EdAlive Review

My family has been practicing math and typing skills the last several weeks with a one-year subscription from EdAlive and their Typing Tournament Online and Maths Invaders Online. I received access for both programs for my two kids.

Both programs from EdAlive are online and you will need an internet connection to access the programs. You don’t need to download a program on your computer with either program.

Typing Tournament Online

Typing Tournament Online is intended for ages 6 and up. Whether you are just learning how to type or needing more practice this will be a lifetime skill in today’s technological world. It’s never too late to learn and create good typing habit at any age.

Typing Tournament Online has 128 Lessons. Each lesson has 3 drills and then a test. Each lesson will focus on specific key concepts.

You can click on this section anytime if you need a reminder about good typing skills

The program has a section to help you with learning your proper posture and hand finger placement. It does a nice job walking you through the steps to make typing more productive and starting out with good habits with typing.

When you start there is a placement test to set you up in the appropriate level. Once your level is established you are ready to go. Each lesson has 3 drills and then followed by a test. If you do not pass your test then you don’t move on to the next level. You can also as a parent adjust the wpm throughout the course of this program.

My daughter struggles passing the test with her wpm 

but her accuracy is great 

You get instant feedback with your test results. It shows how many words typed along with how many you missed. It gives you a percentage of your accuracy and your words per minute you typed. If you don’t meet your wpm you do not move on.

The illustrations will appeal to kids with its medieval setting as you are working your way around the map which is basically the 128 lessons. 

There are three games to help you to become a better typist. The games are Siege, Powder Keg, and Dragon Chase.

Siege you have to try to type the words before they get to the top of the tower.

Powder Keg is laid out like a keyboard. The letters light up and you have to type the correct letter before it explodes on you. 

Dragon Chase you have to type out words and if you make a few mistakes you get eaten by the dragon.

A few badges that my daughter has earned

 I like this report as it shows me a lot of information

As a parent I can view my kid’s progress throughout and see what their speed is and how they are doing overall. Like I mentioned I have the ability to adjust wpm anytime throughout the course of the program. I can print out certificate and progress reports.

 I can view the stages or levels they have passed. If I put my mouse over the stages it shows me which letters were done for that stage. It also shows me wpm, accuracy, and how many errors were made.

Your student earns tokens, certificates, badges, and even movie tokens with successes.

How Did I use Typing Tournament Online in my homeschool?

Originally I planned on doing this with my 16 year old daughter with special needs. She has been working on typing the last two years and I thought this would be a great fit to change up things for her.  My 13 year old son who has learned how to type a few years ago ended up using this program also.

Both kids started out with doing the placement. My daughter due to her special needs tested at 7 wpm. Her accuracy is pretty good overall. She does struggle with placement of her fingers and hands due to the arthritis being severe in her fingers and hands. I set her up at 8 wpm to see if we could set her goal a bit higher. 

This is an example of a typing test

 She does typing four times a week and typing takes her a while to complete so she averaged around 30-40 minutes each time depending on our schedule. She enjoyed playing Typing Tournament Online despite her having a hard time passing levels. She has stayed at an average of 7 wpm. Her accuracy is pretty spot on. I’m actually happy with her results. I would rather see accuracy rather than wpm with her. 

My daughter is taking her typing test
 

My daughter’s thoughts, “I really like this typing program because it is a lot of fun.” “My favorite games are Siege and Powder Keg.” “The Dragon Chase was really hard for me.” 

My son he went back and forth from Typing Tournament Online and Maths Invaders Online but his main focus was on the math. Overall, he is a pretty decent with typing with around 47 wpm but his accuracy is lower than his sisters. Which doesn’t surprise me as he wants to get to point A to B as fast as he can. 

Another hardworking test taker with his typing

My son said, “It was easy to practice your typing skills.” “The games aren’t bad and I don’t know if I really have a favorite one.” 

Maths Invaders Online

This covers a large range of topics to help with your skill in math. You can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percentages, numerations, squares roots, powers, direct numbers, and more. This is suitable for grades K-10.

Several options to choose how to fit your kids needs

There are several areas to practice you skills: Galactic Campaign, Space Rescue, Time Tables, by topic and levels. There are also several options to print worksheets.

Galactic Campaign has Zones in which there are 10 of them. You can’t skip zones until you test out of it. You can also adjust your speed to basic, expert speed, and master speed. This is set up to look like you are looking out a window of a space ship. Across the screen you see math problem. You have to type in the answer and hit the space bar to blow up the problem. You can print off worksheets in this also.

My son loves challenging other others

Space Rescue you can challenge other students across the world in this game or the computer. There are two levels: basic and advanced. It is set up in a popular game where you have to try to target other spaceships in squares. The key is answering questions correctly to get your weapon full to hit the target. To make it a bit more challenging you have to beat the clock. This also ties in with Galactic Campaign which helps you unlock more games in the Space Rescue. This was my son’s favorite game as he likes challenges like this.

Times Tables is just that practicing your multiplication facts. My son didn’t use this too much as he knows them fairly well. 

 The worksheets are made for you to choose your topic 

or you can do your times tables. 

 

You select which topic by clicking on the squares. If you hold your mouse over it each section will give you more information.

An example of a worksheet you can generate.

Worksheets you can create by topics or times table. The worksheets are basic black and white other than the logo. 

Maths Invaders Online shows me which lessons they have been working on along with when they were on.  I can also review topics which will show me the progress. I can hover over it to see some of the problems.

How did we use Maths Invaders Online in our homeschool?

My 13 year old son has been the primary user with Maths Invaders Online. My daughter has just dabbled in it a few times. The time component makes it difficult for her.

My son played this daily jumping back and forth from Galactic Campaign to the Space Rescue. When you want to skip ahead in a zone you have a pre-test that you need to do. He even dabbled in the simple concepts like addition and subtractions but he is breezing through it quickly. Which I think he preferred to make it easier to just have game time!  

My son’s thoughts, “This isn’t bad for learning math. The games don’t have the best graphics but, I like that they look so 80’s.” 

Both programs have been a hit with my kids. I like that they are learning skills that are much needed. I would love to be able to turn off the timed games in Maths Invaders Online for my daughter. Either way she was okay with it. She just got frustrated that she can’t get access to the Space Rescue yet.

These will both be great additions this summer and going into the school year this fall.

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I am one of sixty-five reviewers from The Homeschool Review Crew reviewing Typing Tournament Online and Maths Invaders Online from EdAlive. Don’t forget to see what others think by clicking on the graphic below.