Seven hand-illustrated, mind-bending math activities bring the essence of math problem solving to your multi-touch screen. This app represents some of the best work yet from mathematics advocate Daren Carstens.

Each activity can be customized in a variety of ways dynamically, either by a nearby adult or by the learner him/herself. So there's always a challenge, and children feel in control of the experience. The importance of this type of control, applied to a math learning setting, shouldn't be underestimated.

Activities include Category Stack (from earlier Math Doodles), Combo Table, Find it (you find the word, in a memory game); Pattern Sequence, Venn, Double Traits and If Else Sort. As with other Math Doodles apps, you can adjust the level or the counting system in real time. There's also a "Mathathon Challenge" which lets you race the clock to see how many problems you can solve. The best part about Math Doodles is that it makes the math itself the reward rather than some extrinsic goal. After a few problems, you start to think -- "wow -- I really can do math." This intrinsic sense of accomplishment builds engagement.

Our elementary math teacher said: "I spent a couple of hours exploring it and never got through everything. I think it is the best math app I have seen because it progresses (grows) with the child to keep things challenging from day-to-day. I'd like more about the background story of the artist, which is also important educationally."

Disclaimer: over the years, Daren Carstens, the author of this app, has worked on Dust or Magic events as an unpaid volunteer. This event is hosted by CTR. To protect the objectivity of this review, this app was tested and rated by an outside educator.