TOS Review: Super Duper Publications

It's HOT outside!!  I don't know about where you are, but here we are just plain tired of the heat.  It's waaaay too hot to go outside.  And since we have limited air conditioning upstairs in our old farmhouse, it's also too hot to go up to the playroom.  The basement has our schoolroom, so when school is over we only have a couple rooms to hang out in.  Finding fun, preferably educational, things to do becomes very important.  Our new computer game from Super Duper Publications could not have shown up at a better time!

Mustang and Charger have each been on a mission.  My secret agents have been using their memories to foil the wacky plans of Dr. Forgetsit.  They have unlocked codes, zapped space trash, eavesdropped on important conversations and remembered important clues to find Dr. Forgestit's agents.  They have chased down getaway cars and even identified a few agents in a line up.  

What they don't realize is that they have also been spending a lot of time working on building their memory skills with Webber HearBuilder Auditory Memory.  HearBuilder is a game designed to strengthen auditory memory, closure, and comprehension skills.  It includes five essential learning activities:

Memory for numbers (3-7 digits)

Memory for words (3-5 words organized by syllable)

Memory for details (1-4 details)

Auditory Closure (Sentence Completion)

Memory for WH information (2-3 sentences/2-4 questions)

HearBuilder comes in both a home and professional license edition.

Home Edition: {$69.95}

Use with 1-4 children

Choose general levels of play for each child

Monitor child's progress

Print progress reports

Add background noise at expert level to give children practice attending in distracting situations

Professional Edition: {as low as $127.95}

Monitor progress and track data for unlimited number of students

Individualize each student program

Set levels of difficulty for each activity

Add background noise at any level and adjust the volume for each student

Customize and print reports

Analyze all responses

What did we think?

From the perspective of a 6 year old, 4 year old, and 30 something, we liked it a lot!!

First off, I believe that HearBuilder has some of the very best graphics for a kid's computer game that I have seen in awhile.  The sound is right, the characters are fun, the music only hurts my ears a little (it IS a kids computer game), and the games are actually creative.  I found myself wanting to play them just as much as my children.  My memory isn't what it used to be and I could use the practice. 

How it works is that there are 5 different games.  You play one level and if you pass, the next level is the same game only more challenging.  I'll be honest that I don't know how many levels there are of each game because we haven't reached them yet.  Between the different levels there is a fun game where the object is to shoot flying food in space or match up robots, or some other cute activity.  

If I could change one thing about the game, I wish there was a way to play all the games in random order.  It's nice to practice a skill over and over, but sometimes my kids will completely avoid a game that they don't like.  It would be nice to be able to assign games.  This may be what 'Individualize each student program' on the professional edition includes but I don't know.  

SuperDuper Productions offers a chance to try out some of the games from HearBuilder on their website, so I would highly recommend heading over and trying it.  When we were offered this product for review I wasn't excited at first.  But, when I tried out the sample I was really interested.  The quality and creativity behind this program is outstanding.  The full game is just that much better!

SuperDuper Productions is also offering 30% off on the HearBuilder Auditory Memory Software Home Edition until 8/31/12.  That makes it much more affordable!!  If you have any interest now would be the time!  Use coupon code BLGAM30.

SuperDuper productions offers a ton of great products in addition to HearBuilder.  My fellow crew mates had an opportunity to try a few of them out.  Check out their reviews on the crew blog.

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!

Disclaimer:  As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew I received a free copy of HearBuilder in exchange for an honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review, all opinions expressed are my own.  I was not paid for my review.