App Friday EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Welcome to App Friday, our weekly link exchange of family-friendly apps. Today we are celebrating the growth spurt of our Moms With Apps developer group. Over 100 Moms, Dads, Aunts, Grandmas, Reviewers, Educators and Industry Specialists with an interest in family-friendly apps are collaborating together over our Google Group. For this APP FRIDAY JULY 16th, many of our developers have decided to set their apps to FREE for you to try! So launch iTunes, grab your iPhone, and help yourself to our FREE APP FRIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! [But act quickly, the iTunes settings switch back to regular price by 8:00pm Pacific Time, USA.]

Sunny Bunnies Summer’s here and these two sunny bunnies can’t wait to play. At the beach, with big sister leading the way, they’ll build a castle, fly a kits, and – of course – jump in the waves! This endearing rhyming tale with its cheerful illustrations captures a perfect summer day. Hidden interactive audio hot spots throughout the book augment the narrated story and pictures for a new dimension of exploration and discovery for little ones. Requires iPhone OS 4.0.

Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! StoryBoy’s newest book app Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! combines cute brightly-colored dinosaurs, fun rhyming verse and upbeat music to entertain the youngest dinosaur lovers. The simple navigation and auto-read function on StoryBoy book apps also make them easy to use for the youngest readers. If you like this app, check out our other 20 titles in iTunes!

The Crystal Mountain PicPocket Books brings quality children’s picture book literature to digital media. The Crystal Mountain is a magical fairy tale story with elaborate illustrations. PicPocket Books brings this classic picture book originally published by Little, Brown and Company, to life on the iPhone with a new audio recording and the same stunning pictures as the original hardcover version. Requires iPhone OS 4.0.

One Little Boy An interactive StoryBook about  a boy’s imaginary journey before bed time. The boy meets his favorite fairy tale characters, brings them along on his journey and comes back just in time for bed. The story encourages children to practice counting, as they “paste” each character onto the screen, one after the other, and make them go skipping happily down the road. Best for ages 2-5.

MathGirl Lite Launching any minute! MathGirl Lite has been approved by Apple and should show up on iTunes sometime Friday! Girls learn to see “how many” in an engaging game and then earn stars to buy flowers, bunnies, a rainbow, a tree house, and more for their personal gardens. A 4-year-old can tackle the first of 12 levels. Girls learning addition and multiplication will fill in steps often missing in school.

Kids Math Fun – Kindergarten Kids Math Fun~Kindergarten encourages children to practice the addition and subtraction of two single digit (0-9) numbers.  Children can gain confidence by doing practice problems with unlimited time or they can build proficiency to see how many problems they can answer within a time limit.  Teachers are using the Kids Math Fun applications which are available in English, French, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Filipino, and Turkish.

Learn to Tell Time / Kids Time Fun Learn to Tell Time encourages children to learn and practice how to tell time and how to practice math involving time.  Kids of all abilities can use this application because it provides full access to all the settings.  There are six activities: Tell Time, Elapsed Time, Time After, and Time Before, Set Time, and Mixed Mode.

iEarnedThat iEarnedThat was designed by a pediatrician to help motivate kids and make parent’s lives a little easier. It’s an amazingly fun and simple app which transforms any picture of a desired goal into an interactive 3D puzzle. Kids work towards their goals and learn about earning things one puzzle piece at a time. Everyone loves it because it’s fun and incredibly easy to use. Parents, teachers and even grandparents are finding it’s great to promote reading, chores, being physically active and eating healthy to name a few.

Road-Trip-Bingo Bring the classic family travel game to your iPhone or iPod touch! Road-Trip-Bingo is an app that you play while riding in a car to help pass the time during the trip. Start up the app, get a random bingo card and then begin watching out the window for signs, vehicles, animals and more. As seen in The New York Times and USA Today!

Snow Globe Maker Beach Celebrate beach season — create and share unlimited, beachy souvenir snow globes with the most customizable snow globe app ever. Combine your photos with professional art to design unique, virtual snow globes; you choose the background, base, five inserts, label, and snow style. Snow Globe Maker souvenirs are fun to make and it’s easy to email, post, save, and share your creations with friends and family.

Mom Maps Mom Maps is an iPhone application that helps you find fun, kid friendly locations on the go! Search our extensive list of parks, playgrounds, restaurants, museums and indoor play areas, as well as reviews by parents, for parents. Using GPS, you’ll see nearby results, plus a map to get you there. Over 20,000 locations supported.

Milwaukee Loves Kids Milwaukee is one of the best-kept urban secrets in America (clean, green, and not mean)—the Milwaukee Loves Kids iPhone app will get you started on your next visit to Brew City. Milwaukee is a four-season town, and the app was created with year-round activities in mind (you’ll find entries for thrifty fun along with museums, nature centers, indoor-gyms, and even water parks). This visually-rich “virtual tour guide” includes also over 500 photos and 70 unique suggestions for a wonderful day in the Midwest.

Draw With Stars Use Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry night” painting color palette to draw carefully designed and animated stars over a night sky canvas or photos from your albums of your iPad or iPhone. Animations and sounds are everywhere: musical chimes when stars are created, summer night natural sounds, and even when stars are removed, they are turned into shooting stars which fly away!

Save Teddy Oh no! Teddy has wandered off and finds himself dangling dangerously from a balloon.  Only you can save him by getting him safely to the comfy basket below.  You can use fun balloons to bounce around and get to the basket, but beware of the crows though, they are trying to peck the stuffing out of poor Teddy!  There are 20 exciting levels and great soundtracks in Save Teddy and it is fun for all ages. See if you can guide Teddy to safety before he falls to his doom!

Faces iMake – Creative Craziness!! The simple premise of the game is making faces with everyday objects. It was developed by iMagine Machine in conjunction with the artist Hanoch Piven, and is based on his artistic collage style and art workshops he has successfully conducted for the last 10 years. With Faces iMake you can create fun faces out of everyday stuff. A banana for a mouth. Lettuce for hair. Toy wheels for eyes. Through Hanoch’s work, Faces iMake inspires and empowers people to make art in a highly accessible way.

Still have room on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Check out our page tabs across the top of our blog highlighting apps for reading, learning, fun, special needs, travel and parents! Are you a developer trying to get the word out about your app? Our Mike and Bryan interview on marketing your app might be just what  you need!

App Friday Link Exchange Our goal at Moms With Apps is to spread the word about family-friendly apps. Do YOU have a favorite app to share? Please participate in our link exchange and post it down below. Include the app name in the Link Title, your email, and a URL to the app. Thanks for your participation!