Teachley: Market Bay
By Mieke VanderBorght,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Use math to buy and sell in fun but limited virtual world.
A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this app.
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Teachley: Market Bay
Community Reviews
There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.
What’s It About?
After verifying their year of birth, parents provide an email address to create an account with TEACHLEY: MARKET BAY and then create up to four child profiles. Once in a child profile, kids customize their avatar and follow a series of instructions to complete quests and earn money. For example, drag the avatar outside to earn $20. At a marketplace, kids buy and sell items. With each transaction, kids use addition, subtraction, and place value to decide how much money pay or earn, and how much money they have after the transaction. Kids can also use the items they buy to decorate their apartment.
Is It Any Good?
Kids get great practice with a handful of simple math skills that are well integrated in a fun virtual marketplace. As kids buy and sell items, they repeatedly interact with addition, subtraction, place value, and money concepts. There are some nice learning supports that give kids a few options for approaching the math concepts. For example, when kids add or subtract to see how much money they have after a transaction, visual aids can be in the form of dollar bills or unit blocks. Sometimes game controls are bit awkward though, particularly if playing on a small screen. Younger kids especially may need a bit of practice. The main downside to Teachley: Market Bay is that it seems to be a one trick pony. That is, there's not much more to the game then buying items to decorate an apartment or turn around and re-sell. The math is also always the same: Kids add or subtract money as they complete quests, and buy or sell things. Even if kids don't get bored doing the same thing over and over again, there's a limit to how much math they're exposed to. It's not immediately clear what new content gets added to warrant Teachley: Market Bay needing to be subscription based. Parents will certainly want to look closely at what their kids do with the two-month free trial before deciding if it's worth a subscription.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the math concepts in Teachley: Market Bay. What skills are kids practicing as they process transactions and calculate how much money they have left?
Involve your kids in every day activities that involve math such as real world shopping and making change, measuring ingredients for cooking, calculating the distance to a destination, and so on.
Even educational screen time is still screen time. Talk about your family's rules for how much time is okay to spend using devices.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
- Subjects: Math: addition, money, subtraction
- Pricing structure: Free to try ($4.99/month after two-month free trial)
- Release date: May 27, 2020
- Category: Education
- Publisher: Teachley
- Version: 2.0.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 10.0 or later
- Last updated: June 22, 2020
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.
Suggest an Update
Where to Download
Our Editors Recommend
Best Math Games, Websites, and Apps for Kids
20 Apps and Sites for Kids Who Hate Math
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate