Dragon Box Algebra App

On Friday I mentioned Tech Time's list of the 15 Best Apps for Homeschooling.  I linked to the article on my facebook page, and a friend of mine posted a few days later that her kids were all over the Dragon Box Algebra app for ages 5+. She posted:

...its algebra for kids and the littles are obsessed with it. ... [My son] LOVED it. He finished the whole thing in 4 days. On the second problem, even though his age is all pictures, he looked at me and said "This is math. I like math." That in and of itself made it the best $5 I've spent in a very long time.

This is the app that sneakily teaches algebra while your children think they're just playing a game! Mane is finishing up pre-algebra this year and will be starting Algebra 1 over the summer or this autumn. I decided to give Dragon Box Algebra 12+ a try to help her approach algebra from another angle and to make conceptual sense of algebraic concepts. I believe alternate presentations of the same concept are essential to math success, and approaching math from different angles builds flexibility in the brain. This app does exactly that. From the website:

DragonBox presents the player with whimsical icons that must be manipulated until the ‘Dragonbox’, representing the unknown variable, is isolated on one side of the game board. ... Through the course of play, these icons are gradually replaced with numbers and variables until the player is solving real equations. The rules of variable manipulation are discovered through experimentation, and higher star ratings are obtained by manipulating variables more efficiently to isolate the ‘box’ in fewer steps.

Mane was dubious when we downloaded the app. The program does not present with rules. Players are expected to learn through play. This makes the rule-following child feel a little insecure...in a good way. She tried out the app with me and was quick to put it away. Later that day, however, when she'd been "forced" to find something to do while waiting for Mango to pick her up from swim practice, she took the time to explore and figure out the game, and now she's hooked.

Even better news? Dragon Box has a geometry App: Dragon Box Elements. We cannot wait to check it out!!