| ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. | |
| OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Parents need to know that this software has great math activities and a fun premise. If a child is struggling, the program offers help but doesn't show the correct answer, so parents might want to monitor when their child is struggling. This software is not appropriate for kindergarteners -- many of the math activities assume mastery of math skills that kindergarteners are just beginning to learn.
in MATH MISSIONS GRADES K-2, Spectacle City is struggling because its store clerks are mathematically challenged. Its special game arcade has had to close. Youngsters rescue Spectacle City by helping the store clerks with math in 12 activities covering counting, adding and subtracting, identifying numbers and numerals, money, time, geometric shapes, weighing and measuring objects, recognizing and comparing sets, sorting and classifying objects, and place value.
For example, at the toy store, players help the clerk fill orders by separating toy bundles into place-value bins marked as "ones," "tens," and "hundreds." Kids will need to help all the clerks in the town before they can open the game arcade. By helping the clerks, youngsters earn money to pay for the arcade games. These arcade games are a great motivation to do the math exercises, and two of the three arcade games involve logical thinking skills.
Kids will learn a lot of math by playing this software. Many of the problems provide math manipulatives, so children can experiment with on-screen objects to learn math concepts. If a problem stumps a child, a character arrives to help. The activities can be played on three levels of difficulty.
While the title suggests that this software is appropriate for kindergarteners, it is not. Many of the math activities assume mastery of math skills that kindergarteners are just beginning to learn.
Families can talk about other real-world applications for the math skills used in the game. When do you think they'd come in handy?
| Platforms: | Windows, Mac |
| Available online? | Not available online |
| Genre: | Educational |
| Developer: | Scholastic |
| Release date: | August 25, 2003 |
| Price: | $20 |
| ESRB rating: | NR for (Mac, Windows) |
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