Math Rider (TOS Review)

I have to admit, Math is not my strongest subject.  In fact, when we started homeschooling I wondered how I would ever teach our kids higher level math classes since I had to take Algebra 2 twice in high school just to pass it!  Thankfully there are lots of great Math curriculum, educational games and videos that not only teach the kids...but refresh my Math skills as well.  Math Rider is one of those educational games.

Having a 6 year old, an 8 year old and a 10 year old who has some learning issues this game could easily work for all of them.  Considered "the intelligent Math facts game", Math Rider teaches mastery of all four math operations using numbers 0-12.  The game even recognizes and rewards math improvement...not just perfection.  The noble quests the children play out teach positive values such as honesty, kindness, caring, etc. 

All 3 of our kids liked this Math game.  Each session begins with a "quest" where they watch a short story scenario.  Then they ride their horse across various environments while Math questions pop up at the bottom of the screen.  If they answer the problem correctly, they "jump" across the obstacle but if they answer incorrectly their horse is stopped while the correct answer is shown. Then they must input the correct answer 3 times before the horse will gallop on to the next obstacle. Best of all, this game recognizes the typing speed of your child and actually accommodates the speed of the horse accordingly so the youngest typer to the fastest typer can enjoy this game.  

There are two things I would like to see them improve upon.  The "quests" become repetitive after while and the kids would say "I already did this one" even though they were working with new Math facts.  It would be really neat if they could do a different "quest" for each level but I also understand how time consuming that could be to create.  Second, I hope they will make an Ipad app for this program soon.  Our children use the Ipad a lot for educational purposes and it would be nice if they could play this game anywhere and not just in front of the computer.  

Math Rider is available for $49.95 but is currently on sale through February 15, 2012 for just $37 (less than the cost of paying a professional tutor for one hour to raise your child's Math grades).  It is compatible with Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and it will be available for instant download too.  You can also try it out FREE for 7 days.  I am thankful that our children are able to improve their Math skills through this fun and engaging game.  You can also read how the program worked for other TOS reviewers by clicking here.  

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of the above mentioned game for review purposes only as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew.  No monetary compensation was received.