Disney Imagicademy
© 2014 Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media
According to the education expert Mary Poppins, "just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down." That's the idea behind this new tablet-based early math curriculum. The teaser portion of this app will be free to download; and you'll need $5 to unlock the first cluster of lessons. Additional content will be offered in the parent's menu, as IAP (in-app Purchases). There is also a parent's app that works on your smart phone, so you can track your child's progress, from anywhere. The generic math curriculum rarely strays from colors, shapes and numbers found in most early math workbooks. We're always more impressed by multi-touch interaction with the math concepts, which is missing from this app. Our tester (age 3) found it fun to play, and we liked the adaptive features. He especially liked watching Mickey Mouse and the related characters, which are expertly presented in this app. You start with a main menu showing five options that cover shapes, sorting, add & subtract, problem solving and counting, each presented in an interactive cartoon featuring Mickey and Minnie in outer space. Each has Disney quality illustration and narration, and it looks great on an iPad. The downside to this is that the problem solving can get lost in some of the animation-rich screens. Those in search of pedagogical innovation, look elsewhere. But it also makes this fun, and a good informal language experience. Features include the ability to store records for up to 68 children, and purchase more content as your child plays. If you like it, you can purchase more. The plan is to roll out all the content over a two year period.
$4.99, iPad (parent app for iPhone and Android versions coming).
Teaches: mathematics, math, sorting, colors, number lines, shapes, classification, counting, addition
CTR Rating: 84%