Unfortunately, many children are simply not getting the practice and repetition they need. In 2017, over 50 percent of 4th graders weren't proficient in 4th grade Common Core mathematics standards. Slower students, like those with disabilities, wind up falling further and further behind.
Luckily, new educational apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android are taking math learning to the next level. Kids can use these programs at college or at home to learn, practice, and master mental math.
Your child deserves the world's best tools to help them master addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
1. Math Ace
Launched in the summer of 2018, Math Ace is one of the latest and most effective mental math practice apps for gifted and autistic children alike. There are apps for each grade. Each app is a full Common Core command workbook disguised as a game.
Math Ace breaks the frequent Core mathematics standards for each year into minute-long mathematics challenges. They are like digital worksheets, that adapt to student mistakes to increase learning.
What sets Math Ace the top of our list is that it excels in both learning and fun. For every minute of mathematics practice, students are given a token to burst into orbit at an enjoyable jetpack mini-game which often lasts under one minute. Students earn medals doing mathematics clinic to level up their jetpack and fly higher into space.
Within 10 minutes of app usage, pupils answer between 100 to 200 math facts, higher than the other programs we've tested. Along with the dynamic nature of the challenges is very effective.
The program design is amazing, and easy to use. There's one large collection of challenges which makes it easy to keep track of your child's progress.
We recommend setting a target for you children to earn 10 medals daily. They'll be on a fast path to mental math mastery. Start a free trial with Math Ace for one week, which provides you full access to all Ace Programs including Math Ace and Spelling Ace. After that, full access is $19.99 / 3 months.
2. Splash Math
Second on our list is Splash Math, a wonderful all around math learning program, with a broad selection of questions and entertaining, colorful design. Within each category, there are a number of levels.
While slightly less effective than Math Ace for mental math mastery, Splash Math is a excellent tool for your child to use daily. Contrary to Math Ace, which repeats questions that students get wrong until they achieve mastery, Splash Math appears to select questions randomly. The Splash Math challenges are also untimed.
Start a free trial for a week. After that, complete access costs $19.99 / 3 months.
3.
It's a fun visual layout, and provides thousands of challenges. Each challenge comprises a set of pages using a number of adorable problems on them. Students answer the issues by circling with their finger. Children Academy is like practicing paper worksheets on the phone.
In 10 minutes of usage, students can answer between 50 to 100 math issues, which is great. The worksheets do not appear to be as lively as in Math Ace. Mistakes do not cause problems to be replicated.
While Kids Academy is a great general e-learning platform, it is less effective at developing mental math command quickly than the apps above.
4. Prodigy
Prodigy is a fun role playing game (RPG) with mathematics problems folded into the battles. While not as useful at helping pupils achieve mental math mastery quickly as Math Ace, Prodigy deserves attention because it makes math practice super fun. And it's free.
In 10 minutes of play, students will reply about 30 math questions. The actual amount varies based on how many battles students get in to.
Prodigy is free and widely suggested by teachers. It gets third place on the list because of how entertaining the RPG game is, although it's less capable of mental math mastery. Kids who might be immune to learning can get sucked in to the game.
Prodigy is free to all students. The developers make money by selling in-app upgrades and real world toys.
5. SmartKids
SmartKids offers an impressive selection of mini-games to teach a wide range of topics. Kids go crazy for this program. While SmartKids is a great general e-learning platform, the speed of the mini-games means that pupils only answer a couple of math problems per minute of app usage.
If your child really needs to catch up, we recommend one of those other apps above. Each mini-game requires the participant to learn the rules of the game, and leaves less space for studying mental math. Tracking a child's proficiency is also harder.
We hope your child enjoys using the programs above to develop great mental math abilities.
