This is an unpaid post.
I wrote a review of KooBits previously, free of charge too. This follow-up post gives an update of the platform and how we are currently using it. You may also wish to read the earlier post that touches on the essential functions of KooBits.
Read: KooBits ProblemSums – Effective Mathematics help for the kids
An Improved Version
KooBits has recently enhanced its platform.
Plans for Children with Different Needs
There were only two plans previously if I recall correctly. We subscribed to the school plan, i.e. the school paid for it. It was basic but good enough for my boy who needs a lot of support in Maths. Hence I did not take note of the other plan.
Now, there are four plans, namely School, Plus (for National Curriculum), Premium (for the Gifted Child), and Genius (for those gunning for Olympiad). As I wanted access to questions for all levels, I decided to upgrade our free School subscription to Plus.
Why I Love Koobits (School and Plus Version)
As a parent, I love Koobits for its flexibility. I can customise the learning session in details.
KooBits can breakdown a topic into various skills a student needs to master very thoroughly. For instance, the topic on Decimals (including 4 Operations on Decimals) has a total of 63 skills to master. An example of a skill is expressing fractions as three-place decimals. So if need be, I can choose to focus only on this skill on a particular afternoon. Once the child master a master, he attains 3 stars in his learning report.
In the case of a high-achieving child, this is probably no big deal, and likely a waste of time to monitor and ensure he has obtained all the stars. In contrast, for children who battle to understand even the most simple concepts, they must ensure that they have attained their basic understanding of the topic before moving on to anything that is a little more complex.
So this is where the Self-Practice feature comes in. For the Primary 4 student, there are 212 skills to achieve mastery in KooBits. The skill and its difficult level will move up gradually. This feature is crucial for children who need to build confidence in tackling Maths.
For some skills, KooBits has also uploaded videos on Youtube to help the students better understand the concepts via illustrations. You will find these videos after the Difficulty column.
However, my boy used to treat this Self-Practice feature as non-existent. To him, it was just endless and pointless practice. I met resistance when getting him to work on Self-Practice.
New Enhancement to Self-Practice.
There is an enhancement to an existing feature which has caught my boy’s attention. It has changed the way we use Koobits, for the better.
Mission!
Self-Practice is now known as Mission, and it comes with rewards, i.e. Koko Credits!
For some kids, collecting Koko Credits are very important to them, because these credits can be exchanged for badges. Some kids similarly love collecting badges, just like collecting Pokemon cards.
In the past, we used to go to the Daily Challenge for revisions. Students can earn a badge and obtain lots of CPs after completing the Daily Challenge for the day. We can customise Daily Challenge so as to focus on only subjects that we need to revise. However, it does not allow us to pick particular skills to hone.
This limitation did not work well for us since my boy needs more support in learning. Hence I had to switch to Assignments whereby I could assign homework that allowed him to concentrate on the certain skills where he needed more help. Completing one homework earns him 5 Koko Credits.
Despite that, I was still dissatisfied after discovering that not all skills in Self-Practice are reflected in Assignments. As a result, we missed out revising Ordering Fractions, and my boy scored zero there for his mid-year examinations. KooBits, you really need to work on this. It is my only major complaint. Of course, mummy is at fault too for missing out.
Recently, we discovered completing Missions help to earn Koko Credits so much faster. Upon completion of 10 questions, the child gets to select a prize containing up to 10 Koko Credits. I don’t agree with giving out a prize by answering ten questions correctly. A discouraged child may give random answers just so to get his Koko credits.
Premium Plan
I don’t have access to Premium Plan. Here is some of the contents to share.
The Koobits Parent App
The Koobits Parent App is complimentary to subscribers.
Tracking the Child’s Progress
The KooBits Parent App helps parents to check from their smartphone whether their children are making headways, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and benchmark their progress against their peers.
The information in the App mirrors the report section of KooBits.
I can simply by clicking on the skill button in the above page to get an example of the question relating to that skill.
Notifications
The KooBits Parent App gives a summary of my son’s weekly activities. I can also see an overview of his monthly or daily activities.
Daily highlights show the number of questions your child did on a particular day, as well as his performance. KooBits recommends doing up to 20 problems a day. Any more than 20 may turn your child into an angry child. Mine sure do though recently he has gone gaga over finishing up the fundamental questions just so to get his Koko Credits.
That’s all on my update of KooBits.
The platform continues to be my life saviour when it comes to helping my child who is struggling with Maths. I no longer have to go to Popular to search for Maths assessments that help to build my kid’s foundation in Maths, nor spend tons of money to hire a Math tutor, just to drill him on basic Maths.
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