This is a collection of 600 puzzles for one player. Games include Sudoku – the classic numbers game in 3D; Bridges – link all the islands on the screen with bridges, making sure to match the on-screen numbers to the amount of islands you are connecting together; Boxes – divide the board into rectangles where each piece has to be included with the digit that will be the size of the boxes; Museum – light up an entire hall without overlapping the lighting with the limited number of lights given to you; and an exclusive unlockable 3D puzzle created specifically for the Nintendo 3DS. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Put a science center in your iPad, with this collection of three activities, featuring Sid the Science Kid characters. Following a noisy introduction — just like the show — you tap one of the three Sid characters to start a no-fail activity. In the Collection Inspection, you use a magnifying glass to notice subtle differences in 14 sets of items. Chart It presents seven collections, which vary by shape, color and pattern. You can move them onto dynamic charts. Wrong answers fall back to the bottom of the screen, giving the charts authenticity, and realtime feedback. Time Machine lets you play with time relationships as you freely explore 14 sets of objects such as an apple being eaten, a candle burning or a plant growing. Created by Jim Henson Studios and Carsten’s Studios for PBS Kids. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Combine the board game Monopoly with the zany spirit of Nintendo and you get Fortune Street, a fast-paced business game that contains 15 game boards based on popular Mushroom Kingdom and Dragon Quest locales. Using virtual dice, you move around one of 15 themed boards in random intervals, buying shops to build your portfolio and collecting symbols you can cash in at the bank to earn gold. You can play the stock market, purchase shops and collect shopping fees. Players with multiple shops adjacent to one another see them grow in value and their shops level up, and if another player lands on those squares they have to pay an increased fee. A beginner setting lets you learn the basics, and there is an advanced mode with more challenges, options, and the ability to play the stock market. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
One of the first ever math facts programs to use augmented reality, Lunch Rush provides an “out of device” experience. Here’s how it works. After you download the app, you must print out a set of cards from the Fetch Lunch Rush web site: http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/hollywood/lunchrush.html. There are nine cards; one per number. You lay the cards around a table (or room) and sign into the program. You’re then given a math problem, such as 14 – ? = 5. To enter the answer, you find the correct card (9) using the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch camera. This also causes a set of food items to appear over the numeral, superimposing computer graphics onto the real camera image. Content includes five rounds of addition or subtraction questions (three per round). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You heard it right, Pokémon fans — 3D, for the first time. The game contains 600 Pokémon, including the libraries from both Pokémon Black and Pokémon White.
There’s also Boss Pokémon, which is stronger, and two new battle modes. In Team Battle, you are joined by two of your own Toy Pokémon as you battle numerous mini bosses in a quest to defeat a Boss Pokémon. In Charge Battle, the strength of your team is challenged when two large battalions of Pokémon collide. The game also allows for two players to team up and play over a local wireless connection, or you can use the StreetPass features and challenge Toy Pokémon that other nearby players have collected, and view customized Mii characters within the game. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This math app turns your iPad into a stretchable number line, letting children freely play with the relationship between quantity and space, just like silly putty. This “virtual manipulative” ability is combined with a game — a series of timed challenges that ask you to find a mark on the line. The faster you find the mark, the higher your score. Unfortunately, the only way to get this app is as a free sample that consisting of just level 1 of the 24 levels. To continue, you need to use an inapp sales feature to pay $4.99. The game starts when a bubble floats down from the top of the screen, with a number, like 1.2. Your job is to swipe up or down the number line to find the safe landing spot (in this case, on the 1.2 inches). Scale is shown by creatures lined up along the number line from fleas (for the hundredths), to bees, to rhinos for larger units. Things get harder with correct answers, so you want to see how many points you can earn, and levels you can unlock. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Turn your iPad into a small chalk board and your finger into a piece of chalk, with this free subtraction toolkit. Content starts with single digits and moves you through ten levels of addition mastery. Once you’ve solved the problem with the “chalk” you enter your answer using a digital numerical keypad. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Turn your iPad into a small chalk board and your finger into a piece of chalk, with this addition toolkit.Content starts with single digits and moves you through ten levels of addition mastery. Once you’ve solved the problem with the “chalk” you enter your answer using a digital numerical keypad. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
