I was hesitant to hold this interview, but went forward with it.  I was then hesitant to publish this interview, but have decided to do so.

I am not endorsing the product, Elephant Learning.  I’m also not saying that you shouldn’t use it!

I was not given access to Elephant Learning to trial so I can’t speak to it from any personal experience/ first-hand knowledge.

Before you listen to the interview, I want to share my thoughts.

First, the pros:

• Data- allows for a clear picture of how well a child is learning various skills; motivates a child to see their own progress 

• Individualized- pre-assessment and monitoring allow each child to receive just the lessons/practice that they need

• Instructs in math language, which can otherwise hinder a child from understanding what their teacher is talking about

• Support is available to help parents work through difficulties and know how to best teach their kids

Now, the cons:

• I’m not sure that it actually teaches math concepts, possibly just math vocabulary?

• If a child struggles, there is no reteaching of a concept in a new way (I have yet to see a program actually do this)

• Requires parent/teacher involvement if a child gets “stuck”; meaning that you are likely to have to teach your child how to do all of the math.  However, teaching them so that they can make progress can help kids want to learn the math that you are teaching.

• They claim 1 ½ years of growth in a 3 month period but I’m not clear that any outside assessments confirm this rate of growth and I’ve seen similar claims made by other programs that are really just using their own data and skewing things in their favor.  Outside measures don’t support the claims from these other programs, and I’m not sure that Elephant Math is actually any different.

• Not a full curriculum, only supplementary.

• Might be too language-heavy for some kids who need more of a visual or kinesthetic understanding of math as their foundation prior to learning any vocabulary.  (Aditya says that math is best learned through discovering concepts, but they start each lesson with definitions…)

What I hope you get out of listening:

• Your own thoughts and insights into whether this program or one of the MANY others like it would be good for your family

• What to consider when making these purchases

  • What a math program should include

  • Be aware of the emotional appeal these products are making