Parent's Guide

Welcome! XtraMath is a free web-based program that helps kids master the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. Student arithmetic practice sessions are short -- less then ten minutes! For best results your child should do XtraMath once a day as regularly as possible.

Parent Account

First, create a parent account you can use to check on your child's progress. The parent account is optional but recommended. Go to the parent sign up page. Fill in the student sign in information from the flyer your child brought home from school plus your name, email address and a password. Your child's name may include a last initial if there are other students with the same name.

After your parent account is created you can sign in any time from the XtraMath home page. Click on the "Parent & Teacher" card and sign-in with your email address and password. If you are at home check the "Remember Me" box to skip the sign-in step in the future. Of course there won't be any meaningful progress to report until you child has done XtraMath a few times.

Once you are signed in you can create an account for your child, or associate your child's existing XtraMath school account with your parent account. Use the Add child link in the left column. After you have created accounts for your children they can sign in.

Student Sign In

The XtraMath program includes spoken audio instructions for your child. So before your child signs in ensure that sound is turned on and at a comfortable volume. Also, since your child will be typing in a lot of numbers if you have a Windows PC with a numeric keypad check that the keypad number keys work. You may need to press the NumLock key to get them to function. Apple computers don't have a dual mode for numeric keypads and thus no NumLock key.

On the home page have your child click on the Student sign card. Then help them enter the student sign in information from the school flyer. This includes the teacher's email address, your child's first name, and a four-digit PIN. If you are at home check the "Remember Me" box so the computer remembers your child's sign in information for next time.

When your child clicks the Sign in button their practice session will start. But wait! Read the rest of this guide first for some important tips.

The Student Activities

The program is literally self-explanatory, however you may want to observe the first couple of sessions so you understand how the student practices work and can help your child if necessary. XtraMath needs an accurate assessment so please do not help your child with the answers to the problems. Also, although your child may be a slow typist please do not type in numbers for them because it will skew the results. Your child will become proficient with practice.

Students will do a combination of quizzes and practices that are each about two minutes. The entire session takes less than ten minutes. The program will tell them when they are done and they should continue until they have return to the XtraMath the home page.

Students work on the following operations starting with the easiest problems:

It may seem that XtraMath is sometimes having your child practice problems that are too easy. That is because one of the things XtraMath does is help your child become faster at answering problems that they already know. It is transitioning them from calculating answers to recalling them. This requires a certain amount of repetition. XtraMath is carefully selecting and scheduling problems to make the practice as efficient as possible and to minimize unnecessary repetition.

You may feel that your child is ready for operations beyond their grade level. It is important to realize that the kind of practice that XtraMath provides is not effective unless the student already has a good conceptual understanding of the underlying operation. It is for practicing problems they already know how to solve, not for learning how to solve new problems. If you are still convinced then discuss it with your child's teacher. The teacher can increase your child's grade level in XtraMath.

Students may do XtraMath more than once per day if they wish. For best results have students do XtraMath once per day every day.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We are eager to hear from parents using XtraMath about what is working well and what needs to be improved. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about XtraMath please email david@xtramath.org. Thank you!