Last year I reviewed the site Homeschool Library Builder and wanted to share a little of the information with you all again ~ especially a great sale that is coming up this weekend!

Homeschool Library Builder is a site that helps you fill your homeschool library shelves with quality literature ~ at affordable prices. They carry a large variety of books {out of print and current} and organize their books by category making books quick and easy to find. It is a site run by two homeschool moms with a love of books and an understanding of providing excellent literature to families.

Here are a few of my favorite features of the site:

• A handy search feature to search for books for books related to a specific curricula: Beautiful Feet, Sonlight, Five in A Row, Tapestry of Grace…very nice!!
• Ability to search for books by country/geographic region (which I am LOVING!!)
• Spotlight on the season: ideas and suggestions for the upcoming season that includes crafts, lesson plans and other resources.
• New arrivals ~ a listing of all of the books that have recently been added to the site

Speaking of sales, you might want to mark this one down! This Superbowl Sunday {February 7, 2010}, you have the opportunity to take up to 35% off your order and help a great ministry that is supporting relief efforts in Haiti.

Homeschool Library Builder is already offering a 20% off your entire order sale for the entire month of February, but will send you a coupon for an additional 15% off on Superbowl Sunday when you make a donation of any amount to Heartline Ministries.

Head on over to Homeschool Library Builder to check out their stacks of books and see if there are any you’ve been looking to add to your library! You can also sign up to receive their newsletter which will alert you to special sales they have in the future.

When I tell you that the last month and a half have been a flood of math products for us to review…well, I’m not kidding. Fortunately our kids enjoy spending time ‘playing’ on the computer, so it really a win/win situation for all of us. They get to work on math and I can learn about new products and share with all of you.

About Mathscore

Mathscore was developed by MIT graduates in an effort to help children practice math {grades 2 through 9}. It provides a way for parents to easily keep track of their children’s progress and has been shown to raise math test scores. 

The emphasis on MathScore is efficient math practice. Typical competing services place a large emphasis on the teaching aspect and much less on practice. Statistically, most students in the United States don’t get enough math practice, which we believe explains the low test scores. MathScore is fun and competitive. As a result, typical students will complete hundreds of math problems for every hour of use. This great efficiency in practice leads to very rapid rates of learning. MathScore’s patent-pending technology even adapts the difficulty based on performance, making every problem attempt productive, unlike typical “drill-and-kill”.

from the Mathscore site

Parents initially log into the site and create a user name/password and can then create separate accounts for each of their children. Children each have their own username and password to work on their math facts. If you have more than one computer, multiple users can be logged on at the same time.

Students are asked to answer math problems and these problems increase in difficulty based on their performance. They can start on a worksheet or follow a small lesson. The worksheets are timed, but parents can increase the time if their child struggles with the limits. Parents can also switch levels for their children and decide which topics they would like them to work on.

Assessment tests help show where your child excels or struggles and the program will then suggest areas of focus. The site does provide samples for each math topic so students have an idea of what is being covered before beginning lessons and worksheets.

Daily reports are sent to parents for each of their children so that they can track progress. Reports give information on the math topics that were covered, accuracy, worksheets completed, how much time they spent working, etc. The reports can be printed off also and put into school files for reference. You can view additional parent features here and also access a free math worksheet generator through the Mathscore website.

Price

Mathscore varies in price based on your membership commitment. If you sign up for the month-to-month, it is priced at $14.95/month for the first child, $5/month for your second child, and $3.95/month for each child thereafter. For the first two months of your membership, your first child is only $9.95/month.  Another benefit to the site is vacation freeze ~ you can temporarily freeze your account if you go on vacation.

My Thoughts

Compared to some of the other math sites that we have been using lately, this one didn’t hold our kids attention as much. While the site itself is thorough, there aren’t a lot of extras {avatars, cute graphics, etc…} ~ for some that might be a drawback, especially if the programs you have been using do. :)

While I think this is a great product, for me the price is a little bit of a deterrent. $14.95/month {plus the cost of additional children} can add up pretty quickly. For us, a full year of the program would be around $170 for just two of our kids. If your child is in need of more focused tutoring, this may be a great option to try first, since it would be more cost efficient than tutoring.