AKC Math Agility

This is a really fun way to build fluency with math facts! The problems start simple but are challenging by the end so kids keep learning no matter how many times they play. The fact that it’s timed makes it good for promoting fluency and memorization of the facts which is such a foundational skill for more complex math.

First reaction: "Why ruin agility with math?" Second reaction: "Well, it says it's for very young kids; how hard could it be? Might be worth it to see all the doggies..." Answer: VERY. I'm 32 and I needed a calculator for a lot of this. Can't even guess how many attempts were required to "win" (against AI dogs? Argh) the subtraction National Championship. There are 3 levels for each of the four operations. Each consists of four increasingly challenging trials, and a hidden "master" one before you try for the Championship to unlock another of the 15 dogs. I'd hoped you would be able to choose any of them as your partner from the start, so of course my favorite (the Standard Poodle) was an unlockable. It's a very simple game...but oh, so hard. You need to be so impossibly fast and perfect to become the champ, it drives you insane. And you have no control over how slowly the dog takes the obstacles between problems. Then there are the breed cards--60 total, yet after I beat the entire game 9 are still locked. O...kay?!?!? The breeds selected for the cards are random, and it would be cool to be able to play with them too. I have a few other favorites in there. But yeah, I haven't the faintest clue how you were supposed to have obtained the remaining ones. The game saves your records for each trial, which is nice. Just wish I could’ve gotten those other cards...

There’s glitches: 1) it’s not picking up wrong answers to count as faults like it says it does. Testing this out as something for my students, I found that I could enter the wrong answer several times and the only negative effect was the longer time it took me to enter it correctly. 2) the dog enters the weaves on the wrong side 3) any normal kid learning their math facts would not be able to do the math without going over on time faults. As an adult MATH TEACHER, I found myself really close to the time limit more than once.

I would recommend the 0 should be on the right where it is on a keyboard. And the dog enters the weaves on the wrong side. If my kid can determine that, the programmers should have gotten it right.

My six year old played this and it’s pretty awesome. It would be a lot more user friendly if you didn’t have to press enter though.