I don't tend to give math drills since my daughter does not like them and they can be tedious and boring. She gets especially frustrated by anything that is timed, so rarely do I give her timed tests or assignments.
When I heard about MathRider, a mathematics mastery game, which includes a horse, my daughter's dream pet, I wanted to learn more.
MathRider helps children practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division from 1 to 12, as they ride their horse on noble quests through the magical MathLands. Each operation contains four quests ranging from easy to master. Although the quests are the same across all four operations, the rewards are not, and they are animated according to how well the rider answered the questions.
Below you can see the areas mastered are green, but a few orange and red problem spots, mainly around number 7, need more practice. The grey areas mean that these questions have not been played yet.
Throughout the game the child or parent can check several things, including their statistics, high scores, a map of their progress, a retelling of the quest story, or they can brush up on their skills in practice mode, which has no impact on their quests or statistics.
My Thoughts: I think this is a great game for any child who needs help with mastering their math facts. I was a little worried at first, because as I said earlier, my daughter does not like timed tests. Although you are not necessarily timed in the game, you do have to answer the math question before your horse reaches his jump, or you will get it wrong. She was very nervous about this and frustrated that she couldn't type in the answer in time. When I realized she was having trouble I would tell her to just shout out the answer and I would key it in. After we did this for a while she tried again by herself and got the hang of it.
Also, if after you have completed the advance level you don't have mastery of the operation, you have to complete it over and over again until you have mastery before you can move on to the master level. Although part of me thinks this idea makes sense, it can be discouraging to the child who is improving yet can't move forward in the game.
Thoughts of a 7-Year Old: What I like about MathRider is that the questions are easy and the scenery is sometimes silly like the "Dragon Realm" and the "Elven Lands". What I dislike is when I get frustrated!! Anytime I get something wrong I get frustrated!
Find Out More: MathRider is available as an instant download for $37. Although it is not a multi-player game, it can be played by up to 10 players on the same computer. Each person creates their own rider and chooses their own adventures. You can then compare the performance of all players on the High Score screen. MathRider is backed by a 30-day, 100% money back guarantee.
My Crewmates are also reviewing MathRider, so you can check out what they think HERE.
Disclosure: This product was given to Our Homeschool Reviews for free for review purposes, and for this particular product, I will have to return it to the vendor. I have received no compensation from it and all opinions and experiences within this review are my own.
5 comments:
Very nice review. My kids loved it to!
Traci from crew
My children enjoyed it too, though they have the same frustrations as your daughter. They get very stressed by timed activities!
Just a comment about having to return it to the vendor . . . I initially thought our use of it was limited, too. But since it's a download, once we have it, we have it -- unlike a time-restricted subscription to an online program. It's just the KEY that is time sensitive, I think. We only have until the end of February to download the program for free. But beyond that, we should be able to use it indefinitely because it's on our computers. That's my understanding, anyway :)I'd actually written a similar disclaimer in my review until I re-read the original email last night!
HTH :)It's kinda nice to think we can keep it!
Ya -- I take it back! I hadn't read ALL the posts on the board. Thanks for correcting my error:)I still don't quite understand it, but I see what you mean. Thanks for getting back to me.
Hi Christine, I found out about MathRider through your blog and just wanted to say THANKS.
I bought the game and it turned out to be a HUGE HIT. What I found really outstanding is how the game adapts to your child's current ability by varying game speed. Also, is important to learn that in life you sometimes make mistakes and you have to persevere to get the rewards.
I find this is really well done in the game and my kids have now mastered several operations completely and are thrilled with themselves and their accomplishments!
Mum is thrilled, too :-) Thanks again for pointing this software out to us!
Carrie (whose comment may have been lost by blogger), I am so glad that my review was helpful to you! Out of all the math drill games we have tried my daughter liked MathRider the best. Thanks for letting me know!
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