Review of Mad Dog Math

Two of my children seemed to learn their math facts quite easily, but the other two have had some trouble mastering their facts.  Thus, I was excited to receive free for review Mad Dog Math, a math facts mastery program.  Mad Dog Math is designed to teach your child the math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in as little as ten minutes per day in a fun format that kids will love.

Mad Dog Math has several purchase option, including one that includes a "Mastery Binder" with drill worksheets, etc.  I reviewed only the downloadable software found here.  The software doesn't come with any worksheet drills, but the interactive drills your child does online mimic them exactly except, in my opinion, they are more fun!

Mad Dog Math excels in working with the child who is intimidated by timed math drills.  As I stated, I had one child who would do her timed paper drills every day and would not balk at all.  My second child (an ADHD boy) would have a full-on tantrum at the sight of a math drill, but, because he excels at math, he didn't need them to learn his facts.  Enter my twins.  They were a little slower at picking up their facts, but, because I have relaxed a little as a homeschooler, they really couldn't write fast enough to make a paper drill meaningful.  For kids like my last three, Mad Dog Math is a dream come true.

Mad Dog Math works in the following manner: your child is presented with a series of 20 problems, some of which may have a missing number (depending on your level).  You have the option of choosing "time me," which will start the drill (you can choose to work with 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes, or "untimed"), "fetch," which will give you new facts, and "stop."  When you play signed in,  your progress is tracked and reward "stickers" are accrued.  I have to confess that one of my favorite features of Mad Dog Math is the dog bark sound effect :-)

Mad Dog Math is designed to work in a cumulative manner.  When you allow the software to increment the way it is designed, your child will systematically work through the facts in a particular area (+, -, X, /), all at the very reasonable pace of ten minutes per day.  The question, of course, is does Mad Dog Math work? For my kids, the answer is yes.  They beg to "play" Mad Dog Math, and their mastery of facts has increased.  The format is such that retention is nearly inevitable.  The only possible drawback of Mad Dog Math is that it can be hard for young kids to find the correct numbers on the computer keyboard.  If this is a real issue, though, there is no reason that younger children can't call out the answers to an older sibling or parent who can then type them in.

Mad Dog Math has several purchase and pricing options.  For a complete list, including options not home-tested here, see this page.  For information on the home downloadable version that my kids have been using, see this page.  Mad Dog Math has a variable pricing structure based on your needs.  A one year license (which allows you to create different profiles for each of your children) costs $29.95.  A two year license is $29.95.  If you think that Mad Dog Math would benefit your family for more than two years, purchase the perpetual license for $39.95.

If you have a child who is resistant to paper drills for learning facts, then Mad Dog Math is a good choice. It is comparable in price to similar programs, and is very visually appealing to children.  My family enjoyed its time with Mad Dog Math.  To see what others thought, read the Crew blog.