Kids Iphone App Review
Our kids test them, we review them!

Time Run by Marc Didillon is a fun and simple app from a great guy and a great uncle. Time Run by Marc Didillon simply has you running (it is called a side scroller) and trying to catch butterflies. There isn’t much more to the app than that other than it is simple and fun. A great distraction while you are waiting for your food to arrive or in line at Disneyland or something.

My four year old likes the app and has played several times. She cannot make it very far unless the vacuum comes out, but still she has fun doing it. Check out the video for more!

Fun – 5
Attention – 3
Learning – 1 (perhaps they learn to count a bit or hand eye coordination)

Total – 9

Mentor-Words By Mentor-Kids is an awesome learning app for kids to learn words by site. We have reviewed several books made apps that present learning words in the same way, but the puzzle feature of Mentor-Words By Mentor-Kids sets it apart.

The idea is simple you have three modes: Choose a word to match to an object, find an animal to match to a word, or spell the word using the alphabet and outlines.

The first two choices are a bit hard for my four year old to do on her own. She needs an adult sitting there with here. That is absolutely ok! This level of learning takes a bit of involvement.

The third choice she can handle on her own and it still has the potential to teach her the words along with proper placement or spelling of the letters in the word.

I am impressed with this simple yet potentially very effective spelling/reading app called Mentor-Words By Mentor-Kids. The game play isn’t perfect since the screen sometimes scrolls rather than clicks, but that takes about two times to get used to and you are on your way.

Learning – 5
Attention – 5
Fun – 4
Total – 14

Leo The Lightening Bug by Eric Drachman is a very nice book made app. The story of Leo the Lightening Bug is a very popular children’s book and it makes for a great app. The story itself is one of triumph and something a lot of kids will be able to associate with. From laughing at the misfortune of others to overcoming your fears and worries.

The graphics are very well done and the animations, although very simple, are appropriately used. The voices of the characters caught the attention of my four year old very quickly and made the book interesting. More interesting than I could have made it dare I say.

Will my four year old read this book more than once? I am confident she will read it many times in the coming years. How long does it last? Perhaps 10-12 minutes at a time, which is the perfect time span for a four to five year old’s attention. If she makes it five minutes into the book, that is fine too.

Attention – 5
Fun – 3
Learning – 3 (it is not a learning book)

Total – 11

Lilo Helps the Easter Bunny by Kids App Design Studio is a great learning adventure app. Really Lilo Helps the Easter Bunny by Kids App Design Studio is an app for exploration. My four year old will not put it down once we remind her to play it.

Just as the title says you are helping the Easter Bunny find their eggs. The app starts with a simple story and then changes into different activities where you can color eggs or paint them as the story continues. The app was developed by a Dutch developer and is available in a few languages. The translation is apparent, but it does not take away from the game at all.

This is the sort of app you could give to two kids on the iPad and let them work together to make it through the story.

You cannot see it in the video, but many of the items on the page move when touched. The spider crawls, the monkey moves, and there are several more interactive elements to each page. Be sure to explore!

Fun – 5
Attention – 5
Learning – 2

Total – 12

I Learn With Poko: Seasons and Weather! and the whole I Learn with Poko series are great learning apps that are also fun. My four year old was playing with this app for a very long time. It was interesting to see–and you can see it in the video because it had been a while since she played the app–that the learning is interactive and interesting.

Figuring out which picture shows rain or snow is fun and can be challenging too. This app has some legs! There are several levels so I Learn With Poko: Seasons and Weather! is something your child is going to come back to over and over again.

The graphics are well done, the audio is pleasant, and the process is simple for a young one to figure out after a bit of help. These are all important traits.

Fun – 4
Learning – 5
Attention – 4

Total – 13

I Learn With Poko: Seasons and Weather! is available for the iPhone and iPad, but in separate apps (choose carefully).

Grannys Cats By Pause Productions is a simple whimsical app that has your child grabbing cats and throwing them off the screen or dropping them on Grandma. If you drop too many in the wrong spot Grandma falls. It is a neat app to learning balancing skills and some hand eye coordination and my four year old loves to see Grandma fall!

Learning – 2
Fun – 4
Attention – 3
Total – 9

BilingualABC English-Espanol by BilingualABC is a fun app to learn your ABCs in English and in Espanol. My ten year old daughter has a friend who speaks Spanish, so my four year old is familiar with the idea that some people speak different languages. I was not as concerned with her learning the letters in Spanish as I was interested in this app working as a reinforcing app for her English ABCs.

It is a neat app and works well. It has some interesting choices for the objects that represent each letter, and that is a nice touch. The voice is very well done. I can also see my ten year old, or myself, using this app to actually learn the alphabet in Spanish.

Learning – 5
Attention – 3
Fun – 3

Total 11