Today I’m reviewing iCAN Count Money by Ahmed Tawakol. Like yesterday’s app, this one has different iPad and iPhone versions for different countries, and currently you can get the app for Canada (iPhone only), New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Europe (Euro. The one I have on my iPad is the Australian version, so the screen shots I am using come from that, but the activities are for each international version, the only difference being the currency used in the activities.
Activities
There are three activities in the iPhone version of the app:
- I Know How To Pay! – Children select the exact change to pay for an item.
- I Know How Much To Get Back! – Give the correct change for an item.
- I Can Catch The Coins! – This is a coin recognition game. Children are asked to find a number of a particular coin. Coins fly across the screen, flipping from time to time so that children can see front and back of the coins.
- Bonus activity – Both versions include a Money calculator which could be a useful aid for those learning to add their currency.
An extra three activities are included with the iPad version.
- I Know How Much Is In It! – A coin displays and children have to show how many of another coin would make up the same amount, e.g. how many 10c coins would make up a 50c coin. Note: This activity is not available for the
- I Can Go Shopping! – Children choose up to three times to buy and then pay for them with exact change. There are a number of items to choose from, but you can purchase more images through in-app purchase (hidden behind a parent lock) Personally, I can’t see the point of buying more images, but if your child is addicted to this activity, or has an affinity for items in one of the theme packs, you might disagree with me. I really like this activity and I think it is a great link to ” real life”shopping.
- I Can Pay In Different Ways! – Children show an amount in two different ways.
All of the activities have five levels of difficulty, and you can switch between these by tapping on the numbers at the top of the screen.
Features I Love
- The app uses images of real currency, including both notes and coins.
- You can flip coins by double tapping, which is helpful if they have landed on “heads.”
- You can set individual profiles for lots of children, which means it is perfect for schools and families with more than one child.
You can change the difficulty level for each player by restricting the notes and coins available for each player.
Wish List
- A parental lock on the individual settings would be great for protecting settings and making sure children are working at their own level.
- It would be useful to assign levels to each child via the individual settings. At the moment they can switch to different levels just by tapping the numbers at the top of the screen. This could lead to some children making life a lot easier for themselves, and others accidentally making things harder and leading to frustration.
Verdict
iCan Count Money has everything you would want in a money app. The activities take children through the major skills necessary for handling money: identifying currency, adding and subtracting change, and showing amounts in different ways. Activities that model real life transactions and the use of real currency make it easier for children to transfer these skills to real life. Highly recommended.
As mentioned earlier, there are four international versions for both the iPhone and the iPad apps, although you can also buy an international version with all currencies.
iPad Apps
Price: $3.79 Aus. Prices will differ in international stores
iPad only. Requires iOS 6.0 or above. Not compatible with the original iPad.
Australia: iCAN Count Money Australia
USA: iCAN Count Money US
New Zealand: iCAN Count Money New Zealand
Europe: iCAN Count Money Europe
International (5 activities and calculator): iCAN Count Money
iPhone Apps
Australia: iCAN Count Money Australia for iPhone
USA: iCAN Count Money US for iPhone
New Zealand: iCAN Count Money New Zealand for iPhone
Europe: iCAN Count Money Europe for iPhone
Canada: iCAN Count Money Canada for iPhone
International (5 activities and calculator): iCAN Count Money for iPhone
On Sarah's iPad 
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