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Ask Slashdot: Math and Science iOS Apps For Young Kids?
Oyjord writes "I have a very smart and curious 3-year-old daughter. Before anyone tries to derail my query, yes, we get a lot of play time outside with soccer and baseballs, and inside with blocks, Hot Wheels, PlayDoh, etc. However, on the rare occasion that we do sit down with my iPad, I'd like to solicit recommendations for good Math and Science apps for kids. There are hundreds of horribly gender-biased baking apps and Barbie apps for young girls, but they turn my stomach. She has a wonderfully curious mind, and really likes SkyView already, but I feel lost in a sea of pink and Hello Kitty apps."
My 3.5 year olds were doing algebra with fractions without realizing it.
YOu try to solve mazes by putting blocks in the righ place to let the ball roll down. My nephew has played that game since he was 3.
Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
Check out Dragonbox. I don't have personal experience, but it has been given good reviews. It's supposedly an innovative way to learn algebra in the form of an iOS/Android/... game.
I have 3 kids (5, almost 4 and 2). All three love starfall. It's a website and not an app...and we use it on a PC instead of an iPad, but it teaches everything from ABCs and reading up to numeric comparisons and spacial reasoning in 3D. A significant amount of the website is free, but the rest is paywalled for like $35/year. We paid last year and renewed this year. Not a moment of regret.
While not technically a science app, I've yet to find a kid who didn't like Cut the Rope. The physics engine in it is a nice introduction to the likes of gravity, elasticity, etc.
Another good game, albeit for when she gets older, is Fat Birds. It puts you in charge of making birds cross a bridge of your making. It's fun for the parents too. (I've an architect friend who miserably failed to 3-star the couple of levels I tossed at him.)
I have young daughters as well, and I have a similar reaction to Barbie dolls and their ilk, primarily because I don't want my daughters (or my son for that matter) to buy into the whole sexualization/objectification of women mindset. However, I don't reflexively avoid gender-targeted toys. Why should boys and girls have to be indistinguishable in their play preferences? What's wrong with the boys deciding that they like Cars and the girls Disney Princesses, as long as their parents are OK with it?
;)
Don't worry, there are plenty of gender neutral family activities, too. I teach them all to shoot firearms as soon as they're old enough.
Amazing Alex
Angry Birds
Cut the Rope
Dinopedia
Isaac Newton's Gravity HD
Google Earth
Math Bingo
Math Drills
Multiponk
NASA App HD
PBS Kids
Scrabble
The Elements: A Visual Exploration
Tiny Wings HD
TinkerBox HD
WolframAlpha
Word Bingo
My kids love ABC Superstar Kids
It has fun puzzles, teaches how to draw letters, and you can customize the character.
Only if you come from Android, because those users are complete c**ts and the change to iPad gets rid of that.
I come from Android all the time. Can't come from the iPad, because the spirit of Steve Jobs keeps the platform clean.
The best I've found is MonkeyMath (for math and numbers). My daughter got it when she was 3 and still loves it, a year later.
Bobo Explores Light is an engaging, entertaining and extremely extensive app exploring light and its consequences. Sounds boring or technical, but they've managed to get an amazing amount of content (we forget how much light affects us and how weird it is!) into a very fun package.
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monkey-preschool-lunchbox/id328205875?mt=8
Of course, the "Cut the Rope" and "Fruit Ninja" games are good in there "can't lose" modes.
Starfall app (same as the website)
PBS.org (warning - essentially streaming video - you need to moderate use of this one!)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo. -- James Klass
A friend of mine is behind a really well reviewed iPad app called Numbers League. This covers math down to simple addition and subtraction and up to multiplication, division and simple fractions.
