Math apps turn learning into a fun game for kids
- %27Bugs and Buttons%27 presents 18 games with counting%2C shapes and more
- %27Mystery Math Town%27 puts kids in a maze with math puzzles
- %27DragonBox Algebra%27 also teaches fractions%2C factorization%2C distribution
With kids back in school, apps can be a fun way to enhance and encourage learning. But finding the good ones that are age appropriate is always a challenge in this saturated market of kid apps.
There's good news for parents looking for iOS apps. Apple has introduced a new Kids category on iTunes, which sorts apps into three ages: 5 & under, 6-8 and 9-11. Apps featured in this new category must disclose their privacy policy. And they can't use in-app purchases or send kids outside of the app without first getting parental permission. You can find the new Kids category by using the drop-down menu at the top of the iTunes App Store or by clicking on "Kids" under Quick Links. From your iOS device, go to the Store icon and search under Categories.
For parents looking for math apps, here's a roundup of some great new ones.
Bugs and Buttons 2
Little Bit Studio, best for ages 4-6, $2.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad.
Rating: 4 stars (out of 4)
A sequel to the award-winning Bugs and Buttons, this app presents 18 different engaging activities that teach counting, shapes, sorting, logic and more. Using realistic-looking bugs and a wide assortment of vibrant buttons, the app lets kids interact in novel ways, including using their finger as a flashlight to count buttons in the dark or as a marker to direct bees to flowers in numerical order.
The app automatically adjusts its educational content, depending on how the child is doing. Preschoolers and kindergartners will love learning math and other early learning skills from these sneaky bugs and gorgeous, unusual buttons.
For Android owners, this app isn't yet on your platform, but the original, Bugs and Buttons is $2.99. It, too, is fabulous.
Mystery Math Town
Artgig Studio, best for ages 6-12, $2.99, iPad (a separate version for the iPhone and iPod Touch is $1.99)
Rating: 3.5 stars
Kids help a cute, friendly ghost explore houses in a town to find missing fireflies caged in jars. Exploring a house is a maze-like activity where entering a new room can only happen after solving a math equation. The rooms contain randomly strewn numbers for collecting, as well as cheeky portraits that talk. To move to a new room, players must solve a reverse equation where the answer is presented, as is the operation (plus, minus, or times). Kids choose from the collected numbers in a drawer at the bottom of the screen to solve the equations. If you don't have the correct numbers to solve a given equation, you can backtrack through the house to pick up more numbers. When you complete the investigation of a house, a new house unlocks. The chatty paintings slowly reveal a story.
The explore-spooky-houses theme works well to motivate kids to do the math. And the reverse equations with limited numbers requires kids to use strategy and critical thinking to do addition, subtraction and multiplication. Kids can even customize the math skills to meet their needs and ability. Mystery Math Town is a clever way to encourage kids to practice math.
Mission: MATH…Sabotage at the Space Station
Kata Enterprises, best for ages 9-13, $7.99, iPad
Rating: 4 stars
This math game for girls has a cool save-a-space-station storyline presented with sleek graphics and animation. It enlists young girls to become an agent of S.M.A.R.T — the Science Math and Radical Technology Agency. To solve the mystery of what is sabotaging the space station, players search the station's six science labs, including gravity, robot, computer, chemistry, biology and space equipment. Players restore order to the labs by playing fun math games that cover basic arithmetic, fractions, bar graphs, decimals, factors, measurements of volume and mass, angles and more.
This excellent app presents a compelling mystery where players use math and problem-solving to move the story along. Girls can design their own female avatar to play the math games, which come in three levels of difficulty and are never timed. The app surrounds young girls with strong females, as they meet female characters in the roles of the mentoring agent, the chief medical officer and the head of S.M.A.R.T. This interactive math adventure makes girls feel confident about being smart at math. If you have a tween daughter, download this app.
DragonBox Algebra 12+
WeWantToKnow, best for ages 12-17, $9.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Amazon
Rating: 4 stars
This app turns learning algebra and other mathematics into a series of fun puzzles. For each puzzle, kids are presented with a play area that has two sides. The object is to use special cards (which each have math rules) to isolate the square Dragonbox so that it is alone on one side. The cards are slowly introduced and their rules explained in visual tutorials. Kids experiment with adding and combining cards in ways to segregate the Dragonbox (which represents solving "x" in an algebraic equation).
Jinny Gudmundsen is the author of the new book: iPad Apps for Kids, part of the For Dummies series. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.