Category Archives: educational apps for kids

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Miku’s Picnic, Let’s Color, and Squiggles – apps by Lazoo

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Miku's Picnic

FREE again for a limited time – Miku’s Picnic, an adorable interactive story designed to support creative thinking. Kids join Bobu, the monkey & Miku, the rabbit on a chase after some jumping beans. The two need help capturing the beans before they bounce away! Along the way kids learn about using their imaginations and creative problem solving as the Bobu & Moku use “Squiggles” to… make a car go faster, make springs to get to the top of a tree, make binoculars to look for the beans, make a rocket zoom to the moon, and more. This educational app has 2 reading modes – “Read to Me” and “Read it Myself” as well as an option to record your own voice as the narrator. The story ends with a link to the FREE Squiggles app for kids so kids can “take a turn” drawing. Super creative and super cute!

Download link for Miku’s Picnic: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lazoo-mikus-picnic/id652945863?mt=8&uo=4

Also FREE again for a limited time – Let’s Color, an educational app that encourages creativity! The app includes an animated short in which the characters – Bobu, the monkey & Miku, the rabbit use their imaginations to turn triangles into a strawberry, a dog, a mountain, etc. Then kids are encouraged to color different things to complete a page: what is coming out of a hose, who is riding in the train, etc. Once the coloring is completed, they press GO and the drawings come alive. There are 17 coloring pages as well as a blank page for your child to create his/her own pictures. Additional coloring pages can be purchased within the app. Tools included are stickers, markers, paint, chalk, a ketchup bottle, as well as 10 colors & a mystery color wheel. Work can be saved into the gallery of the parents’ section by pressing the piggy bank. This app is super cute!! It encourages children to be imaginative & creative. :)

Highly recommended!

Let's Color! - Lazoo Worldwide, Inc

squiggles

Squiggles – This FREE educational app for the iPad is adorable! Kids are encourages to draw squiggles to create: rain clouds (to water flowers), waves (to help fish swim), wool on sheep, cotton candy, etc. Once the squiggles are drawn, they press GO and the drawings come alive. The app includes an interactive storybook and an animated short which introduces the characters – Bobu, the monkey  & Miku, the rabbit. It also includes 14 drawing pages (just add the squiggles) as well as a blank page for your child to create his/her own pictures. Tools included are stickers, markers, paint, chalk, a ketchup bottle, as well as 10 colors & a mystery color wheel. Work can be saved into the gallery of the parents’ section by pressing the piggy bank. This app is super cute!! It encourages children to be imaginative & creative – one of my favorites. 🙂

Highly recommended!

Squiggles! - Lazoo Worldwide, Inc

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Happi Spells – Crossword Puzzles for Kids from Happi Papi

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Happi Spells

FREE for a limited time – Happi Spells – Crossword Puzzles for Kids from Happi Papi. This educational app has 60 crossword puzzles – 5 levels with 12 puzzles in each level. The puzzles are made of intersecting words. Picture clues are given and necessary letter tiles are placed around the puzzle. Kids practice spelling as they tap and drag the tiles to their correct places in the puzzle. If a tile is dragged to its correct spot in the puzzle, it will stick. Tiles dragged to the wrong spot return to the perimeter of the puzzle. Kids earn snails for working the puzzle accurately. This app was featured by Apple in “New & Noteworthy” and is nicely done. I wish the app named the letters and/or gave the letters’ sounds as the tiles are moved into place… perhaps in an update. 🙂

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happi-spells-crossword-puzzles/id464675842?mt=8&uo=4

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Magic Stickers!

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Magic stickers

FREE for a limited time – Magic Stickers!  This educational app is the latest from Lazoo, the creators of Squiggles & Let’s Color. Magic Stickers includes 8 animated scenes plus 50+ animated stickers that move and interact with the scene. A bread roll or a bus? Sandwiches or mountains? Ice cream cones or flying creatures? Kids are encouraged to be imaginative and creative. After putting together a scene, kids hit the “Go” button to watch the scene come alive. The app also features a sticker-making tool that allows kids to create and save their own stickers. Magic Stickers is based on Lazoo’s “Hands On! Mind On!” curriculum – designed to support and celebrate creative thinking. Another GREAT educational app from Lazoo – a brand that encourages the imagination of children!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic-stickers!/id653471372?mt=8&uo=4

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Millie Apps!!

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Sale extended! All of the Millie books are still FREE.

I am a HUGE fan of these apps – they are adorable. After personally looking at 1200 – 1500 apps, the Millie stories are still among my favorites! They make me smile. 🙂

Millie Was Here – Millie’s first adventure is currently FREE. This award-winning interactive book for kids has been one of my favorites since I started my blog. The story follows Millie on her first adventure. Millie (a lovable dog) has super powers, loves bacon, and is a master of disguise. I love everything about this app – the narration, music, interactivity, and Millie – the super cute star of the book. The story is available in 11 languages. The app automatically sets itself to the language of your device – how cool is that!

Millie Was Here, Book 1: Meet Millie - Megapops LLC

Millie

Millie and the Lost Key is the second book in the Millie series for the iPhone/iPad. Millie, the adorable adventure-seeking dog, is at it again. This time she travels (by cab) to a dark and mysterious island (Central Park) in a quest to find the ultimate treasure – the key to endless bacon. The story is adorable, the interactivity is great, and there are hidden stickers for kids to collect as they read the story. Kids love Millie and her stories!

Millie & The Lost Key - Millie Was Here, Book 2 - Megapops LLC

Millie3

Also FREE – Millie’s Crazy Dinosaur Adventure, the third book in the Millie series for the iPhone/iPad. Millie’s adventures continue when she goes to a birthday party for a stuffed cat and it leads to a hair-raising journey back in time. Another fun story!

