The iPhone Mom

Maddition turns addition and multiplication practice into a game. Bubbles with numbers on them float around the iPhone’s screen. At the bottom of the screen are buttons showing the numbers 1-9.  You have to tap on two numbers that add up to one of the bubble numbers on the screen. When you get it right the bubble pops and you move on to another one. If you get it wrong the bubbles grow bigger and bigger until they pop. When you begin playing you’re only allowed to have three bubbles pop before the game is over but as you do well you’ll earn bonus bubbles. If you want to make the game tougher you can switch to multiplication mode. Then you’ll have to tap two numbers that multiply together to make the bubble numbers. You can adjust both the level of difficulty and the number of bubbles that appear on the screen.  Lastly, there is a practice mode to the game that you can turn on or off.

Maddition is a change of pace from regular flashcards. It would be nice to see a subtraction mode in future updates.

I’ve been given five promo codes for Maddition to give away. If you’ve got a child who could use some math practice leave me a comment. The first five comments win a code. (Promo codes will only work in the U.S. App Store)

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: thrum

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

Flash Bee is a flashcard app that features both math and word flashcards. It will allow you to create different “student” profiles so you can use the app with more than one child and I’m always a big fan of this type of feature.

There are several buttons on the bottom of the screen that will help you navigate through the app. “Words” will take you to the word flashcard section.  Choose your student’s profile and then tap on the button that says “word list”. Here you can choose the grade level for the words that will show up on the flashcards.  The grades go from Pre-K to Fifth Grade and each grade has beginner, intermediate and advanced lists. (Many of them will also have more than one list per difficulty level.) In the options you can get specific about which grades and lists you want to work with.  There are a few additional options that you can choose from including setting a limit on the number of flashcards shown, determining when a “helper phrase” for the word will appear, randomizing the words, repeating the list and some sound options. When you’ve figured all that out it’s just a matter of tapping “start” and you’re off. A word is displayed on the screen and when you’ve read it correctly you tap the “next” button and you’re on to the next flashcard. At the end of the flashcard set you’ll see a summary of how you did overall. You can always view this information on the “history” section for your student (found by tapping the “Students” button). The history will tell you what list your child worked on, how many cards they reviewed and how long it took them to finish. One last thing about the word section – I really like the font that the developers chose for the word flashcards.

The “Math” button takes you to the main math flashcards screen. First thing you’ll want to do is choose between addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problems. Choosing  what you want is as easy as sliding a button on the screen from on to off. There are also options about the number of problems in your flashcard set, the number range for the problems and a time limit for the review. Again, when you’ve completed the flashcards you’ll have a summary of results and you can view those in history too.

I also found that if you tap the button “Word List” at the bottom of the screen you can see all of the word lists available for use with the flashcards. Here’s the part I was surprised about – you can also add your own words to the lists. Great concept! From what I can tell you can’t create new lists, just add in your own words to the existing ones.  It would be nice to be able to create new lists for weekly spelling words.

I like how Flash Bee combines the words plus the math facts. It’s nice to have a combination in one app. I also like how you can choose what math facts to practice and which words you’d like to review. It’s great being able to set up student profiles for each of my children and their different ability levels.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: BizzyTime, Inc.

Math Kingdom combines math facts practice with an adventure game. You are the hero who must save a captured princess and recover the Math Kingdom’s stolen treasures. To do this you’ve got to solve math problems and make your way through the castle. You are asked to solve a math problem and then write your answer on the screen. If you get the answer correct you break though a castle wall. After breaking down ten walls you’ll face a monster. (They’re meant to be monsters but don’t worry, they’re not very scary.) The monster will present you with a more challenging word problem. If you solve this one correctly you recover one of the lost treasures. As you progress through the app the math problems increase in difficulty.  Each time you begin or continue a game you are given five “lives”. When you answer a problem incorrectly you lose a life. When all of your lives are gone it’s game over but don’t worry, this is a friendly app. It gives you the choice of starting over at the beginning or continuing where you left off.

When I was playing Math Kingdom I did have a little bit of trouble with the app crashing as I was trying to load a saved game. I powered off and then restarted my iPhone and after that I had no problems. I like the way Math Kingdom jazzes up math practice. This app is a fun alternative to flashcards. I especially like the way it incorporates actually writing the numbers. This is fantastic practice for kids and the handwriting recognition works very well. It did a terrific job deciphering my sloppy chicken scratch.

