Thank You, Internet: Khan Academy

This is how I teach my kids math, at least in part. We place dice games and come up with real-life math problems. We count, add, and subtract snacks and talk about how many socks three kids need if each kid has two feet. But we also use Khan Academy.

I can't praise this program enough. Instead of grouping your kid with all of the other kids in class, the approach at Khan Academy encourages kids to take as long as they need to figure out a specific concept, then move on. There's no penalty for submitting a wrong answer, and if you keep coming up with wrong answers, you can always go back and re-watch the instructional videos. I watch the videos with my kids and I'm pretty impressed. I've seen concepts explained in these videos in ways I've never seen before.

What's more: If you, the parent, sign up as a coach, you can monitor an array of metrics for your kids' progress. You can see which equations they're getting stuck on, which ones they're spending more time on, and how many times they've watched each video (as well as a lot of other details). And, not that anyone wants to admit they they would, but you can compare your kids quite easily. You could find an area where one kid is struggling and another is excelling, and encourage peer tutoring.

You can start at the beginning, with addition and subtraction and number lines as tools. Or, you can jump in wherever you want. Maybe you could go back and refresh yourself on some concepts you don't remember from high school, or learn something new. Their math classes include addition, algebra, calculus, statistics, and many others.

They don't only cover math. There are over 4,000 different videos. And it's free!

The creator of Khan Academy gave a great explanation of how it works in his speech at a Ted conference in 2011:

Welcome to the global classroom.