Spotlight on Ohio Distinctive Software
Go to http://www.ohio-distinctive.com/ which I think is one of the best kept software secrets on the web. Now I'll agree that the software there isn't quite on the same level as the commercial stuff you find on the retail shelves, but it's still good software at an amazing price.
We have many of Ohio Distinctive's programs at my house, and my kids love them. I was impressed with the quality of the graphics. The characters and sound keep the kids interested in the learning games. My son especially enjoys Captain Smartbeard's Scholarly Sea Adventure. Another favorite at our house is Robob's Qubetronic Quizimajig.
Most of the CD's are $10 or less. They do have some specials on bundles. If you sign up for their mailing list, you will receive other special offers.
This software is great for home or classroom use. I have included a review of Superheroes Math Challenge below. You can find more reviews of Ohio Distinctive Software at http://www.ohio-distinctive.com/reviews....
Go to the web site. Explore. Enjoy. In the meantime read this review.
SUPERHEROES MATH CHALLENGE
This game gives new meaning to the phrase "adding apples and oranges," because that's exactly what you do. Well, in the early stages of the game you do. After level 10 you are beyond counting fruit and working with square roots and negative numbers instead.
This program has 50 different levels appropriate for ages 3 to adult. That's right, all on one CD-rom and for an especially economical price.
So is it any good? Yep. It teaches, it entertains, and it has kicky background music. What more could you want?
All kidding aside, here is what you can expect from Superheroes Math Challenge. First you can choose whether to play in English or Spanish, making this excellent software for a bi-lingual program. Then you choose your superhero. There's the Groovy Gourmet (if 70's stuff makes you quiver you might want to skip this one), Marlena the Magician, and Blit the robot. You may also choose from three backgrounds: the city, the mountains, or the forest.
The idea is to click the mouse up and down to make your hero fly. You want to avoid obstacles and aim your character toward the correct answer for the equation on the bottom of the screen. For example on Level 1 the equation might show an apple, a plus sign, and another apple. The player is to fly the hero until the character reaches a graphic of two apples.
Sometimes it was hard to maneuver toward the answer because there were so many objects in the way. However bumping into the right answer seemed much more important than bumping into something else. In other words, there was no penalty for collisions, that just added to the fun of the game.
With this game it was easy to change the difficulty levels by clicking on an icon on the menu page. On some older Ohio Distinctive titles, the levels changed automatically and sometimes the child didn't have enough time on the lower levels. I found this feature a big improvement.
Superheroes Math Challenge is just one of over a dozen titles available from Ohio Distinctive. This is a great company which produces quality software for all ages. Go check them out.
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