Welcome to App Friday, our weekly link exchange of family-friendly apps. Just as a new Sesame Street character makes headlines about self-esteem, this week’s App Friday promotion features a tool for furthering the family conversation around diversity. We’ve seen a lot of apps here at Moms With Apps, but Who Am I? Race Awareness Game is unlike any other in its purpose and content. Let’s get face to face with this exciting game of Q & A…
What is your app about? Who Am I? Race Awareness Game is a fun two-player game designed to stimulate a responsible dialogue between adults and children regarding the complex and sensitive issues of race and ethnicity. The app uses beautiful photographs of people in a “guess who”-type game format. One player (usually the adult) chooses a picture from either 12 or 24 pictures. They then pass the device to the child who asks questions to eliminate pictures. Children will want to use appearances like skin color and hair texture to eliminate pictures, but will quickly realize the challenge of doing this when the pictures represent the spectrum of human diversity. As parents and children play, they will not only be having a fun together, but will also be forging a critical dialogue that most parents are uncomfortable starting. This CNN special talks more about the importance of talking to kids about race.
Why is it special? There’s really nothing out there like this game. As parents and children play, they intuitively get a better understanding of human physical diversity. When the game ends and a person has been guessed, parents and children get a glimpse into the photographed person’s life–what that person self-identified as their race, along with a quote from that person describing more about why they identify that way. Since the subject of race can be challenging for parents to talk about, each game starts with a practical tip for how to discuss race during the game and beyond. These tips were written by Dr. Michael Baran, a cultural anthropologist at Harvard University who specializes in researching and teaching about children and race. Who Am I? Race Awareness Game will inspire a whole new way of thinking about race for both you and your child.
What’s in it for me? For App Friday, October 22nd, Who Am I? Race Awareness Game for the iPhone, iPod touch (and also compatible with iPad) will be available for FREE on the iTunes App Store. Download before 8pm US Pacific Time on Friday, October 22nd to take advantage of this specially priced opportunity.
NEWS you can USE: If race and diversity are not challenging enough, how about adding religion to the family dinner conversation? Crazy Mike and Bryan Bowers teamed up to create and release the bible story of Jonah and the Whale, now available for iPhone and iPad on the iTunes App Store! Oh, guess what else? We (Moms With Apps) are almost at 1,000 Facebook Fans! Do you know what happens to the 1,000th? Well, WE DO! 🙂
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!
