Reviewing Albert – A Children’s Math Service for Kids 3-9 years old

William’s favourite thing in the world is numbers and although he’s only just turning four next week, he already loves basic maths and counting. He definitely takes after his dad there, not me! He also loves technology, but I’m very mindful of screen time limits and like to make sure that his screen time is productive.

Albert Junior is a digital math teacher for kids age 3 to 9 years old and usually costs £8.99 / month for one user or £14.99 / month for up to four users. At the moment there is a FREE trial offer that lasts until June 2021. This is a one time launch offer so make sure you check it out! You can find out more about it on the Albert website.

Albert Junior is available both on iOS (which is what I have reviewed) and Play Store. You register and the progress is saved across devices which is super useful as it means I can use it on my phone or on the iPad, and it also means my husband or William’s grandmother who also uses an iPad can access his progress very easily.

William is currently three years old – four in a week, so his maths skills at the moment are very basic, and he hasn’t had any formal maths teaching since he’s currently still in pre-school and starts reception in September. We’ve started working through Albert Junior from the very beginning because of this and I’d say that the start content is absolutely perfect for three to four year olds, he’s done the exercises with number recognition and then started basic addition and subtraction, simple geometry and symmetry, length and weight concepts. Content then gets more complex but with simple and easy to understand exercises.

Some of the content at level two and three is already familiar to William, for example he’s f amiliar with numbers all the way up to 1000, which is level three and can also start the basic multiplication and division sections, but some of the content such as telling the time he still struggles with. The way it’s set up allows you to easily pick the areas your child needs more work or the areas he particularly enjoys, and each section moves very progressively.

Progressing through some of the simpler addition content:

Some of the more advanced concepts we’ll be working towards in the future:

Here’s a quick video of William playing with addition on Albert Junior for the first time. At almost four, he does still need me to explain the concepts to him the very first time he encounters it on the App and I think this is a good tool for bonding with him, and encouraging him to listen and think about what I’m saying as well. Once he’s done an exercise and understands it, he does work pretty independently, and I’m sure that will increase as he gets older.

At his age I’ve been giving him about ten to fifteen minutes on the App a day, which seems like a perfect bite-sized amount to keep him engaged and excited. After several levels you get the opportunity to play a mini game, collecting different value diamonds to try and get a high score. This really adds a little bit of fun to it and gives a quick mental break. He loves getting three gold stars on each level and this encourages him to repeat content if he still needs more work.

The content is designed by experienced teachers, educators and researches using the British education system, and exercises are catered to British children – so if it’s using real world examples, you’ll see £ being used and not $, and items that you’d come across here in the UK. This is really useful to me as it gives me confidence that this is the correct content to support William with what he’ll be learning in school, and makes sure he understands and connects with the real life examples to help him process what he’s learning in a practical way.

I only have the one child so only have one user on the app, but depending on which plan you’re on, you can have up to four users so if you have up to four children, each can use the App and track their personal development.

As a parent, knowing we have an App to help him with his maths skills all the way up to 9 years old gives me a lot of peace of mind. Each section has tons of content and I can really see how this is going to help him as he progresses through school. From a parental point of view, there’s also a parent report on the website rather than the app that gives you information and statistics about the app use.

Albert Junior is currently available from £8.99 a month, with a free trial so you can check it out for yourself. If you decide not to continue, you can cancel easily with a single click on the website, so no hassle there. With over 3200 exercises, I really feel it’s worth a subscription – but try it out for yourself at Hi Albert.

This post was written in collaboration with www.hialbert.co.uk