What is a "Montessori" app?

There is a growing number of educational apps with "Montessori" in the title. In a quick search, typing in "Montessori" in the search on iTunes yields about 450 iPad apps. I suppose claiming "Montessori"might automatically give you some cred, that the app follows a fairly successful educational approach developed by Maria Montessori. But does it? I think of the many educational approaches, the Montessori approach has the most potential as an app because of the underlying principles, especially the materials that require hands-on learning. However, many of the Montessori apps out there don't live up to it's name.

What are the Montessori principles? Here are eight principle of Montessori education - taken from Montessori - The Science Behind the Genius by Angeline Stoll Lillard (pg. 29). (Angeline Lillard was one of my professors in grad school and we spent quite a bit of time on Montessori!)

1) that movement and cognition are closely entwined, and movement can enhance thinking and learning
2) that learning and well-being are improved when people have a send of control over their lives
3) that people learn better when they are interested in what they are learning
4) that typing extrinsic rewards to an activity, like money for reading or high grades for tests, negatively impacts motivation to engage in that activity when the reward is withdrawn
5) that collaborative arrangements can be very conducive to learning
6) that learning situated in meaningful contexts is often deeper and richer than learning in abstract contexts
7) that particular forms of adult interaction are associated with more optimal child outcomes
8) that order in the environment is beneficial to children

So how do these principals translate to the app world? What I look for in a Montessori app:

1) Is there interactivity where the movement is meaningful and enhances the learning? Do the materials used in the app capture the purpose of Montessori materials? Can kids move around a bunch of "1" blocks and then see that 5 "1" blocks is the same length as a "5" block? Can kids easily make these types of connections from the interactivity offered by the app?

2) What is the premise/context of the activities? I've stressed this before...

3) Is there open-ended play? Is the open-ended activity well-designed and balanced? While we want to give kids control to explore and learn, the activity itself needs to have a purpose, context, and be engaging so that kids will want to choose to play it.

4) Is the app polished, simple and beautiful in design? This might seem like a trivial point, but Montessori materials are polished, simple, and beautiful. Kids should be attracted to it, but not distracted by it. (Back to my Balance issue).

5) How much are kids "rewarded"? I'm not opposed to light forms of rewards, but Montessori apps should be light on reward systems.

6) Are there cooperative learning opportunities? This doesn't just mean make it multiplayer. Do the open-ended activities encourage kids to work together?

Here are a few examples of Montessori apps I like. They may not hit on every principle nor the six areas I look for, but they are some of the better ones of what I've seen so far....

Apps from Les Trois Elles Interactive - I think overall, they do a solid job, though their latest app, Montessori 1st Operation was a disappointment. Check out Montessori Geometry or Montessori Letter Sounds instead.






Apps from Montessorium - These apps are clean and simple. I'm more familiar with the first three shown here...

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Hot Dots Jr.

Hot Dots Jr. was created by Educational Insights and aims to teach kids colors, letters, shapes, numbers, and patterns. It includes Ace the Talking, Teaching Dog. I like the idea of have a virtual "teacher" so let's see if Ace delivers. Price: $0.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.0 or later

Developmental Requirements: In general, the activities assess appropriate skills for preschoolers and kindergartners. The app basically just takes kids through rounds of multiple-choice questions like, "Match the uppercase and lowercase letters" or "Which completes the sequence?" (By the way, using the words completes the sequence is too hard! Many little kids do not know the word sequence or even pattern. Many assessments use the phrase, "What comes next?" instead.) The difficulty in each round ranges, especially with letters, but there's no setting to select specific tasks. Some will be too easy and some will be too hard, but it goes fast enough where it's maybe ok. But it would be nice if parents and kids could select specific tasks to work on, or at least instead of a total score, it actually broke down scores by task. The activities remind me of actual assessments, but with less information.

Where I've set myself up for disappointment is with this whole Ace the Talking, Teaching Dog. To me, that means that Ace provides good instruction and feedback to help kids understand their answers - correct or incorrect. However, Ace does not offer anymore feedback than most apps, giving approval when correct, and maybe a bark when wrong. A "bow wow" tells me nothing. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years).

