As a homeschooling mom, I have noticed one of the courses many moms stress about teaching their children is math. Throughout my years of homeschooling I have tried many homeschool math options, everything from worksheets to full curriculum courses. One of the questions moms often ask is about math courses taught by teachers.
{Disclosure: I received access to Mr. D Math Consumer Math for free and was compensated for my time in writing this review. All my opinions are my own, honest thoughts and I was not required to post a positive review. Your experience may vary. Affiliate links are used in this post and on this website. Please see our full Disclosure Policy for more details.}
Mr. D Math courses offers that option. Mr. D Math online courses have two options: self-paced and live courses. With live courses your student attends at a certain time and has a live math instructor. Self-paced courses are recorded for your student to watch at any time. With BOTH these options you also have access to weekly live help sessions where your student can log-in with a live teacher to get help with their current math course.
Mr. D Online Math Classes
We became familiar with Mr. D Math online classes through our use of the Algebra I course. At that time we signed our son up for a live section of the course. He struggled with accountability. Having a set class time with a live teacher to be accountable to helped him to stay on task during the week and complete his assignments more thoroughly.
Preparing for Pre-Algebra with Mr. D Math
I was so excited to see that Mr. D Math has added courses for kids not yet in high school! So many people ask about this and it’s awesome that math courses are being offered for upper elementary and middle grade kids too!
Mr. D Math Preparing for Pre-Algebra focuses on building a strong foundation in preparation for a Pre-Algebra course. Children should have completed a 4th grade math program before beginning this course.
This Preparing for Pre-Algebra course provides a full year of math instruction with 9 chapters.
The first half of the course practices basic facts and skills. This includes whole numbers, fractions, and decimals.
The second half introduces integers, expressions, one-step and two-step equations, and one-step and two-step inequalities.
Using Preparing for Pre-Algebra
My grandson is in 5th grade this year so he’s the perfect age for Preparing for Pre-Algebra! We chose the self-paced option for him to offer more flexibility for his varied schedule of out of the house activities, and the need for his mom to be caring for his baby siblings.
Having used most of the Mr. D Math high school courses, one thing that really stood out for me with this Preparing for Pre-Algebra course is that it was clearly structured for use with younger children. The colorful and fun images and math representations really help younger children to visualize the math and make it more fun and relatable for them.
4 Reasons Why I Recommend Mr. D Math Courses
These are things that not only apply to the Preparing for Pre-Algebra course my grandson is currently taking, but for all the Mr. D Math courses we have personally used in our homeschool.
1. Teacher Access
Mr. D Math math courses are the first math courses I think of to recommend when people are looking for teacher led/access to a teacher. Mr. D Math does an amazing job of providing real live teacher help for all his math courses.
There are 3 ways they offer access to a teacher:
- Live Classes – Many of the Mr. D Math courses are offered live online. This means your child attends a set class time every week with their instructor and other students enrolled in the class.
- Extra Help Sessions The extra help sessions are offered three times a week. They are online meetings in which all students participating in Mr. D Math programs (live online and self-paced) can ask questions and receive help. It’s like online tutoring with you and any other students that log-in that day and the teacher.
- Direct Access to Teacher via E-mail – You can always e-mail the teacher and get answers to your specific questions. You can access this feature right from your course area. When sending a message, you can upload a file, audio message or video of your work. They often get back to you the same day! This is a great option for one on one help, especially if you couldn’t make it to the Extra Help Sessions that week!
2. Pacing Guides for Self-Paced Courses
We have almost always chosen self-paced courses because they work best with our multi-child busy schedule. I like the flexibility of being able to complete the lessons on our schedule. Each year when I do our planning I always take the number of lessons in each course and divide by 4. This gives me a guideline for where we should be each quarter, allowing us to easily know if we need to pick up the pace a little or not!
I love that Mr. D Math does something similar for you. Pacing Guides are provided for you. These break down the course by chapter and lesson with week numbers in which to complete them. You can choose to strictly follow the guide, or use it as a guideline to help you know if you are way off course or not!
3. Ease of Use
The online platform used for Mr. D Math courses, and the meticulous way he structures the courses makes using Mr. D Math easy for everyone! As you toggle down the tasks in the left sidebar, the whole sections you have completed are grayed out, and the pieces of each chapter you complete get green check marks as you complete them. This makes it easy both for the student to know what comes next, and for the parent to pop in and check progress.
4. These Courses Reinforce Notetaking Skills
Every lesson has corresponding notetaking pages for you to print. This allows kids to follow along with the lesson and fill in their notes, “coursework” as they go. I love this method because it demonstrates for kids what is important in each lesson, setting up good listening and notetaking skills from an early age.
More Mr. D Math Reviews
I have had the pleasure of using many of the Mr. D Math courses in our homeschool. I have been so happy with the quality of content, how easy they are to use, and the ease of access to teacher help if needed.
Here are a few more reviews of Mr. D Math courses we have used:
Mr. D Consumer Math for Homeschoolers – a full credit, online course for high school students in grades 10-12. The course contains 31 lessons and is self-paced so students can complete it in a timeframe that works for them.
Teaching Study Skills for Homeschoolers – in this course student will learn notetaking from both test and lecture, how to create mast study guides, creating study tools, memorization tips, how to maximize test performance and more!
Self-Paced ASL – Mr. D Math offers ASL I, II, and III!
Economics for High School – this is a one semester course covering topics like supply/demand, producers/consumers, currency/credit, economic recession, monopolies and more!
Mr. D Math Live SAT Boot Camp – In the SAT Boot Camps your student will learn valuable test prep strategies, have access to practice tests, learn critical thinking skills, and more!
Mr. D Math College and Career Readiness – this course tackles topics like finding your learning style, career research, resume writing, college application writing, leadership skills and more!
Homeschool High School Algebra with Mr. D Math – offered as both a live and self-paced course, with access to live extra help sessions each weeks, this Algebra course (and all is courses) is wonderful if you or your student want direct access to a teacher.
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