I have had the review of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by OneApp Application Studio for sometime. It was one of those apps that I was sure my 3 year old could like if she had enough time to learn about it — I was right! It took some time, but Kaylin really likes the app and sings along. She still cannot follow the keys when the music is playing, but that just gives her some time to spend with the app in a few months or a year.
This app is also nice to place in the room when your child is going to sleep. Just turn it down and let it play!
I give it a 4 for fun, a 3 for Learning, and a 5 for attention for a total of 12. I think the score could go up if she could actually learn to play the song, but as you can see in the video, she is more concerned with signing and banging on the keys.
Rain Go Away ABCs is another great alphabet learning app. It makes learning the ABCs easy and fun. My 3 year old has known her ABCs for sometime now and still enjoys the application. The tips are a neat feature that give you ideas of something to do if it is actually raining. We live in Phoenix, so we actually go out in the rain when it rains!
Learning – 5
Fun – 4
Attention – 3
Total = 12
Check out the video for more information about the app:
Intro to Letters is a great app for kids to learn how to pronounce (or is it enunciate?) letters. It also allows them to trace the letters to learn to write them. It features a great voice and very intuitive interface. At times the arrows are hard to follow for my 3 year old when she is tracing, but she usually figures it out. She has spent a lot of time in the app having fun and learning. Kaylin already knows the alphabet, but you can see in the video there is always room for improvement when it comes to saying and writing the letters!
Great app!
Fun – 4
Learning – 5
Attention – 4
Total = 13/15
Ages 3,4,5
Wow. What a neat story and app. Mr. Hat’s Magic Cube provides both a story and a good learning experience for kids of a young age. My 3 year old liked the app and was interested in the story enough to keep playing for quite a while. Learning is a bit light since the “lessons” are pretty short. It is more practicing what you have learned than picking up new skills.
I give it a 3 for learning, 4 for fun and a 5 for attention for a total of 12.
Check out the video of my daughter playing the game:
If you liked our review of First Words Animals by Learning Touch, then you will really like First Words Deluxe! It includes the same game play, but with Animals, Shapes, Colors, items in the home, vehicles and all words. I like the last one all words. This keeps my 3 year old going for a long time!
The existing review stands. Great gameplay with the scrabble like interface and the repetition of the letters and words is outstanding! You cannot beat an audible and visual game with an actual tactile movement. This means your kid learns while playing.
In this case I give it an updated 5/5 for attention. The additional categories make this an app that lasts a while! And she keeps coming back to it.
So Attention 5/5, Fun 4/5, Learning 5/5 for a total of 14!
My 3 year old really like to spell and letters in general. She has really taken a liking to First Words Animals by Learning Touch. It is a simple game where the scrabble like letters are scrambled at the bottom of the screen and the animal is shown at the top. If you touch the animal a voice tells you what the animal is. You can then grab the letters to match them up to the word – scrabble like.
It may seem simple, but this game is really well done. Not only are there a lot of animals and the potential for many more with updates from the developer, but also the way the letters are pronounced and repeated along with each word is fantastic as a reinforcement for learning.
This game is suited for ages 2- 5. I give it an attention of 4, fun of 4 and learning of 5 for a total of 13.
My 9 year old loves math. I am an educator at a post-secondary school (university) and I know that our kids need math skills! How can we help them? Bombard them with learning fun at every turn. My 9-year old was just handed down an iPhone 3G since I picked up an iPhone4 on pre-order and she has been using it non-stop!
How can I take that interest and help her learn math? With math apps! So far I have found a few apps and Tic Tac Math stands out! My Daughter is 9 and just left 3rd grade. She is in a gifted program, so is doing 5/6 grade math next year. This app can handle a 3rd grader to a 6th grader depending on their level. It is fun and will at least keep them going through 1n hour or two each time they pick it up. In 10 minutes a child could go through a potential of 20-30 questions! If they spend only 20 minutes in the app each time they play it then they are going to get 50 questions. This is homework made fun.
Kids learn by a reward system. This game gives it to them with little punishment when they are wrong. They are NOT discouraged. Even when they get a question wrong the negative is minimized. This is a sign of a great app.
If you take a look around the developers website: http://iplaymathgames.com you can tell he like math, understands learning and has apps for every age. I am hoping to pick up a kindergarten version of my 3 year old!
So I give it a 5 for learning, a 4 for attention, a 4 for fun for a total of 13. Awesome. Well worth the purchase price!
Be sure to check out the video for my daughter commenting on the app!
Captain Duck by Harper Collins is one book in a series of books involving Duck. My daughter loved the story and liked the app. She was immediately entranced by the voice and the story:
She had a bit of a hard time figuring out the navigation, but she is 3 and the swipe is somewhat new to her. This was quickly overcome in a matter of days.
I give the app an attention of 4, Fun of 4 and learning of 3.
The SpongeBob Square Pants app is one of those apps you love and hate. My 3 year old loves the app and it takes up a bunch of her time. She likes to play with Sponge Bob and make him look silly and add our photos to his background (watch the video).
We hate this app because it is really annoying. You need to turn the volume down. How can you deny your little one a fun app with little educational value when they really like to see their little yellow square buddy dressed up how they like?
iMoo (itunes link) from Panda Cub Productions is a nice remake of those little sound apps you used to see in the stores like KB Toys. You would pick them up as a kids and tip them over just to hear the sound they made. Well Panda Cub Productions has created a nice app for just that.
You can see in the video that you have the option of a several Cow sounds and you can record your own. You actually do need to tip the app to get the moo to play – just like the real thing.
My 3 year old was disinterested in the app, but my 9 year old thought it was a blast and was rolling on the floor laughing. It is a nice party gag too. Fun in meetings or on a phone call with the boss perhaps?
This is for any age range, educational value is nil and time spent on the app is simply minutes, but it is worth the price in my opinion!
