Category Archives: FREE apps (for a limited time)

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Kids Zoo

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FREE again – Kids Zoo, an educational app that introduces your child to 45 different animals from 4 different categories: wild, farm, birds, and water. It is very easy to use – just tap. First tap the category you want to explore, then tap an animal. A photo of the animal appears. You can tap the photo for another photo of the same animal. Tap the speaker next to the animal’s name and it is pronounced. Tap the sound icons to hear the sound that the animal makes. There are two sound icons for each animal (one blue and one pink) but no explanation of the difference. The most interesting thing about this app is that there are connections to 30 LIVE  webcams at zoos all around the world. You can see the polar bear at the San Diego Zoo, the tiger at the London Zoo, etc. if you connect at the right time. Since these zoos are all over the world, the animals may be sleeping, the time zones may not match up, etc. Another potential issue is the speed/quality of your connection. I was able to connect to several webcams but was not fortunate enough to see any real action. Interesting to explore – if you have a great connection!

This app for the iPhone/iPad is FREE for a limited time.

Kids Zoo - Zhan Tian

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Walter’s Flying Bus

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Walter's Flying Bus

This book was FREE for a limited time. It is now regular price – $6.99. Walter’s Flying Bus (an educational app) is a story inspired by the real-life dreams of Walter and his friends who are orphaned, special needs children in Uganda. 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 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.”

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

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Lullabytes

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Lullabytes

FREE for a limited time – Lullabytes, an app to soothe your baby to sleep. The app contains 12 classical lullabies. The 25 minute concert begins with Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 and gradually winds down to end with Brahms’ Lullaby. The app has a special feature called the Sleep Keeper™  which detects crying then replays the softest music tracks to help your baby drift back to sleep. The app also features a Sleep Diary™ which works like a stopwatch. It records the length of overnight sleeps and/or naps and logs the times. Parents can tag sleep sessions to indicate teething or illness. The diary also compares your baby’s sleep with the suggested amounts of sleep for babies of the same age. The app works with AirPlay for transmission to wireless speakers or Apple TV. What a great app for the nursery!!

Lullabytes - MOMMYMADE, LLC

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Tiny Dentist

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Tiny Dentist

FREE for a limited time – Tiny Dentist. Kids get to be a dentist for a day with this educational app that teaches about dental treatments and instruments. Dozens of patients with dental problems need fixed. The “dentist” has the tools to: remove cavities & fill in the hole, remove plaque, use water & air sprays, remove decayed teeth, put on braces, and more! The app was developed to alleviate children’s fear of the dentist. Visual instructions for using the different tools are found in the grown-ups section. Another fun feature of the app is the ability to take before and after pictures of the patient. 🙂 Check it out!!

Tiny Dentist - fantastoonic

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Toontastic Jr. Pirates

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Toontastic Jr. Pirates

Toontastic Jr. 2

Ahoy Matey…. Toontastic Jr. Pirates is FREE for a limited time. This storytelling app, from the creators of Toontastic, has kids creating their own pirate cartoons. They start by choosing a beginning, middle, and ending. Then they animate the story by moving the characters and recording their voices at the same time. This educational app features 12 story starter videos and a cast of characters to get kids started. If kids would like to create a story with friends or family, they can utilize StoryShare, a new feature in Toontastic Jr. which is very cool! It enables kids to talk & create stories with friends or family anywhere in the world! Yo ho ho – how fun is that??

Toontastic Jr. Pirates - for iPad - Launchpad Toys

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Monster’s Socks

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Monster's SocksFREE for the weekend – Monster’s Socks, a darling interactive tale about a little monster who goes in search of his lost socks. Kids join Monster on his journey and help him cross streams, sail across the sea, and blast into outer space to find the lost socks. The story advances in a unique way – as Monster travels page by page through the book, he stops on the yellow dots and the text appears. The animation and interactivity are done in a meaningful way that enhances the story. This educational app is a great example of what an interactive book should be – don’t miss it!!

Monster's Socks - Martin Hughes

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123 Color HD: Talking Coloring Book

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123 Color HD

Earlier this morning 123 Color HD: Talking Coloring Book was listed  – FREE today only. I was able to download it for FREE. Now I am a bit confused by which version (if any) is still FREE. Please check the link before you download it. It was supposed to be the version below but when I rechecked the link, it is now $.99.

123 Color uses freestyle finger painting to teach numbers, letters (upper and lower case), and colors. The app can be set to be spoken in English, Spanish, French, and German. It comes with American English. Other languages require a free download. The app has 3 games – paint by letter, paint by number, and paint by color. Proper spelling of number and color names are displayed in the selected language. Each game features a themed artwork (shapes, winter, fall), music, sound effects, and animations. As kids correctly color the pictures they earn stars to purchase additional games. There are also in-app purchases available. Nicely done app for little ones!

Keep reading my blog to see when educational apps like this one go FREE again!

123 Color HD: Talking Coloring Book (English, Spanish, French and German Voice-Overs Included) - Steve Glinberg Check before you download this one as the price seems to have changed!!

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Super Readers – A Dolch Sight Words Based Story Book App That Will Help Turn Your Child Into a Super Reader!

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super readers

FREE again for a limited time – Super Readers, an animated storybook app for early readers! This educational app uses the Dolch sight words in 10 vocabulary controlled stories at 5 different reading levels: kindergarten, beginning first, middle first, end of first, and beginning second. Kids can choose to have the stories read to them with automatic text highlighting or they can touch individual words to have them read. Another great feature  – kids can record themselves reading the book and then play it back. What a wonderful confidence builder for little ones trying to build their fluency!!

Common Core Standards met:

K.RF.3 – Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

Recommended!

Super Readers - A Dolch Sight Words Based Story Book App That Will Help Turn Your Child Into a Super Reader! - Jorge Sanchez

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My Story Time

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My Story Time

FREE for a limited – My Story Time, an educational app that makes your child the main character in the underwater story  entitled If I Were a Scuba Diver. To begin, you or choose or take 2 photos (faces) to put into the story. The app makes it easy to align and scale them. Time to read! Children can read the story on their own or there is a narration button on each page. The story is told in rhyme, brightly illustrated, and the characters appear to be swimming if you tilt some of the pages. 🙂 The story is cute. But… it’s write-up describes it as a fairy tale and “technically” it is not.  The developers hope to add additional stories but at this time there is only the one. Kids LOVE being the start of a story. It might be fun to create this story before/after a trip to the beach!

MyStoryTime - Personalized Story Books for Kids - Austin Archibald

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Arithmetic Invaders: Grade 3 Math Facts

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Arithmetic Invaders

FREE for a limited time – Arithmetic Invaders: Grade 3 Math Facts. Kids defend the planets from invaders in this math game. The table of contents shows the titles of the missions, a short description of the math required, and the high score for that mission. There are 8 “missions” to complete – 2 addition, 2 subtraction, 2 multiplication, and 2 division. With completion of the last mission, your child earns the highest rank – DEFENDER OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. In each mission, the child matches the value on the laser gun to an equation having the same value – written below 1 of 3 invader ships. The mission’s length can be 2, 3, or 5 minutes. Even though the title implies that the app only practices facts, the addition & subtraction missions include 2 digit numbers. All in all, this educational app provides another fun way for kids to practice math!

Arithmetic Invaders: Grade 3 Math Facts - @Reks