Comparison

Monkey Math School Sunshine vs Reading Raven

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Monkey Math School Sunshine

This app offers a playful beach-themed world for children aged 3-6 to build fundamental math skills through interactive games. It features 9 engaging activities that teach counting, addition, subtraction, patterns, and more, with adaptive difficulty and a rewarding aquarium collection system.

Highlights
  • 9 interactive math games
  • Teaches sequencing, patterning, counting, adding, subtracting
  • Adaptive difficulty levels
  • Uninterrupted and unlimited play
  • Interactive aquarium rewards
  • Number tracing and shape identification
Features
Read full description

From the creators of the top selling Preschool App “Monkey Preschool Lunchbox”! Join your child’s favorite monkey in math games and activities in a playfully designed beach-themed world. Monkey Math School Sunshine allows your child to build fundamental math skills while they are endlessly entertained. Your child will count, add and sort their way through engaging games with uninterrupted play. For ages 3 to 6. Praise for Monkey Preschool Games: "5/5 Stars" SmartAppsForKids.com "5/5 Stars" KidsEducationalApps.com “One of the first apps I’d get for a toddler.” BestKidsApps.com MONKEY MATH SCHOOL SUNSHINE FEATURES *9 interactive games that teach kids about sequencing, patterning, counting, adding and subtracting. *With very little interface, your child presses one button to immediately launch into uninterrupted play. *Uses Knack Technology to instinctively adjust the challenge levels to each individual player. *Irresistibly cute monkey guides the child through game play with animated celebrations for correct answers and gentle redirection for incorrect ones. *Kids collect prizes to fill their very own INTERACTIVE AQUARIUM. *Uninterrupted and unlimited play: game continues as long as the player desires. KIDS LEARN WHILE THEY PLAY: *ADD IT UP and TAKE IT AWAY Use your addition and subtraction skills to solve math problems. Trusty crab assistants supply multiple-choice options. *PATTERNS Monkey has a problem: Objects keep popping out of his bucket, creating a pattern - but one piece is missing! Help Monkey by completing the pattern with the choices provided. *SHAPES Is it an octagon? Or maybe a hexagon? Count each side of these shapes and help Monkey figure it out. *SEQUENCES Monkey has a group of numbers in the right order, but some are missing. Help him complete the sequence with the correct numbers. *LESS/MORE Monkey loves to blow bubbles, when he does, groups of shells, fish or turtles are inside each bubble! Use your expertise to figure out which bubble has either the most or least objects inside. *BIGGER/SMALLER Which bubble has the bigger number? Which bubble has the smaller one? Help Monkey figure it out by popping the correct bubble. *CONNECT THE DOTS Baby Turtle is stuck on the beach and she needs your help to get to the sea! Connect the dots to show her the way. *WRITE IT UP! Help Monkey learn his numbers by tracing them in the sand. *BUBBLE POP Monkey is running out of time! Pop all the bubbles that have either the right number or the right amount of objects inside before the time runs out! * Contact THUP! * Have some comments on our apps? We'd love to hear it! Want to find out what we're doing next? Come visit us: Email us: support@thup.com Like us: http://www.facebook.com/THUPgames Follow us: http://twitter.com/THUPGames

About

Reading Raven

This app guides young children through a fun, adventure-filled journey to learn reading. It offers step-by-step lessons from pre-reading skills to reading full sentences, incorporating games and printing practice.

Highlights
  • Self-paced reading lessons
  • Eleven types of educational games
  • Customizable by age/reading level
  • Dynamic speed and tolerance adaptation
  • Sticker rewards
  • Free form letter and word writing
  • Voice instructions and feedback
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Help your kids learn to read with their own personal reading-adventure guide! "Reading Raven has one of the strongest educational and design foundations we have seen." -- Kindertown "Finally – a seriously educational app that leads children from early phonological awareness and phonics right up to reading full sentences while integrating printing skills and teaching through games. Reading Raven for iPad is an incredible learn-to-read app, easily the best I’ve encountered to date in the App Store. I’m in love." -- Apps For Homeschooling "[Reading] Raven has what it takes to get kids on the road to reading and the developers have done it brilliantly..." -- Teachers With Apps "This is one of the best educational apps that I’ve ever seen. This app is so well built and is worth every penny!" -- iHeartThisApp "...I can see [Kaylee] really learning and growing with this. Already she's starting to learn more and faster than she ever has before." -- Rita Webb, mother of two "Reading Raven ... has so many fun features for kids, they hardly know they're actually learning something. No, really, I kid you not. My daughter absolutely loves this app." -- Margaret Steck, mother of two News Flash: Reading Raven Vol 2, the next volume in the award-winning Reading Raven series, is also now available for download! ____________________ Reading Raven is an extremely fun and engaging learn-to-read educational game that provides step-by-step reading lessons designed to help young children build a solid foundation for reading. FEATURES: - Self-paced lessons take kids all the way from pre-reading to reading sentences! - Eleven types of super fun games/activities that teach critical sub-skills! - Fully customizable by age or reading level! - Speed and tolerance dynamically adapt to motor control ability! - Sticker rewards that reinforce what was learned! - No pressure tactics! - Extremely effective voice instructions and feedback! - Free form letter and word writing! - Children can pause and save their progress anytime! - Beautiful hand-illustrated artwork! - No third party advertising! - No external links to social network sites! With the Reading Raven companion guiding them along, children will go on delightful fun-filled adventures where they will encounter fly eating frogs, caterpillars that turn into butterflies, circus acrobats, ball balancing seals, underwater sea creatures, snow monsters, flying penguins, space robots, rhyming rockets, and much more! Reading Raven includes the following progression of self-paced educational activities: Ages 3 and Up - Letter matching - Letter tracing - Letter sounds - Word matching Ages 4 and Up - Vocabulary - Word beginnings - Word building (spelling) - Word spotting Ages 5 and Up - Reading aloud using voice recording - Word tracing - Word groups (rhyming and beginning sounds) Reading Raven includes five extensive lessons, with hundreds of individual activities in total. Parents and teachers will find the multi-sensory learning games to be a great complement to traditional classroom and home-based reading instruction. Recommended Ages: 3-7 Categories: Reading, Phonics, Letters, Spelling, Writing, Vocabulary, Early Learning, Special Needs Build your child's reading confidence with Reading Raven and watch their learning take flight. Happy Reading Adventures! ____________________ MORE INFO, FEEDBACK & SUPPORT Learn more about the product and our team: http://www.readingraven.com/ Like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/readingraven Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/readingraven If you have feedback or suggestions, please email us at feedback@earlyascent.com. We’d love to hear from you! ____________________ PRIVACY We have kids too and take the privacy of you and your children seriously. This product does not collect any personally identifiable information by default.

