Two FABULOUS & FREE educational apps from the Exploratorium!! Both interactive books contain illusions, articles, and videos. These apps make science fun by answering questions like – What color is a whisper? Are there secret messages in music played backward? Kids will love the illusions and you won’t believe these apps are FREE! Very interesting – for kids AND their parents/teachers.
Color Uncovered 
Sound Uncovered
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.
FREE today only – Star Rover HD. This educational app turns your iPad into a planetarium. Just open the app, hold your iPad up to the sky, and it will identify what you see. Star Rover calculates all sky objects in real-time so the objects on the screen are exactly the same as the real ones. Features include: 120,000+ stars, 88 constellations, planets & their moons, moon phases, a realistic Milky Way and so much more. There is also a complete user guide available on the support website. This app has great ratings – 4.5 stars after 300+ reviews. Very cool – I plan on trying it out this evening. 🙂
FREE for a limited time – Baby View, an educational app for babies. This app features black and white images for baby’s developing vision. The app also includes movement and sound to catch your baby’s interest. The menu includes 11 high-contrast black & white screens and 11 color screens. The auto-mode cycles through the screens with no need to touch. Or… you can play with the interactive scenes while your baby watches and learns to help. This app is an electronic version of a toy I had in my baby’s crib for visual stimulation!
FREE again – Play 123, an educational iPad app for preschoolers and toddlers. Shapes, colors, and numbers come alive in this app from CJ Educations. Included in the “Best of 2012” in Australia/New Zealand App Store, it has 10 activities that teach colors, shapes and numbers to preschool-aged children. Kids learn about opposite and similar colors as well as mixing colors. They draw circles, squares, triangles and lines. The numbers 1 – 5 are also taught. It’s simply done but appealing and engaging. It is definitely worth downloading. Your little one will be delighted!
FREE again for a limited time from McGraw Hill – American History Timeline. Kids can navigate the timeline to read about the hundreds of important people, places, and events that have shaped American history. When kids tap on a thumbnail photo, this educational app brings up a larger image and an explanation of the person, place, or event. The majority of the drawings/photos used are from Library of Congress. There are 7 categories (such as women, inventors, constitution, etc.) that can be turned on and off so kids can see figures and/or events specific to that category. World events are also included on a parallel timeline. Two games are included: Time Line Scramble and Memory. Kids sequence events in the correct order with the Time Line Scramble Game. In the Memory Game, they match the correct date with the correct event or person.
I really like the design of the app – the ability to customize what categories you want to look at, the authenticity of the drawings/photos, the parallel world history timeline for comparison. It would be great for teaching kids read or create timelines. I only wish that it included more. Hopefully the developers will add more information in updates.
FREE for a limited time – Draw Along with Stella & Sam, an adorable & educational app for preschoolers. This app is 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. Disney Junior Canada sponsored a Draw Along Contest using this app last summer. Winners were featured on a special Stella and Sam event. What a cool opportunity for kids!
Kids choose one of 10 shapes to color, stamp, and/or add pictures to. Finalized creations can be shared with family and friends as images or animated videos clips. Here is a link to a You Tube video showing how this app works: Draw Along with Stella and Sam for iPad – YouTube.
5 other Stella and Sam Adventures are available on iTunes and are sold for $2.99 each: Into the Snow We Go, Rainy Days and Rainbows, Backyard at Twilight, Go There Square, Cocoons and Caterpillars. OR… you can purchase all 5 titles for $6.99 in the Stella and Sam Story Pack. These apps are also supported in French. Don’t miss this one!!
Highly Recommended for preschoolers.
123 Color HD, Premium Edition, Talking Coloring Book – FREE today only. This educational app will be back up to $7.99 tomorrow!
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!
FREE for a limited time – Sand Drawing by Timbuktu. Kids can relax on the virtual beach by drawing in the sand. The app comes with 3 drawing tools and 12 decorations that kids choose to mix, rotate and resize. I wish sand drawings could be saved – then kids’ drawings could be pulled into a story writing app. Perhaps “saving” will be possible in an updated version. Waves clear the beach so to make way for new creations. Simple to use and fun!
FREE for a limited time – Hopscotch HD, an educational app that teaches kids how to program their own games and animations! Introduce kids to computer science with this app. 🙂 Kids drag and drop “method blocks” into scripts. When they are done, they can press play to see their code in action! Why teach kids coding? According to the developer – there will be about 1.4 million computer jobs by 2020 and only 400,000 computer science students. Many coders first fell in love with coding when they were 8-12 year old children. Hopscotch is based on a visual programming language named Scratch which was developed by MIT. It promotes STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math) in a fun way – by making coding kid-friendly! LOVE it!!
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