Ugh! This sounds exactly like pseudo-context as described by Dan Meyer (<a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002" rel="nofollow">http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002</a>). There are so many awesome things to inspire someone in math, and slapping a popular movie character on rote drills seems like a misguided approach to motivating the challenge. I mean, on the one hand, good for you if you can find some trappings to make doing drills more fun. But while you're getting them to exercise skills, you're really missing out on the deep and fulfilling motivations that exist for math!
I think this approach is self-defeating. You could use it to teach your daughter (or son) to take math quizzes well, but you will never use it to inspire them to appreciate the beauty of math.<p>In my experience, most of these "make-learning-fun" tools are really about making learning independent enough that parents don't have to participate.<p>If you want any third grader to love math, have her mom and dad cajole and joke and help and love her while she is learning it.<p>I learned my multiplication tables because my father would teach me bits of algebra, but only after I could get the flash cards right. He wasn't distracting me, he was rooting for me, showing me the underlying beauty of math, while also demanding I get the basic memorization right.
So I actually did spend some time to create IPad apps for my kids to help them learn math (Beginning Math and Times Table Helper -- for sale on the app store now :).<p>Couple of things I don't like here:
1. First thing I see is time math quizzes. Timed math tests are flat out evil. I'm thinking of the 60 problems in 60 seconds variety I had as a 3rd graders (and failed). Don't do this to your kids. Let them go at their own pace.<p>2. That is a lot of distractions. If you have ever dealt with dyslexic kids (prone to mentally wander off -- and I am dyslexic as well), this is not helpful.<p>Not all electronic learning software needs to be game oriented.
Leap Frog is already one step ahead of him with that one: <a href="http://www.leapfrog.com/gaming/didj/" rel="nofollow">http://www.leapfrog.com/gaming/didj/</a><p>You can plug it in to the computer and personalize the learning content, i.e. enter your kid's spelling words for that week, or a specific set of math problems, etc. Doing good in the games unlocks points they can redeem to earn custom game backgrounds, characters, and so on. There are a handful of games for the system, Spongebob, LEGO, Star Wars, maybe even a Harry Potter.<p>It's kind of a neat system (but a bit buggy). I don't think it works particularly well for teaching, but for doing drills on the stuff that just has to be memorized, like basic math facts and spelling, I think it serves its purpose.<p>What made my 3rd grader love math (it's her favorite subject) was understanding the hows and whys behind it and seeing some practical application of it. The more complicated it is, the more she likes it, and so she memorized the basic facts in order to get to the good bits. I'm not entirely convinced, though, that this is typical 8yr old behavior.
In general I don't like this approach to learning. I feel like it's counter to the rule that you shouldn't reward kids for things they should be expected to do.<p>That being said, he says clearly that this is about learning math facts. The are the one rote part left in the early math curriculum. It's going to be painful for most kids. I know this from very recent experience. Anything you can do to help I think is advantageous.<p>He should not have titled his post as he did. It should have been titled "How to get any 3rd grader to learn their math facts more efficiently". I think that's what he meant to say anyway.
The problem isn't any individual 3rd grader, the problem is the nearly society-wide acceptance of innumeracy, sometimes even approval of innumeracy. I think this will be one of the factors limiting (economic) growth in the future.
This would be a bit more fun with word problems involving the time turner, potions, etc.<p>"Fluffy has three heads, and each head can eat two bowls in a sitting...how many bowls should Hermione fill to satisfy him?"
From <a href="http://mobilelearningblog.com/2010/10/14/how-to-make-any-3rd-grader-love-math/#copyright" rel="nofollow">http://mobilelearningblog.com/2010/10/14/how-to-make-any-3rd...</a>:<p><i>The Hermione Granger math app that was created was purely for individual use. This app will not be distributed, sold, shared or otherwise provided publicly. We respect the rights of copyright holders.</i><p>That just makes me sad.