Balance: The tasks are very straightforward. The voiceover is clear and repeats the question. Sometimes, especially in the case of "which completes the sequence," kids who are unfamiliar with the tasks may need the prompt repeated, but also rephrased. Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: There doesn't seem to be a goal here, you get a score at the end of each round, but nothing else to really keep kids going, unless they just like answering questions. Rating: 3/5

Parental Involvement: Given the structure of the tasks, this is where I think it needs the most improvement. While its good to just have kids practice, there also needs to be instruction involved for them to improve and there is none within the tasks themselves. So what it needs is to provide parents with the knowledge of what and how to help their kids. Rating: 3/5

Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars

Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes

Learning Games for Preschool to Kindergarten

Learning Games for Preschool to Kindergarten was created by Agnitus and includes a variety of basic learning games tapping into color, numbers, letters, shapes, memory, and sorting. Seems to cover a lot and for free! Price: Free

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: I think the most important thing for an app that aims to cover an age range, especially 2-5 is progression. So much happens in these years that it really take a lot of consideration to design an app that adequately addresses the needs of kids at each age. While the games here do progress in difficulty, it does so very gradually. Overall, it's more fit for kids at the younger spectrum. It starts off with a lot of matching - even for colors and letters where it's not really recognition, but just matching, which does not do much for me. While it gradually takes away some of the cues to make it more of a recognition task, I still think these games are too easy for the older spectrum. Most kindergartens know their colors, letters, and numbers (which does not go up very high). Also, there is no setting, so a 5 year-old would have to go through over 200 rounds to get to their skill level. Trust me, I went through that many activities! I will say that the activities are cute and fast-paced though. But overall, I think this app is in desperate need of a difficulty setting, a progression that's more adaptive to each child's performance and more challenging levels. Rating: 3/5 (aim for 3 years).

Balance: The features are cute yet not distracting and offer basic feedback for correct and incorrect. It could go further in probably more instructional feedback. One annoying thing I will point out that I hope is a glitch is on the search game, if you are stuck, it continuously says, "One more..." over and over. Shush and let me concentrate! Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: While the game offers a bonus sticker world and a shower game (not sure how engaging this one is), the very slow progression could still get very boring. Rating: 3.5/5

Parental Involvement: There's a nice "report card" for parents that shows the skills covered, total time, age progression and some overall progress. It also shows what curriculum themes have been covered, but the app itself does not address all the themes shown. Parents can share their child's progress on facebook. This is a nice start to getting parents involved. Rating: 4/5

Total: 14.5 out of 20: 3 stars.

Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Magic Sorter/ Poll results - What age should kids start using apps?

Magic Sorter was created by Igromatic and is a puzzle app recommended for toddlers 1-3 years of age. It's been awhile since I've reviewed an app targeting such young kids - my target age range is really 3-8 years. I set it at 3 on the lower end because I'm not sure how beneficial it is for kids younger than 3 to be using apps?Canthey use apps? Sure - kids are amazingly tactile But should they - we still don't know. We've been warned not to let kids under 2 watch tv - should the age range differ for apps? You, my readers, seem to think so - or some of you at least. Remember the poll to the right of screen? Yes, the one that's been up and closed forever and I've forgotten about - I've reopened if you want to vote now. Here are the results (out of 52 votes):

The most number of votes went the the 1-2 years range. Tying this back to Magic Sorter, the majority of the votes fall in the 1-3 year range - the target age range of the app. So maybe it's just me being conservative on the age. What do we expect from apps for these young kids? Does Magic Sorter convince me that apps should target kids under 3? Price: $1.99


Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.1 or later.


Developmental Appropriateness: This app is all about puzzles - puzzles about color, sizes, and a classic jigsaw puzzle. sure, these are great puzzles for toddlers. Does making them into an app add any value than just have regular old physical puzzles? Not really. I guess when I think about educational apps, I think about what can it add that the traditional activity doesn't have? Sure, convenience/portability, etc. But I don't think that this app takes learning to the next step.


