Friday, January 28, 2011

Ten Marks

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Being part of the TOS Homeschool Crew has numerous advantages.  One of them for me is to discover interesting products/services geared for homeschoolers.

One of the products that I had a pleasure to discover this year is the online math program called TenMarks .  This program will help your students to refresh, learn, and master math concepts at their own time and pace.   Which is fabulous if you ask me.

We do have a Math curriculum that we love but having TenMarks was nice.    The curriculums offered on TenMarks are for grades 3 to high school.   Your child will have a personalized curriculum that will encourage him to persevere and master the concept.    If the child doesn’t understand the information on his worksheets, he/she has the possibility of accessing lessons on videos as well as looking for hints.image

The best part I think is the reward zone which greatly help to motivate a student.   The games are fun and very clean.  There is even a cute game based on the 80s game Pac Man.   This specific game only was a fun time for my 9 years old son.   He enjoyed it a lot.

imageTenMarks has impressed me quite a lot during our testing period.  Not only the screens Alexandre access are clear and concise but they give me a report via email on a regular basis.   LOVE IT!   I know when Alexandre is going online to do some worksheets and best of all I know his performance through it.   

The report section is very clear as well.  With one glance, you can identify the section where your child has had trouble and need more practice.   At one point, I realized that Alexandre wasn’t doing his tests,   So I strongly suggested that he spend some time to do them before pursuing the other worksheets.   I think he was excited because he could unlock some games to play with as a reward.    This week, I realized that he didn’t complete all his test yet.    So today I will remind him again the importance of doing the tests.   Even though he aced his worksheets, I find that he should do the tests…  As you can see with the example below, he doesn’t aced his worksheets all the time.   Some of them he found it more difficult than others.  

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As I mentioned above, rewards are available within TenMarks but what could you do when your child has unlocked ALL the games.   Well TenMarks gives you the ability of setting your own rewards in the system.  Having this flexibility gives you the possibility of giving an extra treat in the afternoon, time on the Wii or Nintendo DS, time on the television, a new book and so on.   My only regret is that I can’t set up a reward for doing the tests…  I think it would be beneficial to remind the child to do so.

When you child completes his worksheets he receives a certificate of mastery for each and every section.   You can even print the certificate to file it in your paperwork of the year.  Having such a certificate gives a sense of accomplishment for the child.   I know my son is excited to be able to print his certificates.   

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When we first got the email to access the site, I experience some issues with the login.   The service I received to resolve the problem was fast and precise.    Within 48 hours the problem was fixed and Alexandre was able to start using the site.  

When you register, you will have an access code for you, the parent, and an access code for each child that will use the system.   After all, using a personalized curriculum is advantageous I think.   I particularly like the fact that I can log on at anytime with my personal access code and see where my child is at.  I can see with the click of the mouse if my child used hints or videos to understand the concept.  I can pause the curriculum if we go on vacation (wow!  you don’t need to worry to meet the deadlines assigned on a worksheet…).   I can see which album he is currently doing and what is coming up according to his grade.    I can even modify his curriculum by adding previous or more advance worksheets if he is struggling on a subject.

In conclusion, I think that TenMarks is extremely well done and fun to use.   It will challenge your child to persevere and become a master of important concepts in mathematics.  I find it very flexible to answer the needs for your family.   If  you would have to consider a math program, I would suggest that you check out TenMarks thoroughly.   I find it very complete and easy to adapt at any time during the year.  

TenMarks is affordable for everyone and offers a money back guarantee.   Various options are available for homeschoolers.  These options are on a per student basis.   You can pay monthly for 10$ US per month, bi-annually for 49$ US per 6 months or annually for 89$US per year.   Now I would like to suggest that TenMarks consider to have a special price for family with multiple children.  Right now for us, only our son Alexandre would use it but in a few years, his brothers and sister could join him on this online math program.   An incentive to register multiple children would be interesting for homeschoolers.   

Disclaimer: Thanks to TenMarks for sending me to above mentioned book for review purpose through the TOS Homeschool Crew. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way.  All opinions expressed here are only my own.

1 comment:

  1. Very nice review. You've included some things I hadn't thought about. TenMarks definitely offers a great product/service.

    ReplyDelete