MathBlaster.com is a 3D virtual world where you are sent on various missions. The idea is to join the Intergalactic Space Patrol (ISP), a team of Blasters sworn to explore and protect the universe. MathBlaster.com requires the installation of the Unity 3D engine. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Your challenge is to spot the “odd one out” from a set of moving fruit, shapes or colors in this app. You start with a challenge, e.g., “spot mango” (with a picture of a mango). As the mangos fly across the screen, mixed with other types of fruit, your job is to tap just the mangos, and not the strawberries or bananas. The shapes and colors present harder levels. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This collection of 42 dot-to-dot puzzles can be used to practice counting, the alphabet, or times tables. For example, to connect the dots, you might be asked to follow a number pattern that increased by 1 at the easy level, to 8s or 12s at the harder levels. Other options include the ability to keep records for one child at a time, and a leaderboard feature. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In Bubbling Math, children race to touch the right answer to math equations, ranging in difficulty from 2+2 = 4, to division of numbers up to 100, including division by two digit numbers. Content includes nine graphic levels to unlock, each with different music. A parents screen tracks progress over time, for one player. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This third of the Hasbro Family Game Night series contains five classic board games from Hasbro. There are both classic and remixed versions of The Game of Life, Clue, Twister, Mouse Trap, and Yahtzee Hands Down. You can play in either local multiplayer capability (for up to four players) or — for the PS3 or Xbox versions — online. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Designed by the same team that made Brain Age for the Nintendo DS back in 2006 (Dr. Ryuta Kawashima), Namco’s Body and Brain Connection takes advantage of the Kinect’s ability to know where your body is at any given time, bringing an exciting new twist (at times literally) to the puzzles. To enter your answer, you might have to kick balls into a goal, or move your arms in order to line up bridges to direct a moving stream of traffic. Like the older Brain Age title, you are given a pre-test, and your progress is recorded as you play. If you do better, the challenge increases, but if you start getting wrong answers, the challenge decreases. Content includes twenty activities designed to cover math, logic, reflex, memory and physical-related exercises. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Here’s a fun twist on math drills that uses a tried and true metaphor– rockets, to keep things interesting. You start by building a rocket by dragging and dropping different parts into place. Each part can be resized, and there are plenty of silly parts… like soda cans, to make a pretty weird looking rocket. But each part also costs money, which you earn by solving math fact problems. Content includes 90 rocket parts. You can fly your rocket into outer space, where you can earn more money by touching the answers to 56 types of math problems, ranging from “touch all the numbers less than 100″ to “touch the coins to add up to 41 cents”. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This subscription-based curriculum for preschool through kindergarten lets children explore a wide variety of content in a structured way. After you log in, and pay the $8/month subscription, you can create individual accounts for up to three children, who can be at different levels. Each child can then log in, and create their own avatar. From this point, they can explore a classroom, where items lead to stories, structured multiple-choice style drills, nursery rhymes and games. As children play, they collect tickets, which can be used to unlock new clothing or toys for their classroom. Prices are $7.95/month and $79.00/year and each account allows up to three children per household. Call about school pricing. The service was created by Age of Learning, Inc. which is located in Glendale, CA. The creators originally started Neopets.com. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a sandbox App, where children can freely tap, trace, drag and drop their way through a set of numbers, from 0 to 9. According to the documentation materials, the app was modeled after the teaching methods of Maria Montessori. There are three modes of play, each hosted by either Tam or Tao, two children with strange accents, as judged by someone in New Jersey. The Draw mode turns the iPad into a slate, where children can draw with eight colors. 123 Play consists of a ten screen ebook, with hidden animated sequences, one per number. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This sixth App from Duck Duck Moose is designed for iPhone and iPod Touch and contains seven easy to explore games, each with multiple ways to explore some powerful math concepts — of the variety that will someday loom at the root of an SAT question. The games include Swing (Count up to 50 as a rabbit swings. You can either watch, or “push” the rabbit with your fingertip); Slide (Help ducks climb to the top of a slide. Quantities are show both visually and in an equation, simultaneously); Seesaw (Balance a seesaw by adding and subtracting mice); Apple Tree (Subtract as apples fall from a tree); Sandbox (Complete patterns by dragging and dropping toys); Bench (put dogs and numerals in order, from smaller to larger. It’s especially nice that you can make the order from either left to right or right to left); and Picnic: Counting (Feed a hippo the correct number of food items). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
