Thinkwell Online Math Program {Review}
Math makes me want to hide in a closet and eat a tub of ice-cream. All through my school-age years I had a love/hate relationship with math. That’s a lie, there was no love. None. Zilch. So of course now that I’m actually responsible for my children having to know math… I have become an excellent liar. Math is great. Math is fun. Math is soooo important….. You’re going to die, if you don’t learn math. But because I am determined for my kids to far outsmart me in the subject, I have to rely on other sources to do the real work. Thinkwell‘s 6th to 8th Grade Math courses came at just the right time to rescue me from looking like a math idiot to my children. I made Olivia my 6th grader be the guinea pig for the 6th Grade math program they offer.
Thinkwell offers a complete program with videos, assessments, worksheets and additional resources. The lessons are designed to last for a full school year but students are able to work at their own place. They can move through the lessons faster or they can repeat as needed. Each video last between 5-10 minutes and has illustrations, synchronized artwork, key ideas, and definitions of important terms. Closed captioning is available for all videos as well as printable transcripts of the lesson.
What we Thought of Thinkwell
The Negatives:
At first glance of the program I wasn’t super impressed. I don’t think the interface of it is very eye catching. The font is small and it seemed confusing at first to navigate around. I wasn’t sure exactly where to start or what we should be doing. I may have missed it, but it would be great to have a get started video that walks you through the program. There is a quick start guide that is found in “Announcements” which I feel is a little obscure if your looking for help.
The Positives:
Having said all the negative things about it… We actually really like the program. The videos are engaging and complete. My daughter was working her normal math program along with this one and she felt like the same concepts were made much more clear and understandable in the Thinkwell program. She really likes Edward Burger (the guy in the video) She says he does an awesome job helping her understand the concepts. And in the end… that’s really all that matters. In fact we plan on ditching or normal program and continuing on with this one.
I like that the time watching the videos are tracked so I know what has been watched and what hasn’t. This isn’t really a problem for this child of mine, but I have another that may or may not have pretended to watch videos in other programs and just skipped to the problems. Then wondered why they missed so many problems. {face palm}
I also really liked that there are additional resources included.
This is how we used the program:
-Watched the videos
-Completed the exercises
-If there was an accompanying worksheet completed it
Other Thoughts:
I actually almost chose not to do this review because when I had my daughter take the placement test she failed it miserably… as in, she only got one problem correct. At that point I had to decide if it was the current math program or me that had failed her. Of course I pointed fingers… That’s what you would do right?
But I took a risk because I really felt we needed a change and I thought she was up to the challenge. I’m glad I did. She has been very successful with this program.
Are you looking for more Math Activities and Games to add more Fun into your School Day? Check out a few here:
Teaching Money using Real life Skills
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Teach Elementary Statistics with Skittles!
How to Teach Math Facts with Games
Check out what other reviewers thought about the program by clicking below!
Find Thinkwell Homeschool Online here:
You can check out my other reviews by clicking here:
Angela is the Homeschool Encourager for the Overwhelmed & Under-Caffeinated and the Chaos-to-Confidence Specialist behind Schooling with Grace. With a no-fluff approach, a dash of humor, and a whole lot of heart, she helps homeschool moms cut through the chaos, ditch unrealistic expectations, and teach with confidence.
I’m glad you mentioned that your daughter did not do well on the pre-test. My son did terrible as well but the content in 6th grade math seems to be exactly what he should we learning next so we are going to give it a try.
Are the printed worksheets the same problems as those that are online or are they two seperate assignments? I don’t have a great printer and I’m thinking about just purchasing their printed worksheet book but I’m wondering if he’ll even need it. Thanks
It’s been a while since we used this program, we have since moved to doing math in our co-op but I do believe the worksheets were the same. I think we just preferred to print and do it on paper.
Thank you for your review! Greatly appreciate it. I am considering this program for my rising 8th grader this year. Are you still using the program? She’ll be doing the pre-algebra. I heard that the review could take a while to complete? Thanks again!
We are no longer doing the program, mostly because we moved on to doing upper level math at our co-op. I like the idea of them having an in person teacher that could answer questions as they came up. I would say just give her time to complete the review. We didn’t do well on the pretest but that didn’t determine how well my kids did in the program.
Hope that helps.