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/millies-crazy-dinosaur-adventure/id695161183?mt=8&uo=4

Also FREE and just in time for Halloween – Millie’s Book of Tricks and Treats, volumes 1 & 2. The Millie books feature a very cute, lovable dog and kids LOVE them! These apps present a series of silly tricks and treats featuring Millie – nothing scary for little ones. Every time you read it, the randomly generated video clips change so the book is always different.There is also scratch-off picture & hidden sticker on every page. Love this series!

Download for Volume 1: Millie's Book of Tricks and Treats - Megapops LLC

Download for Volume 2: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/millies-book-tricks-treats/id569720229?mt=8&uo=4

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Curious George at the Zoo

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Curious George at the Zoo is currently FREE (again) for iPhone/iPad. Designed for preschoolers, this educational app has kids helping Curious George wake, clean, and feed animals in the zoo. Introduced by the Man with the Yellow Hat (of course), the app then asks your child where he/she would like to go. But, buyer beware  –  there is only one section of zoo (Sunny Safari) included with the initial purchase of the app – normally $.99.

There are 5 animals for kids to learn about in this app – the hippo. giraffe, lion, parrot, and elephant. First they wake the animal up, then they clean it and feed it – fairly simple activities. Also included are age-appropriate video clips about each animal. Kids can play a game (Safari Showers) and collect stickers.

I have always loved Curious George books – the stories are timeless and can be enjoyed by kids from preschool through first/second grade. The simplicity of this app makes it most appropriate for Curious George’s youngest fans (2 – 3 year olds). I am disappointed that kids are given “a choice” of where they would like go in the app when there is only one area available without additional purchases. Choices are presented in a cute pop-up book but 3 out of 4 pages are covered by a huge “tap here to purchase” button. It feels similar to having the candy in the checkout line of the grocery story. That being said, if you have 2 – 3 year old that loves Curious George, you may want to download this app.

Curious George at the Zoo for iPad - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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SparkleFish

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SparkleFish is a FREE educational app for iPhone/iPad that works like a digital version of Mad Libs. Five stories are included in the app with others available as in-app purchases. Kids are asked to provide words from a specific category (animal, body part, etc.) or a specific part of speech (adjectives, nouns, adverbs, past tense verbs, etc.). If the child cannot think of a good word, he/she can get suggestions from SparkleFish by touching the word. Instead of writing the words, kids record their choices in their own voice. Their words are played back in the reading of the story. Kids can save their recordings and listen to them later. This app allows kids to practice parts of speech in a fun way. Kids love Mad Libs because the results can be hilarious. I am sure they will feel the same way about SparkleFish. 🙂

Recommended!

SparkleFish - Whosagoodboy Partners

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Find the Synonym

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FREE  – Find the Synonym is an app designed for the iPhone/iPad. It is listed as a game app rather than an educational app but it would be great for kids in upper elementary school/junior high. A word is shown with its part of speech and definition. You are challenged to create a 4 – 7 letter synonym of that word using the letters provided. Points are awarded based on the length of the word, the time involved, whether clues are used, and/or if any mistakes are made. Badges are earned as the game is played. It’s simply designed  – not a lot of bell & whistles but it is heavy on content. There are a total of 1600 synonyms in the app. After you find 250 of them, the antonyms are unlocked. There are 700 antonyms in the app.

I realize that this app was not necessarily designed for kids but it is educational. More flexibility in the settings would make it more suitable for classroom use. I could not find a way to restart the game. The game picks up where it left off & points are cumulative, so only one person can play. Also, having access to both synonyms and antonyms would be a plus. Regardless, I am sure that teachers will come up with creative ways to use this resource. 🙂

Recommended!

Find The Synonym - FreshLogo

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Voice Translator

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Voice Translator

FREE again for a limited time – Voice Translator for the iPhone/iPad. This educational app translates your spoken word into another language –  33 different languages are available! Just speak into the app then the app translates your words and speaks them back to you in the other language. What a fabulous tool for traveling!! The app also has a voice-to-text translation with the ability to send it via email or SMS. Two other options are text-to-voice and text-to-text mode. I used my limited knowledge of foreign languages to test it and it seemed to work. I would be curious to hear from users (who are proficient in both languages) as to how accurately it translates. VERY cool with lots of applications in the world of education!

Voice Translator™ - Smart Loft

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Walter’s Flying Bus

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Walter's Flying Bus

FREE for a limited time – Walter’s Flying Bus, a story inspired by the real-life dreams of Walter and his friends (orphaned, special needs children in Uganda.) Walter finds an abandoned bus. With his friends and a little work, the engine soon roars to life! This e-book is inspirational – a celebration of the talents & beauty of every child. It is narrated in English, Spanish and Luganda (a primary language of Uganda). The educational app also includes mini-documentaries of the real-life children featured in the book. According to the developer  – “ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of after-tax profits from App sales go to efforts helping orphans with special needs, including advocacy, care, and adoption assistance grants.” Nice story with a great message!

Walter's Flying Bus - Chosen and Dearly Loved, LLC

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Zoola Baby Animals

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zoola

What does the fox say?

Find the answer to that question with Zoola Baby Animals, a FREE educational app for babies. Your child will learn to recognize 30 different adult animals and their babies. The app names the adult animal (only) but it gives the sounds for the adult & the baby (when their pictures are tapped.) It’s easy to use for little ones – they just tap the arrows to move back and forth. Or, they can tap the grid and see thumbnails of all the animals in the app. Adorable pictures that little ones are sure to enjoy!  The full version (400 photos/sounds of mommy, daddy, and baby) is ad-free and available for purchase.

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zoola-baby-animals/id471706389?mt=8&uo=4