About GPALOVEMATH
GPALOVEMATH by GPA LEARN is an online math curriculum for children in grades K-5. If your child completes 4 to 5 lessons a week, she’ll be on track to finish a grade in 10 months.
GPALOVEMATH is not like typical, dry math programs. Instead, this program uses cartoons. At the kindergarten level, the program has a cartoon detective who is investigating a case. (At the 4th grade level, there is an owl, Pemdas.)
The story the detective presents is read aloud, so even non-reading children can still learn math. (During the test, younger children can hover the mouse over the instructions, and the program will read the instructions to them.)
In each lesson, there are three segments–instruction, practice, and test.
During the instruction phase, the program uses the acronym FOWL, meaning:
- Find out.
- Organize a plan of attack.
- Work it out.
- Look back and check.
All problems are presented and solved using the FOWL program. During the instruction, the program allows for breaks by telling silly jokes that kids (my kids at least) really enjoy.
During the practice phase, students get to practice implementing what they just learned in the instruction phase. They have 3 lifelines available if they get stuck and need to ask for help.
Finally, the student is given a test. The kindergarten test is typically 10 questions long while the 4th grade test was 15 questions long.
Another unique feature of this program is that parents get to set rewards for children. They can choose what the rewards are and how frequently their children will get the rewards. Rewards range from privileges like staying up 15 or 30 minutes later, to camping out in the living room, to a monetary reward.
I chose to have my kids get a reward after every 10 lessons. When PB & J Girl earned the reward of camping out in the living room, she went right to work building her “tent.” She did sleep there that night, at least for a few hours. 🙂
Other Specifics About GPALOVEMATH
GPALOVEMATH is a complete math curriculum. It is entirely online. Per the website, “Our program can be played on your MS Window or Apple MAC computer; Apple iPad, or Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 (10”). You can use it with your favorite browsers, Google Chrome (recommended), Apple Safari 6 & 7, MS IE11 and FireFox.”
GPALOVEMATH regularly runs $149 per child per year, but for a limited time, you can get it for $129 per child per year with the code GPAINTRO15. Another option is to pay $12.99 monthly per child.
Our Experience Using GPALOVEMATH
We received a full year subscription to GPALOVEMATH. We tried out both the kindergarten and 4th grade math programs.
Each grade has three paths. In the kindergarten level, the first path covers operations and algebraic equations. We never did get to try out anything on that path. (The path was locked, I presume because PB & J Girl didn’t get far enough in the program.)
The second path covers counting and cardinality and numbers and operations in base ten. That translates to PB & J Girl learning numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. On this path, she completed lessons through the number seven.
The 3rd path covered measurement and data and geometry. During PB & J’s lessons, this section focused on comparisons such as red vs. blue and yellow vs. green, etc.
In 4th grade, the paths were the same, but the content was different, obviously. In path one, Bookworm worked to solve word problems and learn to weed out extraneous information.
In path two, his lessons covered place value.
In path three, he learned about things like parallel and perpendicular lines and classifying and naming angles. This was by far his favorite path.
During our review period, we used GPALOVEMATH as a math supplement while still using our regular math program. I really liked that the material in GPALOVEMATH matched what my children were using in their own math programs. I would have no reservations about using this as a complete math program.
I also appreciated that I received regular e-mails from GPALOVEMATH whenever my children completed a lesson. I also received weekly digest e-mails that told me how many lessons each child completed, what their level of mastery was, how many lessons they started but did not complete, and what they studied. The weekly digest also includes a comprehensive look at what the children have done all year long. In addition, at any time, I can go into each child’s program to get more details about their progress.
Strengths of GPALOVEMATH
This is a very child-friendly program. If your kids like to learn online, they’ll very likely enjoy this program. What’s not to like about the cartoon presentation and silly jokes?
This program makes learning fun. (My son especially enjoyed it when he was praised. The computerized voice would say, “Wahoo”, but it came out in a computer monotone, which made him laugh.)
The rewards that the kids can receive are an additional incentive.
After a student finishes a test, he can go back and see what problems he missed. If, at the 4th grade level, he misses three or more problems, he can take the test over again to earn a better score.
Drawbacks of GPALOVEMATH
The only drawback I saw is that the lessons are long. When any one of my children sat down to do the lessons, I knew it would take awhile. PB & J Girl, who tried the Kindergarten level, would usually take 20 minutes to finish her lesson for the day. She liked the practice and taking the test, but she found the instruction section to be overly long.
Bookworm would routinely take at least 30 to 50 minutes to do his lessons. That’s a lot of time.
I was one of 100 people chosen to review this program. You can read more reviews by following the link below:
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