SoGaBee’s Math Facts Fun App Review

Posted by Jennifer

App Name: SoGaBee’s Math Facts Fun: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division

Overall Rating: 5/5

Mom’s Rating: 5/5

Kids’ Rating: 5/5

Recommended Grades/Ages: Grades 1-4

Skills Developed: Math Facts, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Flash Cards, Math Drill

Available On/Price: iPad – $2.99

Reviewed on: iPad

App Description:

SoGaBee’s Math Facts Fun covers the math facts in all four basic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  It contains many of the same game features, customization features, and navigational elements as the previously reviewed Sight Words & Spelling with Pixopop HD from the same developer.

The app includes twelve levels which are based on the facts each level contains – level 1 includes the 1 facts, level 2 the 2 facts, and so on.  Three main learning activities are provided for each of the operations and levels: Flash Card, Multiple Choice, and Fill In.  Each of the levels contains 12 questions (so for level 1 the range would be from 1+1 to 1+12 for example).

Custom levels are also available – any questions that are answered incorrectly in the learning activities are automatically added to the Tricky Problems levels (either all of the tricky problems across the operations, or the specific problems sorted by operation) – once they have been answered correctly three times, they’re removed from the list.  You can also set up custom levels for your child by selecting the operation (more than one can be chosen) and fact family you’d like your child to practice.  These custom levels may be more or less than 12 questions in length.  These custom levels – both tricky and parent set – are available for all three learning activities.

Before starting a learning activity your child can select an animated avatar to guide them and celebrate with them.  A robot, dinosaur, and girl with piggy-tails are available, making the app appealing for both boys and girls.

In flashcards mode, the avatar presents the flashcards from the fact set in random order.  With quiz mode turned on the answer is hidden until the ‘show answer’ button is tapped.  With quiz mode turned off the question and answer are displayed together.  Pressing the next button displays the next fact.  At the end of a flashcard set the set can be replayed, a new set can be chosen, or children can go on to the next set of flashcard sets.

In multiple choice mode, children are presented questions from the selected level and operation (levels unlock as previous levels are cleared). As answers are successfully selected from four possible multiple choice questions, parts of the blank avatar fill in.  Your child has three potential wrong answers before the game ends.  If all the answers are completed successfully, a black and white ‘trophy’ (these are fun items like teddy bears, flowers, etc.) is awarded for that level and operation.

In fill in mode, children again receive the questions from the level and operation selected and advanced levels unlock as previous levels are completed.  The game-play is similar with parts of the avatar filling in with each correctly answered question, but this time children need to type the answer in with a calculator type interface instead of choosing from a variety of answers.

The app supports multiple user profiles, each of which contains its own detailed tracking and statistics.  Trophies are awarded for each operation and level completed without errors – black and white for multiple choice, and full color for fill in.

Detailed statistics of each completed activity are also available with a final score out of 12, time taken to answer, with the number of attempts and correct answer for each question.

Music can be turned on and off in the app settings.

Other Notes: This app does not include in-app purchases, advertising, social media integration, or external links.

What We Liked:

SoGaBee’s Math Facts Fun seems like it was designed with homeschoolers in mind.  It lets you set up multiple user profiles so you can add all of your children on one device for their own customized tricky problems lists and rewards, it focuses on math facts mastery in a tiered way, starting with flashcards practice, them multiple choice, before the ultimate – filling in the answer from memory.

So many apps are a bit scattered in the way they present math facts, and don’t provide a mechanism to determine whether or not your child has mastered a set of facts, but this one does.  The levels are all based on fact families, and trophies are given only upon clear rounds of no missed answers.  This might make it a bit more tool-like than game-like, but that’s okay with me.  If you remember the FlashMaster, have one, or have heard of one – this app really works in a very similar way, but without so much time pressure, and at a much lower price.

The HUGEST plus in this app for me as a homeschooling mom is that it automatically gathers the missed math facts and puts it on the tricky problems lists that can be pulled up as custom levels for review as flashcards or for quizzing in multiple choice or fill in mode.  Hmm, no more piles of flashcards – passed, and failed, and manually keeping track for each child needed.  That’s a big plus here for a somewhat scatter-brained mom like me!

As a bonus, the avatar-characters that animate at the end of each activity are cute (my daughters are big fans of the little girl, but there are boy-friendly characters too), and like showing off their trophies that they’ve earned.

What We Didn’t Like:

While the detailed statistics do help you discover where our child is struggling so you can set up custom levels, it would be nice to have a way to see this at a glance instead of drilling down through each completed task in the statistics.  You can pick the Tricky Questions custom levels for practice, but there might be times when you want to re-drill a whole fact family (the 7s for example) if several 7 facts are weak.  Maybe a quick link on the statistics page that brought up the current list of tricky questions would work.

It would be a nice bonus feature if the flashcards could be set to present sequentially (1-12) or randomly – right now they are only random.

Overall:

SoGaBee’s Math Facts Fun is ideally suited to helping young children master their basic math facts from 1-12 across all four major operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).  If you emphasize math facts mastery in your homeschool but want to foster a more relaxed method of fact practice (without a visible timer, with enthusiastic characters and cute reward trophies), check this app out.  It automatically gathers missed questions for review in both flashcard and quiz form, making your job easier!

Buy this iPad app now for $2.99!

Have you downloaded this app?  Let us know what you and your children thought – leave a comment!