Math Tutor DVDs (TOS Review)

Treehouse Review Week

Math Tutor DVD Home Page
About Jason Gibson (the Math Tutor)
Sample clips to watch

From the website:

Math Tutor DVD offers Math Help via DVD tutorials in all subject areas.
What makes our video DVD tutorial content different?
- Money Back Guarantee!
- Taught through example problems.
- No boring lectures.
- Immediately helps with homework.
- Improves exam taking skills.
- In-depth, detailed courses.
- Courses are inexpensive.

- #1 Best Selling tutorial DVDs in their respective subjects!

We received two DVDs to review: "Young Minds--Numbers and Counting" and "The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor." Those links give you very thorough descriptions, screen shots, samples and so on.

Obviously "Numbers and Counting" wasn't something our own Squirrelings (grade three and up) could use...and Mama Squirrel has mixed feelings about letting baby Squirrels spend a lot of time watching people count things on a DVD, even with beautiful music and photography. It seems to her that little ones would do better learning to count real objects--cars in the parking lot, spoons for the table, acorns in the bowl and so on. However, this DVD has won several awards (and, according to the site, has appeared on the Rachael Ray show!), so obviously there are parents and educators who disagree. If you want "brighter baby" material to run on your DVD player, this is certainly eye-catching and well produced.

On the other hand, we really liked "The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor." It came at just the right time for our middle schooler who has been doing a lot of geometry but needed to review upper-elementary arithmetic. This is not hi-tech stuff; there's no music, no fish photography, no distraction: it's a teacher and a whiteboard. Ponytails whizzed through the first few lessons (operations with whole numbers and decimals) but found that the work on fractions, percents, and ratio and proportion was just what she needed. It took her about three weeks to get through the 15-lesson, 8-hour series.

As the website says, there is no abstract theory in these lessons. "Every section is taught entirely by example word problems which helps the students learn these skills in the most efficient way possible." Ponytails thought that Mr. Gibson explained things pretty well, especially the percents section, and the lessons went at a good pace. The one small thing that both she and Mr. Fixit (who watched some of the lessons with her) noticed was that there were several small errors, typos, verbal slips and so on that could have been fixed with a bit of editing. You knew he really meant to say "six minus six equals zero" instead of "six minus zero equals zero" or whatever it was, but it would have been less distracting if the errors had been caught beforehand.

Overall, we were pleased with this product, and think it's a good choice for review work. We'd consider purchasing the upper-level math or science DVDs if we have high-school-aged Squirrelings (at home or at public school) who need a boost. (You might also check the library for some of the titles.)

The Price: "The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor": List Price $34.99, Our Price [that is, from their website] $26.99. "Young Minds--Numbers and Counting": List Price $29.99, Our Price $19.99.

For more reviews of this product, see the Review Crew website.

Dewey's Disclaimer: This product was received free for purposes of review. No other payment was made. The opinions expressed in this review are our own.