When Janice realized that her son, Bjorn, was struggling with math, she did what any concerned parents in the Philippines have done – hire a private tutor and visit the bookstore to buy 3 more math practice assessment books.

“My son gets frustrated with maths in school. He is very easily distracted, and cannot stay focused to read the textbook or practice papers.”

— Janice, parent of Bjorn (Grade 3 student).

But getting Bjorn to do more hours of practice hardly worked – Bjorn became more resentful towards math, and Janice ended up having to spend more time nagging at him.

The Philippines has been struggling already with imparting math skills to its students, as evident when a OECD assessment in 2018 showed that students in the Philippines scored in the bottom 2 of the countries tested in math. Today, with the pandemic in full-swing, and schools in the Philippines moving online, many parents like Janice are dealing with the challenges of e-learning, while having their own work-deadlines. With schools being under-equipped to teach effectively online, teachers are leaving the actual teaching to parents.

“Dealing with questions all day from my kid puts a lot of stress on me when I’m working remotely. My boss doesn’t have kids and just doesn’t get it.”

— Mei Lin, parent of Amelia (Grade 2 student)

“My daughter’s teacher just teaches her for 15 mins a day, and assigns homework to her. She doesn’t understand anything, and I have to spend time teaching her! I haven’t taken a break in months.”

— Vonny, parent of Gabriella (Grade 4 student)

“I just wish there was a way I could schedule what my girl learns and have it keep her busy all day.”

— Vincent, parent of Satya (Grade 5 student)

Math, in particular, is proving difficult, especially when children run into problems they can’t solve or principles they don’t yet understand. In fact, parents in the Philippines are spending significant amounts of time trying to help answer questions and guide their childrens’ learning all day long. With school starting dates being pushed back in the Philippines, this burden may worsen as time goes on.

But yet, some mums have been able to fulfil their work or home responsibilities, while still ensuring their kids are doing well at school.

So how do Super-Mums juggle everything at once?

They work “smarter”, not “harder”. Since the pandemic struck the nation, working “smarter” meant discovering new ways to help children learn effectively without spending the whole day next to them, teaching or monitoring them. They have found that online tools can help students find that extra support and guidance they need to understand math and practice standardized math skills.

One such tool that is helping parents is KooBits, an e-learning platform to help children learn and love math. Mums using KooBits have remarked how their children have started studying on their own, without them having to do anything. In fact, these kids end up acing their tests too. Here’s what one super-mum had to say:

“My daughter loves to use KooBits. She logs in by herself every morning and works through the problems on her own. She scored 87% on her last test, her highest grade ever!”

The syllabus in KooBits is aligned with the DepEd PH Curriculum and the international curriculum. But that’s not the reason why it’s so effective.

The secret to high engagement can be traced to 3 reasons:

1. KooBits uses interactive animations to teach math

E-learning platforms like KooBits recognise that children today – the Gen-Z – have grown up around a plethora of interactive apps like Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube all around them.

However, our learning systems are still centered around textbooks, worksheets and assessment papers. Compared to interactive apps, these are more boring and uninspiring for young learners. Our children need more than that to be engaged learners – and there is a dire need to evolve our teaching mechanisms with similar interactive technology.

That’s why KooBits uses interactive animations to support 100,000+ questions in its database. These animations simplify complex concepts, and makes math more fun and rewarding for children.

Whenever a child needs help, these animated explanations are easily accessible. No wonder super-mums are able to “teach” their children while balancing their work and social life!

KooBits has mastered the formula to capture students’ attention, and direct it towards an effective math learning experience.

2. KooBits personalizes every child’s learning experience

KooBits’ adapts to each child’s strengths and weaknesses By tracking their usage patterns. Whether a child is in foundational or advanced stages, KooBits assigns questions that are challenging enough to stretch their minds, but yet not overly difficult to demotivate them. This builds confidence and motivates them to keep learning.

KooBits also tracks knowledge gaps so that parents can quickly know which areas their children need to focus on. Kids are also given access to this information.

And to our surprise, many of them use this to take charge of their own learning, and work on weaknesses during after-school hours! With KooBits, the learning progress is ultimately determined by the child.

3. KooBits fosters a safe and nurturing environment for children

KooBits encourages children to learn and grow on a digital platform, without the risks normally associated with modern technology. In this digital age, it’s hard to find a platform that’s truly child-safe. That’s why KooBits is intentionally designed to be used by kids even without supervision. It comes ready with:

• Full parental control (to give homework or limit screen time)
• Zero ads forever
• Limited screen times (servers are shut down at 10 pm to avoid overuse)
• Positive reinforcement that encourages children to view failure as part of the process

Most parents agree that it’s more productive for their children to spend time on KooBits, than on other digital platforms. In fact, according to data from Alexa.com, kids typically spend nearly 2X more time on KooBits than on sites like YouTube Kids.

KooBits teaches children that mistakes are part of the learning process. That’s why children look forward to learning on KooBits. It’s fun and they are not afraid to make mistakes and learn from them. That’s the secret to fostering creativity!

4. 20 Minutes of daily KooBits exercise trumps long hours of practice

According to researchers at the Department of Psychology, University of California, they found that distributed practice, in small doses, can be 35% more effective than a single session of practice. Regular practice creates and strengthens neural pathways for deeper understanding, which eventually leads to stronger performance. This trumps “over-practicing” with mountains of assessment papers or short-burst tuitions just before exams.

It is with this science-backed principle that KooBits encourages 20 minutes of daily practice with questions that are difficult enough to stretch a child’s learning potential effectively, but also not so challenging that the child gets demotivated.

According to KooBits, the most engaged students log on for an average of an hour every day to get their daily dose of math. When learning is fun and effective, new habits form easily.

To ensure that KooBits is relevant and aligned to the needs of its learners, the platform is co-developed with top educators, child-development experts, students and parents in each country. Our collaborators in the Philippines have taken extra measures to ensure KooBits math fits the national curriculum so students can meet their goals and practice the math concepts introduced to them in class. Through these collaborations, KooBits clearly understand learners’ goals and difficulties and in turn, have created a comprehensive platform to suit different needs:

• Students can enjoy the interactive, media-rich Student Portal to learn math.
• Parents can monitor their child’s progress through the Parent App, understand their strengths and weaknesses and guide them along.
• Teachers and schools can use the Teacher’s Portal to teach more effectively.

It is no surprise that KooBits has a large community of learners; over 180,000 students and 400 school teachers are on board.

In fact, many KooBits users love how they have developed a love for math, and as a result score top marks. Just take a look at what some of them are saying:

“I like KooBits because it has helped in my mathematics. I have now improved from 70-80+ to 90++. KooBits also has competitions that we can take part in and compete to see how well we fare.”

– Ee Juin, CHIJ School

“KooBits is now a daily math ‘tuition’ for me. Every day, I wonder what the next day’s challenges will be. I look forward to doing it daily as points are accumulated.”

– Ezra, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School

And now, you can be part of this learning revolution. You can choose between Standard or Premium. Click here to find out more. Or if you prefer, click here to sign up for a 7-day trial, so you can see whether it’s right for you!

Tags: Lower Primary (7-10), mathematics, Singapore, Upper Primary (10-12)