Over the next few weeks, many parents will unexpectedly find themselves having to help their children with maths schoolwork, which could be daunting for a lot of us. Fortunately, there are lots of resources available on the internet to help with that. Here at Christchurch City Libraries we have a wide range of online resources for home educators, but there are also some other great websites out there. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some online places where you can find help with maths education, which you can access from home. We hope you find something here that’s useful. If so, or if you have something to add, please let us know in the comments section below.
Online maths learning platforms
These are in depth, interactive platforms for ongoing maths learning, practice, and improvement. They usually involve signing up for a user account and logging in regularly, and they often have ways that you can monitor your child’s progress. Some of these are free, while other carry a cost. Where relevant and available, prices given here are for one month’s access, but these are often cheaper per month if purchased for longer periods. Some of these resources can also be packaged with additional learning resources covering other subjects such as English, usually at an extra cost.
XtraMath
This is one of our favourites as it’s completely free to use, and it can provide parents with detailed reports about their children’s achievements. The only downside is that the content is from the US and so doesn’t necessarily align perfectly with the New Zealand curriculum. As this is run by a non-profit organisation with generous donors, there is no cost for using the web-based version, and there are no ads. An app is available for mobile devices at a small cost, which helps to support the program, but you can get access to everything through the website for free.
Prodigy Maths Game
This wonderful resource turns maths learning into a game, making it perfect for reluctant mathematicians. It’s designed for children aged 6 – 14 but again, it’s not specific to the New Zealand maths curriculum. The game itself is free, but there’s an optional premium upgrade that unlocks various prizes and rewards at US$8.95 per child per month, but none of that is necessary to play the game and learn the maths. This is definitely one of our favourites, of the ones we’ve looked at.
IXL Maths
This website contains a variety of online activities designed to build skills in maths from preschool to year 13, with some sophisticated learning analytics. Unlike the previous two it does align with the New Zealand curriculum, but there is a cost. You can do a few questions each day for free, or get unlimited access for NZ$12.99 per month.
Mathletics
This one’s also made for the New Zealand maths curriculum, with content for years 1-13. Many New Zealand schools use this so your child may already have access, but if not, you can purchase home access for NZ$19.95 per student per month. A two day free trial is available if you want to try it out first.
Useful maths websites
Asknumbers
This is an extremely comprehensive one stop shop for measurement conversions of almost any kind. Whether it’s acres to hectares, pints to millilitres, or Fahrenheit to Celsius, it’s all here, and much more besides. You can even create your own conversion tables.
Bitesize Maths
From the BBC, bite sized chunks of concise information aligned with different UK high school level qualifications. The context is British, but this website is still very useful in a New Zealand setting.
FigureNZ
Not a maths website as such, but a very nice source of numerical information about almost every aspect of New Zealand society. Incidentally, their blog contains some excellent advice for those of us transitioning to working from home, which the team behind this website have been doing for years. Perfect for fans of the book We Are Here.
Khan Academy
A free to use and very popular website filled with educational videos on a range of topics at every level from kindy to college, and not just maths.
Maths Is Fun
This website was one of the first of its kind and has a very long history. Although the interface looks a bit dated it has some great content, which is still regularly updated and added to. This site contains some ads, but they can be hidden.
National Library maths topic explorer
A wide ranging collection of media of all types relating to every aspect of maths. Well worth a browse.
Numberphile
A brilliant YouTube channel with hundreds of fascinating videos about all manner of maths topics. Prepare to have your mind boggled. Highly recommended!
StudyIt
Very useful information about all of the New Zealand NCEA standards, assessments, and achievement criteria at levels 1-3. Also covers the sciences and English.
Wolfram alpha
The ultimate maths website. If it’s not on here, it’s not worth knowing, but it is aimed at those who already have a bit of basic knowledge. It could be described as somewhere between an extremely sophisticated natural language calculator and a thoroughly comprehensive encyclopaedia of facts and figures, but really you have to experience it yourself to understand what it’s capable of.
This is just a very small selection of what we consider to be the best of what’s out there. If there are other sites that you know of and would recommend, or if you want to tell other families what you have and haven’t found useful, then please do so in the comments below. We may be apart, but we’re all in this together!
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