Parents' Guide to

Smartick - Math for Children

By Ashley Kemper, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 5+

Super, subscription-based adaptive math practice.

App iPad, Chromebook Free to try Education
Smartick - Math for Children Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Smartick App: Screenshot #1
  • Smartick App: Screenshot #2
  • Smartick App: Screenshot #3
  • Smartick App: Screenshot #4
  • Smartick App: Screenshot #5

Community Reviews

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age 4+

Based on 11 parent reviews

Gumi
Gumi Adult
October 5, 2021
age 5+

Success on continuing daily!

If your child is like mine and enjoys Minecraft or Nintendo's Animal Crossing, then he/she will love Smartick program. The more you work on the program, more "ticks" you receive. With that ticks, kids can purchase items to furnish their own house. It is such a fun feature that keeps motivating my child to do the program daily. It is 15 min a day and my child did the program as soon as she wake up every single day for the last whole year. That never happened with any other program, so it is something. You can get 25% off using the promo code: MARIC4BY8500

This title has:

Easy to play/use
1 person found this helpful.
Gema Diaz
Gema Diaz Adult
April 3, 2020
age 4+

Fantastic app

We’ve been using this app for 2 years and couldn’t be happier with it. My boy enjoys doing his maths and it’s never seen as a chore. He’s so far ahead of what he’s doing at school it’s really unbelievable (he doesn’t even think he does maths at school yet as all they do is add numbers from 1 to 10, circling the biggest quantity and other very basic stuff. in smartick he’s adding with carrying and doing fractions and multiplications. He’s in first class, 7 years old!) Sure, it’s a bit pricey but so worth it. And look, it you were paying for after school classes it would be more expensive. Also, if you want a 25% discount off your first subscription you can use this code: SYDNA8C36491

This title has:

Easy to play/use
See all 11 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Kids open SMARTICK - MATH FOR CHILDREN to an assessment that gauges their math strengths and challenges. Questions follow based on how kids answer the previous ones and offer plenty of tries on problem types they miss. Questions include everything from basic arithmetic to long division to fractions. Some problems allow users to utilize manipulatives (units of ones, tens, hundreds, etc.), and some provide a read-aloud option (especially for younger users). Each correct answer earns kids stars ("ticks") that they can use in their virtual world upon finishing the assessment. Once they complete their time, kids are given the opportunity to go back and answer questions they missed and earn more stars. Parents or tutors receive data surrounding how their kids perform each day using the app. This data details time spent, types of correct or incorrect answers, and feedback for how to improve math mindsets.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (11):
Kids say: Not yet rated

The app delivers on depth and breadth of math problem types for the subscription cost. Combine that with the amount of information shared with parents after kids use the tool, and you have a winning combination. The gamelike features built in to each part of the app also encourage a love of learning math in even the most hesitant kid. For many problems, the tool will read the question and answer choices to kids, which can be incredibly helpful for those who struggle with reading word problems or reading directions carefully. One piece that may be missing is the opportunity for kids to see their mistakes and decide how they could fix them. If kids answer a question incorrectly, the correct solution pops up immediately, but it doesn't detail how kids got to their wrong answer, which is an important step in the learning process.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how we use math daily, especially to measure the world around us. Ask kids to think about how they share time with others. When they hear "you have 15 minutes left," how do they account for that time? What does it look like on the clock? Can Smartick - Math for Children help learn this skill?

  • Talk about how your math brain is always growing. Not every person loves math, but every person has the ability to learn how to solve math problems. Help kids understand that by making mistakes and correcting them, their brains are growing and learning how to solve them next time.

App Details

  • Devices: iPad, Chromebook
  • Subjects: Math: addition, algebra, arithmetic, fractions, measurement, patterns, subtraction
  • Pricing structure: Free to try ($50/mo., $90/two months, $135/three months)
  • Release date: March 15, 2017
  • Category: Education
  • Publisher: Smartick
  • Version: 1.8.9
  • Minimum software requirements: iOS 8.0 or later
  • Last updated: March 13, 2019

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