Educational Insights MathShark Electronic Math Game, Electronic Learning Toy, Ages 6+

Having been a teacher for 23 years and knowing the importance of learning your math facts, this game was a must for my grandkids. This Math Shark gives your kids practice in learning all 4 types of math facts, decimals, and percentages in a fun way and efficient way. This game can be used by teachers as an assessment for students and would be great in a learning center. It gives you their scores and shows their improvement. It recycles the problems the student misses and has them practice those more than others. It can be played in a silent mode or with sounds. It can be used as a calculator for student or adult use and can also be used as a learning game. It has increased levels of proficiency as they master their skills. A green light comes on if their answer is correct and red if they miss it. If they do miss it there is a help button that they can push. It then displays 2 different ways to do the problem, which accommodates different learning styles. It is rated for grades 1+ and ages 6+. Which makes sense because you have to be a good reader to follow the directions printed on the screen. I do however think if you demonstrated it to a younger child they would still be able to do it easily once they see how to use it. Kids are so technological savvy nowadays that I don’t see this as a problem. The only problem I see with this game is the problems read left to right instead of above and below. This is a great learning tool for this generation.

I'm doing a review on the MathShark. It is for ages six and up. It will help you practice with your adding, subtraction, multiplying, dividing, decimals, fractions and percents. It has a button for each one of these. After you turn it on it will tell you what to do on the lcd screen. Let's do it! 1. Turn on. 2. It says MathShark. 3. Then it say Sounds. It will ask you if you want the sound on or off. Choose Enter if you want the sound on and Clear if you want the sound off. I'm going to click the Enter button to hear the sounds. 4. Then it says to Choose a skill. If will go through all of your options. Choose add, sub, mul, div, dec, frac, pct. These are the abbreviations of adding, subtraction, multiply, division, decimal, fraction and percent. I'm going to press the button Add. 5. Then it reads Add, Press 1-8 for level. There are 8 skill levels. I'm going to choose the number one because it is the easiest and then hit enter. 6. An example shows up with 1 + 2 = 3. 7. Then it reads Start ? with a yes or no. Click on enter for yes and Clear for no. I'm going to click enter. 8. In the left hand corner it says L 1. That means Level One. To the right is 0 + 2. I'm going to press the answer as 2. The Green light comes on with some sort of sound. That tells you it is the correct answer. 9. It has changed to the next screen with a different adding problem. It says 1 + 2. I'm going to press 1 and see what happens because this is the wrong answer. The Red light flashes on and makes a sound. This is to tell you it was the wrong answer. Then the next problem shows up. It continues in this way. It sounds like a lot of steps but it's really not. There is one thing that parents will really like about this toy. The two sounds it make are very low volume. I can see kids really liking and playing with this toy. To me it looks like it is in the shape of a video game which makes it more appealing. It is very easy to learn. I forgot to tell you that there is a button that you press to choose Calculator or Learning. You press the top or bottom to choose which one. The calculator works the same as any other calculator. The sounds work with it also. I highly recommend this product. Give you kids a chance to lean Math early so they have something to build on.

I choose the Educational Insights Math Shark because I thought it would be a wonderful device to use to help my daughter with her arithmetic. I was not disappointed by the product at all. Once we started using the Educational Insights Math Shark, it has been nothing but a blessing for my daughter. She enjoys using to help with her homework and also when she is asked to pick something to do for awhile during the time I am making dinner or lunch. She'll go and get the Educational Insights Math Shark. She totally loves it. What I like most, as a parent, about the Educational Insights Math Shark is that it is not limited to just one age level or math level. The device will grow with my daughter as we use it in our home to help her. And, as a parent who has not had to do math for years, it has been great for me to refresh my math skills so that I am able to help her more. I find it fun to play with myself. That is another great point, we not only see it as something to use for and educational supporter but my daughter also sees it as something fun to play with not only something to help her with her homework and studies.

This device has proven to be very timely. It is easy to use (particularly for a child) and I got it for my 10yr old 5th grade grandson. All the topics the Math Shark covers he is having to learn or be refreshed in the 5th grade. It is very specific topic wise..you can choose between topic such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and fractions as well as decimals. In addition, under each of thest topics you can start simple (levels 1-9) and get as advanced as you want to. This is a small device so it feels like the person is controlling it in their hands. You can opt for sound or no sound. When I gave it to my grandson, he was curious (he is truly an “electronic” child) and at first didn't think he would like it, but as time has passed, he actually looks forward to coming home from school and spending 10mins on the Math Shark before he gets into his assigned math homework (ixl online) from school. It seems durable and I expect it to last as long as any other electronic gadget lasts, which is to say a pretty long time and the fact that it takes only uses 2 AA batteries is a real plus. Tried to upload a photo but the system would not permit..my photo was 1.16mb and Walmart's limit is 1.5mb, so it should have worked but .. whatever.

Disguised as a hand-held game this unit is packed with arithmetic learning functions useful from first grade on. My Niece, Finley, who is almost six, is at Level 7 in the addition mode, and finds it extremely helpful that this device presents the addition problems both horizontally and vertically. She finds it much easier to add numbers vertically. So, the help button will re-arrange the displayed horizontal numbers for her in the vertical position when pressed. Finley quickly learned how to use the 'calculator' function of the MathShark, which allows her to solve more difficult addition and subtraction problems. For younger children like Finley, it is probably better to have some adult supervision, or they will just simply use the calculator function in place of the drill problems. Only 'con' I can find to point out. This device will continue to help Finley through school for several years as it also performs multiplication, division, fractions, decimals and percentages on eight different skill levels. On Levels 1 and 2 you can program drills for a specific number like 2 (2 + 3; 2+ 4; 2 + 5; etc) or, a specific number in random order like 3 (6 + 3; 3 + 5; 4 + 3; etc.). Additionally, several children can play and have fun on this device by taking turns to compete against each other while keeping score. Children today are eager to use electronic devices over a deck of plastic flash cards for arithmetic problems. The MathShark is an educational tool and game all rolled into one clever, electronic device.

