DISCLOSURE: I RECEIVED THIS COMPLIMENTARY PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW.

One of the true loves of my children is horses. Our first house, where the older two were born, our city neighborhood backed up to a couple of large churches and several acres of land where horses and cows were often grazing. We visited the horses on walks before my oldest was even born and just about every week until we moved. They LOVE horses. I can’t think of a better theme to motivate my students to practice their math than riding horses! As we tried out MathRider from Sharper Edge International Pty Ltd for this review the past several weeks, I’ve never had so many requests to do math!!

What We Received:

We received a permanent license to the game MathRider, which allows for multiple users.

How It Works:

MathRider is a math program designed for use on a computer that, once downloaded initially, can be accessed without the internet. Multiple users can access it with their own username and password. Users can practice riding where every math fact answered correctly causes the horse to move faster and a slow or missed answer slows the riding down. To practice or play you can adjust settings to accommodate each user. Setting options include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division along with number ranges and a choice between obstacle course or a time challenge. Practice rides do not impact quests and are not counted in each student’s statistics. To play, each user is challenged with various quests that involve a back story, a specific goal, different backdrops and unlocking different music as you go along. Each quest involves answering math facts just like the practice rides, except each correct answer gets you further along in your quest. The faster the student answers, the faster the horse goes and earns extra points. There is a dashboard that showcases mastery levels for each student based on their rides. There is also a score area where you can compare users as well.

What We Thought:

My kids old enough to use this program, 10 year old boy and 8 year old girl, loved it. The story element certainly pleased my girl and the horse element trumps everything for both of them. It is a an easy way to practice math facts and work on recall time so there is no complaint from an educational standpoint. The quest and story elements seem to motivate them to keep going after math recall usually gets boring or tiring. The changing landscapes (tied to different quests) are really beautiful which adds to the varied experience. It certainly is enjoyable to me as an adult! Once they figured out what the game was all about, they would request to play it all the time, even when school was finished. If you have students that love horses, this is a slam dunk program for those needing to work on their math facts. Overall, our family loved this game and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to work on math facts and have some fun at the same time.

Follow MathRider on Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MathRiderGame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mathrider

Are you wondering what other families thought of this program? Check out the rest of the reviews through the link below:

DISCLOSURE: I RECEIVED THIS COMPLIMENTARY PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW.

Over the past couple of weeks we have done very little school in a real summer fashion. I’m reorganizing some things that require my full attention so the kids have been on their own a lot more. While being bored is absolutely healthy for them, you can tell they are craving routine and something to do with their minds besides reading. An easy task that doesn’t require much from me and a great math exercise for them has been our latest review, Math Essentials Speed Wheel Drills from Math Essentials. At 3rd and 5th grade, my big kids can always benefit from math fact practice!

What We Received:

We received 3 physical books, Speed Wheel Drills for Multiplication, for Division and for Addition.

How It Works:

As pictured below, each wheel consists of a number in the center that the outside numbers use to add/multiply/divide by. Each appearance of numbers is shuffled in a different order so that very page is entirely different. Above each wheel is a space for how many are correct and how much time it took to complete it. The full intent is to time the student completing each wheel and comparing each days times. The pages are not perforated, but likely could be easily pulled out if necessary.

What We Thought:

We used these books with my 8 and 10 year old who are heading into 3rd and 5th grade. My daughter (8) primarily did the addition book, while my son (10 used the multiplication and division ones. Even though they hadn’t ever used a wheel setup for math facts, it was very easy to understand. They enjoyed racing the clock and each other, but due to a lack of an accessible stop watch, they often would just complete a page without timing it. The absence of the timing didn’t seem to affect their completion. From an educational standpoint, the grouping of the factors in a wheel format is an added visual benefit that can aid in memorization and recall. It felt like something I wished we could have started with when they were first learning math facts. There are several great resources in the back of each book that we didn’t use much of yet because we weren’t in the thick of school yet, but it’s great to have them on hand. As my son gets further into fractions and decimals, it could be helpful to have a visual chart to reinforce concepts. Since neither of the kids were significantly struggling in this area, I can’t speak for more sever situations. However, I suspect this could be a fun daily practice and evaluation for a struggler, even if only one wheel a day was completed.

The Speed Wheel Drills books from Math Essentials are perfect for a morning warm-up and a steady evaluation of students’ skills over the school year.

Looking for feedback from students at a different level? Check out the rest of the Crew’s reviews through the link below.