MySims SkyHeroes is a flying simulation with race and dogfight modes. In the game, you try to shoot down Morcubus and his drone army, and his plans to take over the skyways. Better flying earns you plane upgrades better engines, and things like camouflage to conceal the plane and avoid enemy fire. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
If you’ve ever tried to bounce a ping pong ball on a paddle, you get the idea of Motion Math — a math drill where you lean your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to steer a bouncing ball to the right spot on a number line. After you choose a difficulty level, you see a number line, along with bouncing ball, with a fraction shown on it. If the ball shows 1/2, you try to hit the center of the line, 50% between the 0 and the 1. The ball might alternate between a percent, mini pie-charts or a fraction. If you miss, a set of arrows provides hints, helping you to visually approximate, say, the difference between 1/2 and .65. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Symmetry Shuffle, created by Daren Carstens, the math educator who also created Math Arena and Sums Stacker, contains 12 sets of objects that can be randomly shuffled on a board. The goal is to slide, flip and turn each object, until all the shapes are correctly aligned and filled in. You can flip a shape by tapping on the edge, or turn it by flicking the corner, a process that takes some learning. There are two modes of play– race or solve, and it is possible to save your high scores on a leaderboard. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Turn your iPad or iPod Touch into a balance beam scale with this math app. There are three modes of play, each with three challenge levels, and it is possible to alternate between ounces and grams. The challenge is the same — to see if you can pile on just the right amount of weight on one side of the scale, to balance it with fruit on the other side of the scale. There are 9 types of fruit, from the 10g cherries to the 490g melon. The weights come in six sizes. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
VTech’s completely re-engineered MobiGo is an important new addition to the handheld learning category. There is no backward compatibility with the age-old V.Smile cartridges, a break from the past for V.Tech. Fortunately, the included Touch & Learn game cartridge offers six fun games. Powered by four AA batteries or AC power (neither included) there are also ports for earphones and a USB connector for saving progress online. Additional $20 cartridges feature characters from Toy Story, Dora, Mickey Mouse and Shrek. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
thinkSMART for the Wii and DS is a collection of exercises paired with a record keeping system. After you sign in and make an avatar, you choose from a series of mental challenges that include math, logic, memorization, language, and spatial reasoning. These are organized into free-training exercises, a daily routine, a test, and a multiplayer mode. All include the same challenges, but the free-training and multiplayer modes allow you to set your own difficulty. Created by dtp young entertainment for Mentor Interactive and Conspiracy Entertainment. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Completely re-designed around a Flash-based format (the same as the didj), this year’s Leapster Explorer ($70, for ages 4-9) won’t run older Leapster cartridges. But it will run older didj software, making this a new beginning for the trusted Leapster line. The didj has been discontinued. The games we tested featured characters from Toy Story 3, Dora, Star Wars, SpongeBob and the NFL. A USB link lets you download additional “Leaplets” (or apps), including ebooks from Leapfrog’s TAG library. Requires 4 AA batteries. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Children explore with their fingertips, in this colorful underwater playground, where a school of quick swimming fish illustrate numerals (up to 20), the alphabet song, and a set of shapes. In the alphabet song, children can swipe forward or backward, hearing the alphabet backwards if they like. If they stop at a letter, such as U, they hear “U is for Umbrella.” The number line works the same way, only the quantity is presented along with the numeral, in the form of a line of small eggs on the bottom of the screen. The “Playtime” activity fills the screen with dozens of differently colored fish, of every shape, size and pattern. Other more structured activities include a game of concentration, and a discrimination game, that asks children to find the fish that doesn’t belong. The iPhone and iPod touch versions are available for $.99 at http://tinyurl.com/fishiphone; the iPad vesion is $1.99: http://tinyurl.com/fishipad. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This handheld GPS receiver is designed to lead you to one of the 250,000 geocache locations that are pre-loaded into the device’s memory. After you insert the two AAA batteries, you turn on the unit and go outside in order tune into the GPS satellites. The display shows compass heading, latitude and longitude as well as the ability to save your finds in memory. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Named after the main character in “Alice in Wonderland”, Alice has recently been upgraded.
