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

Story Train – SS Infotek Inc., is a fun and simple game to teach your young one reading, letters, numbers, coloring, and some topics about animals and farms. Included in the game are two stories for free and four more than can be unlocked for .99. The drawing app is simple, but that is a positive. Your child is given either a blank slate to draw on or templates of letters, numbers, or coloring book type pictures of different objects. 19 coloring pages in all.

For .99 Story Train – SS Infotek Inc., is a great app to load on your iphone (it is an iPhone app, but scales ok on the iPad too) and head out in the car. My six-year-old spent 15 minutes with the app the first time she touched it and will likely pick it up a few more times in the future.

Learning – 4
Fun – 3
Attention – 4

Total – 11

Be sure to check out the video too:

Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities By Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. is another great activity app by Callaway Digital Arts. My four year old loves Thomas & Friends but she loves puzzles and coloring even more. Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities By Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. hits the spot for her. It is a lot of fun.

For some reason I think boys might enjoy Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities By Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. more than girls just because, well, Thomas is a train I guess, but my daughter still loves the app and game.

Is it typical that Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities By Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. would b so popular? Is it an easy formula to come up with a great activity app? It seems not. The activities in Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities By Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. are similar to those activities you would find in a traditional coloring book, puzzle, and matching game set. Three in one!

Attention – 4
Learning – 3
Fun – 4

Total – 11

If course we love the Big Grips iPad case. Be sure to check it out:

The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree By Oceanhouse Media is another great book from Oceanhouse Media. We have mentioned this several times this week already, but we love the style of the books, the interactivity, the narration, and The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree By Oceanhouse Media adds another touch – flaps to open and close.

We all remember the books with flaps as kids. By the time I got a hold of a book with this hidden gems they were all very well worn and easy to notice, some were ripped right off in fact. That is hard to do with the iPad version of these books. The flaps are a fun addition to the story and usually hide something silly and funny.

The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree By Oceanhouse Media is a neat story of out favorite family of bears getting their tree ready for the holidays!

Fun – 4
Learning – 3
Attention – 4

Total – 11

It looks like the Big Grips iPad Frame is sold out! We love that iPad frame and hope that as you read this you already picked yours up or have one on order for Christmas. Check the other colors if Pink is out of stock. It is a no brainer. Buy the Big Grips iPad Frame.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas! – Dr. Seuss By Oceanhouse Media is another great book/app from Oceanhouse Media. This book is not my daughter’s favorite since it is sort of dark and scary, but it is still a very good book and some kids like different things. The book is well written and narrated in a man’s voice. Almost that of the Grinch himself!

The animations and drawings are done in a typical Dr. Seuss style, but with less color. I almost felt like I had downloaded a copy of the book before it was sent overseas to be colored I bet that is not the case and instead is meant to match the overall style of the original.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas! – Dr. Seuss By Oceanhouse Media is a classic Christmas book, story, movie, and now app. Just having the book to enjoy on a cold winter night makes the purchase worth it. I haven’t given it a try, but showing the app on a flat screen with the whole family via HDMI might make for some new traidtions!

Fun – 2 (it is a book)
Attention – 4
Learning – 3

Total – 9

Of course we watch the whole book in the best frame we have found for the iPad2 – the Big Grips iPad Frame. We love the case. Just yesterday (when the video below was recorded) our four year old was walking into the kitchen with the iPad in her case as it always is. She hit the doggy gate and nearly dropped the iPad! If not for the awesome grip the Frame provides the iPad would have been on the ground. We have a tile floor and without the case it would certainly have dented the iPad at least. I bet with the case it would not have even mattered.

Flight Control HD By Firemint Pty Ltd
is a fun app for all ages. I am pretty sure that Flight Control HD By Firemint Pty Ltd was not designed with children in mind, but my ten year old sure loves to play the game.

Even my four year old gives it a try, but really it is still a little too hard for her. She can understand that the airplanes are meant to be sorted, that they cannot touch, and that they go away, so it is fun for a four year old, but the game is over so quickly.

