Our Family

Our Family

Friday, February 25, 2011

TOS Review: MathRider

Do you have a child that could use a little bit of an incentive to work at and learn his addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts? How about having them embark on an exciting adventure while learning these facts. MathRider is an adventure game that combines fun with sophisticated technology that adapts to your child and helps them master all 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) using numbers 0-12. Math Rider was developed by parents who wanted to find a way to help their own children who were struggling to learn their basic Math facts. Let me tell you a little bit more about how it works.



In the game your child is in the land of Ray, riding on a horse named Shadow, and setting out on 4 different noble quests. For each operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) there are 4 levels ranging from easy to mastery and each level has a different quest for your child to complete. The quests are the same for each operation but the rewards the child earns for each operation is different. The rewards are displayed on the main screen of the game so your child gets immediate feedback and an incentive to keep doing their best. A quest map shows your child where he is and how many more points they need to earn to complete that level. Points are awarded for correct answers and bonus points are given for speed of completion.

All of your child's responses or unanswered questions are stored in a data base and analyzed by the software. This way, the game can be customized to each child and instead of just giving them random facts they already know it can give practice to the facts that really need to be practiced. Plenty of feeback is given during each ride. You can see which questions are missed and also 9click on an overview map of mastery for each number table. Both the child and the parent/educator can see which facts need to be worked on at a glance.


The game contols were made very easy to operate. All your child has to do is type in the number answer for each question and hit enter. The game does all of the rest. Sound effects (including music that can be turned off for each ride) and animation are all controlled by the game. The speed of your child's answers are even taken into account. The slower the child answers, the slower the horse runs and vice versa.



MathRider runs on Adobe Air Run time and is supported by Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. To see specific system requirements click here. It is available as an instant download for your computer for $37. As many as 10 riders can use a single license. Each rider gets their own user name and password and their quests are saved as they go. MathRider also offers a 30 day money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with their product you can get 100% refund in the first 30 days. For ordering information click here.



Anytime you make work seem like play it is a big hit in this house! I think it is an appealing game for boys and girls because girls love horses and the idea of an adventure quest is exciting to both girls and boys. The game is set up so that all the rider has to concentrate on is answering the math facts correctly. The game is designed to make the rider a success because if you get an answer wrong, it will tell you the correct answer. Then, to reinforce the fact, the rider gets an opportunity to answer the fact again. Nick loved every part of this game. He enjoyed hearing the story of what his quest was going to be. He loved the different background on the game and the map that showed how far he had come in his quest. He loved the rewards that he got for completing each quest. Nick is very competetive and wanted to complete each quest in one sitting and score 100% on each level. When he didn't score 100% he went back and redid the quest to get that perfect score.



One thing to keep in mind about MathRider is that it is a fantasy quest. There is a wizard and other elements of magic so if this is something that your family chooses to stay away from this game is not for you. Also, although there are different quests for each level, the quests are the same for each different operation (addition, subtraction, mulitplication, division.) This was a lttle disppointing for my son who enjoyed hearing the different quests he was going on and wanted them all to be different.

To read what my other crew mates are saying about Math Rider click here.

I received a complimentary trial subscription of MathRider for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation.

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