There are some good educational apps accessible for a iPad and iPhone, though how on earth do we make Maths fun? [Updated Jul 13, 2015.]
Maths is boring, right? Well, actually, no. But a approach many of us are taught maths positively can be dull. To get to grips with maths we need to master a basics, and that means training lots of facile sums off by heart: 2 x 7 = 14, 5 + 4 = 9, 33 divided by 3 is 11, etc.
See also: Best inscription for children
We have to memorise all a categorical addition, subtraction, computation and computation basis since differently we’d spend vast proportions of a day counting on a fingers and toes.
There’s one thing some-more tedious than usually training times tables off by heart, and that’s sitting there training a child to learn times tables off by heart.
Thank integrity afterwards for smartphone apps and inscription apps that make training elementary maths not usually easy though fun, too. We’ve also dull adult a best apps for training to tell a time.
I’m not advocating relatives abandoning their children armed with an iPhone or Android tablet, and anticipating a app does all a work.
At slightest to start with a primogenitor or other chairman capable in some-more than facile maths needs to be with a child and beam them by a routine and assistance out with a sums. There are tricks for opposite times tables, for example, that we can learn a child to make a whole routine easier.
There are copiousness of iPhone, iPad and Android apps to assistance your child learn elementary maths, and we’ve picked a garland of a best here. Mainly we’ve looked during maths games apps directed during primary/elementary propagandize children, aged 5-12, though also a few for younger maths beginners. We’ve reviewed some in some-more detail. Click on a links to review a full reviews of these maths apps. But what we need to know should be enclosed here. We have remarkable that work with iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
As ability and age have a temperament on that apps are best for your kids we’ve divided a list into levels: Beginners’ Maths Apps and Older Maths Apps. Some are applicable for both groups and will adjust to a child’s training skills. See also: Best Phonics Apps for kids
Beginners’ Maths Apps
These apps are good for kids usually starting out on maths. Also take a demeanour during a Older Maths Apps spin list as some start utterly elementary though grow with a child. Don’t overcome kids with maths they don’t nonetheless know though speak them by what they’re going to do so they feel some-more confident. Many of these games are a lot of fun and so will perform as good as educate.
Kids Academy · 123 Tracing.
£2.99. iPhone, iPad, Android
Before we can do any maths we need to be means to commend and write a numbers.
Kids Academy 123 Tracing, for a younger children, helps tiny ones learn to do usually that by regulating a iPad’s touchscreen. Children are introduced to a numbers and shown how to pull them regulating their finger. The numbers fill a shade so are formally vast format, and a tracing points good laid out.
Successful array essay is rewarded not usually by a app’s ridicule difference of support though also with practical fireflies in a jar, that can be expelled any time a numbers have been completed.
There’s a Parent Mode, where we can check a swell of any child reserved a profile. And we can change a voice (male or female) and sounds here, too.
The initial iPhone and iPad versions of a app are giveaway though singular to a few numbers. Parents contingency dump into their pockets for £2.49 for all 10 numbers to snippet on iPhone or iPad. Android-using relatives compensate £1.95. Why a cost discrepancy?
While £2.49 isn’t a outrageous volume to flare out to assistance your child get to grips with essay it is a tiny on a high side for an app. The company’s ABC Alphabet Phonics tracing app costs usually £1.99 for 26 letters (£1.95 on Android), creation a £2.49 for 10 numbers seem steep.
Number Monster
£2.29. iPhone, iPad, Android
One for a unequivocally early learners, Number Monster (from Wombi) is a facile app that teaches kids to recognize numbers – from 1-20. It’s accessible and easy for kids to collect up. Parents can spin on and off visible clues as their child progresses. It doesn’t go many serve than that so is a tiny costly for what it offers.
There’s also a Shape Monster games (at a time of essay this was offering for free). Like Number Monster it’s easy and friendly, and can be set during opposite levels adult to hexagons and pentagons from a start with squares and circles, etc.
Wombi also offers Colour Monster and Letter Monster apps, and a facile telling-the-time app called Around The Clock.
Wee Kids Math
£1.99. iPhone, iPad
Wee Kids Math (from Ebooks Kids) has a whole garland of charming games to learn kids about numbers and elementary maths. This app is good for children usually starting to learn their array shapes and sequence (0-20), adult to those starting out on serve and subtraction. It’s not unequivocally for those who have grasped these concepts already.
There’s copiousness of accumulation – and that’s critical when enlivening kids to like maths – and a games are facile to get a hang of notwithstanding a miss of instruction from a developers. I’d have elite a tiny some-more assistance when starting a game, as we have to theory what to do on any new game.
