Tale of Peter Rabbit, Classic & The Tale of Tom Kitten, Classic

June 30, 2013 | appydazeblog

Free for a limited time – Tale of Peter Rabbit, Classic and The Tale of Tom Kitten, Classic by Beatrix Potter. These educational apps feature the complete stories with the original illustrations. Both stories are professionally narrated in English. Kids can read along with the narrator or turn off all sounds and read the stories on their own. The app is fairly simple – no interactivity, no word highlighting as it is read but there is a memory game included. Introduce your kids to the classic world of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter – some tales are just timeless!

Peter Rabbit Tom Kitten

Ten Giggly Gorillas

June 30, 2013 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – Ten Giggly Gorillas, a cute book to share with 2 – 6 year olds. There are 10 giggly gorillas swinging in the trees. Kids must listen to the story to know which gorilla to tickle under the arm. When tickled, that gorilla giggles until it lose its grip and there is one less gorilla swinging in the tree. The story continues until there is only one gorilla left to tickle. At the end there is a cute surprise! With over 100 interactions plus a hidden toucan on every page, this story is sure to delight your little ones! This educational app also includes a monkey memory game.

Paperless – Draw, Paint, Sketch

June 30, 2013 | appydazeblog

Paperless – Draw, Paint, Sketch is FREE for a limited time. This easy-to-use educational app changes your iPad into a drawing tablet. The app comes with 6 tools: a water-color brush, a pencil brush, an ink pen, an eraser, a paint bucket, and a color picker. The drawing line can be customized for size, opacity, smoothing, and thickness. The color picker allow you to choose any color then gives you 6 variances of that color. There are 12 backgrounds are available within the app or you can pull backgrounds from your camera roll. Your drawings, paintings, and sketching can be saved and shared! Slick and simple to use – this app would be great for young artists!

Summer Apps

June 29, 2013 | appydazeblog

Those lazy crazy days of summer have officially arrived so I thought I would do a post on fun and FREE summer apps.

My title page (above) was created using the first app on my list – Sand Drawing by Timbuktu. It is currently FREE for a limited time. Kids can relax on the virtual beach by drawing in the sand. The app comes with 3 drawing tools and 12 decorations that kids can choose to use. Decorations can easily be mixed, rotated, and resized. Waves clear the beach so to make way for new creations. Simple to use and fun!

I wish the app had a save feature built-in – perhaps that will be an option in an updated version. The good news is that you can save your child’s sand drawing by taking a screen shot of your iPad. Here’s how: 1. Have your child’s creation open. 2. Find your Sleep/Wake button (top right of the iPad). 3. Find your home button (centered on the bottom your iPad’s screen). 4. Hold down both buttons together – it only takes a second. 5. Release them and you should hear a camera shutter sound and see a white screen. 6. Check your Camera Roll – the image should be there!

Now the fun begins… use your creations to as illustrations in story apps, as backgrounds for photo albums of your vacation, as postcards to grandma & grandpa, etc. Get creative!!

Another educational app that is FREE for a limited time – Ice Cream Truck Game. Kids utilize their math skills while operating an ice cream truck in this game. They begin by purchasing the right amount of ingredients (cones, ice cream, and toppings) for each day. All ingredients are sold in metric measurement – liters or grams. Then, kids choose a cone size and set a price for the treats. Sales are affected by price and by the popularity of the treats. At the end of each day, the child sees a graph of liquid assets and a graph of customer satisfaction. They can assess what is working or not working and make the necessary adjustments for the next day. Kids have 10 days in each city. The goal is to make enough money to move to the next city (level). The levels get progressively more difficult. Lots of math skills are woven into this game – money, measurement, estimating, reading a graph, etc. I could see third, fourth, & fifth graders having fun with this one!

PH Summer Reading from One More Story is currently FREE. One More Story is an online library high quality children’s picture books that are professionally narrated and with music/sound effects. Benjamin D. Bookworm is the host for the stories – kids can listen and follow the highlighted text or read the book themselves. Right now, the app is FREE. You will need internet access to use it because it streams large multimedia files. This educational app currently has one book – How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and illustrated by David Shannon. I love this book – it is one of my favorites! It is about a young boy named Jeremy Jacob who learns the finer points of pirate life from Captain Braid Beard and his crew. Very cute story – a perfect summer read!

Another FREEBIE – Preschool Books – I Like Summer from Grasshopper Apps. Written for preschoolers, this book is 1 of 20 books in the “I Like” series. Kids will enjoy listening to the story that highlights the joys of summer. They will also love looking at story’s photos. The best part of this educational app is that it can be customized. You can record the existing story in your child’s voice (or your voice). Or… you can completely change the text and record the new story in your child’s voice/your voice. How fun – have your child make up a story to go with the pictures!

More to come… check back!!

