Can't tell you enough how wonderful SplashLearn is
Robyn Meeker
Parent, year 1, 4 & 8
Time Spent by Sterling: 17 Hours
Problems Answered by Sterling: 4,287
Characters Unlocked by Sterling: 349
I have three boys, the oldest is 12 who is in 8th year, the middle child who is 8 years old and is in 4th year, and the youngest who is 6 years old and is in 1st year.
I bought the fifth year SplashLearn when my now year 8 was in 5th year (3 years down ago). I first downloaded the free version and fell in love with it instantly. I was so impressed as it was right on target with the maths that my child was doing in school. I remember, a couple of weeks later, my child came home and asked me about distributive, commutative and associative properties. I hadn't a clue. I turned to SplashLearn as my crutch, and it helped immensely. I sat down with it, and guessed a few in order for it to tell me the correct answers and why. I like this features that it teaches you the reason when you get an answer wrong. The following year we went on to purchase the 5th grade SplashLearn version. And I loved it just as much. I felt it aligned perfectly with what my child was learning in school. By then my middle child was in school, and we ended up purchasing the 5th, 6th, 1st, 2nd and 3rd year levels. Then you released the full suite that had the 1st through 6th year. I purchased that for my third child who is now in 1st year and he loves it. I was busy with events and life, that I didn't have the time to sit down and work with my then Preschooler on the iPad. I will admit it, I had SplashLearn help me as a babysitter when I needed to keep him occupied at times. He enjoyed playing it, so he didn't mind. When he was in preschool, he did the 1st year level. (He has always been good at maths). But he ended up learning things that I hadn't even taught him. I realized that he was learning it from SplashLearn, and on a few instances his older brothers taught him how to do a section with the assistance of SplashLearn. Any parent of small children, I recommend this app for them.
I do love how it sends progress reports via email, and I can see how far along they are in the school year. For instance, I can see that my year 1 is only 9 levels away from completing the whole 2nd year.
As far as the K-5 Suite, we like the ocean Aquarium vs the jungle. We would like to see more different types of exotic fish, I.e. A puffer fish, that puffs up when you click it. Or sea horses or parrot fish. Or clams that open and close. We would also like to see the ability to buy background items like sand castles, more coral reef, sunken treasure chests or ships. The ability to turn the aquarium to view it from all angles would be nice. In the 2nd year, we would also like to see additional games, not just the aquarium and jungle.
4th Grade SplashLearn
Even though my middle child is in 4th year, he is doing 5th year maths. I love the long division section, where it helps put the numbers in so you can see if you are on the correct path. This is a great tool for children who are learning, and can't always remember the next step. I like the scratch pad, and the ability to Work out the problem without needed additional paper.
The games in the 5th year app, my children don't care for doodle fall, because they say you lose lives too easy. Car race is too hard, because it is too hard to steer around the other cars and you die too easily. We actually like the mouse trap game from a long time ago, because it is very hard to lose lives. We like the aquarium. We think the games should be a little more detailed and less archaic. I as a parent think there should be a time limit that a child can be in the aquarium or games before the child is exited out, and has to go back to the maths part.
My 3rd grader (playing the 5th year level) liked the blue boy astronaut the best. However he was working on the red boy, and when he changed the looks of his player, we lost all of his success. This led to a ton of tears and frustration in our house. We feel the child should have the ability to change the look of their player without losing all of the spaceships they achieved.
Game idea
My child suggested there should be a game, where you're in a rocket ship and you are flying through space. You have a minute to dodge space rocks and meteors and land on a landing pad. If you don't land successfully within that minute, you have to go back and do more work to get another life.
Overall we love SplashLearn. I would like to see the years continue to higher levels, to cover middle school children. I would love to see more algebra.
Thank you for developing SplashLearn. I always recommend it to every mother I know of kids. I have also recommended it to my children's teachers. I don't know if you have a way for teachers to have 25-30 students sign in, but I think it's a great tool for teachers.