Grandpa's Workshop
By Mieke VanderBorght,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Good basic math games with sweet theme lack coherence.
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Grandpa's Workshop
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What’s It About?
In seven activities, kids count, measure, paint, cut boards, identify tools, and put puzzle pieces together. Games appear in random order and continue cycling through until kids exit. Every few games, kids watch a live-action video of something related to building (for example, laying bricks or using a level or a jigsaw) or choose an element to add to their personalized clubhouse. Grandpa is always available for gentle encouragement and sometimes gives helpful hints.
Is It Any Good?
Kids naturally love helping grown-ups do grown-up things, and the relationship kids have with grandparents is often something special. So getting kids working with (virtual and pretend) grandparents is a great idea. The simple games and clean graphics and design make play easily accessible. Grandpa is sweet and gives lots of gentle encouragement; kids will enjoy giving him high-fives. The games focus on a few important early math themes, but randomly cycling through them, without any coherent connection from one task to the next, makes the whole experience feel frantic and disjointed. Tying all the activities together in a sensible way and having kids build, say, a bookcase would add some coherence. A few more features would also really improve usability, such as natural endings to play cycles or the ability to save a finished clubhouse or see its progress as it's being built. Overall, GRANDPA'S WORKSHOP is a fun game with a really sweet theme that could use some tweaking to make it really over the top.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what they can build or repair and what materials they can use (blocks, paper, and so on).
Continue counting, identifying, and talking about numbers and quantities in everyday interactions.
Build something together, from a cardboard castle to a wooden tree house, involving kids as much as possible.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects: Language & Reading : vocabulary, Math : counting, fractions, measurement, numbers, Hobbies : building
- Skills: Health & Fitness : fine motor skills
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: May 29, 2014
- Category: Education
- Topics: Great Boy Role Models , Numbers and Letters
- Publisher: Fairlady Media
- Version: 1.8
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 5.1 or later
- Last updated: August 19, 2021
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