Smarty Shortz 1st Grade

Screenshots

Smarty Shortz 1st is a collection of lessons and mini games from a variety of different subjects. The app covers Math, History, Spelling, Reading, Science and Geography. Each subject features several lessons. When a lesson is completed a mini game that relates to the lesson can be played. This collection of lessons focuses on first grade subject matter.

There are things that I liked about Smarty Shortz. I like the concept and I think it’s great to have an app that covers such a variety of topics. Much better to have it all condensed in one app than to have to buy six different ones. I also like the background music. The Science lessons have illustrations that look like they’ve been done by a first grader and I thought they had charm. My son enjoyed the Reading lesson. Here he listened to a beginning, middle and end of a story. Then the different parts were put together and he heard it all straight through. The stories are silly and he enjoyed them.

Unfortunately, there are also some things that I didn’t care for in this app. The first was that the navigation felt clunky. It’s hard to explain but the lessons just didn’t seem to flow. I also would have preferred more directions, whether they were verbal or written. More explanation is definitely needed. The next thing I struggled with was dragging and dropping objects on the screen. Many lessons ask you to drag something on the screen and drop it in a certain spot. For example, there’s a lesson on Art History where you take an image of a famous artwork and drop it onto a timeline. I could not get the objects to stay in their new spots. In another lesson I had to place a word in just the right spot or it wouldn’t work. I think that an app for children needs more leniency with a feature like this, otherwise the players will grow frustrated. I did. Finally, some of the graphics seemed fuzzy which was disappointing in an HD app for the iPad.

Smarty Shortz was only recently released and one of the wonderful things about apps is they frequently improve. Developers listen to feedback and make changes through updates. Since updates are free this is a win for buyers. I look forward to seeing where Smarty Shortz goes in the future.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

See the app in iTunes

Seller: Smarty Shortz LLC

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