Wishing You a Sunny Summer Break

Dear Parent,

For those of you not living in the gloomy northwest, summer is here. Your kids are finishing up with school and hopefully have a fun-filled summer break ahead of them. Maybe you are heading on a family vacation, or the kids are going off to camp. Perhaps it will be a case of getting the sprinklers out in the garden and listening out for the ice-cream truck. Hopefully there will be some baseball, soccer or other fun activities planned. However, I am sure the last thing you or your kids want to think about right now is math! While we are all for your kids having the most fun summer imaginable, it is important that they keep their math skills honed. Research has shown that kids who don’t do any math over the nearly 3 month summer break actually regress in their math ability. Yet, when they start the new school year they are expected to carry on where they left off.

Math-Whizz understands the importance of a fun summer break, which is why we have done all we can to incentivize our Whizzers to login over the next few months. As always there are credits to be earned, challenges to be won and perhaps even a pet dragon to be fed. We have also brought back our hugely popular Summer Adventure. Your kids will need to help the friendly Whizz Professor find his way through the Amazonian rainforest, and to do this they will need to do their lessons which will unlock games and fun facts about the Amazon. All the time you will be able to monitor their progress and watch their growth and they will be able to login anywhere they have a computer and an internet connection. All of us at Whizz Education wish you a fun and sunny summer break.

Ben Keogh, CEO
Whizz Education, Inc.

Summer Learning

More About the Summer Adventure

Even with the best intentions, summer learning can often take a backseat to summer vacations, barbeques and play dates at the splash park. As parents, you want your kids to retain what they worked hard all year to learn and possibly even go back to school a little smarter! But, let’s face it, for kids the idea of summer learning is well, just not fun (they are probably still trying to forget homework and pop quizzes).

As Ben mentioned above, to help keep your kids learning and having fun, Math-Whizz has brought back the hugely popular Summer Adventure! The adventure is available from the end of June through August, and it can be accessed from bedroom area of your child’s Math-Whizz account. The goal is to help Whizz Prof find his way out the rainforest. Kids will be solving math puzzles, exploring mazes and finding their way out of tricky situations, all while learning fun facts about the rainforest. Every level your child completes unlocks a new piece of the story and helps the Whiz Prof find his way!

The catch is, in order to get access to Summer Adventure your child will have to earn Math-Whizz credits by completing lessons! The fun is not just for the kids! From your Parent Dashboard, you can cheer your kids on as they complete their lessons, finish new challenges and make progress in their learning. Send a congratulatory e-email or print a certificate of achievement to award accomplishments. Learning math is summer fun when the whole family gets involved!

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Connecting with Math-Whizz

Who is the Whizz Prof?

If you’ve been using Math-Whizz, you have likely heard of the Whizz Prof. Yes, this is the same Whizz Prof your child will be helping in the Summer Adventure. While the Whizz Prof is not skilled at navigating his way out of the rainforest, he is amazing at helping children navigate the world of math. He is a bit quirky, highly energetic and is passionate about all things Math. Helping children get to the "ah-ha" moment when math finally clicks, is what motivates him each day. He opens the gate to the world of math, showing children that math is more than just numbers, it is the world around us.

Throughout the summer months, the Whizz Prof will be posting ideas on how to incorporate math (as subtly as possible) into your summer fun. Find these ideas on the Whizz Education Blog, as well as his Facebook page. ‘Like’ the Whizz Prof and get feeds for brain busters, free downloadable worksheets, and interesting math lessons you can do at home, at the park, or really anywhere, with your child.

Whiz Prof's Summer Learning Idea #1: Hopscotch Math!

Take this childhood favorite and add a bit of math for some fun summer learning. Your kids (and possibly yourself) will be outdoors, active and having fun with numbers.

What you'll need:

• Sidewalk Chalk
• Stone or Pebble spot marker
• Space to draw your Hopscotch board

1. Draw your Hopscotch board that resembles a calculator. It is best to use level pavement if possible.
2. The first player will toss the stone/pebble on to the 1 "key." The player then hops on the keys to make up an equation that equals 1 (ex. =2-1). For younger students you may use expressions (1+0). A player's turn continues until a mistake is make either by stepping on the line or creating an incorrect equation or expression. The first player to develop equations or expressions for the numbers 1-9 is the winner.
3. To make the game more challenging, have the students hop 1-footed on odd numbers and zeros and 2-footed on even numbers and symbols. Using the left or right is another method you may choose to use.

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News

Welcome Giles!

We'd like to extend a warm welcome to Giles, the newest member of the Math-Whizz Team. Giles recently has taken on the role of CTO within Whizz Education. With more than 20 years experience, Giles has has as exhuastive list of credentials. Since it would take too long to list them all, we will just say he is working tirelessly to enhance your Math-Whizz experience! The Math-Whizz tech team loves feedback and suggestions from those of you who are using Math-Whizz, so email us your feedback!

Math-Whizz Partnerships

Whizz Education is currently helping schools and districts across the country (and aroudn the world) raise student achievement in math by providing students with access to premium online math instruction and giveing teachers access to comprehensive online Teachers' Resource. Based on our sucess with helping to improve student achievement, Whizz Education will be providing the Anchorage School District and Connections Academy, a K-12 virutal school supporting students in over 20 states, with access to our materails starting this fall. We are looking forward to an exciting, albiet very busy, 2011-12 school year.