We Dawntreader's are homeschoolers, in case you didn't know. One of my jobs is to teach math. Since kids learn better when they are having fun, I always look for ways to invent games so my kids learn while playing. One of my all time best inventions was a game called "Bug Hotel". That game was played on a white board (laying flat on the ground) and with math cubes and dice. As good as Bug Hotel was, however, it was not my greatest invention.
My greatest invention and contribution to the world of education is the quizinator (we also call it quizanations). It is a Microsoft Excel based flash card game. It keeps your scores, keeps track of what you missed so you can practice on the math facts where you are weak, and it even keeps total time elapsed and average time per answer. There are endless varieties of ways to play and learn.
You can quiz for math facts or straight memorization facts. I use it to quiz my sons on their state capitals and knowledge of the presidents, for instance.
If you want a free copy, please post a comment and I will send it to you. If you know homeschoolers (or other parents who want to reinforce learning for their kids), then post a link on your blog to this post and send them over. My rule is simple. Post a comment and request a copy, plunk in your email, and it is yours free.
A little Microsoft Excel knowledge will help you operate this game. If you have never used Excel, this tool is not for you.
P.S. I found a cool web site that generates all manner of math worksheets on the fly. It is called The Math Work Sheet site. Use it to reinforce learning. The work sheets it makes are quite impressive.
I would love a copy! I need to learn some math!
Posted by: B.A. | September 07, 2006 at 10:48
This increases my nerd factor, but my brother and I used to competitively play a "States & Capitals" computer game on our Atari 400 computer when we were kids. We did this for fun. There was also another game called "European Countries & Capitals," and because of it, to this day I can name the capitals of most of the European nations as they existed in 1983. :)
Posted by: tgirsch | September 07, 2006 at 12:19
B.A.
I sent you a copy. I would like any feedback. By the way, I just sent you the math one. However, you could use my other version for verse memory work. I remember you telling me you liked to memorize verses with some of the 6th graders at Trinity. Just a thot.
T,
Atari 400, eh? I wrote some cool games myself way back when. I wrote a golf game in mbasic on my Osborne 1. I also liked to put all of my dice rolling charts onto my Osborne 1 and use the random number generator to roll the dice and look up results. This came in especially handy for my Sports Illustrated all time all stars baseball game.
There, my nerd factor just surpassed yours ;-)
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | September 07, 2006 at 23:47
I would love a copy as well. now if I could just get something to help my son with his penmanship!
Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Carl Holmes | September 08, 2006 at 07:29
As a math teacher, I would love a copy.
Posted by: mathercize | September 08, 2006 at 10:46
Sent to Carl.
Sent to Mathercize.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | September 08, 2006 at 11:07
Hey, I'd like a copy -- my GRE math score needs to go up (it can't possibly go much further down). Know of any Palm-based flashcard programs?
P.S. -- I had an ancient Texas Instruments home computer when I was a kid and was very proud that I figured out how to animate a period moving across the page in Basic. Wrote a stock market game in Basic in High School.
P.S.S. Carl -- my son's penmanship stinks too, but it's such a dumb thing to have to learn longhand that I can't bring myself to do anything but laugh about it. Jefferson would have used a word processor to write the Declaration if he had one!
Posted by: dopderbeck | September 08, 2006 at 15:09
Yes, please. Thank you.
By the way , I hate Excel, but Engineer Husband uses it all the time. He likes the way it works for some reason.
Posted by: Sherry Early | September 11, 2006 at 21:08