All ages from pre-K  and up. The game automatically tiers instruction. This one elegant  game can be used with kids young enough for simple number recognition, and without changing how the game works, players can then incorporate addition and subtraction if they are able, they can also begin using multiplication and division as well as the order of operations, and factoring to hit the more challenging targets. For middle and even high school students players scan incorporate the use of exponents and factorials if they like. Even adults and senior citizens are finding Albert’s Insomnia is a great fun way to maintain neural-plasticity.

Albert’s Insomnia has been described as critical and creative thinking concentrate! The game uses math to teach you to think.

Albert’s Insomnia helps make math facts automatic by giving students a fun way to practice arithmetic. Teachers have reported many interesting “side effects” of playing the game. Since the game starts off easy and gradually increases difficulty and  is open ended even  the most math reluctant and non-proficient math students gain self-confidence and lose their math anxiety by achieving success in the game and get caught up in the “game play.” One teacher told us she uses the game before testing to get the students thinking and focused. Others use the game as a reward for completing assigned tasks. A bus driver even told me she has been using the game on the drive to and from school and the kids are better behaved and having fun and learning all at the same time!

Using Albert’s Insomnia in the classroom.

To ramp up the engagement have a small group of students (4-5, anymore makes too long of a wait between turns). Students in small groups get caught up in the game play, interactions, communicating, taking turns, competing, and trying to win. When the game slows from (designed) gradually increasing difficulty, play typically turns into a group effort and players start teaching other math pushing their skills and abilities to the next level. Many experiences like this are confined by the player with the minimum ability, but when Albert’s Insomnia is used this way when play turns into a group effort because of the games inherent curiosity for solving the next problem the limiting factor is removed. This natural game engine pushes players beyond their comfort zone.

Another scenario that is even more productive and accelerates the pace and learning beyond the above scenario is to turn the entire class into small groups as described above, have all the groups play the same hand of the game (for 15-20 minutes) and have the groups compete against all the other groups. The group with the highest string of targets hit in the allotted time is the winner! This arrangement produces the accelerated group effort for the entire center time and the students are teaching each other math!

The game is highly differentiated making it easy on the educator. This works great if the groups are mixed ability. The teacher becomes the activity supervisor and the students teach other! Try it!

Albert's Insomnia is arithmetic practice disguised as a game to facilitate MATH FACT FLUENCY storage in the LONG TERM MEMORY part of the brain creating the necessary foundation every student’s math career. Please watch the video on this page for more details. The arithmetic in our patented "game engine" is no different than other "math activities" on the market that call themselves games; while educators recognize the similarities right away (the arithmetic) here are some of the highlights that make Albert's Insomnia unique and different is:

* Our Patented Game Engine makes math practice feel like a game kids would normally play just for fun.

* The entry point of the game is accessible to every student. Meaning, it starts off very easy so that even the most math reluctant students get caught up in the game play and will keep playing and trying because of the non-threatening simple incremental game advancement.

* Albert’s Insomnia automatically tiers instruction. This means the objective of the game incrementally becomes more challenging while successfully disguising the “math work” keeping the engagement level high and preserving personalized learning techniques.

* These true game attributes work in unison to increase engagement levels of students leading to “moving more students from meets to exceeds” when testing results are reported.

* Behavioral experts claim children’s attention span is age in years plus 2. This means a 9 year old will engage in an activity for 11 minutes. But our 3rd 4th and 5th grade pilot students play Albert’s Insomnia for hours! This engagement level through our game, “Albert’s Insomnia” for today’s students is the key behind results like a 23% increase in computational proficiency in just 2 weeks and 33% more students exceeding the state standard!

* Albert’s Insomnia is the patented link between learning and playing! Please contact us to find out how Albert’s Insomnia can get results like these for your students.