Stella and Sam Story Pack

June 29, 2013 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – Stella and Sam Story Pack, a wonderful educational app that normally sells for $6.99. The story pack contains 5 Stella and Sam apps (Into the Snow We Go, Rainy Days and Rainbows, Backyard at Twilight, Go There Square, and Cocoons & Caterpillars). Stella and Sam apps are based on the television show and book series by Marie-Louise Gay. The Stella and Sam books have been translated into 15 languages and have sold over a million copies. All Stella and Sam apps are also supported in French.

I love how all of the stories focus on getting kids outside to enjoy the beauty of nature. They are beautifully animated, creatively presented, and such fun for preschoolers!

Into the Snow We Go: In this adventure, kids join Stella and Sam to make pictures in the snow, decorate a snowman, and discover what’s hidden under the snow.

Rainy Days and Rainbows: Once again, kids join Stella, Sam and their dog Fred. They paint with Fred, dig through leaves looking for treasures, and have a pine cone race across Puddle Lake.

Backyard at Twilight: In this adventure, kids play along with Stella, Sam, and their dog Fred as they spend the night camping out in the backyard. They look for bugs, learn about shapes from fireflies, and discover the constellations.

Go There Square: Stella and Sam find magical places with the help of their go-there-square. Kids go along to pop musical bubbles, collect dandelions and build a bridge out of flowers.

Cocoons & Caterpillars: In this adventure, kids play along with Stella, Sam, and their dog Fred to discover the joys of nature – butterflies, birds, and clouds.

Do not miss out on this FREE download!!

Ice Cream Truck Game

June 28, 2013 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – Ice Cream Truck Game, an educational math app. Kids utilize their math skills while operating an ice cream truck in this game. They begin by purchasing the right amount of ingredients (cones, ice cream, and toppings) for each day. All ingredients are sold in metric measurement – liters or grams. Then, kids choose a cone size and set a price for the treats. Sales are affected by price and by the popularity of the treats. At the end of each day, the child sees a graph of liquid assets and a graph of customer satisfaction. They can assess what is working or not working and make the necessary adjustments for the next day. Kids have 10 days in each city. The goal is to make enough money to move to the next city (level). The levels get progressively more difficult. Lots of math skills are woven into this game – money, measurement, estimating, reading a graph, etc. I could see third, fourth, & fifth graders having fun with this one!

My Annoying Little Brother

June 28, 2013 | appydazeblog

FREE for a limited time – My Annoying Little Brother, is an interactive book about a girl and her younger sibling. The story was originally published as a printed book. Kids tap on the pages to hear sounds, find hidden animations, read the entire page, or read individual words. The story is told from 2 perspectives – the girl explains why her brother annoys her AND her little brother has a very different explanation of what is going on. The ending is sweet! This educational app would be fabulous for a lesson on point of view!

100 Diggers and Excavators

June 28, 2013 | appydazeblog

The e-book, 100 Diggers & Excavators, is FREE again for a limited time for the iPhone/iPad. This book is easy to use and features over 100 HD pictures of diggers in action with sound clips! There is text on every page describing a digger or excavator, its location, or the job that it is doing. The list in the upper right hand corner can be used to preview/access individual pages in the app. The book does have not to be read in order since it is not telling a story. It is simply describing the machines pictured on each page. Also included is a video clip of a digger in action. If you have a lover of heavy machinery in your life – you may want to check out this educational app. 🙂

Counting Dots

June 28, 2013 | appydazeblog

FREE again today – Counting Dots, an educational app for young iPad users. Kids learn to recognize/count numbers by popping colorful dots in this simple but visually appealing game. The app has three settings – counting by one, fives, or tens. There are also settings for sound, hinting, and enabling vibrations (iPhone only). The app is advertised as helping kids count from one to a million. I counted by ones to 20 and by tens to 100 – didn’t quite make it to a million. 🙂 This app is by the same developer that did Rain Dots (see my March 1 review). Recommended!

Cursive Writing HD

June 27, 2013 | appydazeblog

FREE again – Cursive Writing HD normally sells for $.99. This educational app shows kids how to write in cursive utilizing three modes. In the abc mode, both upper case and lower case letters are taught. Kids are shown how to trace each letter using the proper stroke sequence. This section of the app is very well-done.

In the word mode, kids are shown how letters combine to form 234 words. Then in the sentence mode kids can practice writing one of the 3 sentences provided. Or, they can type in their own sentence which is converted to cursive. What a great idea! But… the letter style (in both the word mode and the sentence mode) is not the same as the letter style of the abc mode. For example, the lower case o and b become very loopy. Many of the upper case letters are formed in completely different way than they were taught in the abc mode. Many words are not started on the base line.

After teaching cursive writing for 30 years, I know that the biggest challenge is teaching kids to properly connect the letters. This app does a nice job of teaching the individual letters in the abc mode but I have some concerns about the letter style in the word mode & the sentence mode.

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