Freckle by Renaissance

One thing to note: the app is super fun for learning new math topics and the placement tests are SUPER ACCURATE. Most placement tests I do in elementary school are kinda trash, while I’m at home doing high leveled competition math, the test claims that I am at a 50*6 level. Tbh, after I got my base ten results, I was SHOCKED to see decimal division problems. The bugs are small and subtle, but they are still pretty annoying. In the math facts practice, the freckle keyboard pops up, but so does the iPad keyboard. The iPad keyboard blocks the way of the freckle one and it’s just overall trouble. Also, this isn’t really a bug, more of a suggestion: When a student does a placement test for a topic in math, they might score a really high level, thus, they complete a topic after 3 lessons. So I’m just suggesting you guys to add more levels to each topic, but other than that, the app is a super fun game where you can customize your character and practice math.

It’s good for its wide range of educational content, however most of that content is only available for premium members. And you cant buy premium unless you are a teacher at an actual school. It’s currently not available for homeschoolers or parents in general. And premium would cost $2000 a year anyway. Another thing I dont like about this app is that the voice that reads the stories is a robot, not a human. So the reading sounds clunky and inauthentic, especially the “s/he said” parts. If they are going to charge you $2000, you’d think they could afford to hire a human to read the stories aloud. I recommend Starfall instead.

Scrolling through the ratings, I’ve seen plenty of reviews trashing freckles reputation saying all kinds of things from “using real hair colors” to it not letting it log you in. If I’m being completely honest, my freckle experience hasn’t been nearly as bad so far. I feel as if I’ve learned a good bit. The stories are a little too easy, the math is challenging enough I guess and I haven’t discovered any major inconveniences so far that would ruin how I view this app. Sure, it doesn’t go above and beyond but it’s a decent game that could help some kids learn a lot. I don’t think it deserves a 3.3 as an average rating. Maybe a 4.3? The main idea is: it’s not bad, but it’s not amazing.