Homeschool Max & Mathseeds Review – With Sneak Peek Video
Are you looking for an all-in-one reading and math program to help you homeschool your child with confidence? As a fan of Reading Eggs and Mathseeds, I am thrilled to share the newest upgrade option to their online platform–Homeschool Max.
When my kids were young, I pieced together a lot of different resources to teach them to read. This was fine, until it wasn’t working. One of my kids struggled for quite some time, so eventually we added daily practice with Reading Eggs to our school time. This bit of extra practice and support was just the thing my child needed and today is an avid reader.
*Please Note: This is a sponsored review of Mathseeds and Homeschool Max, but all opinions are entirely my own after testing the program. Read our full disclosure policy here.
Homeschool Max Review
If you would prefer to use a reading program that already has everything you need to successfully teach your child, PLUS access to a complete math program, be sure to check out Homeschool Max.
With a Homeschool Max account, you not only get access to all the great, award-winning programs (Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress, Fast Phonics & Mathseeds), but you also get the planning, reporting and offline resources you need to round out a math and reading program for your child.
All on the NEW easy-to-use homeschool platform!
If you’re not familiar, Mathseeds is an online math program for ages 3-9. Using short animated videos, catchy songs and practice activities, kids work at their own pace through the 200 lessons.
Here are some things I love about Mathseeds:
Use of visuals & stories
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- In both the placement test and the individual lessons, there are important visual models used such as number lines. In addition, lessons begin with a story context before moving to abstract symbols. For example, in the division lessons, the videos and practice focus on understanding division as sharing between equal groups. No equations or division symbols were used (not even the word division). This builds on what kids already know intuitively (sharing equally with their friends) before moving to the abstract.
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Short, kid-friendly videos & songs
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- In between math practice tasks, there are short videos where the animated characters discuss the concept or sing a song related to the topic. These are short enough to hold young kids’ attention, and talk to them in a way that makes sense (again, not using abstract terms or vocabulary).
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Emphasis on learning, not speed
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- In each lesson, there is plenty of practice for kids on a particular topic, but there are no timers or buzzers. They can take their time and think through each task, and if they make a mistake, they are simply told, “That’s not quite right, try again,” rather than being penalized or immediately given the correct answer.
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Review is woven throughout
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- As kids make their way through the lessons, they will occasionally encounter review tasks from previous lessons. This ensures they always circle back to earlier topics and have a chance to review.
When you sign up for a Homeschool Max account, you get access to the full Mathseeds program, but also so much more.
Here are some features that I love about the Homeschool Max dashboard:
Clear Reporting
See what lessons your child has been working on, what skills they’ve covered, how much time they have spent on their lessons, and more.
I especially love the “Skills Mastered” reporting page. This gives a snapshot of progress they’re making through the lessons AND whether they passed on 1st attempt, 2nd/3rd attempt or did not pass.
You can then find resources in the Teacher Toolkit, Big Books, or Printables Library to help remediate that specific skill.
In the “Fluency Sprints” report you can see a snapshot of which mental math tasks they’ve worked on, how many questions they got right, time spent, and number of attempts.
Easily Assign Lessons for Your Child
Notice that your child didn’t do well on a specific math lesson? Easily assign specific lessons for them to complete before they can do anything else on the Mathseeds program.
This is a great way to have them go back and review, fill in gaps that you notice and also hold them accountable (they will receive a notification about the assignment on the Mathseeds website).
An Abundance of Additional Resources for the Teacher
Probably my favorite part of the new Homeschool Max dashboard is the HUGE variety of support and resources available for you as the teacher.
I strongly believe that students should not only learn math (or any subject for that matter) on a screen.
While there are so many things to love about the Mathseeds online lessons and games, it is important that kids also spend time doing math with pencil and paper, and actual, hands-on manipulatives.
Thankfully, Mathseeds includes beautifully designed, easy to use worksheets to cover all the same math topics as the online program, printable manipulatives & visual models, and beautiful color posters for your wall or their math notebook.
There are also problem solving challenges to go along with the lessons to help you teach critical thinking, problem solving strategies and reinforce the math skills they’re learning.
This library of resources is a great complement to the program for so many reasons:
- Use the worksheets to reinforce what they’re doing online
- Continue learning and reviewing even if you’re on the road or without a device
- Use visual models & manipulatives to provide hands-on practice
- Incorporate weekly (or more) problem solving activities to give kids confidence tackling word problems and to help them think creatively about problem solving
Here’s an overview of the teacher resource sections on Homeschool Max:
Specific Lessons:
For each lesson, you can download a worksheet, skills practice, and problem solving challenge to go along with the lesson.
In addition, there’s a teacher hand out with a list of objectives, answer key for the worksheet and a list of other resources or game ideas related to the topic.
You can also preview each lesson before deciding to assign it to be sure it’s hitting on the skills your child needs to work on.
Teacher Toolkit:
In the toolkit, you can find posters, & simple printable resources, such as visuals and manipulatives (base ten blocks, fraction bars, place value charts, etc.).
You can also find ready-to-use printable tests to assess understanding, and “Big Books” which are digital ebooks covering a huge variety of math topics (these also include ‘book notes’ which provide ideas for discussion).
If needed, you can also look at curriculum maps by state so you can see which lessons align to your specific standards–this is great for picking and assigning specific lessons to go along with your curriculum if you are using Mathseeds as a supplement, or if you are required to follow specific standards.
Printables Library (K-3 Math):
Want all worksheets for a specific math strand in one download? Check the printables library! This makes it easy to:
- Download all ‘problem solving challenges’ in a single pdf
- Download topic-specific printable workbooks to focus on a specific skill
Want a sneak peek of the dashboard? Check out the Homeschool Max video below where I walk you through all that’s available with Homeschool Max:
Ready to get started? Using the link below, you can try out Homeschool Max (including Mathseeds and all their other programs!) FREE for 30 days.
