iPhone App Review: Measurement

First, I want to thank Nicola and Punflay for being so patient with me. I received the Measurement app a while back but with all that’s going on in my personal life, I just couldn’t get out a decent review until now.  

Punflay makes really fun and educational iPhone/iPad apps for children. I’ve had the opportunity to review several in the past for each platform. This time I was asked to review their Measurement app for iPhone. It’s the latest in the Mathomatix series. The previous app was Number Sense, which helps children practice ordering numbers, compare sets of numbers, and simple addition and subtraction.

Measurement is designed for kindergarteners. They will learn and practice basic concepts of length, width, capacity, as well as time and months of the year.  My daughter loves to play with this app although at almost two years old, she's not quite ready to really comprehend it.

The first screen is simple and the child just needs to press play to begin. They are then taken to a chalkboard with five games: Crazy Clock, Scale Tale, Fill Me Up, Long and Short, and Action Months. Each game provides enough opportunities to practice the concept of the game.  The games are straight forward, allowing the child to work on the concept more than how to operate the game.  Simple reinforcing messages are given when the child gets a correct answer, and if a wrong answer is selected, they are told to try again or get a subtle buzzer.  

Crazy Clock allows children to work on telling time as well as common times when activities in their schedule may occur.  The hands will only move clockwise and once the child reaches the specified time, they stop.  

Scale Tale offers a chance to compare two items and decide which is heavier or lighter.  My daughter loves this one.  Must be the cute monster.

Fill Me Up works on understanding volume.  It's another fool-proof game.  You can't continue to put items in a full container.

Long & Short, as you might have guessed, is all about comparing length.  The child needs to touch the card of the correct answer.  I like the sparkles you get when you are right.

In Action Months, the child has to "catch" each letter and drag it to its proper place in the word.  Once the name of the month is spelled correctly, the child is rewarded with animation of the letters.  This reminds me of Sesame Street claymation.

Measurement is a great app for your pre-schooler or kindergartener to practice various concepts of measurement.  The graphics and sounds are very cute, disguising the learning a bit.  We all know kids love our iPhones and here is a fantastic chance to learn while they play.  

For the younger set, I reviewed ABC Numbers and Baby Explorer last fall.  Those are loaded on my parents' iPad.  Tink loves playing with their iPad on every visit and still enjoys these two apps, especially Baby Explorer.  

Thanks again to Punflay for providing these apps for my review.  We've enjoyed playing with them all and look forward to seeing what's next from this talented team.