Math and Word Games for Kids for the iPhone

We tried a bunch of new games recently. Anusen (itunes link) is a small family run company that makes a very nice selection of word and math type games for kids, including a few in Spanish. Their QA team is made up of a selection of preschoolers. Our test team here (a 4 year old and 9 year old) really enjoyed playing them. As of this writing, the games are pretty reasonably priced, at just $.99/each. Definitely worth picking up a few to try.

Here are the ones we tried:

Word Magic
A game that helps teach spelling. You can have the game leave the first letter of the word open or a letter in the middle of the word.

Math Magic
Tests your skills at basic math equations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and rewards your little mathematician with stickers when they get a handful right. With Rachel’s class reviewing math facts at the start of school this year, this was a great way for her to get back up to speed.

Match Magic
“Draw” lines to connect matching pictures, shapes, numbers or colors. Zachary particularly liked playing this one.

Count Magic
In this game you have to catch falling items until you catch the correct number, and then the scene changes and you can play again. The game counts the items as you catch them. This was another one Zachary really enjoyed playing.

Math Series
This game has you fill in the missing number in the series. You can set the level of difficulty from simple to more complex. ie. [1 2 3 _ 5] or something a little trickier [3 6 9 _ 15]

Match ’em up Math
Another game where you draw lines to connect one side to the other – but in this case, it’s math problems to their solution. Equations can be in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. So the age range on this is pretty big.

Sharing Apps on Multiple Computers

This is totally new to me, and I can’t believe I didn’t already know this, but just like with music you purchase from iTunes, you can authorize up to 5 devices to use an application you have purchased and downloaded. I just found that out from reading iPhone Mom. She had linked to this video which explains how – it’s really simple. The short version is: when you’re in iTunes, looking at your app collection, you can just drag the app from itunes to your desktop and you get a file with the extension .ipa. Get this file to the other computer (you can email it – or if it’s over a network, just drop it on a shared folder, etc.) From the other computer, drop the file into itunes or double click it. To authorize it’s use on that computer you’ll have to enter your itunes username and password. Now I can get all these kid games I’ve downloaded onto my HUSBAND’S iPhone so the kids can play with his phone instead of mine!! HAHA!!

UPDATED So I just had to cycle back on to this and explain that I don’t highly recommend this especially if you own multiple computers yourself. (ie. home computer, work computer, desktop, laptop, etc.) – You see – when you authorize a computer for the application – it’s not just to use that one application – it’s for your *whole account* – your music, your apps, everything. And you only get to do this with 5 computers total. Also – we ran into some weird issues on my husbands computer where it was getting confused because it didn’t see the computer as being authorized for two accounts at once – so it would switch back and forth between my account and his account (might have been something we were doing wrong too)… in any case. Be forewarned…