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This educational tape from Golem Software is aimed at teaching basic numeracy skills to young children. The tape contains six programs. These are Maths 1, Maths 2, Cubecount, Shapes, Memory and Clock. They run on the BBC Model B and all load at 1200 baud.

The first program on the tape is Maths 1. This is designed to help children with simple addition and subtraction. In the program you race the computer along a line by answering questions which the computer sets for you. If you get it right then you move a red ball along a line at the top of the screen. If the answer is wrong then the BBC moves its own ball along a line further down the screen. The first person to reach the winning post is, naturally, the winner.

The graphics are very basic and the sums set are not exactly demanding. However, given the age range this tape is aimed at, I should think this is acceptable. The second program is virtually the same as the first, except that this time the questions are based on multiplication and division skills.

The theme of the rest of the programs are not so directly mathematical. Cubecount is a counting exercise. As the name suggests, piles of cubes are placed on the screen and the child has to type in how many cubes are shown. This is not as easy as it sounds because of the way the cubes are arranged. Some are hidden, so the child has to work out the total number from the counfiguration of the cubes.

The last program on the tape is particularly useful. Called Clock, it allows the child to test their recognition of times in relation to the position of hands on a clock face. It offers two options. The first prints the time in hour and minute format and then asks for the hands on the clock face to be moved into the corresponding position. The second option is the opposite of the first. The computer sets the hands on the clock and then asks for the time to be inputted, in hours and minutes format.

The programs on the tape were good, but I felt that the maths ones could have been improved by adding a system of correction which would actually help the child learn by his mistakes.