Reader Rabbit's Math Ages 6-9 Reviewer's Comments

Reader Rabbit’s Math places kids on Pi–Rat Island with Sam the Lion, Penelope the Parrot and Reader Rabbit to exercise basic math skills through animated, interactive games. This program includes over 100,000 problems and supports six levels of difficulty.

Reader Rabbit’s Math covers the subjects of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division while utilizing problem–solving skills using fractions, geometric shapes, time and counting money.

This product, with its' amusing games and good coverage of basic math is a competitor with some of the top children's math programs; however, falls behind the top spot because it does not include word problems or story problems.

Ease of Use:  

Those that are familiar with Reader Rabbit products will find this product easy to use. If you have not used their products before, pay close attention to the verbal instructions given before each excursion, younger children may need someone to help them the first time.

Feature Set:  

This program includes 29 games and activities and 6 skill levels. However, since the target age group is 6–9 the difference between the skill levels is small.

Reader Rabbit Math can increase ability in many areas including the four fundamentals as well as place values, estimating, fraction, patterns, number lines, measuring, time and shapes.

Educational Value:  

Although kids can increase their basic math skills with Reader Rabbit, it does not offer structured lessons or drills. It focuses on fun through interactive games and animated characters to entice children to want to learn math.

Kid Appeal:  

Children, especially those in the age group that the program is designed for should have a lot of fun with the program – increasing their basic math skills without feeling like they are being drilled or prodded.

Help/Support:  

Penelope the parrot guides kids through the program and does an excellent job of explaining the program. The manufacture also offers support on their webpage.

Installation:  

We gave Reader Rabbit a less than perfect score on installation because it does not automatically create a desktop shortcut icon and the program downloaded two spam icons onto our computer: AOL and Cyber Patrol. Although the icons were easy to remove, it is a nuisance and good software should never download unwanted items.

Summary:  

For the reasonable price of Reader Rabbit’s Math Ages 6–9, you cannot go wrong – your kids will enjoy the adventure and improve basic math skills along the way. However, if you are looking for a program that includes drills for memorization, then you may want to check out The Quarter Mile Math.