TOS Crew Review - MathRider

MathRider is an computer "game" that helps children master their math facts in a fun and adventurous way! While children learn, practice, and eventually master math facts for all four math functions, they also enjoy riding their horse Shadow through mythical lands on a Quest from the king to rescue the princess. Along the quest, they gather magical flowers, precious gems, and other rewards - eventually finding the princess and being awarded a castle!

Each math operation has three levels - easy, medium, and hard. Each level takes the child on a different quest, however, for each operation, the quests are the same (ie. the quest (or storyline) for easy addition is the same quest for easy division), however, the rewards vary which kept the boys motivated. The program is designed to keep track of the child's progress and present problems that they've struggled with more frequently, until each problem has been mastered. Once the child achieves mastery (100%) on an operation, they rescue the princess and their final reward is a castle!

To actually play the game, there is a horse and a series of 30 jumps. Under each jump is a math problem, and to get their horse to clear the jump, the child must answer the problem correctly.


If they answer it incorrectly, the horse stops and the jump and they have to try again. After clearing all 30 jumps, the child is awarded points based on accuracy as well as speed. There is also a graph that shows how well they did on each problem and how fast they answered it. As they progress through each quest, their progress is shown on a map, like this:



This was actually part of the fun for my boys, they loved to see how far their line would move along the map after each round.

For me, I enjoyed being able to see at a glance how well each boy was doing, as well as which problems they were struggling with the most, on the Statistics Page:



This year of being on the TOS Crew has brought us the privilege of exploring many different math products, including several that teach and drill math facts. MathRider, by far, has been my boys' favorite! They are given 15 minutes a day to "play" it and are always asking for more during their free time. Something about horses, castles, quests, fantasy, and rescuing a princess is right up their alley - go figure! ;-) Their math skills were sharpened, and I appreciate that they aren't looking at math practice as drudgery!

MathRider is available for instant download for $37. Here is their video demonstrating the program, so you can get a better feel for what I've tried to describe!



Be sure to check and see what other reviewers thought by visiting the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog!

Disclaimer: I was given this product specifically for the purpose of reviewing here on my blog as a member of TOS Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation in regards to this review.