Friday, January 9, 2015

Homeschool Highlight - Math Slicer Product Review



Displaying IMG_20150108_150052777.jpgSo one of the things my kids struggle with wanting to do is just basic math facts.  I have this nifty little bucket full of activities to practice add/sub/multiplication/division math facts.  It has different games and memory devices but sometimes they just get board.  It is sort of a constant battle for me to get them practicing these skills.  I try to explain this to my kids there are really important and fun math things you are going to learn but you have to have these things down rote.  I need to say 9x5 and you need to immediately know 45.  It's critical to have this foundation down so you don't have to worry about it as you move on to algebra and calculus but it is also pretty much the only math I use almost daily.  I haven't had to figure the area under a curve in like six years but just yesterday I used division at the store when trying to figure out how much my rice was per ounce and to figure the tax I had on a bill.  So they need to practice.  We've played some multiplication games online, I particularly like Ghost Blasters, and if you go to www.multiplication.com there are other some fun multiplication games.  That being said one of our children has really been struggling to memorize and so I've been on the search for a game that would entice them, help them gain speed, and also present answers in a way that would help with memorization because they don't know most of the answers.  Then I found the game Math Slicers.  It is free at both googleplay and itunes but I actually bought the pro game for 99 cents because I was sick to death of having to deal with the ads.  It was worth it.  All my kids love this game including Cheetah.  It does multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.  The game works like fruit ninjas in that you use a slicing motion to cut the correct answer in half.  A problem is placed on the screen, two numbers fly up and you have to slice the correct answer.  Every so many right answers you get to slice an egg.  You can use eggs to buy power ups, new slicing colors, or new backgrounds.  It is pretty fast paced, and you have the option to make it faster to make the game a little more challenging.  I also appreciate that they only throw two numbers up.  That way my child that is really struggling only has to guess between two.  I'm hoping that with repetition those correct answers will finally weasel into this child's brain.  My only problem now is they fight over whose turn it is to play.

1 comment:

  1. We might have to try this for Rachel. She's always asking us to write down equations so she can practice. She'd probably enjoy some of these games!

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