Cricket Kids: School Day (iOs) Review

School is back in session, and with it comes an emphasis on all things educational. Whether your young ones are already enrolled in preschool or kindergarten, or your hoping to start introducing the basics at home, an educational app is a great choice for parents who want to maximize the learning potential of screen time. Of course, how educational the app is won’t matter a bit if your kids won’t play it. Finding the right balance between fun and educational isn’t always an easy task, but the perfect mix makes for a game you can feel good about letting your kids play.

Cricket Kids: School Day features two colorful little bug-like creatures who guide players through a classroom filled with activities. There are twelve different activities, each of which is a short educational game of some sort. For instance, the “Numbers” activity has kids sort a variety of markers of different colors and shapes into a pencil bag. “At the library” requires players to sort a series of four picture cards into story order. “Lunchtime” is a memory game where kids are shown a menu at the beginning, and then fill a plate to match it. When played in order, the games make up a school day, with everything from sports and pool time, to nap time and art.

The games themselves are colorful and short, making it simple to play one or two and quite, or play a bunch in a row. The activities have a definite start and end, and you can’t really just play one for a really long time. You can replay them, and the solutions will be different each time, with the basic idea being the same. The games are simple in concept, which means that once kids figure them out they won’t have any trouble playing them. There isn’t much in the way of direction though, so parents will likely need to explain what to do at the outset.

One really nice aspect of Cricket Kids: School Day is that no reading is required for the activities, save the optional quiz at the end. This means kids who are learning their numbers and letters but aren’t quite at proficient reading stage yet can play without getting frustrated by walls of text they can’t understand. This is an app that’s perfectly suited to kids in the 4-6 age range, with activities that are short enough for small attention spans, while still managing to fit in age appropriate learning activities.

Cricket Kids: School Day is a great choice for parents who are looking for an educational app that their kids can enjoy. The colorful characters appeal to young kids, as will the cartoon-like school setting. With activities ranging from sorting and matching to memory and music, kids will be learning and laughing at the same time.