App Friday: June 10th Bonanza!

Welcome to App Friday, our weekly link exchange of family-friendly apps. We are continuing the excitement in June with a long list of apps to fill your iPhones and iPads. This week we have some incredible storybooks, number games, and word activities. Remember, July will be very quiet (Family Time at Moms With Apps) – so gear up now while the downloads are plentiful!

Maid Marian Muffins, our children’s book, is a tale of muffin mania. The Maid is mad for muffins—particularly, blueberry ones. Alas, for the life of her, she can’t find a good one. Far and wide, she has searched. But nowhere—in Brooklyn, of all places!—can a good old-fashioned blueberry muffin be found. So, the Maid turns inward. She bakes. And she bumbles. And she bakes. And she bungles. Through all manner of muffin-making mayhem, she slogs, and she stumbles. And just when she’s ready to throw in the whisk, EUREKA! Somewhere in Brooklyn, a good old-fashioned blueberry muffin can be found … And so begin the marvelous adventures of Maid Marian, the bicycling baker of Brooklyn.  Available for both the iPad and iPhone, Maid Marian Muffins features 36 pages of brilliant illustrations by the artist Ana Benaroya, along with a rich storyline, vividly and lyrically told. The primary interactive feature of the app is an artfully constructed self-record mechanism, one designed (by two teachers!) for children to use and enjoy all by themselves. To learn more about Maid Marian Muffins, and its real-life inspiration, go to www.maidmarianmuffins.com, or find us on Facebook and YouTube. Thanks for checking out the Maid! —Jamie and Jessica Vander Salm (the authors)

Treasure Kai and the Lost Gold of Shark Island – named in the “Top 10 Most Original” and “Top 10 Most Innovative Use of Interactivity” for books on iPad, “Treasure Kai” sends kids on a treasure hunt for gold where they choose their adventure. Adapted from the Gold Mom’s Choice Award winning book, kids hunt for gold by tapping treasure chests to reveal exciting adventure stories or the lost treasure. With thousands of ways to find the gold, they never know when they’ll strike it rich (see the trailer at www.treasurekai.com. This app features text highlighting, read-to-me or self-read options, cinematic sound effects, dramatic original score, touch-triggered animations and more, for hours of read-play fun. Plus the text was edited by a speech pathologist and literacy tutor to ensure appropriate reading levels. Read the story, then visit Treasure Kai’s website for free Fun Fact Videos inspired by the book, a peek behind the scenes, fun pages and more. Ideal for boys and girls aged 4-9 (especially those on summer vacation!) and available for the iPad and iPhone. Action, adventure and treasure!

Shape Up Number Town is a fun children’s picture book  story about being fit and healthy while also introducing the concept of “time” and how “time” relates to every day activities. 123 Shape Up incorporates fun interactive features including sound effects on each page, interactive town map, working clock face to help with learning how to tell the time and a counting practice pad featuring all the residents of Number Town. Identifying numbers and counting are important early learning skills. Stories from Number Town represents each number in a fun pictorial way that young children find easy to understand. “Shape Up Number Town” focuses on the number seven represented by number character Sally Seven the Sports Star, in this book the number 7 is cleverly hidden on each illustration for your child to find. 123 Shape up is currently featured in Books, New & Noteworthy.

My Word Wall from Punflay is a great way to introduce early readers to frequently encountered words. Familiarity with sight words boosts budding readers’ confidence in mastering important reading skills. Word Wall has been designed for use on the iPad and it comes with over 60 sight words and 12 word families with 65 word family words. The app has four simple and interesting games that will keep early readers engaged in learning to read. The activities reinforce early reading skills by offering practice through seeing, hearing, saying, and writing words. These games strengthen children’s visual and word connection. My Word Wall is sure to excite your young reader!

JumpStart: My ABC Book turns the fun and interactivity of sticker books into a digital pastime, teaching toddlers letter recognition through kid-friendly songs, poems and pictures. By tapping images to hear them said aloud and by adding images to letter pages, young children hone vocabulary, language development and memory skills. Kids can save the pages they create, or they can create new pages over and over again! From the award-winning JumpStart brand of educational games, My ABC Book is a fun way for toddlers to learn the alphabet and begin associating words that begin with each letter. In celebration of this new app, all JumpStart and Math Blaster apps are on sale this week!

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.

What’s in it for me this App Friday, June 10th?

• Maid Marian Muffins for iPhone – FREE (from $1.99)
• Maid Marian Muffins for iPad – FREE (from $2.99)
• Treasure Kai – $.99 (from $4.99)
• Shape Up Number Town – FREE (from $1.99)
• My Word Wall – FREE (from $.99)
• Jumpstart: My ABC Book – $.99 introductory price (going to $1.99)
• Shake-a-Phrase – FREE (from $1.99)

Note: These prices are applicable on Friday June 10th 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 beyond Friday.

 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.