The Purple Frog is FREE again today. This educational app is a beautiful story about friendship and acceptance. No one wants to play with Purple Frog because he is purple. He is sad until a little green frog becomes his friend. Kids can choose to read the story on their own or have the story read to them. They can also tap individual words in the story to have the word read and spelled for them. The app is nicely done – a beautifully illustrated tale story with an important message!
FREE for a limited time – Drawing for Kids, an educational app for the iPad. Kids learn to draw 30 different pictures (animals, sports, vehicles) by following the step-by-step instructions. Geared towards 3-8 year olds, each picture has 6 sequential steps with a tracing function – if extra support is needed. Once your little artist has complete his/her drawing, it can be colored using 6 different tools and 30 different colors. The final creation can be saved, printed, or shared via email or messaging. I love how that the tracing function is optional – it allows kids to be creative and add their own touches to their drawings. This app would be great for letting kids create drawings to add to thank-you cards, family albums, emails to grandparents, etc. Fun!!
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drawing-for-kids-step-by-step/id442410088?mt=8&uo=4
FREE app for the iPad and iPhone – Friendly Shapes. This cute little story for toddlers/preschoolers starts as Circle goes looking for his friend, Star. Along the way he meets other shapes: Triangle, Square, Rectangle, Pentagon, Heart, and Oval. As each shape joins the search, the group morphs into more complicated vehicles. There are three modes: auto-play, read-it-to-myself and play. There is also an option to record your own voice as you read. Each page also has fun animations, and/or puzzles in addition to the story. All in all, this is a nicely done app for little ones to learn shapes, colors, left/right, etc. So how can it be FREE? Well, this app that gives you the option of removing the ads for $.99. The ads are placed at the bottom of each page between the backward and the forward arrows. I think little fingers would end up hitting the ad bar somewhat regularly which could be frustrating. Check it out and decide for yourself. Recommended!
Also FREE – Friendly Christmas.
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/friendly-christmas-funny-shape/id562847602?mt=8&uo=4
FREE – Doodle Buddy (for the iPhone/iPad), a great educational app for drawing and creating pictures. It comes with five kinds of tools. The drawing tool has several options – a brush, chalk, glitter, smudge, an eraser, and a color picker with thousands of colors. The stamper tool includes 80+ stamps with the option of making them small or large. Each stamper makes a funny sound when used. The stencil tool comes 6 stencils (basic shapes) with the option to buy other sets as an in-app purchase. Sets available to purchase are theme-based such as fashion, beach, cars, princess, dinosaurs, Christmas, and more. The text tool has 4 fonts with the ability to resize them. Text can be written in any color you choose. The background tool has about 30 backgrounds to choose from or you have the ability to pull in your own photos. Armed with such great tools, you can only imagine the fun you or your child will have creating a works of art! And…. the finished masterpieces can be saved to your photo album and/or shared via email. Fun!!!
There are so many fun ways to use this app. Kids can use it to illustrate their stories because saved illustrations can easily be pulled into a story writing app such as My Story – see my review from June 27. Have kids draw pictures of their vacation then save into photos and use as additional pictures or backgrounds for a photo vacation booklet created on Snapfish, etc. Make a book for Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, a grandparent, etc. – incorporating your child’s drawings and family photos. If creating a family cookbook, have kids do the illustrations. The list goes on……
Highly recommended!
Reading Rainbow is a library of over 200 books and videos for kids ages 3 – 9. This educational app is FREE to download but requires a subscription ($9.99 per month or $29.99 for 6 months) for full access. Once you subscribe, your children (up to 5 per family) will have unlimited access to the interactive books and video trips. This app is similar to the award-winning Reading Rainbow television series that was on PBS from 1983 – 2006. It even features the same host – Grammy winner, LeVar Burton. In less than a year, over 2.5 million books/video field trips have been viewed with this app!
After installing the app, kids fill out their profile (name, age, kinds of stories they like to read) and may choose one free book from one of the 6 themed island in the sky. The books are professionally read and feature “Read to Me” or “Read on My Own” options. They are lightly animated and include interactive activities that add to the story. A sticker rewards program motivates kids to read. There is also an individualized tracking system so parents can see books selected and minutes read for each child.
I must admit, I downloaded this app because of nostalgia. My kids grew up watching Reading Rainbow and we all loved it. I am happy to say that the appeal of Reading Rainbow today is the same as it was almost 30 years ago – Reading Rainbow provides kids with quality authentic literature. If I had a child/ grandchild (ages 3-9) or if I were still in the classroom, I would subscribe without hesitation. What a fabulous resource!
Highly Recommended!
FREE for a limited time – ABC Go for the iPhone/iPad introduces your toddler (3 – 5) to 60+ things that go through sight, sound, and touch. The app opens to a grid arranged in ABC order. Kids can tap on a letter to find objects that begin with that letter or they can tap on a specific object to learn about it. As an object’s photo appears, a child’s voice says the initial letter then reads the name of the object (which appears in writing at the bottom of the screen). A little cartoon person drops down on the left hand side of the screen with a link to a video clip or an interactive scene. The child can scroll to the left for additional pictures and videos about each object.
This app needs an internet connection to work because the 100+ videos are actually links from You Tube. They are chosen by Peapod Labs and checked to be interesting and safe for kids. Kids cannot link from this app into other You Tube content. This app is nicely done – great for building vocabulary and beginning to read/spell words. Recommended!
Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-go/id410111251?mt=8&uo=4
FREE for a limited time – 1 2 3 Genius, an educational app for preschoolers. This app helps little ones learn to recognize numbers and count them. Included in this version are 4 games (counting to 10, fingers, numbers 1-10 and tracing game) with 6 additional games available as in-app purchases. Simple to use and visually appealing, this app is nicely done for kids learning to recognize, count, and write numbers. 🙂
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/123-genius-first-numbers-counting/id717296618?mt=8&uo=4
FREE a limited time – Guess How Much I Love You – Interactive Episodes. From Australia comes this wonderful app based on the book Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and inspired by the animated TV series created by SLR Productions Pty Ltd. The book is beautiful – one of my all time favorites. Originally published in 1994 in the UK, it has sold more than 20 million copies in 37 languages. It is truly a book not to be missed!! That being said, this app conveys the same sweetness that makes the original story so special.
Kids join Little Nutbrown Hare in 2 interactive episodes – Can You Touch the Stars and Snow White Hare. Designed for 3 – 5 year children to explore with their parents, the episodes are integrated with simple games & puzzles. At the end of each episode, Big NutBrown Hare and Little NutBrown Hare express their love for each other. Don’t miss this one – it is SO sweet!
Old MacDonald
Mr. Fox’s Sound Studio
The winter version of Little Fox Music Box, an educational app for 2 – 6 year olds, is currently FREE. The app has been downloaded over a million times and was featured as Apple’s App of the Week. The artwork design is from Heidi Wittlinger, an Oscar nominated artist. The app includes 3 children’s songs: Old MacDonald, London Bridge, and Evening Song. Kids can also visit Mr. Fox’s sound studio which is full of 100+ interactive surprises. The app includes a Karaoke mode and it can be switched from English to German. Kids will be delighted with this adorable app!
Highly recommended!
FREE today – Mystery Math Museum, a fun & educational app. Kids help a friendly ghost rescue fireflies hidden in the museum. Along the way, they use their math skills to unlock doors rooms and passages. The app permits multiple players with the ability to customize math skills for each player. Kids practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division by building equations. This app has lots of “kid appeal” – bonus challenges, fun rewards, not to mention its very cool interface. Highly recommended!!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mystery-math-museum/id640754583?mt=8&uo=4
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