Price when Reviewed: $.99    FREE

Seller: Acoco Interactive

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

GeoBlox is an educational app that would be good for children in their early elementary education years. I’d say probably 1st-3rd graders. The app mixes up geography with famous landmarks and animals. The idea is to match  these things with the continent where they belong. The game is played using a map of the world. Picture blocks drop out of the sky and you have to drag them to the continent where they belong. If you don’t move the blocks quickly enough they’ll stack up and cover the screen. You can play in several modes. In “The Animals Game’” only pictures of animals will fall from the sky. In “The Places Game” it’s pictures of important locations around the world. “Mix Together” gives you some of each. When you drag a picture to the correct continent you score a point. If you drag it to the wrong spot you lose a point. Scores are kept on a “High Scores” screen. The game can be set at an easy, normal or hard level. As you play the game you’ll notice a small sentence at the top of the screen. This is a hint/answer about the animal or place that you’re working on. The app also has an explore section. Here you’ll go through the animals and places that are featured in the game and learn more about them. This is probably a good place to begin. There are 18 famous places and 18 animals in the game right now, with more content promised soon.

I think GeoBlox is based on a terrific concept and off to a good start. With a few little tweaks I think it can be a really great app. The first is to have the animated character stay in one spot on the screen. She’s cute but when she walks across the screen while you’re playing the game it’s distracting. The second tweak would be to increase the type size on the screen so it’s a little easier to read. Next is to increase the content of the game and maybe incorporate levels somehow.

This is the developer’s first game and I think she’s off to a solid start. If you’d like to try out GeoBlox and provide any feedback I have three five promo codes to give away. First three five  comments will get them.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Cid Chiu

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

Little Pim Word Bag is designed to help your child learn vocabulary in either French or Spanish. The app is based on an award winning  DVD series Pim is a panda and he’s got some fantastic things in his bag. There are things to do with eating and drinking, things to do with waking up smiling and things to do with playtime. Choose the category you’d like to explore and get ready to learn. Tap on Pim’s bag and watch him take out something to do with eating, waking, etc. There’s a colorful picture representing the item and then it’s name is written out underneath. Pim pronounces the word for you and then you can tap his bag again. The items all line up along the bottom of the screen and you can tap on them again to hear their name repeated. Little Pim never says the words in English so your children will need to be old enough to identify the pictures of the items. Otherwise they’ll have no idea what Pim’s talking about. Of course you can also use the app together and help guide them through it.

Little Pim Word Bag does a nice job presenting some common vocabulary in a cute way. It’s something different than simple flashcards and I like the way you can interact with Pim. To close I’d also like to apologize to Pim – I’ve no idea if he is a she or she is a he, so no offense intended Mr/Ms Panda!

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Little Pim Co.

We enjoy the PBS show Martha Speaks. Martha is a dog who eats alphabet soup but instead of the letters going to her tummy they go to her doggie brain. Voila – Martha speaks! If only we could feed our dog Ginny alphabet soup to find out what she’s thinking. Then again, some days that might not be the best idea. We probably wouldn’t like what she had to tell us.  Martha now has an app, Martha Speaks Dog Party. The app contains four different games, all centered around a party theme.

In “Chow Time” you have to tap on a plate that the dogs are asking for. Martha asks you to find a plate that matches some descriptive words. For example, checkered, colorful or covered in robots. If you have trouble she’ll help you out with a definition of the word. Once you’ve found the correct plate it’s time to feed the dog. The dog chow goes on the plate and you use your finger to control the dog’s tongue so he can eat. Swipe across the screen and watch his tongue go but make sure you’ve got the sound up so you can enjoy the licking sound effects. Gross but so very appealing to kids.

“Doggie Dress Up” lets you accessorize the dogs for Martha’s party. My kids love this game. When you’ve got your dog decked out in the perfect accessories you can tap on the camera icon and it will “take a picture”. The dogs each have different accessories to choose from. It’s a cute game.

“Martha Says” is a take on the game Simon Says. You tap on a dog to make it do what Martha says. I’ve never been good at Simon Says and Martha caught me several times. After you’ve been successful with one dog another is added and now you’ve got two dogs to control. This continues and the number of dogs grows and grows. The most I got up to is six and I think that’s the highest you can control, but I’m not 100% certain.

Finally, “Pop Quiz” tests your vocabulary skills. Martha gives you a word and you must pop (tap) the balloon that contains the word that means the same thing.

