Park Math - by Duck Duck Moose 4+

First off this game is so colorful and fun looking I knew it would be a hit with my 3 year old. There is so much to do in this app that I don’t even know where to start! Each little game has an activity within it that is educational but so much fun my sons doesn’t even realize he is learning! Some of the games he does guess at since he doesn’t understand counting too well yet, but I do think the game is helping him and he is only 3 years old. To navigate to a different game you just tap on the bear and he skates to another random game or you can click on the kite to choose a particular game or level. Each activity does say what you need to do like “Feed the hippo 5 green apples” but if you miss that there is no way to hear it again which I wish there was a way to repeat the instructions because I think it would help my son if he kept hearing the instructions. Now he just comes to me and points or just keep tapping or dragging items. Overall though the game is very cute and engaging. The illustrations are nice and kid-friendly and the background music is fun. I can see kids getting bored maybe with some of the activities after awhile, but there are so many to choose from that they can easily move onto the next. My son plays Park Math all the time and has yet to grow bored of it!

Another terrific offering from Duck Duck Moose! My 3.5 year old has loved his other apps for almost a year now and this is a great addition to the set. The multiple games cover a wide range of abilities from basic counting to sorting, patterns and basic addition and subtraction. It's perfect as sometimes he just wants to enjoy the funny animation and count with the swinging bunny or feed the hippo. Still, it offers enough challenges with the other games, without being frustrating. Having the additional level is another great way to extend this program. While it is certainly more advanced than Fish School and more directive than Itsy Bitsy Spider or Old McDonald, it still features the same terrific animation, head and shoulders above so many of the shabby looking kids apps out there. I can tell this will see us through many a boring trip to the store or long airplane ride. My only request would be for an iPad version! (I didn't think I saw one?)

Love how the math activities are open ended. My son can go from screen to screen, at his choice and pace. It's also great that there are multiple ways to learn on each page. For example, in the slide page with ducks, you can do addition by just looking at the ducks, by tapping the ducks on the ground and watching them go up the slide, or by looking at the equation at the bottom right. It's nice that you can navigate to any other screen, by touching on the kite and going to cloud kites screen. The bear skating from screen to screen is both cute and elegant. It's good that there are levels of difficulty too (wish this iPhone version had a 3rd level, like the iPad version). Lastly, I like the variety of math exercises that are presented.