What Is Sumdog, and Can It Help Kids Develop Key Skills?

Are you looking for ways to support your kids’ school learning at home, or perhaps your child is already using the Sumdog app in the classroom? Keep reading for all the information you need on Sumdog, including how the platform works, its potential benefits, any safety concerns, and alternatives.

Contents:

• What is Sumdog?
• How Does Sumdog Work?
• Benefits of Using Sumdog
• Is Sumdog Safe for Kids?
• Alternatives to Sumdog
• FAQs

What is Sumdog?

The Sumdog app offers a range of fun educational games for kids, leveraging adaptive learning tailored to each child’s level and ability. It’s designed to develop math fluency, reading, and spelling, and may be used at school or at home. Suitable for children aged 5 to 14, Sumdog aims to inspire even disengaged kids to enjoy learning and build their skills and confidence.

Developed in conjunction with education experts and teachers from around the world, the platform continues to refine its user experience and algorithms through feedback provided by data analysis and a slew of independent experts.

Sumdog is one of several popular gamified learning apps that use elements like avatars, rewards, leaderboards, competitions, and interactive features to engage and motivate kids. We’ll take a look at some of these alternatives shortly.

How Does Sumdog Work?

Credit: sumdog.com

Getting started with Sumdog for kids is easy. Parents simply need to download the app from the Play or App Store, or create an account on the Sumdog website. Once this is done, you can log in with your child. To begin, your kid will be walked through some warm-up exercises to assess their level. This diagnostic test usually takes around 30 minutes and uses multiple-choice questions. Once this assessment is made, it’s time to start playing!

With your child, take a look at the wide range of reading, spelling, and Sumdog math games, all of which are tailored to your kid’s current ability. The taskboard allows you to track your child’s progress and set weekly goals, while the chance for them to earn coins keeps things interesting. These coins can be spent on things like clothes for their avatar, accessories and furniture for their Sumdog virtual house, pets, and to send in-game gifts to friends. Teachers can use the app to set specific Sumdog games and activities for their students, to support what they’ve been learning in the classroom.

Parents can set up their own account, allowing them to play games with their kids. Doing so means you’ll receive a diagnostic report breaking down your child’s current strengths and weaknesses, regular reports on the amount of time they’ve spent learning, and the number of questions they’ve answered correctly. Using your parent account, you can also set bespoke activities for your child and celebrate their achievements by sending them virtual rewards.

Sumdog offers a free account tier, allowing access to a wide range of games and activities, along with basic tools. To access the app’s full range of features, you’ll need to sign up for a paid subscription, which starts at around $8.99. There’s a free trial on offer if you want to check out the app before committing.

Benefits of Using Sumdog

There are many benefits to using Sumdog, which is aligned to the Common Core curriculum. In addition to improving standards of literacy and numeracy, Sumdog games are excellent for enhancing problem-solving skills. The interactive maths fluency, reading, and Sumdog spelling games keep kids engaged and motivated, supporting children’s school learning. The skills taught are designed to have relevance to the real world, such as math games that focus on money and making change, while the gamified learning allows for some friendly, safe in-app competition between peers.

For teachers, dashboards and trackers facilitate effective progress tracking and the provision of immediate feedback. Plus, the dashboard is an effective tool for identifying gaps in children’s learning and subsequently planning next steps to address these. The app’s resource hub offers plenty of free printable certificates to celebrate students’ achievements and support them on their learning journey.

Teachers also appreciate Sumdog’s automated marking features, which save time and resources, thereby allowing educators to focus on providing personalized support. Further, the app can be used to set class-wide challenges and competitions, to foster a sense of healthy competition and camaraderie.

Is Sumdog Safe for Kids?

Credit: learn.sumdog.com

The Sumdog app is generally considered as being safe for kids. However, there have been some concerns raised around the amount of data collected by the platform from its users. This data may include contact information, location, and usage details.

For additional safety, Sumdog does deploy some parental controls. Parents can choose to sign up for a free parental account to manage access to the platform and monitor their child’s progress. Parents may also wish to opt in to approve app downloads and receive notifications via the app’s Parent Dashboard.

As with any app your child uses, it’s important to set screen time limits. Kids (and adults, too) can easily lose themselves in games and activities, and end up spending hours looking at their screens. This can negatively impact sleep, concentration, school performance, and more. Screen addiction is also linked to depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues, so ensuring your kid follows healthy digital practices is vital.

Monitoring what kids are up to online can be a real challenge. As well as using specific in-app parental controls, consider making the most of a third-party parental control app, such as Kids360. This option allows you to keep an eye on your kid’s online activities, set screen-time limits, and even block certain apps or platforms entirely, for ultimate peace of mind.

Alternatives to Sumdog

Sumdog isn’t the only gamified learning app out there. Take a look at these popular alternatives:

ABCmouse

Credit: pbskids.org/games

Age suitability: 2–8 years

This app offers a range of engaging activities designed to build foundational skills and support social and cognitive development. Unlike Sumdog, which is suitable for children up to 14 years old, ABCmouse is suitable for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and children up to 8 years old.

Khan Academy Kids

Credit: khanacademy.org

Age suitability:2–8 years

Khan Academy Kids offers thousands of interactive challenges and activities to develop skills in math, phonics, reading, social-emotional learning, and logic. Parents can sign up for a free subscription, which provides access to the platform’s full range of games.

Mathletics

Credit: mathletics.com/uk/

Age suitability:5–18 years

Mathletics offers an immersive learning experience to help users develop key math skills. Like Sumdog, kids can play against their friends, and the app aims to keep children engaged and progressing while building confidence.

Prodigy Game

Credit: prodigygame.com

Age suitability: 6–13 years

This math game offers a unique learning experience and engaging gameplay. Kids can go on quests, play with friends, and earn rewards while practicing their math skills. It’s free for all users, and adapts to each child’s level and learning style. Unlike Sumdog, Prodigy Game focuses solely on math learning.

SplashLearn

Credit: splashlearn.com

Age suitability: 211 years

SplashLearn is an educational platform providing an interactive, curriculum-based learning experience to build English and math skills. Here, you’ll find more than 8,000 learning activities, games, and printable worksheets to support children on their learning journey.

Related: Best Educational Websites for Kids: Top Picks for Learning and Fun.

Using Sumdog to Help Nurture Kids’ Key Skills

Sumdog is a great tool for parents and teachers to promote reading, spelling, and math skills while making learning fun. The scores children achieve on games help the platform tailor activities to kids’ individual levels, and the chance to earn rewards and compete against peers keeps children engaged and motivated. Check out Sumdog’s free subscription tier to get a flavor of what the app offers and how it can support your child’s learning before committing.

FAQs

Is Sumdog no longer free?

Sumdog offers a free tier, where you can access a range of learning games and basic features and tools. To access the full range of features, you’ll need to sign up for a paid subscription, which starts at $8.99.

Is Sumdog still a thing?

The Sumdog app remains popular with both parents and educators. The app is currently used by around 3 million children in over 80 countries worldwide.

What is Sumdog used for?

Sumdog is a gamified learning app that offers a wide range of games and activities to help children develop reading, spelling, and math skills.

Can you play Sumdog for free?

There is a free tier available on Sumdog, where games can be played for free. However, for parents and educators to access the full range of features and tools, they will need to sign up for a paid subscription, starting at around $8.99.

Cover image: bluestacks.com