Like MIT’s Scratch and Alan Kay’s Squeak, Alice is a free programming language for children that can be downloaded and installed on a Macintosh, Windows or Linux computer. It is designed to turn programming into a drag-and-drop process. Alice was funded by Electronic Arts, Sun Microsystems, DARPA, Intel, Microsoft, NSF, and ONR. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Giving the term “computer bug” new meaning, Hexbug Nano is the fifth and latest model in a line of five types of single button-cell powered micro-robots on display during this year’s Toy Fair in New York. Created by the education company Innovation First, the bugs are great for introducing concepts like micro-mechanics, clean randomness, and the fine motor skills required to replace a single AG13 button cell battery, which gives the Nano it’s zip. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
See it in motion here
Pirate Parade
In the story, you help the Backyardigan gang (Pablo, Uniqua, Tyrone, Austin and Tasha) travel to outer space, collecting garbage, capturing evil villains as masked super heroes, and tapping on instruments to play music in a pirate parade. Created by Black Lantern Studios for 2K Games. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Warning. If you’re expecting to find the charm of the original Reader Rabbit titles, first published by The Learning Company, you’re in for a disappointment. In the game, Reader Rabbit and his sidekick Sam the Lion, are flying their Dreamship when they are captured by a giant bubble wrap. They land in Balloon Town, an island made of balloons where all sharp objects including their airship are locked away in a palace. To free their airship, they must gather the 5 different instruments for the band that have been scattered around Balloon Town and use them to wake up the sleeping bull in front of the palace. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Designed to improve math skills, this math app uses a 3D tile-matching metaphor to deliver practice with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. The goal is to touch two tiles that have the same amount (e.g., 4 and 2+2). If they match, the tiles disappear, and you search for the next pair, until all the tiles are gone. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Apple Harvest Game
Seven simple math games for the iPod Touch or iPhone provide practice with counting and number patterns. To start a game, you simply touch an icon from the main menu, which it is easy to jump back to at any point (tap the “menu” icon). In the first game, Melon Harvest, children first hear an elephant ask for a quantity of melons, from 1 to 9, for example “I need 7 melons.” Next, they must drag the melons to the basket, one at a time, until the quantity matches the numeral shown on the basket.Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
I was surprised by how much I liked MobiGo. The QWERTY keyboard feels real and doesn’t talk down to preschoolers, and there are no surprises in the interface. The big question, of course, is the quality of the eleven software titles that will be released this August, along with the system. VTech’s V.Smile software was famous for it’s chattiness. Based on what I saw, we’ll have to judge each title individually. The USB port is important to note, and the touchscreen looks great. Specifically targeting preschoolers (ages 3 to 7 years), there’s no doubt that this $60 device has the power to deliver a quality digital touch experience; and compares at least as well to if not better than the iXL.
The mono-touch screen is a bit like a Nintendo DS and the burned in ROM activities including coloring, drawing, and some music games. The slide open QWERTY keyboard introduces older kids to text typing skills; an added bonus to the responsive touch screen. Features include volume, an AC adapter, and 11 game cartridges sold for $20 each, including Ben 10, Disney/Pixar’s Cars, Disney Fairies, Disney Princesses, Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mr. Men & Little Miss, NASCAR, Shrek, Super Hero Squad and Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3. MobiGo will be available at retail and online at www.vtechkids.com. Teaches: early learning. VTech Electronics North America, $60. Best for ages 3-7.
The Sums Stacker app lets you move numerals and sets of numerals around with the tip of your finger. There are two modes of play — solve and race — and two difficulty levels. The challenge is bite-sized and addicting: to make a three column stack of quantities that add up to the number shown at the bottom of the screen. Once the stack matches the sum, the screen clears and you get another challenge.The numbers are represented in eight ways that vary in their level of abstraction. More information is at www.mathdoodles.com. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
One of the problems
Get out your #2 stylus, because your Nintendo DS is now a test prep experience. Based on content from The Princeton Review’s test prep program, My SAT Coach contains two full length SAT tests, along with timed drills that cover critical reading, mathematics and writing. In the drills, which are delivered in short 10- to 15-minute sections, you race the clock as quickly as possible in order to score as many points as possible. At the end of the section, you’re told how many problems you answered correctly, incorrectly, or left blank. Next, you can flip through the problem set and see the correct answers.
