C.H.I.N.A. Chronicles: Tos Review ~ Math Rider

$Photobucket$ Saddle up kiddos its time for math!

Do you have a kid who likes horses or quests? Do they not share the same passion for math drills? Math Rider will have your kids drilling in their free time. I never once had to ask any of my kids to launch this program, they were standing in line waiting for their turn!
Math Rider is a downloadable program available for $37 on their website.

Math rider drills addition, subtraction, multiplication and division math facts. It isn't some drab flashcards popping up on the screen either. You are a rider on a horse in a magical world, questing for objects. The screen is colorful as the rider rides through the world answering math facts so the horse can jump hurdles. My only complaint about the screen is that the equation is small and off to the side, so as the player you don't get to enjoy the scenery because you are concentrating on the equation. However, those watching you play certainly get the pleasure of it. Math rider uses every response given to adjust game play. The horse slows down if the child's answers slow down and speeds up if they are answering quickly. Parents can go in and see a screen like the one on the right to see where the weaknesses are. The red indicates trouble areas, green indicates mastery. The nice thing about math rider is that it drills more of what they are struggling with than those they have mastered.

Although it is a single player game up to ten players can be riders. When a rider logs in with their password their quest screen pops up. As they complete more and more quests they earn things like flags, flowers etc. Up at the top a parent can quickly see how they are doing with rides completed, quests completed and how much math they have accomplished.

I used this program as busy work. It can easily be done independently by the child after set up. I preferred to have the sound muted because the horse neighing grated on my nerves after awhile :) My kids opted for headphones instead.

All in all this program is a great way to reinforce math facts without the drudgery of flash cards. My five kids would choose the horses of math rider over mom and paper flashcards any day. I promise not to take it personally!