|
Educational: 4.5
Overall Design: 4.6
Ease of Use: 4.8
(4.0 = good, 4.5 = very
good, 5.0 = excellent)
|
Program Description Commentary Who Is This Program For
Why We Selected This Program Computer Requirements
|
|
Ready For Math With Pooh is an animated exploration of A.A. Milne's famous 100 acre woods with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and friends. This program introduces a young child to the very first stages of learning about numbers and how to add and subtract.
Pooh introduces you to the program and asks for your help in making a new garden in the 100 acre woods. You then start exploring the woods where you will discover 7 activity areas. Each area teaches one of the learning areas indicated above.
At the "Wishing Well", (see right) Owl, Piglet, Eeyore, and Roo help you choose the right number of acorns that correspond to a written number in the well. In "Piglet's Cupcake Kitchen", you click on Piglet's cupcakes and learn the total number of cupcakes. If you advance this activity to the next level of difficulty, you will have more advanced adding and at level 3, you'll will learn and practice subtracting.
Each time you complete an activity, something will happen in your garden. The more you do, the more your garden will grow. If you return to the garden to see what is happening, you will find all kinds of new additions and you can plant seeds and water them and watch them grow. Interwoven through your time traveling around, will be lots of fun "click and see" animation and guiding commentary from Pooh and his friends.
The program has very easy to understand "help" assistance (click on" Pooh's Honey Pot") and all the activities are clearly explained as you go. The program has a choice of 3 progressive levels of learning and also has detailed progress tracking for each activity.
The tracking can be very helpful in knowing whether your child has discovered all the activities in the program and how well you child is able to master the specific math related skills required to do each of the activities. The written guide that comes with the program provides a quick and easy way for the parent to understand the scope and the "how to" of the program.
Back to the Top
|
|
|
|
" I really like Pooh" Jennifer, age 3 1/2
"I really liked making things with Tigger's junk." (See above) - Arthur, age 5.
"My daughter can play with this program for hours. She really likes the Pooh characters and is able to make her own way around the program quite easily." - mother of Emily, age 6
Ready For Math With Pooh is well suited for any child who loves Pooh and for whom you want to provide first time exposure to understanding numbers. If your child is between 3 and 5, this program works well, if you do the program with the child. They will need your guidance. Your guidance will also really help them to understand the basic ideas that are being introduced and how to get around the program. We found that 5 and 6 year olds with some introductory guidance from an adult, were able to get around easily on their own
Back to the Top
From a learning point of view, the program introduces the child to a very solid range of the basic elements of what numbers are and how they work. You don't normally associate Disney with doing this well. Well, they have!
The quality of the animation and story telling from the cast of Winnie the Pooh is very well done and the narrated explanations were easily understood by our tester group. This can be a real challenge with some programs targeted for this age range
The activities are all well designed and in particular "Eeyore's Fading Calendar" is very creative and worked really well. In this exercise the child traces the numbers with the help of a slimy snail. They really developed a tangible sense of how to actually write a number.
The other quality of Ready For Math With Pooh that really stood out was what happened in the garden in the 100 acre woods once a child had played an activity. So many of the programs for younger kids has the user earning stars as a reward for their activity. Having the garden grow, while the child is using the program, is an infinitely more interesting and engaging way to reward the child for their efforts. All of our testers were constantly going back to their garden between activities to see what had happened because of what they had done.
If your child is a Pooh fan, this an excellent choice for learning some of the basics around numbers.
|
Pricing and Online Ordering
(or call toll free -1-800-250-9229 )
|
 |
|
Windows 3.1/95, IBM PC or compatible, 486/66-MHz or higher 8MB RAM, 10MB disk space, 2X CD-ROM drive, 256-color VESA, PCI, or other local bus video 8-bit sound card, Microsoft-compatible mouse
Macintosh 68040 processor System 7.1 or higher 8MB RAM, 16MB RAM disk space, 2X CD-ROM drive, 8-bit sound card.
Power Mac 10MB disk space, 256-color video display, 2X CD-ROM drive, 8-bit sound card
Back to the Top
or to see other math programmes
On Track Math Series - ages 3 -9
Reader Rabbit's Math - ages 6-9
Math Workshop Deluxe - ages 6-12
Mia - Just In Time - ages 8 - 12
Carmen Sandiego Math Detective - ages 8-14
Neufeld - Understanding Math - ages 10-16
MathTrek Grades 7 & 8 - ages 12-14
|
|
|
|
