Best Educational Apps for Kids – Early Elementary Math

Quite few families are planning to give a tablet to the kids for a holiday gift.  After getting the device, it is time to find the good apps to put on the iPAD or iPod Touch.  I am going to start listing “Best Educational Apps for Kids” by age and subjects.  As a starter, today’s list is Math Apps for Kindergarten and Early Elementary Kids.  I am sure there are a lot more apps out there, if you have an app you’d like to add to the list, please add the app’s name at the comment area.  I will periodically update the lists based on readers’ inputs.  It will be very helpful if you can attach a link to the App Store.  Since some apps have the same titles, a direct link to the app store can help minimize potential confusions.

Before we get into the list, I want to remind all the parents or grandparents, please make sure child-proof your iPAD, iPod, iPhone before handing them over to the kids.  It is very easy!  I have a step-by-step guide with screen shots.  You can find the instruction by clicking HERE.  Believe me, 5 minites of your time today will save a lot trouble later on.  Also, if your child is struggling in math and you are too busy to get involved, you may consider an online math tutor, so your child have a real person to go to for help. Now to the list.

Best Math Apps for Kindergarden and Early Elementary Kids:

Khan Academy (Free): Although it is not a math specific app, I like the math tutoring very much.  It is a good go-to place to seek further clarification on some learned concepts or learn new math concepts.  You can watch the video via wifi, or you can download the video on your device to watch it on the go.

SplashMath Grade 1 to 5 ($4.99 iPhone, $9.99 iPAD): a series of math apps that is linked to US school math curriculum.  There is one app for each grade.  With these apps, parents don’t have to constantly looking for practice materials anymore.  Everything the kids need for the year is covered in the app.  It also allows parents to asign homeworks and reports kids progress.

MultiFlow ($1.99): a math practice app that drills kids on multiplication facts.  Parents can choose which facts the child should practice, and can choose the speed level based on how fluent the child is with the facts.  There are 4 different modes to play the game, kids can simply practice or enter the “flow” for a timed play.

FlowPlus ($1.99): by the same developer of MultiFlow.  FLowPlus is similar to MultiFlow, but the drills are on addition and subtraction facts.  Same as MultiFlow, parents have the flexibility of choosing which facts to practice on and at which speed level.

Marble Math Junior ($1.99): kids roll marbles to catch the correct answers.  The covered math concepts include: shapes, money, time, number sequencing, addition, subtraction and multiplication to 100, easy fractions.  Parents can moniter more than 1 child’s progress.

Bubble math ($1.99): a fun math game helping kids practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Parents can set the difficulty levels, ranging from single digit addition to double digits multiplication and division.  There are three speed levels that are controlled by parents.

Lola’s Fruit Shop Sudoku ($1.99): does a great job in breaking down the Sudoku concept at a level that even a Kindergartener can understand and play the game.  The games get harder when kids move up the levels, so a third grader may still find it challenging enough to play.    It offers in 10 different languages.

Mathmateer – formerly Rocket Math ($0.99): Kids win money to build their own rockets by playing math games.  Math concepts covered range from even and odd number to percentage and square root.  For kids in early elementary school, they can play a lot games in this app.

Mystery Math Town ($2.99): A math app going beyond math, it challenges kids on critical skills such as problem solving, 3D visual memorizing. The math skills covered are: Addition or Subtraction 0-10, 11-20, 21-50; Multiplication x1, x2, x5, x10, x1-10. It is a game kids will be addictive to.

iTooch Math Grade 3-5 ($4.99 for each grade): one app for each grade level.  The content is completely aligned with common core standards. They have comprehensive coverage of math skills kids need master at each grade level, such as geometry, money, graphs, measurement.

Do you have a recommendation on kindergarten and elementary math apps?  Please leave the app name in the comment area.

If you have kids of early elementary age, you might want to check out Best Science Apps for Elementary Kids: