Keep the Change Kids

[appimg 814669636]

App Info

Price: [app 814669636] {price}
AppStore User Rating: {stars}[/app]

Overview

Keep the Change Kids reviews coin recognition, the values of coins from pennies to quarters in short lessons, touches on the equivalencies among coins and offers an engaging and challenging timed game to practice counting coins.

Features include:

• A brief lesson on each coin and its worth
• Includes examples of equivalencies
• Timed game to practice skills
• High score records
• Settings to control volume and background music

Quality

Keep the Change Kids is an excellent app that works exactly as advertised. It is simple, straightforward and easy to use. Users have a great deal of control over the lesson levels and over the app’s sounds. Lessons include a practice game in the same format as the timed version, which will help users become comfortable with the interface.

Education

This app makes a nice review of coins and their values. It also will help middle elementary children build fluency and speed with counting coins. The lessons are very short and not particularly detailed, so they make a better review than an introduction. Younger players may need some help getting through the lessons, however. The skills they cover are generally taught in grades 1 and 2, but several words in the explanations would be very difficult for children of that age to read. For example, the word “connect” is not usually part of a student’s working vocabulary until about grade 5.  “Touch” and “worth” are grade 3 vocabulary words.

Entertainment

Keep the Change Kids is very entertaining. Users are presented with a grid containing a variety of coins and must swipe a trail to connect coins that add up to the total at the top of the screen. The app shows the currently connected total, so users can move slowly and plan their moves. It allows for retracing the path to “subtract” coins and for starting over. The game is timed, so there is the ongoing challenge of trying to beat the high scores. The developers did a good job of providing practice games in the lessons to help students get familiar with the interface, as well.

One possible frustration for less skilled players, though, is the necessity of planning the path to connect the correct coins. This skill may be beyond some learners, particularly those with ADHD, executive function deficits or cognitive problems. It is possible to connect coins and then find that you cannot reach the last coin you need to complete the task because of the path you have taken. It would be nice to have an option to limit the complexity of the game levels for a particular student so this frustration could be avoided.

Value

This app is a good value. Most students will enjoy the game even if they do not need the review. It will be particularly useful for building speed of coin counting and even practicing activities that will increase overall mental processing speed.

Child Friendliness

There are no outside advertisements, in-app purchases, links to social media or the internet or connections to email in this app. Children can access the settings to adjust the volume and background music or see the names of the developers, but that carries no risk to children.