Review: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/07/the-numbers-league-app-improves-on-a-masterpiece/
App store link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/numbers-league/id444781544?mt=8&ls=1
The app is based on a card game with info and online store here: http://www.bentcastle.com/nl.htm
Shameless plug but I wrote this game called "Cato's Hike" to teach kids programming on iOS, preferably iPad but works great on the iPhone too. Unlike other programming games for the iPad this one uses cards to teach kids how to program and goes into relatively advanced topics like loops and memory without actually appearing to teach :) they just play! I think 3 is too young but 5-6 is good to start and 10 and higher should be able to finish it :)
http://hwahba.com/catoshike
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/catos-hike/id574335479?ls=1&mt=8
Try Quixey app search (where I work):
https://www.quixey.com/search?q=science+games+for+3+year+olds
Or search for sciency things you might want to do with a three-year old:
https://www.quixey.com/search?q=identify+flowers
https://www.quixey.com/search?q=name+animals
Why IOS?
Because he's got an iPad.
OP wrote of all the wonderful things he and his daughter do. He specifically asked not to be questioned about allowing his daughter a little time with a tablet computer. So for all the high ideals you espouse, you come off as a terrible troll.
Parents cannot be expected to take up, or be in, every second of their child's life. This is unrealistic and insane. He is not denying his daughter his passions, or hers, by allowing her a little time with a tablet computer.
Besides, this is Slashdot, for all you know mobile computing may be a passion of his.
Judging a person to be a horrible parent simply because they allow their daughter a little time with a tablet computer is beyond the pale stupid. The man specifically asked the use not be questioned, and listed a few other things he and his daughter does, but you went ahead anyway. You're a troll.
I would be shocked to discover that his daughter doesn't have access to coloring supplies and pencils. Do you have anything to suggest that he has denied his daughter these things? His question was not about what's the best drawing app, not that a few minutes with one of those would be world ending or harmless in the least. His question was about math and science apps.
Did he speak about these apps in a manner as to suggest that he wishes his iPad to raise his daughter? He sure as hell did not. He gave no time-frame. For all you know he will give her no more than a few minutes with it and given the care and detail of his writing, I imagine that's just what he intends to do.
Such black and white extremism as you've displayed in your comment, that's the real hallmark of a horrible parent. Heaven forbid that you be one.
You'll have to help, for a while...
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crayon-physics-deluxe/id300830915?mt=8
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
The iOS app Wind Tunnel is a pretty good simplified fluid dynamics solver. It has air entering one side of the screen, exiting the other, and the sides of the screen are free edges. You then draw airfoils or shapes with your fingers and see how the fluid patterns change. You can tweak quite a few parameters. For instance you can change speed, look at pressure and vorticity plots as well as velocity, and introduce particles to see where they go. He spent a lot of time on getting the visualizations to look impressive.
It's incompressible flow and he said he was forced to sacrificed some exactness (allowing a bit of mass loss vs. the N-S equations in some circumstances) to get the computations to run efficiently on iOS hardware in realtime, so the visualizations are pretty reasonable but the numbers won't be exact. Overall it's a great app with a solid math/science/engineering foundation.
How the hell is he the troll for daring to ask about apps for his daughter? Would you have responded in the same fashion had he asked about Android apps for his daughter? Don't you dare tell me you would have suggested he get the fuck off Slashdot.
Slashdot is just as much about science and math as modern technology. What better audience on Earth is there other than Slashdot for a question like that one? Consider one that has children, one that has education, one that knows of such technology. Can you think of one, care to name it?
As for your matter, again, he already has an iPad. He's not looking to buy a new one. So take your Apple is evil ideology and shove it. It's irrelevant. When he comes around asking for a new tablet, take then as an opportunity to espouse the greatness of Android. Until that point, you're a troll. You're derailing the thread for nothing more than your own satisfaction. You should admit it to yourself.
Nice to see that Apple has finally stopped banning programming tutors like that.
The added bonus is that Android tablets are now cheap enough that he can get a usable one for his daughter for under $100.
