Mia's Math Adventure: Just In Time [Old Version]

My daughter is 6 years old and is reading well, but she may have a learning disorder with math. The jury is still out on that. This program was exactly what I had hoped it would be. It is fun, and my daughter gets caught up in the story. She gets very excited when she gets the hang of doing the problems. For the most part, the program is appropriate for her skill level. The activities push her, but are not so difficult that she becomes too discouraged. I do have to sit with her and help her with some of the math activities, but she is willing to try to do the problems on her own because the game has inspired her. This is one of the first academic type of activity we've done where she has actually asked me to let her do it on her own and doesn't want my help most of the time. Each section of the adventure has a smiliar pattern to it, and learning to use the program is very intuitive. Whenever you need help you just click on Mia's face, and that has always been enough to figure out how to get going in the right direction. Each time the program runs it is slightly different, which is also a nice feature. We have not used the program on the more advanced levels yet, but so far we've been very pleased and would probably purchase other programs by this company.

This is definitely not a software to reinforce math. It is more interactive play trying to figure out what Mia should do to move to the next screen. Once you get to the other screen then there is some math. This is more of a game than educational math. It is fun for kids on a video game perspective. The Mia's Reading Adventure: The Bugaboo Bugs is a better software that is definitely catered toward education.

I'm not happy with the manner in which they executed the story-based gameplay. Your child's progress to the next segment is dependant on your child laboriously clicking to figure out what to do next. Even when you're certain where you need to go, it is a chore to walk Mia to the next location. Would be great it they had some software patches to make the "click boxes" for certain targets larger so Mia does not walk aimlessly into a circle when we're trying to make her perform an action on a item or simply walk a certain direction.The educational content we experienced includes but was not limited to simple arithmetic, filling in missing numbers from sequence, knowing how to adjust the clock, distinguishing between shapes, matching symmetry, sorting and identifying numbers. My son simply found the games OK. He did not have the same excitement he had when playing other games like Dora the Explorer series. While the educational content is welcome, it always seemed like there was something missing - seemed poorly executed. In a couple of games the correct answer is not always available for clicking (e.g. the numbers are on a conveyor belt or floating inside a crystal ball so one has to wait until the right answer comes along).The cut scenes were somewhat entertaining and the graphics and sound are decent but at times my son (and I) wish we had a button we could click to skip to the next adventure. After taking part in the laborious walking (i.e. clicking) to get to our next destination, we were sort of anxious to get moving along.I'm having a hard time recommending this one to other parents. I'm tempted to e-mail Kutoka with some suggestions and hope they might consider changing a few things to make the gameplay more smooth by removing some of the guesswork and grind that goes inbetween segments as well as making the math games more user-friendly. While other reviewers were excited about this, I'm quite dissapointed right now but hopeful. I'm hoping to get some more gameplay out of this one; I hope when my son gets older there is replay value in trying the game at a harder level. I happened to purchase another Kutoka game at the same time which my son and I haven't tried yet. I only hope it's much better than this one.

This was the 2nd 'Mia' game we bought for our son (now seven) and will probably be the last. He loved both this one and Mia Science, but I feel the games are long on game but short on math. After three hours of playing (over a couple days) he had the entire puzzle solved! Even though he as on the easiest level, I feel the game should engage the child longer than that. After solving it, he would play the higher levels but they only make the math harder and do not introduce any new challenges.The games are well made, and our son was entertained, but I don't think much math was learnt.

My son is a slightly above average 6 yr old and it is too advanced for him. He did love giving it a go but didn't have a clue on how to get past the first screen. Once he got the idea he was away but I did have to help him significantly so as to avoid frustration - he's not easily frustrated. Probably best if your child is an avid learner (my son prefers to climb trees but I was hoping this would encourage more confidence in his Maths). The tests were way beyond him, especially the sums as it required quick thinking and he's still processing sums slowly. But as far as enthusiasm...he loved the concept. We ran this on our Mac and it ran beautifully. The graphics are colorful and imaginative. He loved the tunnel bits, it truly captured his sense of exploration. Something he will grow into.