My ten year old loves the interactive gameplay. In the video you can see that my wife brings in the other iPad and we start a joined game right there on the “fly” (pun totally intentional). That gives Flight Control HD By Firemint Pty Ltd some legs. Just like another of MY favorite FireMint games: Real Racing 2, when you can have a friend (or even a stranger!) join you in a game, it becomes more interesting.

The gameplay is deceptively simple. You simply land each plan in the matching colored runway or helipad. Do not let the planes crash and you are set. My high score is 44, my ten year old can make it to perhaps 12, and the four year old lands 2-3. Fun!

Attention – 4
Fun – 4
Learning – 2 (some fine motor skills, organization, who cares? It is fun!)

Total – 10

Of course we have our iPad wrapped in the awesome Big Grips iPad Frame. We love that frame/case and still recommend it. My daughter can play the iPad in the car, at her grandparents, and just about anywhere else! Instead of worrying about her dropping the iPad we just need to ensure the iPad is charged and we are all set!

Tacky’s Christmas By Oceanhouse Media is another great app/book from Oceanhouse Media. Since we are focusing on Christmas apps we are starting off with a couple great books from Oceanhouse and my kids love penguins for some reason.

In typical and awesome Oceanhouse Media fashion, Tacky’s Christmas By Oceanhouse Media is very well written, narrated very pleasantly, and has just enough interactivity to keep my four year old interested. She knows that she can click on each object to hear and see the word it represents. She can hold a paragraph to have it repeated, but rarely does. Swiping the pages is the most fun it seems and she gets really upset if you turn the page early! A sure sign of a good book.

Watch the video for a taste of what Tacky’s Christmas By Oceanhouse Media has to offer. Will your child learn to read in this format? I am not too sure, but I am confident this format will work as a good reinforcement to other reading activities.

Attention – 4
Fun – 3 (it is a book not a game)
Learning – 4

Total – 11

iTunes link

It is great to read/watch/play with these books when you have such a great iPad stand and frame. be sure to check out the Name Your Link. We love ours.

Pinocchio HD By So Ouat is like the other books we have reviewed by So Ouat, very well animated, well performed, and interesting.

The story of Pinocchio is familiar, but the way the book is performed is a big factor in the success of an app. Pinocchio HD By So Ouat does an outstanding job of telling the traditional story of Pinocchio.

The written word is done really well in this book, but it does not give the option to click on individual words. My daughter rarely uses that feature, so I do not care so much, but it is a nice feature of other apps/books.

The animations and books is where Pinocchio HD By So Ouat really shines. The animations are just great. They make the book seem like a still movie.

My four year old was not excited to read the book again since she had been through it a few times. Once we got the app going and she got into the story she finished the book again. I can see her reading this many times over the coming years.

Attention – 4
Fun – 3
Learning – 2

Total – 9

iTunes Link

Of course we have our ipad covered with the Big Grips iPad2 frame and stand. We love that think!

Awesome Chicken By Dennis Logan is simply an addicting and fun app. I think I saw a rocket type version of this same app with a pig or something a year or so ago, but the challenge of that game couldn’t compare to the appeal and challenge of Awesome Chicken By Dennis Logan.

The game is funny for kids to play because the chicken is so helpless and loses so many feathers. It is easy enough early on for your young child to get the hang of the swiping of the chicken to get the movement going. It gets to be pretty challenging, but my four year old (in the video) and my ten year old both love the app and play whenever the mood strikes them.

I cannot tell you my high score, or how many levels I have made it to myself because to me that isn’t the point. It is a fun time waster that is really addictive for young and old alike. Will your child learn something? Perhaps not, but some games are just really well done, with awesome graphics, simple and effective physics and a lot of fun. Awesome Chicken By Dennis Logan is one of those apps!

Fun – 5
Attention – 4
Learning – 0 (it is not a learning app!)

Total – 9 (totally fun and addictive).

Of course we protected our iPad using the Name Your Link and we love the case/cover. Be sure to click the special offers just below the price to get the stand and case for a discounted price.

iTunes link