A genuine question my six year-old asked me on the way to school a few weeks ago: “Daddy, what is the world’s most aggressive penguin?” Thank goodness Google works on my smartphone*.
Children are full of questions like that, so a new iPad game called Questimate! may be right up their street. It’s described as an “estimation game where YOU make the questions”.
It’s aimed at children aged nine and up, but also for parents and grandparents: a social game for all the family rather than just a kids’ game.
The game gets you to create and then answer questions in categories including Amazing Animals, Need for Speed, and the History of Awesome, combining phrases for the creation part.
It can be played alone or in multiplayer mode – we recommend the latter, obviously – with a system of points and lives to spice up the gameplay.
Example questions: How tall is a cat compared to a sheep? How fast is the world’s fastest train? How many jelly beans would it take to fill up a football? Quirky but fascinating, in other words.
Questimate! is based around quests, with one – Intro – free while the others must be unlocked by spending virtual coins, which can be bought in bags of 100 (for £1.49), 200 (£1.99) and 1,000 (£4.99).
As a guide, Amazing Animals costs 100 coins to unlock, Need for Speed 100 coins, and History of Awesome 70 coins. Over time, more quests will be added.
We wonder if having one of those quests free from the start alongside the intro would give parents more of a guide to the game’s charms before having to stump up. Which is not to say it’s not worth paying for – just that some parents may need a bit more for free before opening their digital wallets.
But let’s see how it goes. We like the fact that you can vote for which quests should be added in future updates from within the app: Pop music, video games, space and geography are among the options. Space gets our vote.
Questimate! is a free download for iPad from Apple’s App Store. We think it could be a great way to get your kids thinking about maths in a playful way to complement their school lessons.
** The Chinstrap Penguin, apparently. Cheers, Google!