Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
Learning is always more fun when you can turn it into a game. Math Shed and Spelling Shed do just that. These two computer programs turn math facts and spelling into a game. I received these products to review and over the last month my six-year-old son tried out Math Shed and my daughter used Spelling Shed .
When I received my subscription to review, I was able to go in and set up each child as a student. This allowed them each to work and get their own ‘honey pots’ or points if they scored well in the games. However, since each one was doing a different subject and they were working on the same laptop they ended up deciding to save one log-in in the laptop and use the same account to work from. Thus they were able to score more points quickly. Since I was not using the points for anything other than motivation for them, this worked well for us. However, if you wanted to track more data or have students competing against each other, they would each need to use their own log-in.
My daughter enjoyed the spelling program. When she went into Spelling Shed she could choose the level of the words and the level of difficulty of the game. In the lower levels on the easy setting, it would give you only the letters you needed for the word and you just had to put them in order. When you chose more difficult settings, it would give you lots of letters to choose from and you had to determine which letters were in the word and their order. As a parent I could have gone into the parent dashboard and assigned her certain spelling lists, however, I chose to allow it to just be random practice.
My son did most of the math, though my daughter also tried it out once or twice. There were a variety of different types of math problems to choose from including: number bonds, times tables, add & subtract, powers of 10, and negative numbers. Since my son had just finished up kindergarten level math, we chose to focus on addition and subtraction. When we went into that section, he could choose to focus on addition, subtraction, or both. He could also choose how high the numbers would go for the problems. We stayed with the 0-10 range and worked on those basic facts. From there you could choose the level of difficulty. He typically went with easy which gave him three answers to choose from. Each round of the game lasts for one minute and he had to answer as many questions and possible by clicking on the correct answer choice. This program reviews and reinforces concepts that have already been taught but does not have an instructional component.
Overall, my children found these games to be engaging and fun. I thought it provided practice with important skills and was a good way to get them engaged and enjoying schoolwork. If you wanted a program to give your child extra practice with math or spelling skills in a fun and engaging way,Math Shed and Spelling Shed might be a great fit. I highly encourage you to click on the graphic below and check out the other reviews to see how different families used these programs in their homes.
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