In terms of usability - I"m going to say it again - drag and drop is not easy for young kids. Watch the video. This girl was chosen to do this video - meaning she's probably been prepped. Watch her drag the puzzle pieces - it's not exactly easy for her. 

Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years).


Balance: The app is very simple and user-friendly. For this age group though, parents will need to help navigate and show their child what to do. There's some animation at the end of each puzzle (watch the little girl dance) :) Rating: 4/5


Sustainability: There are a bunch of puzzles and the categories of puzzles also add to the variety. Rating: 4/5


Parental Involvement: The developers acknowledge that parents may need to assist, but again, usability is not the type of involvement I look for from parents. However, I will say that some of the puzzles lend themselves to "teachable" moments like talking about size, shape, and color. Rating: 3.5/5


So, I'm still not convinced of the benefits of apps for kids under 3.


Total: 14.5 out of 20 - 3 stars


Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Kandoobi - Animal Edition

Kandoobi - Animal Edition was created by Kandoobi, targeting toddlers and preschoolers 18 months and up. It includes four different games in one - letters, scratch and fill, coloring, and matching. Price: $2.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: Targeting 18 months and up to preschool is hard to do. Like the many times I've said before, so much development occurs during this time that it would be hard for a single app to target the full range. I think this is what Kandoobi struggles with. Let's break it down.


First we have the letter game. This game confused me the most. It aims to teach both letters AND spelling. A three-year-old just learning letters really has no concept of spelling, let alone spelling such long words as "blowfish" or "caterpillar." Let's not even get into younger than 3-years! But then on the other hand, a child who is ready to spell would know all the letters, making this matching game way too easy. I guess this would be ok if you took out the spelling element and just thought of it as a letter matching game only.


Then the two coloring games. Children like to color, so I can see the coloring being a favorite here. The scratch and fill game is probably there to target the  two -year-olds, so older preschoolers might get bored with it. The final shape matching game is really easy, so again, the window here is very small. Kids who are ready to do this type of matching would pick it up very quickly and soon be ready for more challenging puzzles. 


So this may be a good app for families with multiple kids of different ages - a little something for each, but I highly doubt that one kid would be interested in all four games at the same time. Rating: 2/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: The app is very kid-friendly in terms of colors and ease of use. My only thing is that the pictures of the animals are extremely cartoony (the butterfly pictured above is a less cartoony example). If the aim here is to teach kids about animals, research has shown that the more realistic looking the pictures, the better for learning - and I would think that this is more important when it comes to teaching about the shape of animals. This is not to say that we should only be using photographs or anything like that, but just that we should consider the level of realism in terms of any animation or drawing. Rating 4/5


Sustainability: As discussed above, some of these games will have greater longevity than others. Rating: 3/5


Parental Involvement: Parents will probably need to help their child out with the letter game - talk about the animals, show them what to do. Any type of coloring activity can always spark some conversation and sharing, so having two types of coloring activity saves this app. The matching game probably requires the parent the least. Rating: 4/5


Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars


Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.

Alien Buddies

Alien Buddies was created by Artgig Studio and consists of matching, connect the dots, and puzzle games for preschool and kindergarteners. Aliens help your child to learn to match letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: Ok, let's start with the matching games. Here, you have to put the alien who is a specific letter, number, color, or shape to the matching alien ship. The aliens are funny, and they give appropriate feedback. Is it a successful matching game? Yes. Although it does not actually say that this is a game about learning numbers, letters, shapes, or colors, one would assume that that is the intent. Is this an effective game for learning this material? Probably not. There are two stages - one where you see the target, let's stick with number, on the ship and the numbers on the aliens. You can then tap on the ship and aliens, and they will say the corresponding number. So you both see and hear the number on both what you have to choose and where you have to put it. In the second stage, they take the visual cue off the ship, so now you can hear the target number, and then see AND hear the numbers on the aliens. A little harder, but still, you don't have to actually know your numbers to play this game - you can still match them by hearing it. Sure, I think maybe this game might help kids who are already learning this material and this is just making it all more familiar, but I don't think this game can stand alone. Plus, I would hope that a kindergartener, and even older preschooler would be able to match in this way, making this app too easy for them. Why not go the extra step? The next level could simply be that you hear the number on the ship, and see the numbers on the aliens - only. That would be ""identification," a very real and frequently used task in preschools. 

With the connect the dots game, the numbers are always in order. Given that you can choose the difficulty with many aspects of this app, why not have a level where the numbers are mixed, to truly challenge a child to learn the sequence of numbers? As is, you're really just going in a circle.


The puzzles are regular jigsaw puzzles. The aliens characters are cute, making these puzzles appealing. Finally, the stickers activity, is not really a task or anything - it's where you get all your sticker rewards from the other activities and make pictures with them. Yes, you can get a little creative, but "creative free play", "fine motor skills" and "builds learning confidence" is overselling it a bit, isn't it? Rating: 2/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: I think the aliens provide a good balance of silliness and appropriate feedback without being distracting. The connect the dots game has small numbers, thus may require "fine motor skills" so the younger kids may need a little help. Rating: 4/5


Sustainability: Again, I like the aliens and I think kids will too. However, at least the matching and connect the dot activities are too easy for the target age group so I don't think they will keep coming back for long once they've gotten a enough stickers. Rating: 3/5


Parental Involvement: There's not much for parents to do here. What more prompting could they possibly provide that the game hasn't already? Rating: 2.5/5


Total: 11.5 out of 20: 2 stars




Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Quibble Kids

Quibble Kids was created by Chess Pie Media and is a picture-matching game that includes puzzles ranging from basic skills like matching up all the apples to harder skills like multiplication number facts and the inverse rule. Can a single app cover such a wide age range and topics?
Price: $1.99


Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: This review was hard to write because the suggested age range is 2-12. The nice thing about this app is that you can set what puzzles to play, so a 12 year-old doesn't have to match up simple pictures and a 2 year-old is not staring blankly at multiplication problems. So let's start with the younger kids. The basic idea is that with each puzzle, you have 4 cubes with pictures on each side. You have to match up the related sides on each cube by either using your finger to turn each cube or setting it so it turns automatically and you tap on it when you see the side/picture you want. I think 2 or maybe even 3 years is too young for this app. These are purposeful movements (especially turning the cube with your finger) and decisions. Some of the picture matching would be hard for them too, like fishing lures - not sure how many 2- year- olds know what a fishing lure is. Also, each round has four puzzles (one for each side of the cube), but each game is 10 minutes long before your score gets recorded. Ten minutes of straight play without a goal seems long for a younger child. Yes, you can pause it, and come back, but it would be nice to have that "I finished" feeling. Maybe there should be an option to set the duration of the game, especially for the younger children. Also, there's no submit button - so you once you have three of the cubes lined up, you can just rotate the 4th one until it hits the right side, even if by chance - and it will "solve" the puzzle. The hints aren't so helpful either - at least not as much for the easier puzzles. It's not helpful at all in the beginning - you need to have at least 2 matched up and then the hint with show you which cubes you have matched. So if you have nothing matched and you hit hint, you've wasted a hint and it's -5 points for each hint! I think a child who is having problems matching up apples needs more verbal prompts like, "What's on the picture? Find the others!" or "You've find 2 apples, now find 2 more!" Simply lighting up the cubes is too subtle a hint.

Where this app gets interesting is with the older kids. An important note here is that to access the other types of puzzles or just more puzzles, you have to buy more puzzle packages. The original app comes with the picture-match puzzles and a preview of other puzzles for math, math jr (more advanced), name that animal, and word match. (Disclaimer - I did not buy the other puzzle packs.) Puzzles like "name that animal" where you match up facts about an animal to figure out what animal it is (i.e. "I live in a den", or "I can fly") can be challenging and fun at the same time. Ten minutes on these puzzles would go by faster - but I'd still recommend an option to set the time. The hints on this level would be more helpful.

