Welcome to App Friday, our weekly link exchange of family-friendly apps. We’re shaking it up with apps that mix characters and letters, apps that ride the railroad, and apps that sooth you to sleep after all the fun. Try the first app for free this App Friday, and browse the rest for special prices. Details below – enjoy!
Mixamajig takes the magic of mix & match books into the digital age with whimsical, weird, and wonderfully drawn characters! Swap heads, bodies, legs, feet, and headgear to create oodles of zany creatures (called Kooks) that come alive with sounds and fantastical photographic backgrounds. This is a creative imagination station brimming with out-of-the-box family friendly play that is sure to get your creative juices flowing and your bellies laughing. You can even add your own photos and become one of the crazy characters or make your bedroom a background! The associated website (Mixamajig.com) contains a downloadable Make-It-Yourself version of Mixamajig to print-out and draw your own Kooks! Along with the goofy, imaginative, fun of Mixamajig are some good messages tucked away for you to discover: taking care of animals, caring for the environment, and helping people – things that we, as a family, really believe in. These elements take many forms in Mixamajig, as audio, art, or backgrounds and we’ll keep adding more. We hope you have as much fun playing with Mixamajig as we did creating it!
Shake-a-Phrase combines physical device shaking with hilarious randomly generated sentences in a game for kids ages eight and up. But fun is only part of the appeal. The app actively engages kids in reading and building vocabulary during the course of play, while Quiz Me mode strengthens their understanding of parts of speech. The vocabulary list of more than 1,700 words was compiled by teachers and parents, and includes a broad range of age-appropriate, interesting and entertaining words. In addition to the “Starter” content, Shake-a-Phrase offers three distinct content themes to customize learning: Animals, Monster and Fairytale.
Zoo Train is a critically-acclaimed collection of 5 games for preschoolers featuring trains and the animals who ride them (we like the gorilla sporting a briefcase)! The games are wrapped in fun illustrations and animations, and lots of positive encouragement — kids even collect stickers on their suitcase for a job well done. The games are easy-to-learn, though offer a range of difficulty so kids stay challenged longer. Complete a picture puzzle to get the train to the station; drag letters to the train cars to form a word; create your own melody on a set of train whistles or sing along with a song; finish the train-track pattern to watch a train chug along; and just for fun, create your own Zoo Train by selecting your favorite engine, cars and caboose, then choose your background and let your train go! Zoo Train is universal, for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, and is on sale now in honor of App Friday.
Working on The Railroad: Train Your Toddler is an educational children’s sing-a-long with an upbeat and exciting flavor for iPhones and iPads. Railroad is jam-packed with energetic learning games perfect for ages two to five years old. Incorporating shapes, puzzles, animals and nature, Railroad is fun, soothing and upbeat! Tested by preschool teachers and developed by parents, Train Your Toddler is an exceptional app that both young kids and parents can enjoy.
Hush, Little Baby mytales digital is celebrating the one year anniversary of the launch of their first app, Hush, Little Baby: a Read-along, Sing-along Lullaby. Having sold thousands of copies at $2.99, mytales digital is kicking of a celebration on App Friday to launch a one week sale of Hush, Little Baby for only 99 cents! Hush Little Baby, is one of three lullaby apps, adapted from children’s books published by tiger tales, featuring stunning graphics, a professional singing and narration, and a feature that thrills parents and grandparents alike—the ability to record your own voice! With 6 apps available, mytales apps have become known for their focus on the details of developing delightfully rich apps for children and parents alike.
What’s in it for me this App Friday, May 20th?
- Mixamajig for iPhone – FREE
- Mixamajig HD for iPad – $.99 (from $1.99)
- Hush, Little Baby – $.99 (from $2.99)
- Zoo Train – $.99 (from $1.99)
- Working on the Railroad – $.99 (from $1.99)
- Shake-a-Phrase – $.99 (from $1.99)
Note: These prices are applicable on Friday May 20th until 8pm US Pacific Time. After the promotion is over, apps revert back to regular pricing on the iTunes App Store, unless the developers choose to extend the promotion over the weekend.
App Friday Link Exchange Our goal at Moms With Apps is to spread the word about family-friendly apps. We also like to know about great deals. Do YOU have some app news to share? If so, please participate in our link exchange and post it down below. Include the app name (& details) in the Link Title, your email, and a URL to the app. Thanks for your participation.
