Do a dinosaur puzzle, play in Grandma’s garden, or learn to draw people with apps from the 27th app report. As always, the app report brings you the latest news and product announcements from the members of the Moms With Apps network. I know everyone wants to get straight to the apps, so I’m going to dispense with the usual preamble this week and categorize the apps directly.
Parents, please take a moment to read the iTunes app descriptions, and to screen the apps you download, to fully understand the features and elements in the app. If you find an app you like, please write a review.
Magical Concepts by Virtual Speech Center Inc.: Magical Concepts was created by a certified speech-language pathologist who wanted to make “drilling” with flashcards fun and motivating. This engaging, colorful app includes over 2000 photos covering over 60 concepts accompanied by audio instructions. Example concepts include above/below, empty/full, angry/sad/happy, old/new and loud/quiet. Children earn stars for each correct response, and when they accumulate enough stars, they are rewarded with a magic show. Concepts are important building blocks for early academics, and research shows that understanding of basic concepts is critical for school success and high-level thinking. iPhone and iPad – $19.99
Stack ‘N Puzzles – Kid’s Puzzle Adventure Game by 77SPARX Studio, LLC: From the maker of the acclaimed Puzzingo Toddler Educational Puzzle game comes a brand new puzzling adventure! Join Stack, a beaver who loves to build puzzles, to piece together his city. As your kid plays the game, he or she will also be learning about everything that goes into museum, fire truck, school, buses and a whole lot more! iPhone and iPad – Free + In-App Purchase, Google Play – Free + In-App Purchase, Nook – $1.99, Amazon – Free + In-App Purchase
Kids’ Music Player by epublica: Kids’ Music Player is a music player for preschool children. Of course your kids already know how to use your iPhone or iPad, but when they’re small, they cannot read CD covers or titles yet. That’s where Kids’ Music Player comes into play. To get started, choose the appropriate genres from your music library (e.g. “Children’s music”), and you’re ready to go. Your child chooses an album by tapping it. Cute pet icons then represent each of the tracks on the album. Tapping an icon plays the song. You’ll be amazed seeing how fast your kids learn which pet stands for which song. iPhone and iPad – $0.99, Google Play – $0.99
Grandma’s Garden by Fairlady Media: Join this charming dancing Grandma and all her silly veggies for fun adventures in the garden! Grandma’s Garden is loaded with fun activities and enriching content for kids! A positive and welcoming environment for young children to learn numbers, letters and colors. iPhone and iPad – $0.99
Dinosaur JigSaw Puzzles – Animated Puzzle fun for Kids with Cartoon Dinosaurs by Apps Kids Love – LLC: (Featured “New” app in the kids and family games categories.) These puzzles are alive! Dinosaur JigSaw Puzzles combines high quality dinosaur animations and the classic JigSaw puzzles that kids love! After each puzzle is completed a fun animation plays and kids enthusiastically play each one to see what the dinosaurs will do next. Dinosaur JigSaw Puzzles keeps your little one entertained while sharpening the mind and helping to improve coordination. iPhone and iPad – $0.99 (1/2 price launch sale)
Books
Hansel and Gretel – Epic Tales animated storybook by Epic Tales: Hansel and Gretel- Epic Tales animated storybook offers a world filled with whimsical characters ranging from pesky gnomes to witty dwarfs; from brave children to mean stepmothers and cunning witches. The tale is digitally hand-drawn by award winning animators and features stunning 2d animations and cut scenes, professional voice actors, original music scores, and spellbinding interactive environments that are sure to draw readers even deeper into the story. iPhone and iPad – $6.99
Creativity
iLuv Drawing People – Learn how to draw kids doing their favorite things by MyVijan LLC: Your budding artists will learn the basics of drawing people in various different poses while learning to draw kids doing their favoirte things. Color, decorate and “DRESS UP” the drawings they created and also send as greeting cards to the loved ones. iPad – $1.99
Literacy
Word Family Sorts by JFK4SDK: “Word Family Sorts HD” is the next step after a child has mastered blending letter sounds using the “Sound Sort Blends” game. In this fun educational game, the child matches the pictures to the words shown on top and bottom of screen. Developed by a kindergarten teacher and reading specialist. Game helps children build pre-reading skills. iPad – $1.99
Parents
The Happy Face – parenting reward chart made simple by Kentlyons Ltd: A super simple, stylish parenting app to reward your children when their behaviour is great, and let them know when it needs to improve. So easy to use, we didn’t need to add any instructions. Happy Face can help take the stress out of going out with your kids, and make family trips fun again. iPhone – $0.99
Special Needs
Routinely by Logical Thought: Routinely is an easy and fun way to build visual schedules on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Children with developmental delays or other special needs feel comforted by knowing what comes next. Routinely helps by associating expectations with visual cues. This gives caregivers a useful tool for aiding those in their care to progress through a series of actions, choose an activity, and know when to move on to something else. iPhone – $4.99
PictureCanTalkPremium by Benster Tan: This app combines PictureCanTalk and PictureAssistive. It adds a built-in browser to surf, search and download images from Internet directly into MyCatalog, multi-user support, and a color-coding system lets you use colored frames to represent agent, action, object, etc. The possibilities are unlimited! iPhone and iPad – $59.99
