Nanaba, or how to block your child's phone while they do a little revision of their basics. (Photo: Nanaba)

Nanaba, or how to block your child's phone while they do a little revision of their basics. (Photo: Nanaba)

With the start of the new school year just a few weeks away, Nanaba allows you to limit your child's use of a smartphone or tablet so that they study for a few minutes.

It’s a classic problem--not being able to get your child off their phone or to start preparing for school at the end of the summer holiday.

The Nanaba app, a play on the word banana, allows parents to register their child's phone and to activate a function that prevents the child from deleting the application.

Then, at a time predefined by the parent, the phone will be blocked. To unblock it, the child has to answer some maths, French or soon English quizzes. Otherwise, no more phone.

What we liked:

- The light-hearted tone of the application and its serious nature;

- The idea that blocking is only temporary and automatic;

- The availability of 120 modules, or 8,000 questions written by teachers.

What we liked less:

- The price, starting at €5.99 per month for the "CP" pack for a child's first "serious" class (€11.99 per year) to €11.99 and €23.99 for 12-year-olds. Note that these are introductory prices, which offer more than 66% discount;

- The idea that you have to go through the website to get better offers in the application;

- The limitation of these revisions to the two basic subjects of French and mathematics. A bit of history, geography or science wouldn't have hurt, but that seems to be in the pipeline.

The app is available and .

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.