Pokemon Red... 'but beware of getting sucked in helping her play it', he said aloud, patiently awaiting White3.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I have a boy but in that same age range. I too have been frustrated with the lack of quality apps. Mermaid waters is pretty good with math and matching games, math train is also decent as is superwhy but the best app I've found is Word Wizard. It is the speak and spell you always wanted. Very high quality app. The very best app I've seen is Redshift. Beats all the other star maps hands down. It is pricey but worth every penny. And before anyone gets uptight, no I am not associated with any of the developers in any way.
I am so fucking sick of you fucking fanbois having to turn every conversation on it's head so you can fly the flag of your little techno-religious cause. It's just like dealing with a religious zealot, they look for any pause in a conversation to interject their diseased thinking and they'll use any possible fingerhold in the dialog to force their pitons in. It's fucking annoying.
The person owns an iPad. What the fuck is the problem? Stop trying to turn this into another endless iOS vs Android battle. Each has their virtues and I don't give a fucking fuck what you use as long as I don't have to buy it.
Now shut the fuck up.
The new update will let you share programs too... I hope they don't block that :) fingers crossed!
Slide rules teach lazy approximations.
Abacus should be every child's first toy!
DragonBox is a fascinatingly friendly and effective way to teach symbolic arithmetic to children
StoneCypher is Full of BS
My four year old recommended Monster Physics , tinker box, Umi Numbers, Physics Ball. I've noticed that problem solving is becoming second nature in this young mind
no matter how good it is, it is human nature always wants to make things better
Or he can get a really classy one like the Nexus 7 for $200.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
My nephews want to play Subway Shuffle every time I bring my iPod Touch. It's a train shuffle game, but with the added twist that each train can only move along tracks of its own color. It's probably a bit too complex for a 3 year old, but in one or two years time your daughter would probably be able to solve the simpler levels. The higher levels are quite challenging even for adults.
Namco's "Isaac Newton's Gravity" puzzler, she worked through all 100 of the puzzles over about a one year period, with only the occasional help from me.
Minecraft PE, which now that she's older she's getting more into the desktop version instead, but when she was younger I could set her up in creative mode, and it would act simply as an infinite lego set for her. (She also adores real legos as well)
Neither may seem like straight up math or science, but she's picked up some surprisingly well thought out ideas about physics and architecture from both.
The Montessorrium apps, like Intro to Math (and Intro to Letters) she got a huge amount of use from, which while just basic as the names would imply was good around that age.
DragonBox+ is awesome and I highly recommend it, even to adults. It's basically a series of algebraic puzzles, using cards that start off not as numbers.
When she got curious about elements, we picked up the Nova Elements app, which answered her questions at the time pretty well.
Most of the rest of the items we've picked up for her for the iPad haven't been specifically science or math based, though a lot of book style apps. She's a big fan of Curious George, the Bartleby Buttons book/apps, and anything about DIsney's Cars. The new Reading Rainbow app has been great too, as it came out just as she was really starting to read on her own, so it's given her a lot of material to easily choose from.
Just something from personal experience. I got my kid bunch of nice learning software for Android. He loved them, played them, learned a lot.
Then we had our student led parent teacher meeting/conference. Turns out, he doesn't do jack in class because he finds it all too boring. And it is, when he gets to race a car for solving the right question, sticking stuff with glue on paper is rather pale.
Result... he knows his stuff but is "officially" a C grade student. He is in grade 1 so no worries, however I will skip the software to tame his exitment level.
Algebra Touch is an amazing app that demonstrates how variables work in algebraic equations, highly recommended. Maybe too high level for a 3 year old but it's about as mathy as iOS can get.
"Here, Apple is not the only supplier of tablets, not even the most important one."
Unless you care about trivial things like, oh, making a living.
So Apple now makes the cheapest tablets?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Then we had our student led parent teacher meeting/conference. Turns out, he doesn't do jack in class because he finds it all too boring.
