Mia Math Adventure Published on November 10th, 2001

Mia is an endearing little mouse who lives in the attic of an old Victorian house and barely survives when her home catches on fire. Mia and her friend Marty decide to go back in time to discover who started the fire and to stop it. To do so, they request the player’s help in finding the four necessary pieces needed to construct a time machine. The player is shrunk to Mia’s size and wanders with her to find the four parts. Embedded in this adventure are nine great math games. In Mia Math Adventure, youngsters are in charge of exploring. They can check out the digs of a squirrel, the workshop of a spider, or the home of a fortune-telling mouse. Hints are always available from Mia by simply clicking on her head. Players will meet fascinating characters such as Mr. Mole who bumbles into everything. In Mia’s world, spiders are professors, squirrels are inventors, and rats are the bad guys. Mia is a mouse you don’t want to miss. Producer Kutoka has created a rich environment that is both realistic and fanciful. The lush graphics depict an incredible amount of detail as players view Mia’s world from her perspective. Not only is the adventure special, but the nine math games are particularly well done! Each has four levels and presents a wide range of math topics in a creative and entertaining manner. Children will explore geometry, time, fractions, number sense, equations, and logic.
Summary Age  6 - 10 Platform  Windows Mac Price  $20.00 Category  Math Grade  ISBN  Company  Kutoka/Topics Entertainment (877) 8KUTOKA http://www.kutoka.com

Stuart Little: His Adventures in Numberland Published on November 10th, 2001

Stuart Little, from movie fame, stars in this version of the previously released Piggy in Numberland. Stuart’s presence fits easily into Numberland, a charming 3-D world in which math is revered. This version is identical to the earlier Piggy in Numberland except that its host is now Stuart instead of Piggy. In Numberland, children find a whimsical world in which Stuart flies, bees talk, and panda bears paint. They will also find ten engaging math games. As children play the games, they watch Stuart’s brainpower grow. When Stuart’s brainpower increases, children get to use a special Imagination Machine to make toys. The math games are special because they demonstrate math concepts in a unique hands-on manner, and they each have built-in tutorials. For example, in the “Dinoroo Bridge Game,” children learn how to add by counting the dots on two dice and then moving the designated number of spaces in a board game. If a child doesn’t move the correct number of spaces, the other onscreen players explain the addition and then count the spaces out loud as they highlight them. The math games teach about basic numbering, addition and subtraction, place value, and geometric shapes. As wonderful as these math games are, this software can be buggy on some machines. We tested it on two different machines; and while it ran perfectly on one, some of the activities didn’t play correctly on a 500Mhz Pentium III PC.
Summary Age  4 - 7 Platform  Windows Price  $30.00 Category  Math Grade  ISBN  Company  Supermentor.com (800) 474-4423 http://www.supermentor.com

The strength of “Mia” is its adventure, which happens to contain great math games. The strength of “Stuart Little” is its thoughtful and in-depth math games.

All software is judged on a five star scale by looking at the following five factors: educational, fun, ease of use, value, technical.

Jinny Gudmundsen is the Editor of Computing With Kids magazine. If you have questions or comments, please write to: .

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