In the High Tech Kids series we will share our favorite apps and kid friendly technology. Today we review Moose Math by Duck Duck Moose

“Mommy, I am leaning math!” – A., 5 years-old

In our first High Tech Kids review we looked at several of the Duck Duck Moose (DDM) Apps, check it out here, we also followed up when we reviewed DDM’s “More Trucks”

In early August, DDM came out with a new Kindergarten mathematics app. This could not have been better timing since our daughter was about to embark on her own Kindergarten journey in less than two weeks. I was actually overwhelmingly excited because I have it in my mind that I need to really ensure that, as a girl, she knows mathematics can be fun and she can be successful in mathematics. As an educator, I know all too well that by the time you move on beyond grade school, girls tend to shy away from upper division mathematics courses. We spend a lot of time on grade level mathematics skills together. We downloaded Moose Math shortly after it came out. Then, unprompted, we got an email from our friends at Duck Duck Moose asking us to review their new app. We, of course, agreed because we love their products and had not had a chance to play with it yet since the start of school had kept us fairly busy.

While playing with the app, we mainly focused our five year old Kindergartner on the app. I do think our nearly three year-old would be able to play the app with a lot of assistance. This app is better suited for the five year-old.

“Teachers take note: App number 17 from Duck Duck Moose is designed specifically to cover early elementary (Kindergarten and First Grade) math by way of some solid counting, sorting and classifying games. Each game lets children playfully master skills that will provide an excellent foundation for later math learning, and the games are paired with an individualized record keeping system, that stores progress and profiles for each child. Math educators will appreciate the fact that this app is 100% flashcard free, yet still manages a good deal of leveled practice.” – Children’s Technology Review The app takes you to a world completely new to DDM apps. The land of the “Dust Funnies” is a place that is entirely made up of found items. As you go further along in the levels of each area you get to “build” onto your store fronts making your city bigger. What child doesn’t like building things and exploring?

There are five areas of activities to practice and enhance your little one’s mathematics skills.

• Moose Juice: Makes smoothies while practicing counting, addition and subtraction;
• Paint Pet: Match the pets by counting the number of dots;
• Pet Bingo: Solve addition, subtraction and counting problems to get BINGO;
• Lost & Found: Learn and sort through shapes and colors; and
• Dot to Dot: Help the Dust Funny find his way home by joining the dots

We spent a lot of time with the Moose Juice area. The increasing difficulty and various mixtures were really fun and engaging for our daughter. She also very much loved the Pet Bingo area and felt very empowered by being able to do addition and subtraction.

The Paint Pet area was not her favorite as the early stages seemed a little boring. When given a variety of colors to “paint,” she wanted to paint more than just dots. Lost & Found and Dot to Dot were the last two areas we explored.

The Lost & Found area kept her guessing because each problem was different, one screen would ask her to identify three circles and the next asked her to identify the longest pencil. I really appreciated this area from DDM because it kept her wondering what was next and she never tired of it. The Dot to Dot area is actually something we have been practicing outside of this app. Making sure she can recognize the order of numbers is incredibly important. She liked it because she got to “make” something. A win-win in my book!

Overall, at first this was not my favorite app from DDM until we really got into it. Then we started to have a lot of fun and couldn’t put it down. I think our initial hesitation was the new “Dust Funnies” group and the app looking very different from all the previous DDM apps. In the long run, I highly recommend this app for children in Pre-K through 1^st grade. It is very clear that DDM consulted with an educator who has an expertise in early childhood education as well as employed the mathematics practices and skills described in the Common Core State Standards.

Where: The App Store and on Google Play.

What: Moose Math by Duck Duck Moose

Need to know: Moose Math is rated for 3-9 year olds, but a three year old would need quite a lot of help and a nine year old might be beyond this skill set.

Extra Extra: Duck Duck Moose has a great mailing list and consistently sends out information about new apps, coloring book pages, notifications when of apps go on sale, etc. all the time.

Moose Math features:

• 5 activities that teach counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, geometry and more; all of the activities are aligned with the Common Core State Standards
• An adaptive “helper” character; YaYa the bird, acts like a child’s personal tutor offering helpful hints and encouragement
• A Report Card section allowing parents and teachers to follow progress; the Report Card can track an unlimited number of users per device, making Moose Math a great app for teachers to use with their class
• A new Learning Portal with free downloadable worksheets for additional skill-building – great for teachers looking for fun, engaging offline activities

Website/Contact Information: www.DuckDuckMoose.com. Be sure to sign up and get on their email list to ensure you are in the know about app sales, etc.

Here are two Moose Math videos, a trailer/overview of Moose Math and one featuring the new set of characters in the app — the Dust Funnies!

Bonus Giveaway

As an added bonus to this review, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjunction with Duck Duck Moose are holding a giveaway. We want you to share in the fun and excitement that this app has to offer. That’s why, when Duck Duck Moose reached out to us we suggested a giveaway for our Windy Pinwheel community.

Here’s what we’re giving away:

• Grand Prize: 1 set of Moose Math temporary tattoos and 1 Duck Duck Moose app download* of your choice.
• One Runner-up Prize: 1 set of Moose Math temporary tattoos.

*Please note that the majority of Duck Duck Moose apps are available only on the iPhone/iPad. You should have access to an iTunes account if you are selected as the winner. Also, this giveaway is available only to United States residents, 18 years or older or with a parent’s permission and void where prohibited. Winner must supply email address associated with your iTunes account to receive the app download code. Winners must supply physical mailing addresses to receive the set of Moose Math temporary tattoos by Duck Duck Moose

Giveaway deadline is 11:59PM Pacific Daylight Time on September 20, 2013. Enter today and come back every day for a chance at daily entries.