Manipulatives vs. Prodigy Math: A Better Fit for Singapore Math and Montessori?

If you teach with Singapore Math, or bring Montessori principles into learning at home, the way a child reaches an answer matters. You want to see the quantities they built, hear their explanation, and give them time to try another approach.

That is where we believe Manipulatives.app is the better fit: an open workspace for the lesson you are teaching. You choose the problem and the materials. Your child moves the pieces and explores the relationship. The activity can stay with one idea for as long as it is useful.

This comparison is written by the makers of Manipulatives. Our recommendation concerns teaching fit; it is not a claim that our app produces higher test scores. Singapore Math is a teaching approach used across curricula, while Montessori is a broader educational method. Neither organization cited here endorses our app.

Manipulatives vs. Prodigy at a glance

Prodigy describes its math game as adaptive question practice inside a fantasy adventure, with digital manipulatives available within its question interface. Manipulatives puts the workspace at the center: open a tool, build your own example, and follow your child’s thinking.

The teaching toolkit comparisonMore room for their ideas.Features for the way you want to teach.

What matters to your lesson	Our appManipulativesBuild & explore	Prodigy MathPlay & practice
Open-ended workspace at the centerBuild and explore your own models
No battles or questsKeep the activity focused on math
No in-game reward systemExplore without earning game rewards
No child account neededOpen a tool and get started
Learning progress stays on-deviceYour child’s work stays with you
Virtual math manipulativesVisual tools for mathematical ideas
Free math resourcesGet started without a paid plan

Compared for hands-on teaching. Checks indicate the stated feature, not a rating of learning quality. The workspace row compares each app’s main experience; Prodigy includes manipulatives within its question interface.

Sources: our tools, our privacy policy, and Prodigy’s teacher guide. Checked October 24, 2026.

For teaching a concept through an example you and your child construct together, we would choose Manipulatives. Its open-ended tools let you shape the activity around your curriculum, revisit a tricky step, and explore another solution together.

Why Manipulatives fits Singapore Math lessons

Singapore Math Inc. describes a concrete–pictorial–abstract progression: children work with objects, connect them to visual representations, and then use symbols. Number bonds and bar models help make the relationships visible.

Manipulatives gives you room to develop those representations around the problem already in your lesson. With Math Bars, you can compare quantities and explore parts and wholes. With Ten Frames, you can make a group of ten visible. You can ask for a second representation before moving on.

Begin with physical objects when introducing a new concrete experience. A touchscreen model adds a movable visual representation; it does not provide the weight, texture, or handling experience of real materials. Use the app alongside objects, paper drawings, and your curriculum’s teaching sequence.

Try it: make ten to solve 8 + 5

1. Build the quantities. After exploring with physical counters, open Ten Frames and place eight counters in one frame and five in another.
2. Find the missing part. Ask, “How many more does eight need to make ten?” Let your child move two counters from the second frame into the first.
3. Explain what stayed the same. There are now ten and three. Ask why moving the counters did not change the total.
4. Draw and record. Sketch the frames on paper, then write 8 + 5 = 10 + 3 = 13.

You decide when the model is understood well enough to move on. For more background, see our guides to Singapore Math and number bonds.

A thoughtful companion for Montessori-inspired learning

The American Montessori Society describes children choosing purposeful work, exploring carefully designed materials, and working at their own pace. Physical materials and their built-in opportunities for self-correction are central to that environment.

For families who choose to include a digital tool, Manipulatives supports a compatible style of exploration: present a material, offer a small invitation, and leave space for the child to investigate. There is no reward system directing the lesson. The interesting event can be discovering that two arrangements represent the same quantity.

Try it: find different ways to make eight

In Math Bars, place an eight-unit bar beside a five-unit bar and a three-unit bar arranged end to end. Align their starting points and compare the total lengths. Invite your child to find another pair that matches eight. They might try four and four, then six and two.

Let the visible match or mismatch prompt the next attempt. Ask, “How could you check?” Counting units and comparing lengths give the child evidence to inspect. You can observe their choices before offering a hint.

This is a Montessori-inspired use of a general math tool. Math Bars are not a replica of Montessori number rods, and the app does not replace golden beads, other physical Montessori materials, or a trained teacher’s presentations. Its value is a portable space to revisit and extend a mathematical idea.

One toolbox for the curriculum you already use

The same flexibility helps with other lessons organized around visual models. Bring a textbook problem, a question from a homeschool lesson, or something your child noticed at the kitchen table. Choose a representation, build it together, and ask what changes when you move a piece.

• Number sense: use Ten Frames to explore five, ten, and the parts between them.
• Place value: use Math Bars to compare tens and ones, following our place-value lesson.
• Patterns: use the Hundred Chart to investigate counting sequences and explain what repeats.

You supply the teaching sequence and decide what counts as understanding. Manipulatives supplies materials you can adapt to it. That makes it especially useful when your curriculum asks children to show how they know.

Start with one lesson and a free tool

Manipulatives is available on iPhone and iPad. Math Bars, Ten Frames, Hundred Chart, Dice Roller, and Teaching Clock are free; the wider library requires optional Pro access. Start with the make-ten activity above and listen to your child explain the regrouping.

If your priority is a flexible companion for Singapore Math or Montessori-inspired exploration, that is our strongest reason to choose Manipulatives: the child’s model and reasoning can remain the focus of the whole lesson.