How easy is it to have a mobile math calulator and game in one product! My daughter is 10 and has struggled with math. This allows her to learn in a fun and easy way that looks and feels like a handheld game. She takes it with her, even in the car she is practicing division. Very good investment that will allow the kids to play games while learning.

My daughter is 6 and in 1st grade. Great learning tool for those just starting mathematics or needing help in this subject. Only annoyed with the beginning question about "sound". I wish it was just an " on/off" button on the devise. Daughter picks it up often and likes to play with it in the car. She says the size is perfect for her and that it looks like a "space ship". I like the automatic off feature, saves battery life. Buttons are easy to read for first graders to understand. Screen is easy to read. Have not tried all the features because of her age but definitely something she can grow with each grade level.

We have been using our MathShark for approximately two weeks now. First off, the product shown is in bright cheerful colors. The one we received was a very dark and decidedly uncheerful dark turquoise and dark gray. I didn't notice a color choice, so not sure if they just randomly change or we got a newer version (or older version!). I reviewed the directions and tried to pop in two new AA batteries. That is where the problems started. The battery case does not slide off - it has a flat, wide screw that holds it in place, although the battery door was also warped and looked like it might not hold the batteries in place. The screw was put in at the factory in a crooked angle, so it took trying three different screwdrivers before we could remove it to get to the battery compartment. The batteries popped in without incident, and we had the same fun getting the cover back on, with the weird angled screw. Once that was done, we turned it on to take it for a spin. It is pretty intuitive, and honestly, the directions would almost not be needed by most people. A light flashes green if you get the right answer and red if it is wrong. You can turn off the sound effects, which is pretty much preferable at our house. It feels fairly well balanced in our adult hands, and the kids didn't seem to have much trouble with it either. The first thing I did not like was the screen. It is TINY compared to the size of the toy. The display fonts are extremely primitive! With so many to choose from now, this reminded me of the very early-on calculators or hand held games from the 1970's. They were hard to read many times. What made it worse is that this screen is not backlit. It is part of what makes it harder to read - a gray screen with either dark gray or light black letters and numbers. The contrast was not enough. And I don't know of any kid who doesn't like lying in bed and playing games! You sure can't do this one in a dark room, because all you'll see would be the red or green light. Our model also had a problem with the number zero. Once in a while, a great deal of pushing, like you are trying to push the number button out the bottom of the machine would result in a zero, but otherwise, it just didn't respond. So every answer that has a zero in it (and of course, there are many) will be counted as wrong. Your answers are also timed, so don't waste time with buttons that don't work, because it will just increase your game time and your frustration. There are some good things - I promise! The kids still liked it a little bit, but when they couldn't get the zero to work, they stopped playing with it. I kept trying different levels and skills just for the mental exercise. I found it was actually a bit fun to try to figure out various levels of math problems in my head, having been used to relying on a calculator so often. There are seven math skills covered in this game: addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, fractions, decimals and percentages. Each math skill has eight levels that get progressively more difficult. Some of the levels were actually a little bit of a challenge for this "old" adult. The multiplying fractions function was a reminder of how much I'd forgotten since I didn't use it! Ha! I enjoyed the mental math and trying to get a high score, but then, I always have enjoyed any sort of computer games. I would suggest the following changes to the manufacturer: 1) Add a backlight to the screen. Evenings while bored silly or long car rides (which can be day or night) are a great time to use this item, and it is too hard to see without an abundance of light. 2) Update the fonts used to a more legible one. It looks like I picked this up at a garage sale circa 1980. 3) Use a different screw on the back battery compartment. It didn't work well at all. Overall, this definitely could be useful, but it is not too likely a child who has a PSP or Nintendo DS would give this much of a second glance. And with so many math games available for other gaming systems, I would think an individual handheld like this would be working overtime to make sure their item is more appealing. So, if your child doesn't have any of those other handhelds, then this would be an acceptable way to practice math skills, especially in the car. The game seems very sturdy and should survive several drops. Just test everything as soon as possible, and if you have a bad button, exchange it at your store for one that works.

First of all, the picture shown of this product is not what I received because the color is yellow and blue; as you can see I got blue and gray in color. I rated this MathShark fair because the LCD screen does not clearly display the problems, you need to press the number buttons hard when answering the problems, and the software is not user friendly. Other than that, your kids can play exciting quiz games complete with lights and sound effects or you can use it like a regular calculator. There are seven timed skill building games with engaging quiz questions that covers everything from addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and percentages. Your child can simply choose one of eight levels of play then solve each problem that appears on the screen. They can also switch to the calculator function with just the press of a button. Two AA batteris are not included. I would recommend this for first graders and/or six years old.

Does not work. Rhis was a Christmas gift. I put brand new batteries in it and it comes on for like 5 seconds and then it goes off. the screen fades to blank. tried differnt batteries and the same thing. couldnr even get 5 minutes of enjoyment out of it. If I could, I would give this a zero rating.