You are currently browsing the archives for September 2011.

Snowman Scramble By Matthew Demma

  • September 16, 2011 7:48 am

Snowman Scramble By Matthew Demma is a game for just about any age. The idea is you need to stack snowmen before they melt. The game is simple, well put together, and fun to play. We played it on the iPad, but it was designed for the iPhone in the initial release.

Snowman Scramble By Matthew Demma doesn’t teach you much except that snow melts and snowmen can dance and give each other “‘sup bros”, but that isn’t the point. It is a fun game that is challenging. Your kids are going to have a better score than you and they can rub that in dad’s face!

Fun – 5
Learning – 0
Attention – 4

Total – 9

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Trees are Best FACT By hedgehog lab

  • September 14, 2011 7:54 am

Trees are Best FACT By hedgehog lab is a great book/app/game to teach you about trees. Really you explore the idea of trees and the different types of trees. It is a very polished book/app/game that lets the reader explore the book or just follow through.

I am sure we still haven’t figured out all the nuances of each page. Shaking the book does one thing, picking the right frame does another, and there are even drawing games.

I “read” this book with both my four year old and ten year old. The former liked the interactivity and the latter was looking for the information the book provides. Both found it rewarding from what I could see.

I love books like this that are much more immersing than you can get with a “regular” book. The graphics, and audio, and interaction are tough to beat!

Fun – 4
Learning – 4
Attention – 5

Total – 13

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Motion Math By Motion Math

  • September 12, 2011 7:36 am

Motion Math By Motion Math is another great math learning tool. This time you aren’t choosing the operand for the math problem, or saving the world from aliens NASA-style, instead you are bounding a ball. Sounds simple right? Not so fast.

The ball is bouncing on a platform which is a whole. The ball becomes a fraction that you need to use to bound on the appropriate portion of the platform (the whole). The neat thing is as you miss the platform gets more defined and you can tell where to bounce more precisely. It is a great spin on fractions learning and a fun game to play.

My ten year old and I were having fun with the voices during the video. Be sure to check it out!

Fun – 5
Learning – 5
Attention – 5

Total – 15 perfect score!

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Math Samurai By Edin

  • September 9, 2011 7:30 am

Math Samurai By Edin is a fun and simple math reinforcement app. The game play is mesmerizing to young kids. The swiping and slashing it challenging enough to keep the game interesting while reinforcing what your child is learning in school.

A simple math learning app that is fun to play. Math Samurai By Edin is definitely a download because it offers a different way to learn math. Instead of figuring out the answer you need to figure out the operand. A great take on classic math skills!

Fun – 4
Attention – 4
Learning – 5

Total – 13

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Math Force Delta By Brian West

  • September 8, 2011 7:17 am

Math Force Delta By Brian West is a simple and very good math learning app. Math Force Delta By Brian West teaches addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction in a simple to play, but still challenging, app.

The idea behind Math Force Delta By Brian West is that you need to answer the math problem in order to shoot down the alien spaceship. Perhaps NASA could use this app. Probably not.

The app spans a large age group because you have the change to go to harder levels as you get better at the problems. My ten year old was having some fun/trouble with the hardest setting. It is a challenge. Learning is fun with Math Force Delta By Brian West.

Brian West seems to have a good handle on learning apps. We have reviewed his apps before, and loved those too!

Fun – 4
Attention – 4
Learning – 5

Total – 13

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It’s Not What You’ve Got! – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer By Oceanhouse Media

  • September 7, 2011 7:52 am

It’s Not What You’ve Got! – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer By Oceanhouse Media is a VERY educational app for young kids. My daughter certainly needed the lesson in It’s Not What You’ve Got! – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer By Oceanhouse Media.

Exploring the idea of money and possessions isn’t something we like to have to talk with our kids about. It’s Not What You’ve Got! – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer By Oceanhouse Media handles the initial conversation and gives us a starting point for the rest of the talk as it pertains to our situation. There are many lessons in this book/app that a parent just might not explore with their child and perhaps some diversions for when the talk gets a little tough.

