Marble Math Junior

What it is: an app for math skills practice in a game-like environment. Covered concepts include: shape recognition/matching, sequencing number values and ordinals, addition/subtraction/multiplication (numbers 0-100), identifying fractions, counting money, telling time, completing addition equations. 3 difficulty levels.

What you do with it: choose the difficulty level and range of topics you want to practice. Listen to the instructions than drag or roll the virtual marble ball through a maze and 'collect' the correct answers, e.g. 'collect numbers that equal 8' (using numbers, tallies and dice), 'collect all octagons', 'collect all multiples of 10' etc.
There is a numerical scoring system with optional 'obstacles and bonuses' feature (makes the activities more difficult - and more fun).

What we really liked: the concept (combining math practice and a simple game), range of math problems covered (but please read the note below), high configurability (levels, topics), multiple user accounts (with 'personalized' avatars), spoken instructions.

What we didn't like: the 'marble game' itself is very basic and may not offer enough incentive for longer sessions (especially for kids who like much interaction). For some kids the difficulty range (even within one level) may be too broad. The interface and navigation takes a while to get used to and could be more intuitive.

Bottom line: a really nice set of activities for math practice. We recommend using this app with a parent nearby (for configuration, explanation of the concept, clues etc.).

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