Screenshots

Monkey Math School Sunshine4 screens
Reading Raven1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Monkey Math School Sunshine at every 4 months against Reading Raven's every 16 months. Monkey Math School Sunshine also leads on price ($1.99 vs $2.99). Reading Raven's advantage is chart position (#128 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Monkey Math School Sunshine costs $1.99 and Reading Raven $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Monkey Math School Sunshine against 4.3 for Reading Raven. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 57 and 64 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Monkey Math School Sunshine's written reviews are positive against 87% of Reading Raven's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Monkey Math School Sunshine ships an update every 4 months, Reading Raven every 16 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Monkey Math School Sunshine versus Reading Raven: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMonkey Math School SunshineReading Raven
Price$1.99 — better$2.99
Rating4.3 (57 ratings)4.3 (64 ratings)
Positive reviews90.7% of reviews — better86.8% of reviews
Number of ratings5764 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 16 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank—#128 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size252 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTHUP GamesEarly Ascent, LLC

Customer experience

Monkey Math School Sunshine

All ratings57 ratings
Positive84.2%
Neutral3.5%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews194 reviews
Positive90.7%
Neutral4.1%
Negative5.2%

Reading Raven

All ratings64 ratings
Positive82.8%
Neutral1.6%
Negative15.6%
Written reviews76 reviews
Positive86.8%
Neutral5.3%
Negative7.9%

User reviews

Monkey Math School Sunshine

From 57 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and educational
  • 🚀 Keeps kids engaged
  • 💡 Customizable difficulty levels
  • 👍 Rewards system motivates learning
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sound issues after updates
  • 🔋 Aquarium fills up too quickly
  • 🔍 Limited game modes and progression
  • 🔍 Repetitive gameplay

Reading Raven

From 64 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Highly effective for learning to read
  • 🤩 Fun and engaging for children
  • 🚀 Well-thought-out progression
  • 💡 Innovative voice recording feature
  • 👍 Easy to navigate and understand

Room to improve

  • 💸 Charges money without authorization
  • 👎 No way to cancel subscriptions
  • 😞 Slow email support
  • 💰 Have to pay again for each device
  • 😠 Poor customer service

Bugs and requests

Monkey Math School Sunshine

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Voice directions cutting out
  • Number bubble counting issues
  • Inconsistent touch responsiveness

Requested features

4 requests
  • More advanced math concepts
  • Ability to disable certain game modes
  • Option to save progress across multiple users
  • Expanded aquarium or multiple aquariums

Reading Raven

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Freezes iPhone during letter tracing
  • Background noise makes letter names hard to hear
  • No option to add more than 1 player profile (despite guide saying so)
  • In-app purchases removed (positive feedback, but implies previous issue)

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add multi-user profiles
  • Option to change manuscript style (D'Nealian)
  • More levels for paid app
  • Add more volumes/lessons
  • Dark mode option
Show 2 more
  • Ability to add more than 1 player profile
  • Add higher levels to introduce other combinations like ch and sh as well as long vowels

In-app purchases

None

Monkey Math School Sunshine

No in-app purchases

None

Reading Raven

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Monkey Math School Sunshine free?
Monkey Math School Sunshine costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Reading Raven free?
Reading Raven costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Monkey Math School Sunshine or Reading Raven?
Monkey Math School Sunshine and Reading Raven are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 57 and 64 ratings respectively.
Do Monkey Math School Sunshine or Reading Raven have ads?
Neither Monkey Math School Sunshine nor Reading Raven shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Monkey Math School Sunshine or Reading Raven?
Monkey Math School Sunshine ships an update every 4 months, and Reading Raven every 16 months. Most recently, Monkey Math School Sunshine was updated on September 25, 2026 and Reading Raven on September 28, 2026.

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