Math Blaster: Review and Giveaway

“Disclosure: I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.”

A couple weeks ago, I was contacted by Michelle from Math Blaster.  She asked if I would like to review Math Blaster, an online ‘world’ of math games and activities, and host a giveaway.   

Of course I was happy to oblige and the fact that it’s all sci-fi oriented was totally awesome for my kids. They are completely into Star Wars and anything to do with aliens.  But I let her know that I would only be willing if I were able to give a completely open and honest review.  If I didn’t like it, I would tell you so.  She was completely ok with that and so we went forward with it.

The first thing I have to tell you, and you’ll probably think less of me, is that if you’re a mom, you’ll never figure this thing out!  Or maybe I should say ‘If you’re me, you’ll never figure this thing out.’  I sat down to give it a go before letting my kids have at it… just to be sure that it really was appropriate for them.  I was on the blasted computer for over an hour and never got to any math games.  Yes, I’m serious! 

This is coming from the mom who has never even sent a text before so… yeah, I really am that awesome!

Anyway, my first thought was Well, this is dumb!  It’s called Math Blaster but you can’t even find any math.  My kids will think this is dumb too, I’m sure. 

But as always, they proved me wrong.  I got them all set up, each child was registered and ready to go.  H was first.  She created her alien avatar and chose a name (the girls really liked creating those) and then she was ready to play.  I asked the kids to let me know when they came to any math games so that I could really decide whether this game was appropriately named.  Fully expecting it to take quite a while, I walked away.  Not even 3 minutes into her turn, I heard squeals of delight and calls for “MOM” coming from the office. 

Her first math game! 

Seriously?  I couldn’t find ANY in the whole hour plus that I was on there.  It had to be a fluke.  I asked them to let me know once again when they came to another game.  Just a few minutes later, more squeals from the office. 

H played for about half hour then let A have a turn.  She also had no problem finding math games.  K went and still, no hiccups in the math finding.  I was the only one to have issues. 

It just goes to show that us old folks just don’t have what it takes… **sigh** 

The great part about the math games is that they can choose what style of math they would like to do.  Addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.  I asked them to choose something that challenges them so they could really use this as a learning tool.  Otherwise, it’s just a game. 

Here are the kids’ reviews:

K says:  I like everything about Math Blaster!  I really like the Alien Wrangler game.  And I really like the Mutts too.  The mutts are fun. 

A says:  I really like the mutts and how you take care of them.  And I like the math game that you shoot the things.  It’s this big humungous guy (alien) that gives you math questions.  You try to get him to go to sleep.  Then you get to go to the next level.

H says:  Um, I say that I like the part where I can go in this new game and I like when I get a mutt.  And I like to see things and play games.  I like to swim in Math Blaster.  (Snatch It game)

So, in short, the kids absolutely love playing MathBlaster!  They ask to play it every day.  It’s fun and they really enjoy the sci-fi side of it and they actually really enjoy the math games.  I definitely recommend this if you have a child that doesn’t enjoy math unless it’s in the form of fun.  Luckily, all my kids enjoy math anyway, but if you have a math resistant child, this may work to get them excited about it.  It’s recommended for ages 6-12.  You can add up to six kids to your account and each child will have his own avatars, mutts, etc.  

Math Blaster memberships also come with access to JumpStart!  Another online world of games (not math) for kids ages 3-10.  My kids have enjoyed that as well.

There’s also a Math Blaster Blog that gives updates on new games (and more) as needed.  It’s fun to see what is coming out and when.  

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!!

Michelle has agreed to set one lucky winner up with a 3 month membership to Math Blaster.  Your child(ren) can enjoy the online Math Blaster world along with mine!  How great is that?

So, how you do you enter?  There will be three different ways in which you can enter.  You’ll need to leave a separate comment here on this post for each one.  I will have random.org choose the winner next Monday morning.  I will take entries through Sunday, October 2nd at 11:59 pm, MST. 

Remember, leave separate comments for each entry…

1. 
   
   Leave a comment letting me know that you would like to win (simple, right?)


2. 
   
   Like MathBlaster on facebook and leave a comment here to let me know.


3. 
   
   Tell your friends about this giveaway via facebook, your own blog or Twitter.  Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you did!