You found out how to make learning interesting for your kid, and because he can't do well in what is ignorantly a boring and mediocre environment, your plan is to dumb down his learning until he can be pacified with the rest of the sheep?
Bad plan. Home school, or find a school that can make things interesting.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Seriously, teach your kids to use their heads not a glorified calculator.
Lots of the best software is not a "calculator". It's a simulator, with the huge difference being you get to rapidly change conditions and get a better idea for how things do in fact behave in the real world.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nice to see that Apple has finally stopped banning programming tutors like that.
They only banned them for a period of a few months, and I think even that was dropped about two years ago. There have been other programming tools on the iPad for ages now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Although three is way too young an age to have your mind warped by having whitespace define blocks, you can program in python on an iPad.
Another option is Codea to learn to code, or the more recent ScriptKit.
But really three is probably too young for a real coding environment...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How about Shodor's Math Flyer? Perhaps a little too advanced, but then again, maybe not.
Out soon is a game that looks like it might be approachable even to a three year old, and to any gender - Lemurs Chemistry.
It should be out any day now (I didn't work on it but I know some of the people that did).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We (the founders) are French, and based in Norway and France.
Sneak teach kids Algebra using a game
judging by your definition of 'the real world' I'm guessing you're around 96 years old?
am I right?
Hej! Nasi tu byli!
This is a great letter recognition, word recognition and reading app for that age group that has a great variety of mini games that handle progression, fight boredom. I wish it had math because I think the quality is great.
Smarty Pants School
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smarty-pants-school/id403824279?mt=8
Of course not, it is for the company legal counsel to peruse. I just use the device.
"European crap"?
From https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2012/01/25/more-crap-from-the-e-u/
"Now that the European Union’s member states are flailing around attempting to implement their miserable cookie directive, the European Commission has decided it’s a good time to retard the Internet some more. Today the European Commission will release an already-leaked new version of the Data Protection Directive which firmly establishes a European right to data erasure, or “right to be forgotten.” Article 17 will give EU residents an unprecedented inalienable right to control and delete facts that were once voluntarily communicated by the subject. Moreover, the right to erasure covers all publications of the personal information."
It's not all bad in the E.U., hence it must be African.
Another physics game. The first levels are easy enough for a young child, and our little girl loves it. With the fans, boards, and other mechanisms its a good introduction to gravity and other forces.
Here, here! I am so sick of hearing people ask "What's best for my child's upbringing?", when they should be asking "What's best for making epSos-de feel good about my child's upbringing?"
There's a website called 10monkeys which is aimed at exactly that age group. The website is designed to work well on an iPad as well.
In my opinion, the best iOS game is COGS. Its a puzzle suitable for all ages... Just play it yourself and let her play once...I am sure she will love it.
And/or Google Earth. My little guy loves both, even more now that both have 3D stuff. Entertaining and educational on many levels. At the most basic, it's just plain fun to spin and push things around.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
To add to this I would find a wide variety of apps and not worry about the Pink/Barbie factor
If you can have this convo with a boy wanting to date your daughter in like 10 years you have "won" the Raise a Girl Game
You: Okay son we need to get a few things clear before you can date my daughter seriously these are the rules
1 You will come to our door ON TIME for each date
2 She will have a good time and you will be a Gentleman
3 She will be back here before %time%
4 if you decide to date other girls instead of her you will be nice about it
Do you understand these rules??
Him: i guess so what happens if i do break one??
You: well i would suggest running because if my daughter catches you she will break you in small parts and if she doesn't I WILL
(optional step sort of glance at the firearm/other weapon just sitting there)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Have you contacted technical support? Have you gone to an AASP?
I have a 4yr and 2yr old girls, so I have read other comments with interest. Will definitely be trying some of those out. I've only used Amazing Alex and agree its a great puzzle for my 4yr old.
Here are some of my own suggestions.