There are many sundry games to play, including all a kids favourites such as insects and other animals, and space arcade games.
One other dispute is that a array ‘3’ in all games looks too many like an ‘8’ on a tiny screen, that can be confusing. Lesson to developers: don’t needlessly upset your immature users.
These criticisms aside Wee Kids Math is a fun serve (geddit?) to your maths app library, and teaches a lot of elementary concepts in a fun and enchanting way.
Maths apps for primary propagandize children and above
Some of these maths apps will work for younger kids, too, though will grow in use as your child gets older. Getting a Times Tables right is super critical in building maths skills, and there are some good apps here that assistance that, and pull on by addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry, fractions, decimals, measurements, graphs, algebra and so on.
Math Bingo
£1.49, iPhone, iPad and Android
Play a diversion that’s all about numbers to learn how to add, subtract, greaten and divide: yes, Bingo.
Math Bingo sets a garland of questions contingent on your choice and a spin of your child’s maths skills. A timer ticks divided so you’re out to kick your personal best time any go. To start we’d advise except a time as this can put undue vigour on a child.
Math Bingo is charming and facilities a collection of uncanny bug aliens to make maths even some-more fun. Kids adore to win a Bingo Bugs and they can afterwards use them in a diversion of Bingo Bug Bungie – a arrange of pinball diversion where we glow your collected bugs to knockout coins to kick your tip score. It’s adequate to make even demure mathematicians have another go during multiplication!
Within Math Bingo there are now dual new games we can play after completing a Bingo board: Math Stack and Math Fling.
Times tables: Squeebles Multiplication
69p, iPhone, iPad and Android
Squeebles Times Tables 2
£2.99, iPhone, iPad and Android
Master a times tables with a assistance of Whizz, better a nasty Maths Monster, and collect tiny Squeeble characters, trophies and stars as we learn.
Like Math Bingo, Times Tables: Squeebles Multiplication is a charming app that creates training fun.
There’s no timer so your child isn’t rushed into guessing, and they’ll adore collecting all a diversion rewards. It’s a good approach to exam kids on their computation and times tables.
UPDATE: There’s now a new £1.49 chronicle called Squeebles Times Tables 2, that facilities an stretched prerogative system, fun mini game, 6 tables modes, total players and copiousness of stats and stating for relatives and teachers – again thankfully though any in-app purchases or adverts. It’s good for contrast kids on their times tables and reqrding them for removing them right.
There are other Squeebles apps for addition, division, etc. See a Key Stage Fun Squeebles website for sum of all on offer. Each of these are unequivocally value a investment, though try out on one initial to check your child finds it fun, too.
Mr Thorne’s Times Table Terra
Mr Thorne’s Divide + Conquer
Mr Thorne’s Addition Space Station
All £1.49, iPhone, iPad
London clergyman Christopher Thorne contingency be one of a coolest Sirs on a universe (although he does seem to possess several pairs of Timmy Mallet-like specs), and he uses a planets as a thesis for his 3 maths apps: Mr Thorne’s Times Table Terra, Mr Thorne’s Divide + Conquer, and Mr Thorne’s Addition Space Station.
The apps are facile and demeanour beautiful – certain to be a strike with boys as good as girls.
When we measure 10 out of 10 on a sold addition, times list or computation exam we get to keep a space hire or planet, depending on a app you’re using. There’s a poser plea when you’ve unbarred all a tests, that is an additional inducement – and opposite to a Squeebles and Math Bingo prerogative games.
Each diversion has 3 levels: Beginner/Newcomer, First Class/Elite and World Class/Legend. The tip spin is going to exam adults, too, so we can join in a sum fun.
Mr Thorne’s Addition Space Station has 42 mental maths tests, that includes adding churned numbers, decimals and fractions so is suitable for children aged 5-11.
Mr Thorne’s Times Table Terra facilities 60 tests formed on elementary computation and times tables. They also underline video tutorials from Mr Thorne himself.
Mr Thorne’s Divide + Conquer has 50 maths tests formed on computation and opposite times tables.
I suggest all a Mr Thorne maths apps, as they’re facile to use, demeanour great, and should unequivocally rivet kids in these maths basics.
Let’s Do Mental Maths
£2.29, iPhone, iPad
Let’s Do Mental Maths for iPhone and iPad are also recommended. They’re a good approach to guard your kids’ swell during maths and exam many maths categories.
Andrew Brodie, educational author and former teacher, teamed adult with Bloomsbury and Aimer Media to emanate a Let’s Do Mental Maths apps; directed during 5-6, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10 and 10-11 years olds. The 7-8 app recently won a Futurebook Innovation Award for a best children’s non-fiction digital book, credited with “using a digital knowledge to take on a thesis that was ‘hard to tackle’.”
