With JumpStart Study Helpers Math Booster, kids practice specific math facts by playing three arcade games. For example, if a youngster needs to review her addition facts involving sums from 0-9, she can play a game of DigiHog Drop in which she arranges cute little DigiHog creatures into equations that solve those sums. She can also learn those sums by playing a pinball game or a fast-paced shoot-the-asteroids-type game.
When playing these arcade games, kids can choose to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and a topic called “fractions, percentages, and decimals.” The software can drill youngsters on each topic can at six levels of difficulty. Kids can also control the level of difficulty of the arcade play, and determine whether they want to compete against the clock. The software instructions can be heard in English or Spanish.
“The Editor” is the coolest portion of the software. Here, kids (or their parents) can enter a specific set of equations to appear in the arcade games. This way, children can hone in on specific problem areas such as multiplication facts involving the number 12.
Eventually kids will tire of the three arcade games; but probably not until they’ve boosted their math abilities with this well-designed program.
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