I’ve always liked the way Martha Speaks works vocabulary words into it’s TV episodes and I like the way they’ve done it with their app too. The characters and games are true to the series and the app sticks to it’s mission of helping boost children’s “oral vocabulary”.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: PBS Kids

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

Lola’s Flag Adventure is a polished and entertaining app that’s all about the maps of the world.  It’s broken into two types of games, Memory and Trivia. In the Memory game you’ll choose from the easy, medium and hard levels. Each level is represented by an adorable panda of a different size, the smallest being for the easy level. The memory game is traditional, tap a card to turn it over and look for it’s match. When you tap a card you’ll hear and see the name of the country that it belongs to. I thought this was a nice touch. Each incorrect move will cost you points but you’ll earn plenty back when you make a match. As you are playing you’ll notice a panda climbing up a piece of bamboo on the left side of the screen. When you make a match he climbs up but if you’re wrong he’ll slide back down. There are twelve cards in the easy level, sixteen in medium and twenty-four in hard. When you’ve matched all the cards you’ll receive a final score. The scores can also be seen on a scoreboard. One last thing – you get a glimpse of the cards at the beginning of the level before they are flipped over.

In the Trivia game you will pick a category from the regions of Global, Asia & Pacific, Europe and Americas. Now you will see a flag and the names of three countries from that region. Your task is to pick the country that matches the flag. On the right side of the screen is an ant crawling down a piece of bamboo. You need to make your guess before the ant reaches the ground. On the left side is your panda and he’ll climb his bamboo with each correct answer. Again at the end of the round you’ll receive a score that can be tracked on a scoreboard. My one complaint about Lola’s Flag Adventure is with this Trivia game. I like the game and the way it plays but in order to choose your answer you must slide your finger across the country’s name. This seemed awkward to me and there were times when I thought I’d done it correctly but my answer didn’t register with. Personally, I think it’d be much easier to tap on the answer.

If you’re looking for an app that will help your children learn the world’s flags, Lola’s Flag Adventure is a cute one. I like the pandas and the way they climb the bamboo as you play. I also like the way the app has the two separate games. Overall it’s cute stuff!

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: BeiZ, Ltd.

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

The last time I studied Geography was in college but that knowledge is unfortunately long forgotten and I’m sorry to say what I retain now is thanks to my viewing of the Amazing Race. Because my geographical aptitude is so sorry  this app had me all worked up. GeoMania tests your knowledge of world geography. It asks you to find locations on a globe. The globe is a really neat feature. You can spin it and zoom in and out. When you’ve found the location that’s asked for tap it on the globe and you’ll find out if you were right. I did not get a single answer right but I did get close. A few times. Points are scored for the accuracy of your answers and the time it takes you to figure them out. In the settings you can change the globe from a satellite view to a night or political view. You can also turn off the borders. I am nowhere near hard core enough to attempt that. I selected the political view because the countries show up in different colors. That helped me out. A little.

If you are a geography nut then you’ll enjoy this game or if you have older children this would be a great way for them to practice their geography. It’s been a great long while since I was in high school, and an even greater, longer while since junior high and I can’t remember when the serious geography studies begin. I can’t suggest an age range for GeoMania but I wouldn’t have your children try it before they’ve got a good knowledge base. Otherwise they’ll end up frustrated. It’s a tough app! At least it was for me…

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Tritap

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

iUmmm is meant to be used as a tool for helping you improve your ability to communicate with others. It helps you keep track of how many times you say those distracting things like “like” or “ummm”. The idea is to keep track of how often they’re creeping into your speech and then work on saying them less. You can choose one of the app’s preset words or add in a new word of your own. In our house that would be the word “So”. It’s too much a part of our conversations so we need to work on not saying it so we don’t sound like we just want the conversation to go on and on so that no one else can talk. Phew.

Once you’ve set up the words that you’d like to work on you simply tap on the number shown beside the word. This keeps a score of how often the word has been spoken. You can track several different people and view reports on how everyone is doing. iUmmm also includes a timer that you can use to keep track of how long a speech or presentation has gone on. And on.