They are designed to support a latest National Curriculum mandate and have been grown alongside children in classrooms to assistance boost children’s confidence.
Let’s Do Mental Maths uses an enchanting ask format with a animation Digit a Dog, who can offer recommendation when a actor gets stuck.
There are 3 categorical ask areas:
Starter questions to comfortable adult a kids’ maths skills – a discerning preference of pointless questions, singly total any time.
Progress tests are done adult of 7 sets of 20 questions to class maths ability and lane players’ scores – matched to National Curriculum approaching progress.
Practice quizzes consist of nine categories of use questions: Place Value, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Times, Measure and Shape.
There is a facile Results dashboard that includes a commission and array of correct answers as good as a time taken to answer
The Let’s Do Mental Maths apps are a good brew of maths tasks that don’t try too tough with gimmicks though still demeanour like fun, and get children prepared for their SATs. Recommended.
Compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch all a apps can be purchased in a iTunes App Store, possibly away for £1.99, or during £4.99 for all 6 apps within a series.
Operation Math
£2.29, iPhone, iPad and Android
This perspective diversion puts a actor as a tip representative battling a immorality Dr Odd. You get new uniforms and perspective rigging for any goal completed. Like a other maths apps here we set your hurdles depending on a spin of maths skills of a child.
This diversion is all about violence a clock, so try it initial in training mode when a actor has some-more time to consider about a addition, subtraction, computation and computation equations.
The perspective thesis is a good thought for creation maths a fun adventure.
YodelOh Math Mountain – School Edition – Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division Practice for Kids
£2.29, iPhone, iPad
From a same group as Operation Math comes a genuine oddity: YodelOh Math Mountain, an Alpine maths game. This quirky diversion fires sums during we as an Alpine gent solemnly climbs a mountain. You can select serve computation (both for numbers 1-20), multiplication, computation (numbers 1-12) or a mix, and we have a multiple-choice selection. You need to measure as many points as probable before a lederhosen-wearing Hans drops off a cliff.
It’s unequivocally rather barking mad, with maths-crazed sheep butting Hans in a behind, and several other surprises.It’s so opposite that it creates a change from some of a quieter games we are reviewing here.
It facilities graduated difficulty, with questions removing harder during any level, as good as developmental ability building with kids carrying to priortise visible infomration and make discerning decisions.
YodelOh Math Mountain could simply get addictive.
MathBoard
£3.99, iPad, iPhone and Android
Although some-more costly than many maths apps MathBoard can be simply configured for propagandize children of all ages, commencement with facile serve and computation problems, computation and division, and algebra.
The blackboard thesis is cute, nonetheless many kids won’t come anywhere a blackboard in propagandize these days.
It is built around churned choice though encourages operative out solutions with a neat scratchboard area where pupils can marker their sums.
MathBoard’s Problem Solver walks students by a stairs compulsory to solve a addition, subtraction, multiplication, and computation equations. There are also discerning anxiety tables to hand.
We generally like a configurable inlet of MathBoard, where we can establish array ranges, replace disastrous answers, etc.
Activities and quizzes can be timed, possibly as a countdown timer or elapsed time.
There’s a giveaway chronicle that tackles serve usually so we can have a play before forking out for a full version. You don’t need to be a maths boffin to see a value in that!
Mathletics Student
Free. iPad. Requires annual subscription.
Recommended by teachers and relatives is Mathletics, a subscription-based online complement of maths learning.
For £39/year a child can run by adaptive-learning, level-staged maths tasks and games around mechanism or iPad app. Students learn during their possess pace.
Mathletics is fun and facilities a good rewards complement for kids, who win Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates by scoring points in a far-reaching operation of maths questions. These questions are presented in a fun and charming approach with animations to lighten things adult though also to uncover how to strech a scold answers. Parents will learn a thing ot two, too.
Live Mathletics sets a child adult opposite other Mathletics players opposite a world, and is a good approach to learn facile array holds and boost a kids’ remember speed.
Times Tables Toons helps learn children their times list by strain and animal animation.
There are weekly swell emails to guard swell around a Parent Centre.
My daughter has been regulating Mathletics for over a year now, and it has positively helped her with her maths, and me understanding/remembering/learning alongside her. We lay down a few times a week for brief durations of time, or for one half-hour event that should be prolonged adequate for her to measure her 1,000 points and acquire a new certificate. She loves it, too.
