Bottom Line: MiniSchool offers a collection of six educational activities with varying levels of difficulty to help teach and reinforce several academic skills. Whimsical ocean-themed scenes and characters keep children entertained while working for a ribbon of success. Though many of the activities benefit younger children, the varying difficulty levels allow this app to grow with the child through multiple years.
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With a plethora (my daughter’s fancy word of the week) of academic apps available in the app store, it can be hard to know which are worth purchasing. I have checked out some with great educational content that just do not interest the kids, or apps that the kids love but that have no educational benefit. When I come across that rare app that finds that perfect balance of quality educational activities, graphics and entertainment value for the intended age group I want to yell, “Buy this app!” My kids are currently sleeping so I won’t yell, but take my word for it, MiniSchool by Divine ApS has a lot to offer!
I am wary of many apps that claim to be for children ages 4-7 years old. That is such a broad age range in terms of development and it takes a lot of planning to offer an app simple enough for a four year old yet challenging enough to still benefit a seven year old. This app truly has something for all these ages. While younger children may not be ready to learn to read time on an analog clock for a few years, they can still practice vocabulary and colors. Older children can reinforce skills they already know while learning multiplication and telling time.
Everything within the app is ocean-themed, which seems to be a common theme among app developers. Where this app stands out is the quality of graphics and interactions. Each screen is engaging without being cluttered or overwhelming. The addition and subtraction section has kids feed a pelican the correct number of fish to submit the answer while the coloring section contains many ocean-themed drawings.
MiniSchool contains six different educational activities with three levels of difficulty for each activity, except for the coloring section. The app includes addition, subtraction, vocabulary words, learning to tell time, rhyming, multiplication and colors. With such a variety of subject matter as well as difficulty levels, this app could benefit a wide range of students as well as grow and continually challenge them academically.
One thing I thought made the app stand out from others is the way a child answers different questions. In the multiplication section, the user has to perform multiple steps, following the directions to complete an equation. Requiring multiple steps helps children not just learn the skill set, but practice following multiple step directions.
The first section works on addition and subtraction. With three different difficulty levels, this area works on single digit addition and subtraction. It would be nice if the most advanced section also included some double digit equations as this is commonly taught to seven and eight year olds. Through all the difficulty levels, children must feed the correct number of fish or the fish with the correct number written on its belly to the waiting penguin.
The second section is Play with Words. This area would be great for younger children, but seven and eight year olds may find it a bit too easy. It is basically a mixture of different words of varying difficulty — starting with single syllable words such as ball, then moving up to compound words such as blackbird. Children identify the words using pictures, and play a game of memory as well as other little activities. Once a word is mastered, they earn a cartoon sticker of the word to put on their wall to keep track of their progress.
The third section deals with time. This is probably my favorite section. It is very well thought out. For each difficulty level the child is asked to arrange the hands of the clock to show a specific time. The easiest level focuses on just the hour, and the correct placement is shown with a shadow on the clock so the child can mimic the placement and learn where the hands belong. As the difficulty levels advance, the shadow answer is removed, and quarter hour and minutes are introduced.
One thing to note: the spoken time is given in more conventional terminology, using phrases such as “five minutes until four” or “quarter past three” rather than the "three fifty-five" or "three fifteen" phrasing some kids might be accustomed to. The time is always displayed in digital time format as well, so children not familiar with that phrasing will not have any difficulty completing the activities.
Learning to Rhyme is the fourth lesson and has the child match a given word with the rhyming word from a selection of choices. It is helpful that the child can tap on the given word and each of the selections to hear the name pronounced as many times as they wish.
The fifth section is Learn to Multiply and is aimed more towards the older students. The entire lesson focuses on the times tables from one through ten. A child can select which times table they wish to practice or they can choose the “?” for a random number mix. This section also contains the most involved set of directions. Children must spin a wheel to get a number for the equation, then select the correct answer, press the center of the wheel and then drag the answer into the equation. I really like the multiple step processes and teaching children the importance to follow specific directions.
I was slightly disappointed in the coloring section. It is essentially a basic coloring book app. The pictures are cute and match with the theme, but there is not much value in the activities. When clicking on the color paint, the color name is spoken, which I appreciate as it can help children associate names with the colors. However, after a color is chosen and the area of the picture to be colored is tapped, the whole section is automatically filled in. There is no opportunity to add details with a paint brush tool, which limits creativity as well as practice on fine motor skills. This section is fun, and kids can quickly create beautiful images, but it is the only section that is mainly entertainment and not much educational benefit. Older children may grow bored quickly with this section.
None of the games are timed and there is no penalty for incorrect answers. For each correct answer, the progress meter advances closer to the checkmark and earning a corresponding award for the level to be completed. If a child does not complete a whole difficulty level, the app remembers how far along in the lesson the child is. This way, the child continually builds towards the ribbon instead of starting from scratch if they stop after only a few answers.
Though one section isn’t quite as high on academic offerings as the rest, this is still a spectacular app. For $2.99, children receive not only great educational content, but it is an app that can grow and provide quality activities for years to come. Children can and most importantly will want to continue playing and learning with this app for a long time.
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Rachel H’s mom leaves town tomorrow after helping her for over a week following knee surgery. She and her kids are trying to figure out how to keep her around longer. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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