There seems to be a gap in the level of puzzles. There are the easy picture match ones, and some easy math ones, but then you have to be a reader for the animal and word match. Some 5- 6-year-olds may be bored with the easy ones, but not yet ready to play the harder ones. Overall, I like this app for older kids (7+), but factoring in the full target age range... Rating: 3/5 (I would aim for starting at around 4 years with the picture puzzles).

Balance: The overall look and feel of this app seems a little mixed - not quite designed for a young child, not quite designed for an adult. I would say the look of it is more for an adult (and there is an adult version of this game - not sure what it looks like), but then the music and little kid encouragement feedback is for young kids. But in terms of the features themselves, it's pretty simple. As mentioned already, they could add a couple more features to help the younger kids, especially with the hints. Rating: 3.5/5

Sustainability: The additional puzzle packs are a plus (although you do have to spend more money). I think older kids would enjoy the variety and different puzzles that are offered. I'm not as sure for the younger kids, especially with the gap in skill level. The high scores list is good for the slightly older kids, but again, you have to play 10 minute games to have your score count. Rating: 3.5/5

Parental Involvement: This is a one player game that parents might even want to play themselves. Parents could be involved in the harder puzzles like the name the animal, which may even spark conversations about the zoo or other experiences. The younger kids will need help, which the game assumes since there are instruction notes to the parents. Rating: 3.5/5

Total: 13.5 out of 20 = 3 stars

Disclaimer: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox was developed by THUP Games and is a series of 7 games that cover colors, matching, counting, letters, puzzle, spot the difference, and shape. The premise is that we're trying to pack the monkey's lunchbox, so all the items involve fruit. Sounds cute. Price: $0.99 on iTunes, $1.99 on Android market

Device Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; 
Requires iOS 3.0 or later; Android 2.0 and up

Developmental Appropriateness: Two of the major questions I ask when it comes to developmental appropriateness are "Is it right for the targeted age group?" and" What skill is it trying to target?". At first glance, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox seems to be a solid app for preschoolers - the games cover topics that are appropriate for preschoolers. But the more I played it, the less I thought of the app. With the first question, the app says it targets 2-5 year-olds. This is certainly true. But like I've said before, this is a wide age range and a lot happens during these early years. Some of the games like color and spot the difference are fit for the really young ones, 2 to 3-year-olds, while other games like the puzzles and matching are more for the older kids, like 5-year-olds. You do not have the option of choosing which games to play, it's all part of one game. So 5-year-olds will be bored with some items, and 2-year-olds will find some items too difficult.

For the second question, I really question what the counting and letter tasks are measuring. First with counting - there is a lot to understand about numbers and it is often difficult to assess exactly what a child understands about numbers. Just because they can count to 10 doesn't mean they understand those numbers. In this task, the Monkey asks for x amount of fruit and you have to tap on that amount of fruit. So what is trying to measure? Verbal counting? No. The app counts for you. Enumeration (*see below for definitions) or one-to-one correspondence? Maybe, but not quite. The task only presents the number that is asked for - so when it wants 4 apples, there are only 4 apples on the screen. How do we know the child is not just tapping on everything that's on the screen? Cardinality**? No - again, we really don't know what the child is doing. Does the child really know that he or she just put 4 apples in the basket or did he or she just tap on everything on the screen?


*Enumeration: The process of saying the proper number words in sequence while assigning one and only one number word to each object. 
**Cardinality: Knowing that the last counting word provides the numerical value of the whole set of objects. For example, after a child counts "1 2 3 4 5" he then can say, "There are five apples."
Definitions are from: http://mathcgm.org/index.php


With the letter task, you are asked to select the fruit that begins with a certain letter. It shows a picture of the fruit and the word for the fruit. All the options are color coded (see picture in the video above). When it asks for the letter, it also shows the letter, and in the same color as the correct answer. So is it really measuring letter identification, or color and or letter matching? The target letter also never separates or is highlighted from the word. So you might hear A apple, but you never see it. Some of the fruits are also big words - like "cantaloupe." These longer words are hard for kids, especially those just learning their letters.