Medieval Math Battle
Free with Addition segment; other segments 69p each. iPhone, iPad, Android
Medieval Math Battle unequivocally does make maths into a game, as it is a turn-based conflict diversion where we better your opponents (villains, hulk spiders, goblins, dragons, etc) by responding questions formed on addition, subtraction, computation and division).
The maths problems boost in problem as a child improves their skills.
As we win battles we acquire coins, potions and weapons. You can use a coins to buy new swords and shields and so forth. If a child plays for 15 mins there’s a special daily bonus.
Medieval Math Battle is free, and comes with a Addition partial of a game, though any additional maths form (subtraction, multiplication, division) costs 69p to unlock. So a full cost of all is £2.07.
Apart from a sections to clear there aren’t any other nasty in-app purchases in a game.
Medieval Math Battle is a good idea, and certain to be a strike with kids. It would be good if a actor could be a lady as good as a boy, and a movement could be a tiny faster, though we favourite a diversion and suggest it.
Blackboard Madness: Math
Free. iPad, iPhone
Want a bit some-more of a challenge? Blackboard Madness is a set of fast-paced, quick-fire maths challenges, holding in addition, subtraction, division, multiplications, algebra, and (more than) and (less than) questions.
This is a good exam of mental maths skills, proof meditative and reaction. It’s like Live Mathletics on speed. You have to condense a scold answers before they dump off a blackboard. There are kung fu sound effects to make we feel like a martial humanities maths black belt. Don’t give this to a child usually strating out on maths as a gait is flattering frenetic, though mental maths greeting speed is a good ability to learn some-more experineced maths students.
As with any decent plea diversion there are high scores and actor statistics to lane performance, polus achievements and badges as rewards.
We enjoyed Blackboard Madness. It’s free. So because not try it?
GCSE Maths: Super Edition – good rider aid
Free Lite version. £4.99 for full version. iPhone iPad; Android.
Not one for a kids usually starting out on maths, this collection of maths rider apps is directed during children removing tighten to their GCSE exams (age 12-15), though will also pull those younger kids who surpass during maths.
It doesn’t have any nonsensical characters or in-app games, so it’s drier than some of a other maths apps reviewed here. You can also buy a apart apps (Geometry, Numbers, Algebra and Statistics) for £2 each.
The full chronicle of Geometry, for example, includes 830 questions on geometry, permitting kids to correct their shapes, angles, trigonometry, measurements and scaling, transformational geometry and vectors, constructions and loci, and round theorems. It goes from identifying 2D shapes (parents, this isn’t as easy as it sounds!) to Pythagoras’ postulate in 3D.
You can also lay a Mock Test with churned questions from all a topics. The app has a crafty swell tracking underline including cake charts and bar graphs display your swell so we should know you’re prepared to take on a genuine exam when your swell scale says 100%.
Monster Math – arithmatic usually though fun story line
Free with In-App squeeze of full. £2.29 for full version. iPhone iPad.
Monster Math is directed during children in US propagandize grades 1-5, that in a UK means ages 6-11.
The beast has to better several enemies by elucidate elementary arithmatic questions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), collecting “candies” along a way. I’m not certain that training children on a sweet-based prerogative complement is a good message, and maybe a diversion developers should have usually stranded to a beast thesis rather than enlivening kids to consider of candies as a correct reward.
This diversion comes endorsed by several readers, though we found it formidable to get behind to a start simply if a child wanted to start a new game, and a gameplay rather one dimentional.
But maybe that’s usually me being a monster. Monster Math has an enchanting (if rather samey after a few plays) story, and will exam kids on their arithmatic though not many else. Still a giveaway chronicle is positively value a trial, and if your kids suffer it afterwards a ascent (new monsters, scorecard, serve customisation) will be value it.
Numbees The World of Math
£1.49. iPhone, iPad
Numbees is a lot wackier than a other Maths apps here, and plays a rather irritating balance while we work out a answers. But that’s because phones and tablets have volume controls, right?
Aside from a song and sound effects Numbees is a lot of fun and puts maths into an arcade-style format. It’s a lot like Math Bingo though tackles questions from a opposite indicate of view, for instance giving we answers and creation a actor work out a sum.
When your child tires of Math Bingo he or she might good burst to Numbees for a change. I’d suggest both of these for fun maths opposite a clock.
Other maths training on your mechanism or mobile deice
We mentioned Mathletics in and with a iPad app, though we can also play it on your PC, Mac or laptop.
Away from a app stage we also suggest a BBC’s good online maths games. There’s copiousness of accumulation and skills levels. All a games are fun, charming and step adult in difficulty. We like a approach a games start during “Medium” level, so kids aren’t dejected by not drifting by an “Easy” level.
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