NumberHelper -
Basic Math Help for Kids
NumberHelper -
Basic Math Help for Kids
1, 2, 3 or 4 digit addition,subtraction, multiplication or division
Download Demo+Upgrades (03/28/2009)
(Choose Run/Open to install immediately. Save will store on your hard
drive until you double click it.)
Need help with your kid's math? I saw that my grandson struggled with doing math. It appeared that he needed some help with his math studies. But I didn't see much that was simple, but had all the bells and whistles to keep kids interested over time.
So, I came up with a simple math exercise program for kids, with sounds and pictures.
I wanted something that could self-tutor children. Something that gave an immediate reward for correct answers. So, for a video effect, I decided to display family (or any fun) pictures on the screen (You can add or delete as many as you want). I also wanted to have an audio effect, so just like the pictures, a randomly selected .wav sound effect file is also played after each correct answer. Again, you can add and delete as many .wav files as you'd like. The randomness of displaying pictures and sound effects that may not match keep the reward for correct answers a suprise.
Simple? Yes. Easy to use? Yes. As soon as the system starts, the child will be asked for a name and birthdate. The the system will start in simple, single-digit addition mode. And, you can easily control whether lessons display negative numbers, or zeros, with just one click at the top of the screen.
So, if you know someone who is having a hard time understanding the concept of negative numbers, or zeros, you can use this system to practice, teach, test, then review strengths and weaknesses.
Some of the features are:
The user can be in ADD, SUBTRACT, DIVIDE or MULTIPLY mode with one click at the top of the screen. If your child needs to concentrate on Arithmetic, Subtraction, Division or Multiplication, 123 NumberHelper will stay in that mode until you change it.
The user can control the difficulty of each lesson by selecting 1, 2, 3 or 4 digit lessons with one click at the top of the screen.
The system displays random numbers to be calculated.
If the child is not ready to work on calculations involving zeros, the user can control production of lessons with zero, with one click at the top of screen.
If the child is not ready to work on calculations involving negative numbers, the user can eliminate the use of negative numbers in lessons with one click at the top of the screen.
Can mathematics be fun? For reward, the system can play sound files (.wav). If the user answers correctly, a randomly selected .wav file in the NumberHelper folder is played. If you want to eliminate some of the .wav files, simply delete them. If you want to add your own, you can. If you only want one .wav file to play, add it to the NumberHelper folder and erase all others.
Also for reward, the system displays a randomly selected background image (.jpg or .gif). So, you can add pictures of your child to the NumberHelper folder.
If the user wants to start at a rudimentary level (1 digit lessons), again with one click on "apples on" or "apples off", the user can display 9 "apples" subtracted by 7 "apples" instead of 9-7. This way, the user can visualize the number of apples instead of the numbers themselves.
Also, if the user's computer supports Microsoft's Text-To-Speech (TTS) feature, whenever the child will move his/her mouse over a number or a word, the computer will "speak" the number or sentence. Each numeric lesson is converted to text and displayed as a hint on the screen. So, if the child rolls the mouse over the lesson description, say, "9 minus 7", the computer will "speak" the lesson.
In regards to TTS, the voice used and rate at which it speaks, is controlled under the "speech" icon in the control panel.
At the end of the lesson, the user will be given the choice to display/print a graphic summary of the success of the day's lesson, called a Report Card.
Or, remit checks to: B&B Systems, LLC, 627
Madison, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53188
Print mail-in order form
Sample screen
Apples Vs. Numbers - Visual help with simple 1 digit addition/subtraction
Apples ON
Apples OFF
Report Card - Daily results
In order to determine progress, each lesson
is assigned a difficulty factor. This factor is calclated as follows:
For one digit questions +15,
For two digit questions +30,
For three digit questions +45,
For four digit questions +60, then,
For questions where zeros are allowed, add 10
For questions where negatives are allowed, add 10
For Divide or Multiply questions, add 20
But, for Division lessons, if remainders were not allowed, subtract 10.
But, for lessons that were Multiple choice, subtract 10.
So if the child has consistently been scoring 70-80% success with an average difficulty factor of 15, then a similar success % for a difficulty average of 25 would indicate progress.
Sample screen - Daily/Weekly/Monthly
% correct
progress graph
Sample screen - Daily/Weekly/Monthly
% correct with a difficulty factor
progress graph
Sample screen - Daily/Weekly/Monthly
% correct multiplied by difficulty factor
progress graph
Sample screen - Daily/Weekly/Monthly
# of lessons completed
progress graph
Sample screen - Listing of Lessons,
equation, answer given, % correct
Report
Sample screen - Success %'s for each
mode (Add/Subtract/Divide/Multiply), and for each difficulty category (1, 2, 3, and 4
digits)
Report
Sound effects from movies (Mission impossible, Dragnet), voice clips from movies (ie. Star Trek, Man landing on the moon, Looney Toons theme, etc.) are all provided as samples and can be deleted or replaced with your own .wav files.
Visual images are animated .gif files of cartoon characters, pictures in either .jpg or .gif format.
Normally, a "Merlin magician" animation character will pop up on your screen
after answering your first question.
If a "default" genie does not appear on your system, your system may not have
Microsoft Agent installed. (You can block the appearance of this character in the
setup screen).
You can download it from Microsoft here:
(Choose Run/Open to install immediately. Save will store on your hard
drive until you install it.)
Once Microsoft Agent is installed, you can have different characters
appear on your screen (default="Merlin")
Download additional character files from Microsoft with these buttons:
(Choose Run/Open to install and save the .ACS files to your
local drive: C:\Windows\msagent\chars. Save will store on your hard
drive until you install it.)
To make the speech engines work with Microsoft Agent in Windows XP, first install the SAPI 4.0 runtime binaries , then install the particular speech engines.
To download a Text-to-speech engine (TTS) visit this Microsoft download page