Redbird Mathematics: Advanced Edition (Kindergarten)

Advanced learning developed by Stanford University

Everything we had heard about kindergarten in the US is true.  It’s a whole different world from when I took naps, had milk breaks and copied the ABCs over and over again when I was in the BIG K.  Standardized testing starts at younger grades and happen frequently throughout the year, so the push for young students to keep up with this ‘one size fits all’ approach of our national school system is very real.  Homework assignments start almost immediately and students who did not come equipped with the knowledge of the ABCs and counting 1-20 by primary school have some catching up to do.

Luckily, we were prepared with Brooke, but learning higher math concepts at such a young age was a little foreign to us.  Counting backwards, for example, was not something we practiced on a regular basis and yet here we are counting backwards from 100 each day to keep up with her class assignments.  Sure, flash cards and repetition help, but I wanted something else in our home learning toolbox to help keep Brooke up to date and feel like she was learning as opposed to memorizing.  I researched and found a wonderful online advanced learning program developed by Stanford University called Gifted and Talented that is dedicated to helping K-12 students become accelerated learners.  The experience has been truly eye-opening!

What is the Gifted and Talented system?  First, don’t let the name throw you off.  This isn’t a learning system for students who are Mensa-approved or anything, it is a system to help students learn and interact in a digital project environment to help accelerate their learning.  There are many different online programs for grades K-12 your child can take, but I wanted to concentrate on the one area where I believe is an extremely important subject for young children; Mathematics.  The Redbird Mathematics course starts off for children as young as kindergarten which is exactly where we needed to start.

Redbird Mathematics: Advanced Edition (Grades K-7): This revolutionary mathematics course continually adapts and accelerates learning to ensure that students receive material at just the right level of challenge and enrichment. Students are highly engaged with interactive manipulatives, rich gameplay, and digital project based learning activities themed around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers. There are over 500 instructional lessons and 15,000 problems ensure students develop deep conceptual understanding, build computation skills, and apply their learning in real world contexts.

Watch a Redbird Mathematics: Advanced Edition guided tour.

The most impressive thing to me is that this system is easy for Brooke to manipulate and word problems that are used are essential in her ability to fully understand math concepts and her course is specifically designed for someone in kindergarten.  “Anna has a flower garden and plants six flowers.  Matt plants two more flowers than Anna.  How many flowers does Matt have in his garden?”  Yes, these are the questions that are asked of my five year old and she totally gets it!  The instructions can be read aloud with a click of a button and there are many prompts to encourage kids to solve math problems.  A cumulative progression of multimedia lectures and associated exercises fosters student literacy and critical thinking. Throughout the course, students are asked to compose responses to a wide variety of writing prompts. The reading component of this course balances a broad range of high-quality informational and literary texts, including familiar classics and diverse modern works.  I was a little surprised at how much Brooke loves to ‘play’ while learning and she just gets excited when she submits her answer and it is ‘correct’.  No point system or extra trinkets or anything.  It’s just a real joy on learning and understanding, which I love.  This program is definitely worth the price tag and something we plan to keep up with in the field of math.

Independently Study Versus Tutor Based Courses

While we are using the Gifted and Talented Redbird Mathematics course as an independent study program for Brooke, there are tutor based courses for all programs and ages.  While both options offer progress reports to parents, the Tutor Based programs are very involved for the parents and include parent-teacher conferences, exams and unlimited tutor support.  Besides Mathematics, the Gifted and Talented programs include study in areas of Language Arts, Physics and Computer Programming.

The following web browsers are fully supported and read the Minimum System Recommendations for use HERE:

• Safari 8
• Chrome 39
• Firefox 35
• Internet Explorer 11

You have entered… the Challenge Zone!  The Challenge Zone is an area on the Gifted and Talented website for students as young as kindergarten to test their skills with exciting games and problems from their courses. This is a fun way for kids to test their skills while PLAYING games.  Perfect!

What other things can parents do to help kids thrive in the 21st century?  Feeling a little lost at how to help you child excel?  You are not alone.  Here is a great article on tips and strategies for families on how to help your children thrive in their education: http://www.p21.org/our-work/citizenship/a-parents-guide/tips-and-strategies-for-families

Redbird Mathematics: Advanced Edition (Kindergarten)

https://www.giftedandtalented.com

List Price: $ 90.00 (3 month subscription – 5% discount with automatic renewal)