In the mid to late seventies, ABC ran a series of educational videos on American history, science, multiplication, and grammar. These Schoolhouse Rock (SHR) videos featured catchy songs and inventive animation (even if they were obviously cheaply made). Even though I am a math geek, I must admit that the multiplication videos were my least favorite. I'm not really sure why, other than perhaps that they cover simpler concepts that I was well beyond learning even the first time I heard them.

A few years ago, Creative Wonders started turning these various Schoolhouse Rock songs into a series of computer games using these familiar characters to help teach basic and not so basic math, science, history, government, and grammar to children. Math Rock is the game associated with the Multiplication Rock videos, all of which can be viewed from within the game.

The game can be played on either Windows or Macintosh and is fairly easy to install on either platform (although in my experience the Macintosh installation is a little simpler and smoother). You need to use 256 colors while playing. On a Mac, the game will automatically switch color settings for you as you enter and leave. If I remember correctly, you had to change the color settings manually on Windows (it's been a little while since I've played on Windows so I apologize if I am misremembering this).

As we start the game, we are given the option to enter a name and chose a difficulty level between 1 and 5 or to continue a previously saved game. I almost always play at level 5. Level 5 can be quite challenging in some of the games, even for an adult who is good at math. I recommend starting a child out at level 1 and working your way to a comfortable level for them. I'd say a first grader will need to stay at or near level 1 in at least most of the games, and a twelve year old will find some of the games too easy at level 5 while others will most likely still be too difficult. As I talk about the different games below, I will comment on the difficulty of each specifically.

Our host throughout the game is Lucky Seven Sampson. He guides us around Funky Numberland, pointing out the various sights and games found there. Your goal is to gather all of the SHR characters in the garage so you can start a road trip to play in a big concert (this trip is the final game; more on it later). To do this, you have to win a series of minigames at least three times. There are seven minigames in Funky Numberland, each a "roadside attraction to add to your fun" while visiting. Each game is hosted by a familiar character. After you've won that character's game three times, the character heads to the garage to practice and wait for the other band members (but manages to stay and continue hosting the game as well). As you play the games you also collect coins that will be used in the road trip.

Lucky can get quite irritating. He chimes in after every game, reciting one of a few rhymes every time coins are handed out. He goes into a spiel every time a character goes to the garage. I tend to play without sound for this reason, but it still slows down game play considerably. Some of the time you can make him go away by clicking on him, but some of the time you are stuck waiting him out.

The Games

There are seven minigames in Funky Numberland. I will discuss each individually in this section.

Find the Farmer

The farmer is hidden somewhere in his field of haystacks, a 6x6 grid. Click on a haystack to see if the farmer is there. If he isn't get a clue like "The farmer is in row 4" or "The farmer is to the left of column 3" or something similar. You have eight guesses to find the farmer. Although your success depends greatly on how good the clues you uncover are, this game is pretty easy. It teaches the concepts of rows and columns, greater than and less than, and left/right/up/down. It's one of the easier games - a seven or eight year old should be able to handle level 5 without too much difficulty.

The Pool Hall

The Fat Cat has challenged you to a game of pool. Use your mouse (Elmer the Mouse, that is) to move pool balls with numbers, addition signs, and subtraction signs into one of three pockets. Each game has twelve balls - nine numbers and three signs. Your job is to create three correct equations from the balls (the equal signs come for free). This is a very easy game, concentrating solely on addition and subtraction. Again I'd say a seven or eight year old should be able to handle level 5.

Moon Rocks

Hosted by My Hero Zero, the Moon Rocks game teachs place value. Basically, you are asked to load moon rocks onto a rocket heading back to Earth. There are five containers sitting on a conveyor belt, marked "10,000" "1,000" "100" "10" and "1" respectively from left to right. Another conveyor belt carries numbered moon rocks you must place into the bins. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, it isn't quite so easy. Each rocket has a maximum weight, and the number created by the rocks must not go over the maximum or the rocket will crash when it tries to take off. On the other hand, you want to take back as much as you can each trip since space travel is expensive. And you can only see two rocks at a time, so you don't know all of the numerals you have to work with. Coins are awarded based on the percentage of the maximum possible weight you send back to earth. This is a medium difficulty game, I'd say. A ten year old should be able to do quite well at level 5. Even though it's fairly simple, this game is a lot of fun and is my second favorite game of the suite.

