Fiete Math Climber

The clear design, progress, and customization options are great, but having motivation and instruction woven in seamlessly would be even better. Fiete Math Climber offers kids exposure to a bright, exciting game-like format, which may entice and motivate kids to want to play initially. Using points to "level up" and choose a different character can be motivating and may serve as an incentive to keep playing. However, it would be great to have the incentives baked right into the learning. Also note that there are many harder equations that aren't as easy to complete using mental math, and equations are only shown in a horizontal format, so definitely keep pencil and paper nearby for kids who need to write out the process in detail or in a different format in order to find the correct answer. Kids need to learn automaticity with their math facts, but be mindful of the timer feature and disable it for kids who need extra time to get the answer right. In terms of feedback, since this is meant for practice, don't expect much, but it would be helpful for kids to get more information about incorrect answers. There's a tremendous amount of data on kids' performance, as well as many customizable features that parents can access when they open the app, which can help tailor the experience. Since many kids won't understand the data or may be overwhelmed by it, it's probably better for adults to help kids understand what they're seeing. In the beginning, consider starting with the child's present grade level, maybe even the grade prior, in order to build success and confidence. This app has great features to customize and measure progress, but since all the problems are in one format and there's no instructive feedback, it's best used as one approach to mental math fluency.