ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: Mystery of Mathra

When exotic animals disappearand a world-famous scientist vanishes, the ClueFinders know something fishy's afoot. Join these bold adventurers on a clue-searching trek into the depths of the rain forest. From reading maps to building bridges, every activity brings you closer tounraveling an astonishing mystery - and to mastering important 3rd grade skills!

A personalized learning experience:

• Places your child at just the right skill levels
• Adjusts to keep pace with yourchild's abilities
• Provides help when your child needs it
• Tracks your child's progress in every area

Make a startling discovery deep in the jungle!

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division
• Word problems
• Using money
• Reading
• Vocabulary
• Parts of speech
• Grammar
• Synonyms
• Antonyms
• Lifescience
• Earth science
• Physical science
• State capitals
• Read maps
• Use legends
• Use logic
• Find patterns
• Organize data
• Test hypotheses

Fun Activities Include

Venture deep into the Rain Forest and build essential 3rd grade skills.

• Language Arts: Identify antonyms, synonyms, nouns, verbs, and more to build a bridge across the bottomlessabyss.
• Reading: Learn elementary science and build reading comprehension skills as you place sentences in the correct order.
• Math: Add the monetary value of these coins to help the monkeyopen the chest.
• Science:  Help Santiago and Joni
  
  Amazon.com Product Description
  Exotic animals disappear. A world-famous scientist vanishes. Something fishy is afoot! Join the ClueFinders on a clue-searching trek into the depths of the rain forest. From reading maps to building bridges, every activity brings kids closer to unraveling this astounding mystery, while mastering essential third grade skills.

  Explore 30 interactive games and exercises designed for kids, ages 7 to 9 and older. Build more than 75 key third grade skills in math, language, science, geography, and problem solving. Four levels of difficulty and a variety of tricky challenges keep ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures 2002: Mystery of Mathra fun and fresh. Detailed help features guide kids throughout, and built-in progress reports help parents navigate their child's learning fun.

  In addition, an all-new for 2002 bonus CD-ROM doubles the mystery and clue-finding fun. In ClueFinders: Mystery Mansion Arcade, our adventurers are lured into a spooky mansion by an ingenious mastermind and his four villainous henchmen. Kids help the ClueFinders escape by choosing the best ClueFinder for each arcade-style hazard. Speed through the Ultimate Deep-Dish Pizza Skate Park, stay cool through the High-Voltage Circuit Zone, and much more.
  
  

P.S. Could you make one for 10th graders or do you already?

Thank You


Cluefinders 3rd Grade Adventures: Mystery of Mathra   March 23, 2008
Sarah B. Baker
My 2nd grader is advanced in math, but occasionally struggles with problem-solving. I bought this hoping to challenge him and it delivered! It is a little old-school, but easy to use and involves problem-solving, not just straight math problems. He really enjoys it, so it doesn't feel like work, yet he's learning. Recommend!


granddaughter's delight   February 16, 2009
Paul B. Berg (Encino, CA)
Bought this for our granddaughter when she came to visit for two weeks, we couldn't get her off my computer for days. Thank you for a good product



The Clue to Making Learning Fun   May 5, 2004
A. L. Hermitt (, GA United States)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I purchased Cluefindes 3rd Grade Adventures about 6 weeks ago, and since have watched my child use it to completion. She has played it 4 times and will probably play it again in the future. In the meantime, she has moved onto the 4th grade game.

Setting up the game is pretty easy, and the directions are clear. Starting up is a cinch as well. You have the options of taking the test drive which is a placement test. It is not as much fun as the actual game, but it is not too boring either and it gets the child started at a challenging level. The first time my child "played" it she started at the beginners level, and finished it in two days. The second time, I set it to level two and it took her a week to complete. The third time I had her do the test drive. This is where the real value came in.

When she started the game on the lowest levels she was basically reviewing what she had learned the previous year, which is a good thing. But, when she played the game after the placement test, she was truly challenged to learn more. I never imagined in a million years that a child would follow me around begging to be taught long division. She could not cross a bridge in the game without being able to divide. So I taught her and she practiced and cemented the skill by playing the game.

As a homeschooler leaning towards self directed learning, I found this game to be invaluable. It gives me the freedom to wait for a child to be ready to learn a skill while at the same time ensuring that such comes quickly through constant challenges. After all, the best time to teach a child a skill is when they want to learn it. This game provided that want for me.

This game does not teach skills your child must know, but provides challenges. The way I use it is to wait for a challenge to be presented, and then teach that child whatever they need to succeed and overcome that challenge.

The only problems I had with this software is that each time the child finished the game, they had to start again with a new member name, it would not let us back into the game as the same person. This did allow me to compare the membernames records to check for progress which was evident.

If you purchase the 2 cdrom version of this game, with the personalized learning center, you will be able to print worksheets according to your childs strengths and weaknesses and to see where the child needs more practice. You will also be able to spot where your child may be gifted.

The personalized learning center disc, however is not formulated to give a child a "grade" based on how well the child did in the program, but to show progress over time. Therefore, If you are a homeschooler and grades are important to you, you will want to "test" the child separately perhaps using the worksheets or making up your own exams.