Coolmath Games

What is Cool Math Games?

Cool Math Games is a website that offers a variety of math games, puzzles, and lessons for students of all ages. The website is a popular destination for students looking to improve their math skills while having fun at the same time.

Cool Math Games is the title of a mobile app on Android and iOS and a similar web app called www.coolmath.com. On all of these platforms, hundreds of games are available to play for free.

What we love about Cool Math Games?

Apps that contain many mini-games can often be quite variable in the quality of their presentation from game to game. Cool Math Games has avoided this pitfall; the games are all polished and attractive to play and free.

The games have been designed to work across multiple platforms, and they work on phones as well as they do on tablets, like the iPad. It is very easy to download Cool Math Games in advance and have it to hand to pass a few minutes in a fun way.

What skills does it improve?

The answer to this question will depend upon which of the games a player on Cool Math Games accesses. Some of the games do directly address math knowledge and skills. Other games are general problem and puzzle-solving games, and some are entertainment.

What age is it appropriate for?

The app is rated as being for players of 9 and above. Many of the games are likely to be playable by younger children, but the constant exposure to advertisements may not be ideal for kids.

Is Cool Math Games easy to use?

Browsing through the selection of games in this app is accessible on mobile and the web. The games themselves have simple controls and include, where appropriate, brief instructions to define the goal and explain how to play.

How will students benefit?

Children who like to dip in and out of new play experiences will love the variety in Cool Math Games. They won't mind that many of the games are not math games. Still, many games will make them concentrate, reason and plan, so they will develop their thinking skills as they play rather than just their reflexes.

How will teachers benefit?

The games on this app give teachers a safe way to let children play games as a reward or during constructive playtime. Being equally playable on a class iPad or PC adds some flexibility.  

Teachers will have to monitor how the app is being played and nominate which games are acceptable for the current lesson. Fortunately, the app includes a playlist-style function which will let teachers produce a useful selection of the most educational games.

How will parents benefit?

Cool Math Games, being free, is certainly the right price for parents who are frequently nagged for new apps. The variety of games in this app and their appropriateness for kids make it a safe option on a child's iPad or other mobile device.

There is nothing to stop parents from downloading Cool Math Games on their account, checking it out, and deciding if they want to have it on their children's iPad or Android tablets.

What Cool Math Games can improve on?

Cool Math Games as a title for this app is not a good descriptor for many of the games in the app, which have little, if anything, to do with math. Most of the games do require some thought to play but then, that is true of most games anyway. Some games focus on number but are mixed in with the other games, at least in the mobile apps.  

While you can choose the Stop and Think category on Cool Math mobile, to narrow down the selection to those more cerebral games, a further category specifically for math games would be helpful for those who have downloaded the app for this specific type of game.

On the website www.coolmath.com, which features the same games, players can drill down into a Number category which is very useful.

How much does Cool Math Games cost?

Cool Math Games mobile is free to download. There are no in-app purchases, premium versions, or subscriptions to add to the service, but it is advertisement-supported. The full-screen advertisements halt the user's navigation of the app but are not as frequent as in many other similar mini-game apps. 

How much does Cool Math Games cost?

The version of Cool Math Games at www.coolmathgames.com does have a premium version which removes the ads. This is available as a monthly subscription and does not appear to be usable on the mobile apps although it will work within mobile browsers.

Is Cool Math Games safe to use?

This app has hundreds of games and new ones are frequently added. None of the ones encountered at the time of review could be considered unsuitable for children.

The Cool Math Games mobile and web apps contain advertisements that are from third parties. No inappropriate advertisements were encountered during this review.

Overall rating

Cool Math Games is an entertaining sourcer of thinking games and provides a varied and good quality selection of cerebral entertainment. The advertisements are distracting, but the app needs to be funded somehow. As a general entertainment app, Cool Math Games is excellent fun, but in light of its title, it is a little disappointing to find relatively few games directly related to Math, although encouraging to see so many that favour thinking over action. It has earned four stars.