MathLands

MathLands says it was designed for kids ages 7 to 77 but I’m thinking that I must have the Math abilities of a three year old because these puzzles had me stumped! To be fair I’ve never been very good at logic puzzles and problem solving and that’s exactly what this iPad app is made up of. Give me math facts to memorize and I’m good to go but ask me to move rings on a tower or water in a jug and you’ve lost me. My kids are so much better with these skills than I am!

MathLands has six different activities and puzzles with different levels of difficulty that become more advanced. The app tracks the time it takes you to finish the activity as well as the number of moves, your level and objective, etc. The puzzles include the following:

• Tower of Hanoi – Move the stack of rings from one tower to the next. You’ll be unable to stack large rings on top of smaller ones. There are a total of five levels, working up to seven rings.
• The Frog Puzzle – Your goal is to move the orange frogs to the right side of the pond and the green frogs to the left. The frogs can only leap over one frog at a time, going forwards. This puzzle has a total of five levels and works up to eight frogs.
• Magic Shapes – Each side of a triangle has three numbers and those numbers should all add up to the same sum. Some of these numbers are missing and you need to use a set of numbers at the bottom of the screen to fill them in. The puzzle has seven levels. Six are triangles and the last one is a square.
• The Water Jug Puzzle – In this puzzle you must fill and empty two jugs until you end up with a liter of water in one jug. There are five levels and the number of required liters increases with each.
• Ravine Crossing Puzzle – Children are trying to cross a ravine by parachute and it takes each child a different amount of time to cross. Two children can cross and then one must return with the parachutes. You’ve got to figure out which children should cross and when they should do it in order to meet a time deadline. There are three levels and they work up to getting five people across the ravine.
• Math Comics – Comic strips illustrate a word problem and you can manipulate objects on the bottom of the screen to help you solve the problem.

MathLands will definitely get children thinking outside the box. The app description says it develops problem solving, logic, number sense and mathematical intuition and after using the app I believe that’s all true. My suggestion to the developers would be to add a hint button. I think that younger users could become frustrated with some of the puzzles. If there was a way to provide hints that didn’t completely give away the answer that would be ideal. Without hints I’m going to suggest that the app is best for children around ten years of age and up. Younger children might be able to work the puzzles but I know mine would need parental help…and even then I’m not sure how much I’d be able to give!

*This is an iPad only app.*

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

See the app in iTunes

Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Seller: Mamanijo

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.