Sunday, September 18, 2011

ipad app review: Teach me First grade

My husband and i resisted purchasing the ipad for a year because we know very well what would happen if we had one in our house. Also, we didn't see the need to have one.

However, after i gave birth, i realised i really have no time to teach the boy. At the back of my mind, i wished i had an ipad so that i can download some educational app for him to practise play. At the same time, the hub made a causal comment that we'd soon need  a second laptop since the boy is quickly becoming a user as well. That's when we decided it was time to succumb to the evilness of all technology. Well, no regrets really.

One of the first app i downloaded was Teach me first grade. It's an educational app that teaches or rather test the kids on a sight words, maths and spelling. The child is given a set of questions on the above topics and each time he solves a set of questions, he gets a coin. With the accumulated coins, he can go 'shopping' and purchase an array of things like fish, fish food, stickers etc.

LIKES

What i like about this app is that the child is given a chance to 'write' his own answers. If he doesn't know how he can choose to trace the answers. For me, it's killing 2 birds with 1 stone. He can practise his maths AND handwriting (numbers AND letters). Besides, he can also learn how to spell (simple words). I like that it has a number of levels such that it automatically moves up to the next level as the child progresses.

DISLIKES
The app isn't very good at detecting the words 'written' by N. Many a times, it could not read what he has written. I mean, he's a kid, how perfect do you expect him to write his ABCs and 123s? The odd thing is, it immediately recognises the handwriting (however imperfect) if he traces the answers.

I would  recommend it to kids who are just starting to learn how to add and subtract. The good thing is it provides visual aids to help the child get the answer. So your kid doesn't need to know how to add mentally. It is also good for kids who are learning to write and spell words. There's also a lower grade app, Teach me Kindergarten which is exactly the same but the questions are simpler.

1 comment:

Related Posts with Thumbnails