Connect the Stars

Little Twelve Toes has arranged numbers next to stars that, when correctly connected, draw a constellation of a familiar SHR character. This game teaches sequences. Basically three stars are connected, leading to a sequence that you have to continue to complete the constellation. The types of sequences include straight addition (every successive number is x greater than the previous number), straight subtraction (every successive number is y less than the previous number), and a mixed sequence (add x to get the next number, then subtract y to get the number after that, then add x for the next number, etc.). It is a bit harder than the other games discussed so far, but not outrageously difficult. I'd say a twelve year old could handle level 5 without too much difficulty. This game is a lot of fun - it's my favorite and I can play it over and over again without getting bored.

Water Ballon Darts

The Magician wants you to throw some water balloons at his dart board. The dart board is numbered from 1 to 10 and has double nad triple sections for each number. But he wants you to obey some strict instructions on what numbers to hit. You are given three rules for your target number (the sum of three tosses). In easier levels, these rules are quite simple, but in level 5 they involve things like "multiple of x" and "last toss must be a double" and "less than y." This is an interesting game because it requires dexterity and extreme mouse control by the player. Frankly, I am not up to the task much of the time. Yet is is a medium level difficulty game; a ten year old will have no problems understanding what to do or how to do it, although I suspect will get very frustrated trying to do it because of lack of coordination. I know I do.

Set Zoo

When you arrive at the Set Zoo, all of the animals are randomly roaming about. Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to herd the animals into the correct cages. There are two main pens and a third pen that intersects the two main pens. Together these three areas create a pen diagram, err, Venn diagram of number sets. You are given a rule for animals in each of the two main pens. Animals that fit both rules go into the interior pen, or the intersection set. The rules vary greatly, but in level 5 they are generally "multiple of x." A sample game might have multiples of 4 going in the left pen, multiples of 6 going to the right, and multiples of both 4 and 6 going in the center. In this example, an animal wearing an 8 would go into the left pen, an animal wearing an 18 would go to the right, an animal wearing 48 would go in the center, and an animal wearing 14 would be left outside. This is another game that can be frustrating due to coordination issues. You use your mouse to prod the animals and they don't always go in the direction you expect. This game is also quite advanced - the concept of sets is not generally introduced until at least junior high, although certainly younger children are capable of understanding them. I'd say a twelve year old could handle level 5, although they might not fully understand that they are learning basic set theory.

Ice Skater

Welcome to Geometry 101. An ice skater needs to skate out a series of patterns etched onto the ice. You provide instructions via a series of cards specifying how to turn and which direction to skate in. A typical set of instructions might include the following: go foward then turn left 30 degrees, go backward then turn left 120 degrees, and turn right 60 degrees then go backward. I'm not really sure why this is included in a game designed for younger elementary school children. I'd say level five will be extremely difficult for anyone younger than 14. Even for people of that age and older, this game is hard.

The Road Trip

After successfully completing each minigame three times, all of the characters are in the garage waiting to go on the road trip. I recommend collecting some more coins playing your favorite games before going on the road trip - I wouldn't try it with less than 100 coins. When you do go on the road trip, it will look like a board game split into four sections. Your goal is to traverse the entire game board in less than 30 days (30 rolls of the dice) and have so money left at the end to pay for concert advertising. This is harder than it sounds. Most of the squares on the board have some action when you land on them. You can get lucky and land on shortcut squares that chop some distance off the trip. You can land on wildcard spaces that can add or subtract days, add or subtract from your coin total, and send you backward or forward along the game board (but always within your current quadrant). There are also Beat the Calculator squares that let you earn one coin for every calculation you correctly perform, word problem squares, and Name that Tune squares that ask you to name which Schoolhouse Rock song is played. You can also get a dreaded speeding ticket with a fine of half of your coins. The game can take a while, and you will not win every time. If you start the game with a sufficient number of coins, then you shouldn't run low on coins. You could very well run out of days, however, so when offered a choice between taking a shortcut or earning extra coins, I'd take the shortcut every time. This game can be a lot of fun, but I find Beat the Calculator gets a bit tedious after a while.

General Observations

This game really seems to be geared toward older children than the 1st to 4th grade claimed, or at least a wider age range. However, by playing at lower levels and perhaps skipping some of the harder games altogether, a first grader can get a lot out of the game. I think it makes a great gift for adults who like math. I gave SHR: Math Rock to my father for his birthday a couple of years ago, and he loves it. It is one of my favorite games. So I have a bit of a dilemna - how to rate this game? In my book, from the perspective of an adult, it's probably a 4.5, with the half removed for the mouse control issues in a couple of games and the general irritation of Lucky Seven Sampson. But it doesn't particularly cater to its target audience, and for very young children it's probaby a 3, still recommended. So I am going to give this game a 4. Extrapolate for your own intended use.



Recommended: Yes