Todo Math is a collection of simple maths games for preschoolers and children in the first year or two of schooling. It comes with a range of awards and recommendations, so I was keen to put it to the test.
After downloading you need to set up at least one profile so that the app can be used, potentially they allow space for the creation of 3 child profiles so that each child can measure progress separately.
I really like the games and activities presented. They’re very simple and very directly maths based, without complicated layers of abstraction or excessive gamification gimmicks. That said, they’re still colourful and attractive with some cute animations and stars and other prizes awarded for successfully solving puzzles. In most of the puzzles the program doesn’t register wrong answers, the game just shakes it’s head at you and waits for the correct answer to be entered. As with so many of these sorts of apps Todo has a surprisingly addictive feel to it; puzzles are grouped together such that you’re led to play several one after another to win a prize of some kind (eg. a key, a treasure chest or a map).
The app contains a very large number of different mini-games and offers them in several different ways. There’s a suggested daily bundle which supposedly provides 10-15 minutes of maths practice on a daily basis. Additionally you can play “missions” which provide a slightly different mix of mini games or choose exactly which mini games to focus on with their ‘free choice’ mode.
Todo is free to download and gives access to several levels of all the mini games for free, which is great. If that’s as far as you want to take it though, make sure that your child’s device has limits (whether inbuilt or via Kidslox) to stop them from making in-app purchases. The app itself has a “parent lock” system to stop kids from entering the payment area, but it uses very similar mathematical understanding to the game itself (ie. if your child can understand the games, there’s a good chance they can work out how to open the payment area too).
The app comes with a subscription based fee of £3.39 a month with a 14 day free trial. So long as you’re going to make sure that your kids are disciplined about using it regularly then this a small price to pay for the level of engagement with maths that it encourages. Otherwise, you might want to stick to the free version and make sure that the kids can’t make in-app purchases. Either way, for young kids this is a great app for learning maths.
Get it in the App store or Play store.