As a mom, I find that there are plenty of words my kids pick up at school that I’d rather they not say at all. iUmmm could be very useful at the dinner table if I wanted to keep track of what words they were using. We could set goals for ourselves and use the app to track our progress towards perfectly eloquent speech. Personally, I’d want to know when someone was tracking my speech so I think that for us, openess would be key. No secretly counting how many times Daddy voices his opinions with “uhhh” because he’s got an iPhone too and I don’t want him counting up all of my “ya knows”.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Scott Singer

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

I absolutely adore KidCalc Math Fun. It is well executed, educational, fun and has an amazing amount of options for a $.99 app. If you’ve got a preschooler or a child in elementary school this is one to buy.  There are five different parts to this app. I’ll give a brief run down of each one and I’m going to save my favorite for last.

Flash Cards – Simple flash cards. A number is displayed and spoken out loud. Touch the rotation circle on the flashcard and it flips over to display a matching amount of something. Swipe your finger to the left to see the next card. At the bottom of the screen is a picture frame icon. Tap this and the theme of the flashcard changes. The background will change and so do the things being counted. Some of the theme choices are Christmas, Spring, Outer Space. Those are just a few. If you tap on the settings icon (also at the bottom of the screen)  you can change things up even more. You can set the flashcards to count by ones, twos, threes, fours, etc., going all the way up to hundreds. You can even have them display prime numbers, binary numbers and Fibonacci numbers. Whoa! The app lets you pick the lowest numbered card displayed and the highest. You can change the order from low to high, high to low or random.  Plenty of options there! 

Counting Puzzle – Here you will see number cards displayed. If you tap them in order they disappear, revealing a hidden picture. Again you can tap the frame icon and change up the theme. In settings you can select the number of squares that are displayed, how the numbers are counted and sorted. Again, plenty of options that will make the game work for both younger and older players.

Math Puzzle – This is the same idea as the Counting Puzzle except you must solve a math problem to erase the card and reveal part of the picture. Tap on the problem you want to solve and you’ll see it written out and displayed using items. For example 3+2=? would be shown as three Martians plus two Martians equals…and then you tap the correct answer. This is a fantastic feature for those just learning how to do addition and subtraction. You can also tap the rotate button and see the problem displayed without the pictures. In the settings for Math Puzzle you can select beginner or intermediate problems. Problems can be from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There is also a review feature that can be turned on (or off). This feature lets you listen  and watch the math problem being completed after you’ve entered your answer. A little repetition always helps.

Count Snowflakes – This is my son’s favorite game.  Snowflakes are falling on the screen and you’ve got to tap them to count them. My son likes to tap as quickly as he can so he can hear the numbers spoken rapidly. You can turn on holiday music and the frame icon will let you choose from three snowy scenes. In settings you can choose the highest number you’d like to count to. When you reach this number a trumpet sounds and you start over again. I am not kidding about this…you can count up to 1000 snowflakes. Do you know how long that would keep my son busy? A good amount of time.

Calculator – This is my favorite part of KidCalc. The calculator has a terrific kid friendly feature. Let’s say you’ve got the sports theme turned on.  You press the number eight, eight shows up at the top of the screen, you hear “eight basketballs” and then the balls appear on the screen. Next you tap the plus sign and see and hear “plus”. Tap the number four, see it and hear “four basketballs” and there’ll they be on the screen. Now tap equals and it all comes together. Eight basketballs plus four basketballs equals twelve basketballs.  The problem is displayed at the top and the pictures illustrating the problem are displayed underneath. The frame icon will let you change themes in this game as well. The calculator only performs addition and subtraction and the highest number you can enter is ten. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I kept trying out problem after problem because the calculator is just so darn cute.

I am amazed at the variety and quality you get with KidCalc. The graphics are adorable, the ability to change themes is great and the options for the games seriously impressed me. I haven’t even talked about the app’s narration. It’s done by the developer’s daughter and she does a terrific job. The way she says things made me smile. Who doesn’t want that when using a math app??  KidCalc is something that my five, seven and ten year old can all use in different ways. Fantastic, fantastic app. Grab this one, I mean it!

*2/6/2010 – The version of KidCalc that’s on my phone is now called KidCalc 7-in-1 Math Fun.  It now features “Number Tracing”.  Here you can use your finger to trace the numbers 1-20. There is also a “Flash Card Champion” game where you complete math flashcards and try to beat your time.  All of the customization is still there and you still get a tremendous amount of content for your money.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Steve Glinberg

*A free version of KidCalc is also available. It doesn’t contain as many features as the full version but it’s got a fair amount. If you look at it’s description in iTunes you’ll see a run down of what is available in the full vs. free versions.

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