Intro to Letters and Intro to Math, by Montessorium
Montessorium brings the Montessori Method of learning to the iPhone and iPad. In case you’re not familiar with it, the Montessori Method is a more child-directed approach to learning that focuses on different sensory experiences. In keeping with that, both of the Montessorium apps are gorgeous to look at, with a woodgrain look and a muted palette. The sound effects are also pleasant and not overbearing like some kids’ apps. One of the exercises in both Intro to Letters and Intro to Math is tracing letters and numbers on the screen—this is supposed to develop the muscle control and muscle memory for writing. Real-life Montessori schools use sandpaper letters and numbers, so the iPhone version loses the tactile experience but reproduces the scratchy sandpaper sound while tracing.
The Montessorium apps are also a bit pricier, at $4.99 each, though it is a universal app that works for iPhone and iPad. It might have been nice to have a lower-priced iPhone-only version, but you do get several games on each app. Whether or not it’s worth your money may depend largely on your attitude toward the Montessori method itself, but the implementation is impressive.
Intro to Letters includes five games which teach the alphabet in different ways. One of the differences in Montessori is that they start with the letter sounds rather than the names. So you would present the letter C by saying “kuh” instead of “see.” This helps kids tie the sound to the letter, which is particularly useful in cases where the name of the letter doesn’t indicate the pronunciation (e.g. H, G, or W). Children are presented with three letters in sequence, trace each one, and then they’re asked to find a particular letter from the set of three.
A second game is similar, but with phonic groups like “oa” and “th.” Then there is a game that teaches letter names, and then one that focuses on capital letters. The last game allows you to record and play back letter sounds but since I have an iPod touch with no microphone I wasn’t able to try that one out.
One important feature is that the app doesn’t require any reading skills—instructions are given verbally and visually, and my three-year-old was able to move around between the different games with only a minimum of instruction. It does help to turn the speakers up quite a bit to hear the pronunciations, though on some it’s may still be a little tricky to hear.
Fun value: 3/5
Educational value: 5/5
Intro to Letters is $4.99 on iTunes.
Intro to Math has a number-tracing game similar to the letters version, but there are also several other options for learning numbers. One is a series of ten rods of different lengths—you shake to jumble them and then drag them back into place. They make wonderful marimba-like sounds as you drag them around.
Another game (pictured above) asks you to match small number disks to the rods of varying lengths, thus associating numbers with the different lengths. There’s also a game that uses red disks to count out numbers. All of the games help kids learn the sequence of numbers but also ties them to their values visually.
It may be that my three-year-old is more mathematical and less verbal, but she seemed to enjoy this app better than Intro to Letters. I think there’s a little more variety in the types of games and a wider range of sounds and actions.
Fun value: 4/5
Educational value: 5/5
Intro to Math is $4.99 on iTunes.
