Drive About: Number Neighborhood App Review
App Info
Price: $2.99
Overview
Hand your child the keys to the car. It’s time to take a trip around Number Neighborhood where kids get to be in the driver’s seat as they explore the neighborhood and find fun mini games to help them build number skills. As they drive about in the car, guide a rocket ship into space, and steer a boat, kids will discover games that help them learn about number recognition, ordering, counting, and even basic addition. In between each game, they’ll have fun getting to know and interacting with some of the other creatures and sites around the neighborhood.
Features include:
- 9 mini games
- An interactive town
- Travel by land, water, and air
- Focus on counting, ordering, and number recognition
Quality
Kids will find themselves bobbing along to the folk-ish background music with the sound of a puttering car and other fun sound effects appearing as they drive along. They’ll also get to experience a lot of colorful scenery as they drive, ranging from urban areas to cute residential areas, and even getting a chance to explore the depths of the ocean and the vastness of space. As they drive around, they can stop and interact with the scenery or stop at the flashing arrows and tap to enter one of the 9 different mini games found throughout the neighborhood.
Education
Drive About: Number Neighborhood helps kids build basic math skills by introducing them to numbers. Most of the activities focus on number identification and recognition, having kids draw numbers, tap on numbers as they appear, and putting numbers in order. However, some of the activities also build basic addition skills. For example, one activity has kids balance animals on a teeter totter. Each animal has a number and while kids can match an 8 with an 8 to balance a scale, they can also use different combinations of numbers, such as using an animal with a 5 and an animal with a 3 to balance with the 8. While it doesn’t look like traditional addition, it offers a great way to start introducing kids to a key skill.
Entertainment
Most kids won’t even realize they’re doing math as they play the games. They can stick with one game for a long time or hop back in one of their vehicles to find a new game. In fact, while kids can access many of the activities by car, they also get the activity to hop in a rocket ship and fly into outer space to find a game or climb into a submarine and head down to the ocean floor for a fun game with sea pickles. This variety helps keep kids interested in the app and makes them feel like there’s always something new to discover.
Value
It’ll be years before your child is begging you to shell out thousands of dollars for a new car, but you can spend a few dollars and get a car, a rocket ship, a boat, a hot air balloon, and more vehicles for your child to use to drive about Number Neighborhood to experience the 9 different mini games and fun interactive animations contained inside.
Child Friendliness
Inside the app, kids will find an easy-to-navigate neighborhood, allowing them to quickly move their car, spaceship, hot air balloon, boat, and submarine from one game to another. All of the games are labeled with flashing arrows to help kids find them. Once they tap on a game, clear verbal instructions help them understand exactly what to do. Outside of the games, kids will have a hard time finding access to the parent screen, identified by a small icon in the bottom lefthand corner of the main screen. Parents, however, can get there by pressing and holding the icon for 3 seconds. Once inside, they’ll find descriptions of the 9 mini games, a privacy policy to reassure them children are safe while using the app, and links to other Artgig apps and to leave feedback for Drive About: Number Neighborhood.
