• Bear & Penguin's Big Reading Adventure

Bear and Penguin's Big Maths Adventure is a fun and easy-to-use program designed to develop young children's addition and subtraction skills. This program would be excellent to use with 5-7 year olds.

There are five different games to choose from, all of them clearly explained so that children can develop their independence when using the computer. The games, which can be played at three different levels, have been carefully developed to practice the skills that children are learning as part of the numeracy hour in school. It is advised that the games are played in the numbered order so that there is a progression of skills development. The maths adventure involves, for example, filling in the missing numbers on the maths machine and painting a picture by answering addition and subtraction sums. After playing all of the games children are allowed to play the Super game which helps to consolidate the skills that they have been learning with mental arithmetic against the clock. Some more able children may find the maths a little easy, but for most children this would be an excellent way of developing and consolidating addition and subtraction to 20.

There is an excellent guide for parents which discusses the skills the games focus on. A range of very good worksheets can be printed out and used with children to consolidate the maths that they have been doing.

If children fancy a break from maths, there is also an excellent printing section where children can make their own stationary and create door signs, birthday cards, letterheads and invitations. This is a brilliant way to encourage children to write for a range of different purposes.

Bear and Penguin's Big Maths Adventure is another excellent Dorling Kindersley program and would be an excellent buy for parents or teachers to use with children aged 5-7 years. --Amanda York

Customer Rating:
Summary: From Happiness to disappointment
Comment: My Son absolutely loved this programme - and the Big Reading adventure. Once patches were downloaded it worked great.... on our old computer. Now we have a new system with Windows Vista is doesn't work. On the GSP support website the only advice was 'this product doesn't work on Vista'. Slightly disappointing to say the least - you'd have thought this wouldn't have been the case. Unless anyone knows of a workaround they'd like to share, I am afraid I cannot recommend this software.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: sound software not installed properly error
Comment: I can't get the thing to work, because it says my sound software is not installed correctly. But it is. Beware!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Money Well Spent
Comment: Couldn't agree more with all the other positive reviews. This is pure play for our 3, 5 and 8 year olds. The encouragement given by the characters is very warm and motivating. There are three levels and each has graduating levels of difficulty within them. It has very much more than you'd expect for the price. A long user life to it.
It loaded and played with no faffing about like many CdRoms we've had.
An excellent touch is Big Bear and Penguin are not passive, 'thin' characters. In this CdRom, and equally so for their Big Reading Adventure, Bear and Penguin are frequently a little comedy duo keeping the atmosphere light and enticing. Fabulous stuff. Money well spent.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Big Maths adventure a Big Hit !
Comment: I bought this software package for my four year old, not realising the age guide on the packaging. The levels of difficulty were varying from the super easy to the very hard, but he loves it anyway. He particularly liked the added cartoon graphics of bear and penguin when choosing the different games and levels. A good beginner cd rom for all key stage one pupils.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: bera and penguins big maths adventure
Comment: I bought this software for my five year old for christmas and she loves it. The graphics are well thought out and the games very well geared towards key stage 1. There are four different games at each level (beginners, intermediate and advanced) and after completing each game it is possible to obtain a 'stepping stone'. This will allow you on completion of all four games to enter the 'super game' which is slightly harder then the other levels but offers a completion certificate which can be printed. Bear and Penguin act as your guides throughout and explain how to do each section. I wish I had had a program like this when I was learning maths, I may have found it a lot more interesting!!

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