Learn Multiplication Quickly

Homeschool Review Crew

Online Times Alive

Do you have children who need help learning multiplication quickly?  How about kids who just really want to learn multiplication?  I have both!  Because of this, I was pleased when the Homeschool Review Crew offered us a six month trial of Online Times Alive through City Creek Press, Inc.  We also received the online Times Alive app through them as well as part of the review.

About the Program

This online program is based on the book Times Tables the Fun Way Book For Kids.  It helps children learn and memorize their multiplication facts in-game and song format.  Through catchy songs, movies, and games your child will soon have their facts memorized and be able to move forward in their math.  Learning multiplication quickly has never been more fun!

With this program, your child will need to use the same computer each time they login and they will need to make sure they use the same case sensitive name for their login each time.  I have not found anything that gives a maximum number of students per account but I currently have three students using the program.  Two of these are on the computer and one is on the app.

There are student version and a teacher or parent version.  All are accessed through the same initial login which is the parent login into the site.  Then when you hit the Go Now button for working it will ask for the student login which is their name.  From that you can get into the parent dashboard or the student can continue to work their way through the program.

In the teacher dashboard, you can see the time, date, scores, completed lessons, and progress that your child has made.  To view the progress of a separate child you will need to login to that child’s name.  While this is a little more time consuming than a mom of many likes (I value time) this is still really easy considering I don’t have to teach anything!

As you can see from the Teacher view above he spelt his name with a lower case C, so we have to make sure anytime he logs in that he uses that spelling or it will make him a new student and none of his work will be saved. 

How to Use

It’s easy to see what progress the kids have made both online and on the app, as it gives you checkmarks for the sections completed shown below.

I was pleased that there is a teacher section where you can see what they’ve done and mastered.  But it is not teacher heavy at all.  Your child can really do this all on their own once you get them into the program.  They log in with their name and then it tracks and monitors their progress.  It is case sensitive for their name though so make sure they spell it the same each time.  

The app works the exact same way as the online program so it’s easy to move from one to the other.  However, the information is only saved on the computer or phone the child works on.  So they cannot have the lessons completed saved on the app when they go to a computer or vice versa.  This means that each child has to use the same computer or app each and every time or they will be redoing their own work.

IOS 9 or higher is required to run the app on your phone.  I have an Apple iPhone that is an older no longer made version (I don’t upgrade until those suckers break and won’t work anymore) but it does upgrade with the apple upgrades and I had no problem running this on my phone. 

With that said it is also recommended by the program to work from lesson 1 through the program as written with no skipping around.  

Our Thoughts

So much fun!  That’s what my kids say at least.  I have two kids using the program ages 11 and 8.  Plus I have one using the app age 8 as well.  I should also mention that my toddler is fascinated with watching the videos with his older siblings and can often be found singing the songs now.  So when he finally gets around to learning multiplication he’s going to already know the facts without knowing that he knows them! 

Having kids learn multiplication quickly has never been easier.  I have several songs and tricks that I learned in elementary school that I brought into the homeschool scene with me but this is working much faster for my kids.  Maybe because it’s including something visual besides watching mom sing songs way off-key.  Probably easier on the ears too.  

My kids highly approve too.  They love it and ask to be allowed to use the program anytime they’re not occupied with something else which is probably more than I’d like to admit.  I only allow my kids so much screen time per day and per week though so they use a timer and get to do this for ten minutes a day with a maximum of five days per week.  I didn’t realize I would have to limit the number of days but got tired of being asked on Saturday and Sunday if they could on the program.  

This program gets a big thumbs up for helping children learn multiplication quickly from all the kids in our house.  

My eight-year-old daughter using the program on the computer is actually sad because she’s on the last set of lessons.  Lessons 1-11 are on one screen and lessons 12-18 are on the second. She only has one or two lessons left.  I should say she had already worked on multiplication some and she LOVES doing anything school-related. 

So this was more of a review for her and to help solidify what she was doing.  She has definitely flown through it so it’s safe to say it made her learn multiplication quickly or at least finish memorizing the facts. 

Above these two pictures, you can see all of the lessons that they learn.  I really like the key that tells you what each subpoint of the lesson is.  So some are involving them just watching while others have them answering questions and even others have them painting or doing an activity to help solidify the lesson.

As she finishes I will move another child into the program on the computer she has been using.  I have some older children who should be done with multiplication by now that could use the extra help now that I’ve seen how the program works.  And I have a six-year-old that is pulling her hair trying to get to the point I’ll let her do this program too.  

So, we love the program.  We recommend the program.  The app is great for when you’re on the go and want something to help keep your child occupied but I think I prefer the computer version for daily use.  Definitely something we will keep in mind for helping the other kids learn multiplication quickly.

Learn More

Make sure to read all the reviews linked up on the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.  This should give you a feel for how your child might do using the Times Alive program.  It’s a great way to learn multiplication quickly in our opinion.  You can also find the program on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.