It might seem silly to have an app about possessions on the iPad of all things, but all kids have concerns about possessions and money. Simple things like not using credit cards and living within your means are great things to learn or at least understand when you are young. I wish I had understood these things back then!

Great graphics, good story, and very well told. Easy to listen to.

Fun – 1 (Purely a learning app)
Attention – 4
Learning – 5

Total – 10

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PadRacer By SMHK Funlab

  • September 6, 2011 7:44 am

PadRacer By SMHK Funlab is really a game for the whole family. As a young boy I would have found it irresistible, but as an not-so-young man I have been able to enjoy the game with my ten year old. We just now figured out how to link both iPads! (You have to choose the last track – e I believe).

The game is as fun as it is novel. As long as you have an iPad and at least one iPhone hooked to the same WIFI network you are set. You easily setup the game on the iPad then start the app on the iPhone(s) and you are linked. I haven’t seen a case where this didn’t just work. My iPads even connect to a different wireless band then the iPhones 4s so it was cool it worked just fine.

Game play is challenging especially if you are like my ten year old and like to hit boost constantly! The cars handle like 1940′s cars might. Very loose. The tracks are fun to build and you can see in the video we try to make them as crazy as we can before the app tells us NO!

Hooking up two iPads is fun, but not any more fun than one iPad. This is a novelty game that is fun for the whole family and some friends. Definitely worth the download!

Fun – 5
Attention – 4
Learning – 1 (Some games are just fun!)

Total – 10

I am marking PadRacer By SMHK Funlab as an iPad only game since it requires an iPad to play the game.

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iCount-to-10 – Early Learning Method for iPad

  • September 5, 2011 7:10 am

iCount-to-10 – Teach Your Child to Count to 10 – Early Learning Method for iPad is a versatile learning app for kids learning to count.

iCount-to-10 – Teach Your Child to Count to 10 – Early Learning Method for iPad includes a set of animal cards that allow your child to hear the sound the animal makes. These same animals are used later in the game when your child is learning to count. This makes for a nice correlation between fun and learning in the app.

iCount-to-10 – Teach Your Child to Count to 10 – Early Learning Method for iPad includes several different levels, but ultimately your child is learning to count and recognize numbers with their animal friends. Your child is going to spend some time going through the app and come back to it time and time again. As an educator and parent I appreciated some of the learning tips provided in the details of the app so be sure to check those out when your child lets you play with the iPad!

Learning – 5
Fun – 3
Attention – 4
Total – 12

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100 Butterflies By Little Five Games

  • September 2, 2011 7:34 am

100 Butterflies By Little Five Games is a very simple counting app. The graphics in 100 Butterflies By Little Five Games are very well done and well suited for a target audience of young girls learning to count. My four year old loved to click each butterfly and see each fly away as they came out of their cocoon.

What your child is going to learn is number by repetition and I think this is the perfect app for my four year old at this point. She can count to 13, but gets a little mixed up above that number. She has yet to realize that there is a system to the numbers and that is where this app can help. Repetition can drive that idea home.

The other game in the app asks your child to find the numbers in sequence. This gives the app another dimension where your child is quizzed while still learning the numbers. There isn’t a score or a reprimand, but only a suggestion to look for the correct number as it is spoken. Great job on that!

Learning – 5
Attention – 3
Fun – 4
Total – 12

A great number learning app. Stands on its own teaching by repetition in a simple game.

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Candy Count – Learn Colors & Numbers

  • September 1, 2011 7:29 am

Candy Count – Learn Colors & Numbers is a fun and simple numbers and counting app. Your child can learn numbers, counting, large and small, and sorting skills in this app. It is a very well presenting numeric learning app. The graphics are very well done and the gameplay works as expected.

The only issue I have with the app is the price. It is free, but in order to unlock the full app it requires an in-app purchase. In this case it does not seem like the purchase could be abused, but I wonder why the app isn’t $2.99 from the start. If the idea is to provide a demo or light version, then do so, but the in app purchase model does not work in this case.

Still the app is a worthy download. Just download the app, do the in-app purchase and have the full app. It is worth it!

Learning – 5
Attention – 5
Fun – 5

Total – 15

iTunes Store

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