Disclosure - We were gifted an annual subscription for the purpose of this post plus prizes to giveaway. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own unless stated.
We found out last week that little J won't be returning to school till September and I have to admit I did let out a sigh of relief when I heard the news. When lockdown began I always thought he would return in September and any earlier seemed too soon so I am definitely happy although our home schooling has hit a brick wall recently. Like most at the beginning we had a strict routine for home schooling with lots of ideas although now it's 14 weeks later and the excitement and motivation has definitely fizzled out. I have been looking for ideas on how to make home schooling fun again for little J and I came across MentalUp.
What is MentalUp?
MentalUP is an award-winning brain game app for children between 4 and 13 years.
MentalUP was developed by game designers and academics incorporating innovative teaching methods to offer dozens of mind games with suitable difficulty levels to improve cognitive skills in a gamified format to engage children. MentalUP also receives a 5 star review from teachers on Educational App Store which is a discovery, review and recommendation platform for educational apps by professionally experienced teachers.
MentalUP believes the ability to solve problems and think in new creative ways is as important as literacy and numeracy skills and they have devised a series of brain games that expose learners to new types of problems and the different ways of thinking required to solve them
. The app addresses five key skills: Attention, Memory, Problem Solving (Logic), Visual and Verbal and includes sub-skills such as counting skills, and geometry. Importantly it provides a safe space for children as it does not include any adverts, harmful content or in-app purchases.
Getting Started
After downloading from the Google Play Store or App Stores you are ready to set up your account. First it will ask whether you want to set up an account using email, facebook or google. We chose email and had to enter our email address and a chosen password.
Next we had to select little J's grade, this means what year in school. I had to google this as it is American and we don't have 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades etc here. Little J is going in to year 3 in September so I chose 2nd Grade.
It will then ask what areas you would like your child to improve on. You can choose from
Memory
Attention
Logic
Visual
Language
I selected all but if you want to just focus on a specific area or two you can just highlight those areas.
That is it, we were ready to begin. The limited version of the app is free and you can have access to 20 free games however if you upgrade to premium you open up 120 games.
Let's Begin
The app sets out a very colourful path which you follow completing games along the way. You click on number 1 to start and a random game will be selected and you will be given the instructions and rules for the game. They are brief and very easy to understand.
Once you have completed the first game you will be given a score out of 3 stars and also some MentalUp coins. These can be used to customise your character.
Next you move on to level 2 and so on...
What Type Of Games Can I Expect?
There are so many games available however so far we do have a few favourites...
Memory Cards - Find The Pairs.
Ice Creams - Find the cone which has the number of ice cream balls specified in the voice instructions.
Highway - Count the number of specific vehicles moving along the highway.
Should I Upgrade To Premium?
The premium version of the app, which usually costs just £20 for an annual subscription, provides access to over 120 games (compared to 20 on the free version) and includes reporting systems which MentalUP believes is important in the current situation in order to help parents monitor progress, provide skills analysis and highlighting strengths and weaknesses so that they (and teachers when they return to school) can easily track children’s cognitive development and compare with same age groups.
MentalUP has five million users worldwide and to help UK teachers, homeschooler parents and parents that have found themselves working from home with the kids is offering a discount of 30% at the moment taking the cost of the app to just £14.99 for the year. This works out at less than £2 per month!
You can read more by visiting the
MentalUp and you can also download the app from
Google Play Store or the
App Store
Giveaway
I have teamed up with MentalUp to offer 5 of my readers and followers the chance to win an annual subscription and 25 runners up prizes of a 3 month subscription.
All you need to do is complete the entry form below and remember to pop back daily for bonus chances to win.
Who would you like to win MentalUp for?
Michelle
Terms
Competition closes on Sunday 12th July 2020
Entrants must have a valid UK address.
Bulk, third party or any other entries using automated software will be disqualified.
All entrants and entries are checked and verified.
30 lucky winners will be chosen at random by the Gleam application.
Playdays and Runways will contact the lucky winners within 7 days of the competition closing.
The winners will be emailed to the email address given at the time of entering.
The winners must respond within 28 days, if no response a new winner will be chosen.
This prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative
The first 5 winners drawn will win an Annual Subscription to MentalUp
The next 25 winners drawn will win a three months subscription to MentalUp
