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Part 24 of 33

Cube Academy

Cube Academy, in the menu under Chess & Cube, teaches a child to solve a Rubik’s Cube, a layer at a time. It is free in full, with no sign-in, and Pip coaches every lesson out loud. A real cube helps, but is not needed: the cube on the screen turns too.

Sixteen lessons

  1. Know the cube (lessons 1 to 4): the sides, the pieces, the turns, and undoing a turn.
  2. Solve it layer by layer (lessons 5 to 12): the daisy, the white cross, the white corners, the middle layer, then the yellow side, ending with a first full solve.
  3. Your own cube (lesson 13): solving the real cube in your hand.
  4. Further (lessons 14 to 16): fewer moves, pairs that go in together, and a faster last layer.

How a lesson goes

Before anything moves, Pip says how to hold the cube: yellow on top, green in front. Then it shows the goal, a cube with the step done, with before and after pictures. Right and left always mean your child’s right and left, with the front facing them.

  1. Turn the cube with the buttons, each named by its side and an arrow, or the keys R, U, F, D, L and B on a keyboard. 3D view and Flat switch between the cube and a flat picture of all six sides.
  2. Pip shows one piece going home, then your child tries it, with the next turn shining. Then they try on their own.
  3. Stuck? Help comes in steps: where to look, then the plan, then each turn shining on the cube itself, with its layer lit.

Start the lesson over is there throughout, and the steps are written out under every lesson. Pip can be paused at any time.

Typing in your real cube

Your child can bring their own mixed-up cube into any solving lesson. There is no camera: the colors are tapped in by hand, on the flat picture.

  1. Tap Use my real cube in a lesson, or Show me your cube on the academy’s first page.
  2. Hold the cube with yellow on top and green in front. The middle squares are filled in already.
  3. Pick a color, then tap each square that has it. Tap Check my cube when every square is filled.
  4. If something cannot be right, it says what: a color count, a twisted corner, a flipped edge, or two pieces swapped. Fix that square and check again.

From Show me your cube, Pip names the step your cube is at. Then pick Learn this step, which opens that lesson with your cube already in it, or Just guide me, turn by turn. In a lesson, a cube at another step offers Go to lesson and the lesson that teaches it.