Motion Math Hungry Guppy - For very simple addition. You need to join together bubbles holding 1, 2 or 3 dots to make a new bubble matching the number stuck on the side of a cute orange fish, which then swims over and eats the matching bubble and gets bigger and bigger until end of round.
Happy Pig - Children's Logic Game - fill in missing items in a pattern arrangement - my 4yr old knocked this over in a couple of days but I am happy it served its purpose in that time. It was interesting to see her cognition go from incomprehension to mastery in that short time. Revisits occasionally.
Pit Droids - A generator spawns different coloured droids in one direction, and matching coloured arrows need to placed on the ground in front of them to turn them towards matching coloured pits. I've enjoyed helping her get started and now she can now do some levels herself. Got it after reading this review http://apps4ikids.com/2012/06/star-wars-pit-droids-surprisingly-educational-puzzler/ which discusses it being a preliminary training for programming.
Chess Pro With Coach by Christophe Theron - training for strategic thinking - not that my 4yr old is anywhere near that! but the computer can be set really dumb and slowly turned up over the next few years. It graphically suggests good moves and pieces under threat.
Timmy's Preschool Adventure - Simple pattern/puzzle solving. Animation is a little B grade but still engaging for both 2yr and 4yr old.
Kid Klok - shows numbers around the circumference for both hours and minutes - each a separate colour matching hour/minute hands and digital clock reading.
Flow Free - path planning - 4yr old picked it up much faster than I thought she would.
Team Umizoomi - numbers and simple math in an engaging presentation for both the 2yr and 4yr old
Bugs and Buttons - lots of cognitive mini-games - 2yr and 4yr both love it.
ToonTastic - just to round out with a non-science app - yet the decision making learnt from creative play is an important skill. Drag cartoon characters onto a background then record an animation with voice-over by the kids.
My daughter worked all the way through this app on my iPhone when she was 4; If we get an iPad this Xmas, we're getting the Hello Kitty apps first.
We also have the pencil-n-paper Umizoomi boxes and some of the Hello Kitty workbooks and flashcards; this seems to make the transition to her PK class easier.
> My comment can be quoted whenever, wherever, so long as you bloody well provide attribution! >
someone on the Internets is thinking about helping his daughter, not about feeding my precious obsession with championing Brand B over Brand A.
You don't help your kids by introducing them to evil thuggery and telling them it's good because it's shiny.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
If a child is smart then the child's parents are probably smart too.
You can write your own app to teach your child and your child can help you write it. That's what I did for my son (not that I implying that I'm smart). He was happy to "help" write the app, he is fairly happy to use it, and it's been a great help for him: he's been learning math in spite of the nonsense that's being taught at school.
In all seriousness:
Only the iWankers say so, because they MUST use a web site. While I can use apps to my full satisfaction. It is a different world, you know. The words "forever alone" sound cozy, warm and reassuring here.
Okay, which Androids do you use for "full satisfaction", and where did you get them from - and what else did you catch there.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Everyone who touches this loves it
The iPad mini? I'd check your facts.
By the way, what's with the black apple on it, what message is that sending?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Or maybe to teach his children that in life, there WILL be boring parts,
And in those boring parts to you make things better or only endure?
There are enough sheep in the world. Why make another when you know better?
Life is not always fun and interesting.
It's at least one of those if you are doing it right.
Heck, most first time jobs will be pretty boring, repetitive and utterly dull,
It doesn't have to be. I know better and so should you. My first programming job was very interesting and I learned a ton from it. There is literally nothing on this earth boring if you do not want it to be.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Both my 4 and 7 year olds love Monster Physics. And by the same author, Stack the States and Stack the Countries are excellent for geography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4hQ4J4BFOM
Where's my water is good. Fun, problem solving type game.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion
Tozzle on the apple store was a hit with my daughter at 1 and 2, possibly a lot bit basic for a 3 year old but try it out. If nothing else she will master it in a couple of weeks and move on to something else. Apart from that my almost 4 yo is onto Angry Birds!