Numbers and letters may seem like they are easy things to learn, but they are not. They are very complicated symbols. Rating: 2/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: The game is pretty simple. There are no extra hotspots or anything like that. The Monkey will do some flips when you get the right answer or shake it's head when you get it wrong, providing some cute feedback. The Monkey also makes noises, which after while, for me at least, got a little annoying, especially when you do the counting task really fast. But all in all, I think the graphics are cute and nothing too distracting. Rating: 4.5/5


Sustainability: After a few items, you get to pick a sticker. It never ceases to amaze me how much kids like stickers. There's a nice variety of stickers to choose from, but it's a little disappointing because you can't do anything with them. You can't even move them around once you've placed it on your sticker scroll. Furthermore, there's really only one level. The items never get harder - they just repeat over and over. Rating: 2/5


Parental Involvement: Other than to help the younger ones figure out what to do, I don't really see much of a role for parents here. Parents cannot see what progress is being are on the different types of items, and the items are simple enough that there is not much prompting to do in terms of strategy. Rating: 3/5 


Total: 11.5 out of 20 = 2 stars

Buzzle

Buzzle is a puzzle app created by Walnut Labs. It has been featured on iTunes and has been voted one of the top apps both in the US and internationally. What caught my attention about this app is that it is recommended for infants as young as 10 months of age (!) to preschool. I know that I say my target age range is 3-8, but I really had to see what an app for such young children would entail. Price: $0.99
Device Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; Requires iOS 3.0 or later; 16 MB

Developmental Appropriateness: Overall, this is a nice and simple puzzle activity for preschool-aged children. It features appropriate images like animals - which young children generally like, matches it with corresponding sounds - even better (who has not heard kids making animal sounds?!), and provides a little prompting by highlighting where the puzzle piece should go for those who are having trouble (click on the video to see the demo). Where I struggle with this app is the recommended age. Children under one year of age do not really understand what a picture is. Research has shown that 9-month-olds will try to grasp at or even hit the picture in an attempt to "pick up" the depicted object (imagine the smudges and possible abuse to your device!). In the next year or two, infants begin to understand the relationship between pictures and their real world referents, but their understanding can be easily affected by factors such as the type of picture (i.e. photograph, cartoon drawing, etc.) - the more realistic the picture, the easier it is for toddlers to understand. The pictures here are nice and colorful and fairly realistic, but are still cartoonish. While the idea of this app is similar to when one- or two-year-olds are playing with those crates where you have to fit the triangle or circle in the right cut-out or when a parent reading is a picture-book about animals with cartoon drawings - these activities just seem different than using a finger to match up objects on a screen (and I doubt that a 10-month-old can drag and drop well). It is well known that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting video screen time for children under 2. This app is not quite the same as video screen time - it requires more interaction and thought. Is there a "too young" for educational apps? 


Overall, I think this is a nice app for preschoolers, but I do not see this app being all that beneficial for children under the age of two - certainly not better than live interactions with a parent or an outing to the zoo. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years of age).  


Balance: Again, this is a pretty simple activity, and in general, I like simple. When considering this for a 3-year-old or older, I think it's a nice puzzle activity. The pictures are colorful and there are a variety of scenes, but the task is always clear - find where the puzzle pieces go. Rating: 5/5 


Sustainability: One suggestion I already see from reviewers is more puzzles. So far, there are only 10 puzzles. Although I know that kids who like puzzles will want to do them repeatedly, more variety would be nice. Kids can then choose their "favorite" or have new scenes to talk about. Also, at the completion of each puzzle, there is a nice congratulations screen. I can see other rewards or incentives provided as more puzzles are completed - which ay lead to kids requesting more puzzles to be downloaded. Rating: 3/5


Parental Involvement: If this app is really meant for infants and toddlers as young as 10-month-olds, then it really screams for parental involvement. However, the app does not really seem to provide a role for parents other than to help match up the pieces. If parents are really using this with their young ones, I'd suggest thinking of it as a picture-book where you would talk about the scenes, relate it to your personal experiences, and highlight the shapes and objects. Rating: 3/5


Total: 14 out of 20 = 3 stars

Disclosure: I received this app for review for free from the developers.