my son at first grade got entirely consumed by this game he finished it from start to end 3 times in a scope of 3 weeks, and now he asked to start the 4th time. The aspect of amassing money and needing also to figure out the fastest path to it made it so much fun. I almost had no involvement, and the little I did was in pointing out small possible optimizations he missed in his gold rush. I enjoyed helping him on the second time as he wanted me to keep the business going while he had to go to sleep.
my daughter at 3rd grade enjoys it too, but her brother’s enthusiasm does add to the impact. She went more for consuming the producing, by buying pillows to the characters first only later investing in more apple trees, for example. I guess she enjoys the opportunities the money gained, and the game cleverly provides such. A brilliant touch.
Some points to note:
1. It is not a cheap game, though very well made, and I was hoping it will move from addition and subtraction to multiplication and division. I expected it to last longer and cover a bit more, I guess. Though I can’t complain.
2. I was hoping for a bit more data for parents in the parent tab. Such as: insight on the handwriting quality or examples of such, optimization missed, repeated mistakes, etc.
Like the Algebra game, perhaps even more so, it is a top notch example of gamification of math and proves again that kids can learn and have fun at the same time if served by a masterful hand. Kudos. Give this to your kids, they will learn and thank you.