Positives
- Over 300 games
- Covers Common Core Standards subjects
- High-quality and engaging activities
- COPPA certified
- Offline play available
- Comprehensive free web version
Negatives
- Limited support channels
- No progress tracking
- Ad-supported free version
Who knows more about what kids should learn than educators themselves? Feeling disappointed by the lack of quality educational online games available for his students, teacher Alan Tortolani was inspired to create ABCya. This dynamic and engaging learning app provides over 300 educational games crafted for children from preschool to the sixth grade, each enshrined with the ethos that learning should be fun.
The platform also has interactive activities and printable worksheets that cover various topics. Plus, its learning games meet the Common Core standards, which isn’t the case for every educational app.
The best part is that kids can enjoy all games for free online and six games each week on the mobile app. For as little as $5.83 per month, complete access to the app is unlocked in addition to other perks, such as an increased number of simultaneous device connections and an ad-free experience.
Take advantage of ABCya’s free version to add educational value to your kids’ screen time.
Features
ABCya knows that parents and educators truly understand kids’ interests and needs, so its activities are designed by them. The platform covers various subjects, including, but not limited to, ELA, math, science, and social studies.
Additionally, Kids can save their favorite games for quick access, which is a great help considering the huge number of games available. However, ABCya free version restricts how many games can be saved. This limitation is lifted with the Premium subscriptions, which also include handy tools like ‘Timer’ and ‘Category Control’.
Common Core Standards Games
Tools
With ‘Timer,’ parents and educators set a timer for the timeframe kids are allowed to spend on the platform. When learners reach this limit, ABCya lets them know their time is up. However, the platform only alerts children. It doesn’t block access to its content, which would help parents control children’s screen time exposure.
Giving adults more agency, ‘Category Control’ allows parents and educators to control which categories kids can access according to their grade level. Managing this is important to make sure children are only accessing age-appropriate content.
Subscribe to ABCya Premium Family annual plan and save 40% compared to monthly billing.
Learning Experience
Overall, ABCya’s activities and games are high quality and engaging. The content is carefully curated according to each child’s grade, and the activities become more challenging as the learner’s level increases. The Common Core Standards page conveniently categorizes the games by grade and subject.
All activities, games, and puzzles are highly interactive, which effectively captivates children’s attention. From a computer, kids use the mouse and the keyboard to interact with the platform, and all games have child-appropriate sounds, animations, and positive reinforcement voice memos.
Common Core Standards Page
Grade 2 Games
Game Character
Game
Interactivity levels are even higher on mobile devices, as many activities also use drag-and-drop, which help develop kids’ fine motor skills. Each game comes with a concise explanation, and many have characters that tell a story and guide users through the steps they should take.
Although ABCya provides many educational resources for kids to learn, the platform is limited to exercises only. It doesn’t offer lessons with explanations of the subjects, so keep in mind that there isn’t a learning journey or progress tracking. Plus, a reward system, which is essential to motivate children to keep studying, is also missing.
Privacy and Security
ABCya collects subscribers’ personal information, such as name, mailing and email addresses, and phone numbers. The company highlights that it generally doesn’t collect children’s information, but may obtain IP addresses associated with the devices used to access the platform. Unfortunately, there aren’t any security settings that allow users to control their data or manage privacy preferences.
Although its free version offers many resources for children, it’s unfortunate that it displays so many ads served by third-party companies, which may distract kids or lead them to inappropriate content. While the company’s terms state that it only allows contextual advertising (meaning ads targeted to you specifically aren’t shown), we got shown ads that aren’t kids-appropriate. For example, we got ads for an adult management forum, which isn’t something that children would be interested in or see.
Still, according to the kidSAFE Seal Program, ABCya meets its specific online safety and privacy standards. So, being COPPA certified, parents and educators can trust the platform is safe for kids to use independently.
Platforms
Students can use ABCya on desktop and mobile devices. There isn’t a desktop app, but the online platform is available on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Meanwhile, ABCya has mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
Mobile App Interface
Grade 6 Section
Crossword Puzzle Instructions
Crossword Puzzle on Mobile App
Overall, the platform’s interface is sleek and straightforward, so navigating through it is as easy as ABC. Its layout caters to children with vibrant colors and a kid-friendly user experience. Plus, the games and activities are well-designed, captivate children’s attention, and keep them engaged.
Moreover, both the web and mobile versions are fast and stable. We didn’t experience any technical issues like crashes or bugs during our testing. The cherry on top is that iOS Premium users can download up to 20 games for offline play.
Pricing
It’s worth praising ABCya’s free account for giving full access to the games on the browser platform, but the drawbacks are also worth noting. While we could disregard the mobile app only providing six games per week, having ads on a kids’ app is a big no-no. Still, it’s the only way to test the platform, as the company doesn’t provide a free trial or refund.
Having ads-free access to the content is already a huge advantage of opting for an ABCya Premium plan. However, there are more perks that make these subscriptions worth their price. In addition to unlocking the full potential of the mobile app, parents get access to the handy timer and category control settings.
There are two Premium plans: Family and Classroom. As their names imply, they’re built with different settings in mind. Premium Family allows up to five devices to be connected simultaneously and is available on a monthly or annual basis. As usual, the longer you commit, the cheaper the learning app, with the yearly subscription giving a generous 40% discount.
Meanwhile, Premium Classrooms costs as little as $25 per month and allows for 30 devices. It’s also possible to request a custom quote to integrate ABCya into entire schools, but keep in mind both of these options are only available with annual billing.
Customer Service
ABCya could improve its customer service by providing more support channels. The company’s only point of contact is via the ticket system, which can be found on the help page. Still, it’s worth highlighting that when we reached out to the company through this channel, we got a response on the same day.
Contact Form
Help Page
Plus, the help page displays an useful FAQ that include concise yet helpful answers. There’s also a blog with valuable articles that assists parents and educators in making the most out of the platform to enhance children’s educational development. Plus, the company is active on social media, sharing game tips through its YouTube, Facebook, X, and Instagram pages.
Bottom Line
ABCya is an excellent way for kids to practice several Common Core subjects while having fun. The platform might not provide actual lessons, but its many activities, worksheets, puzzles, and games are highly engaging, easy to navigate, and perfectly complement children’s traditional education.
Although users can’t manage their privacy and data collection settings, the platform is still a safe environment for kids, as it’s COPPA-certified. Still, considering the number of third-party ads the free version has, it’s recommended to go with a paid plan when possible – even if kids can learn a lot with ABCya’s free games.
What’s more, the Premium Family and Premium Classroom provide access to the timer and category control settings, which allow parents to manage their kids’ usage of the software.
The extra sparkle is that games can be downloaded for offline play on its Premium mobile version for iOS devices, so kids don’t need internet access to learn and have fun. Plus, concise explanations and storytelling resources allow children to use the platform independently.
Finally, ABCya is also affordable, especially for legal guardians who opt for an annual billing cycle to take advantage of the generous 40% discount.
Share Your Review