the settings if they need to be at a higher or lower level.

EdAlive also offers a 3 day free trial for personal account or parent child account so you can check them out before you take the dive into a subscription.  You can also find EdAlive on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And as always you will want to check out all the other Crew Reviews by clicking the link below!!