Math Missions (Leapster)

This translates into gameplay: At the seafood market, kids help the clerk weigh fish by dragging the seafood onto a scale until it's balanced. At another store, kids help tag merchandise for sale by matching a target sale number. The other two businesses need help matching geometric shapes in a tangram puzzle, and using logic to fill candy orders to match customers' feedback. When kids have earned enough money, they can spend it at the city's gaming arcade.

In 2003, Scholastic released two excellent Math Missions computer software titles for kids. By partnering with Leapfrog, Scholastic now brings some of the content and characters from the original Math Missions to the Leapster format, and the result is an outstanding handheld math video game for first- through third-graders.

Leapster Math Missions is an excellent choice for families who own a Leapster or the Leapster L-Max. These on-the-go math games can be played on three levels of difficulty, and they have built-in tutorial help.