Additional mini-games include Positive/Negative (a word classification game), Algebra Blitz (a timed race), Elimination (a game designed to let you weed out the wrong answers), Grammar Cracker (spot the errors) and Definition Decoder (a critical reading game).
Progress can be saved on the cartridge, and the game can be customized so that the background music can be turned on or off, and the bubbles can be filled in either with a tap, or by scratching the dots… a nice twist. See also FutureU from Asyr Media/Kaplan. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Screen: One of the multiple-choice problems
What do you get when you cross former Microsoft executives with some dedicated math educators? A state-of-the-art online math curriculum ($13/month at www.dreambox.com). We tried the free two-week trial option and found the first 20 or so of the 350 activities to be well-designed and engaging. The lessons are designed to function as a stand alone math curriculum, say for a home school situation, or they could supplement an existing school curriculum. Because the lessons are designed and delivered in Flash, you can run them from from any Macintosh or Windows browser. No disks, downloads or installations required.
First, a parent or teacher needs to make an account. Next, children log in with their screen name and password. There’s the one-time process of choosing an avatar (there is one in a wheelchair), followed by a tutorial on how to use the mouse. From there, it’s on to a cartoon-like world, made of four themes: Pirates, Dinosaurs, Pets, or Pixies. Progress is monitored by a management system that tracks a child’s progress and controls the difficulty, hints, pace, and sequence of the lessons. Adults can log in at any time to check a child’s progress; an email reporting option is also available.
Completing games earns coins, which can be used at a carnival arcade, with games like skeet ball where you can add up your points. Note that the price listed is for one month, for one child. For six months, $50, for one year, $100. Schools, call about site licenses. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Update March 2009: Seven new titles will bring the total Didj library to 19 by 2010, and increase the curriculum offerings.
Many releases seem to be Disney-related, featuring Hannah Montana (math, spelling), Neopets, High School Musical (music and fractions), Up (geography) and Fairies. Two notable exceptions: Star Wars Jedi Wars and an NFL sports game. There are no changes in the hardware for this year.
First released in the Summer of 2008, Leapfrog’s Didj (spelled in lower-case letters) is a handheld edu-gaming system with a clear color screen and Nintendo DS-like controls that comes in pink, blue or gray. It runs on 4 AA batteries, or it can be powered with a DC ‘in’ port. Like the Leapster or the Nintendo DS, the software comes on cartridges and is sold for $20 – $30 each. Other features include a mono headphone jack, a volume slider and easy-to-learn gaming controls. It does not have a touch screen. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This third title in the Didi & Ditto series features the same film-quality animation that has become a trademark of the Canadian developer Kutoka Interactive, mixed with 16 games.
In the story, Didi & Ditto (young brother and sister beavers) are preparing for a visit from Mother Nature, but a sneaky wolf has been hiding the musical instruments and the food. After they sign in (to save games), children can choose to play in the adventure mode, or jump directly to one of the games, where they can sort letters, construct short words or match numerals with quantities.
The hybrid game comes on one disk that can be installed on either Macintosh or Windows computers. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Based on a real surgical procedure, this step-by-step simulation teaches you how to implant a small electrode in the center of a patient’s brain. The process, called Deep Brain Stimulation, is used to remedy the effects of nerve disorders such as those
caused by Parkinson’s Disease.
Your patient is a 59 year old women named Ellen, and you are provided with a case history before the procedure, which takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. You control each step — from putting the six small screws (called fiducials) into the skull by clicking on each marked spot, to inserting the electrical probe at exactly the right depth, by dragging your cursor over a lever. Later, you put in the battery packs and adjust the charge.
At various points, you’re given a multiple choice quiz asking you to justify your actions. If you make a mistake? No worries and no malpractice. The computer gently moves you to the next step.
This title was created by Clearly Trained and published by Edheads with funding from the Ohio State University Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.