Ever since we switched to a Mac last year I wanted to find a few educational games for the kids. I tried looking in the online stores, but all the games were several years old, pre-dating the Mac switch to Intel processors. With that as a dead end I looked online, but all I found were simple flash games or pay sites that did not interest me.

When ParentBloggers offered a free trial of Dreambox, I was very skeptical at first, but we decided to try it out. Here’s what we found:

Dreambox is a rich environment with numerous games around the lessons. When your child starts they take a math assessment. Once Dreambox has a profile your child picks a theme, either pirates, pixies, dinosaurs, or pets and they pick a character to represent themselves in the game. They then proceed to follow the stories for their theme and take the lessons. Each lessons is customized based on the assessment and the games adapt as they learn.

We setup both Ethan (6 in Kindergarten) and Ben (4 in preschool) on Dreambox. They each picked a different character and different themes. One of our concerns was that the Dreambox, which teaches math skills for K-2nd grade, would have too much text based content and be difficult for the kids. That was not the case at all. I was extremely impressed with the quality and depth of the games. The website runs extremely smooth and load times are quick. The instructions are all audio and very clear and easy for the kids to understand.

I often tell people that the sign of a well designed product is that you don’t need to read any instructions to use it. This is the case with Dreambox. Our boys dove right into the games. We would monitor their play and give them guidance on the math, but never on how to use the games or navigate the stories which was easy and obvious for them to figure out on their own.

I use the word ‘game’ to describe the lessons, but they are really a perfect balance between fun puzzles and great lessons. The games themselves involve manipulation so the boys move things around into the right combination instead of a simple question/answer like a lot of other educational games. As games are successfully completed, the boys earned collectible rewards: tokens to play carnival games, certificates, and Adventure friends.

Another concern with any game is the kids getting addicted. What I have found interesting with Dreambox is the boys will ask to play, do several lessons over 20-30 minutes, and then have no trouble walking away. They always ask to come back a day or two later, but we’ve never had any problems with them overextending their screen time. I think it is just the nature of the games. They are short lessons and after the kids accomplish something it is a good stopping point.

Making a game that kids love to play is obviously the easy part. The real question is “Are they learning anything?” I can answer that with an emphatic yes. We had been working on Ethan’s counting on and off for months. He had no problem with single digits and could do some simple math, but was inconsistent with larger numbers. As he’s played Dreambox his counting and math has steadily approved.

Another part of Dreambox we really like is the email updates on Ethan and Ben’s progress. These emails tell us how long they played, what math principles they worked on, and how they are progressing. We can also log into the site and view their progress.

Overall, we couldn’t be happier with Dreambox. The kids love playing the games and we love seeing them improve their math skills. A problem that sometimes occurs when you review products is that you like them so much you buy more. That will be the case with Dreambox. We plan to keep our subscription so the boys can continue their progress with math and we look forward to see what Dreambox adds next. If you are looking for educational software for your children, I encourage you to take their free trial for a test drive.

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