Jungle Coins for iPad – App Review
Counting money is an important skill children need to learn and Jungle Coins for the iPad will help them do just that. If you’ve been following along on PadGadget for a while, you’ll remember I covered Jungle Time and Jungle Fractions by developer Andrew Short last month. Both of those are great educational apps for kids and he has since added another noteworthy title to his list with Jungle Coins.
Building on the jungle theme, Jungle Coins interactively teaches kids about identifying, counting and computing with coins. The large display, brightly colored graphics, fun animals and different categories will engage your child through play and help them learn.
There are four different money categories for kids to cover: Find, Count, Compare and Correct Change. When you start Jungle Coins, the app begins in Find asking kids to identify specific coins by dragging them from one side of the screen to the other. Complete the task and tap “Done”. If it’s correct, you’ll receive a green check and a smiley face from your animal, if not, you’ll see a sad face and an “X” instead. Try another problem in the same category by shaking the iPad or tapping “Shake” or move on to a different category by selecting one of the choices at the bottom of the screen.
Remaining categories include:
- Count – displays different coins and lets kids enter the correct amount using the number wheel.
- Compare – provides two sets of coins on either side of a line and asks kids to determine whether the coins are < (less than), = (equal) or > (greater than).
- Correct Change – gives kids a story problem requiring them to provide change.
Jungle Coins is fully customizable and allows kids to choose from five jungle animals to accompany them on their coin counting journey. It also provides jungle background sounds, animal sounds and coin sounds which can be turned on and off as you desire. Parents have the option to increase the level of difficulty by selecting from five different levels.
- Level 1 – Pennies and Nickels
- Level 2 – Pennies, Nickels and Dimes
- Level 3 – Pennies, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters
- Level 4 – Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, Quarters and Half Dollars
- Level 5 – Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, Quarters, Half Dollars and One Dollar Coins
“Learn” provides information on Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, Quarters, Half Dollars and One Dollar Coins. Jungle Coins even gives parents the ability to track their child’s progress directly using the “Score” page. The top of the page shows the number of Correct vs. Incorrect answers and provides percentages as well. Scores can be easily reset to accommodate new players or for any other reason.
What we liked: This interactive money app is easy to use and helps teach kids an important life long skill. Its customizable, fun, and includes several different categories. I love the Correct Change feature! It seems most people these days rely on a cash register to tell them the correct amount of change but I think everyone should know how to figure out how much change you should give or receive.
What we didn’t like: Although it’s not really a dislike, I think it would be great to add foreign currency options to the list of customizable options.
To buy or not to buy: Definitely! Kids will build confidence with positive reinforcement and this fun but educational app. With school starting up again before you know it, this app is a great one to add to your collection for kids Pre-K and up.
- App Name: Jungle Coins – learn coin math (for iPad)
- Version reviewed: 1.1
- Category: Education
- Developer: Andrew Short
- Cost: $2.99
- Score:
Category: App Reviews, iPad News
