This is a 12 screen/page short story about a little boy (Zanny) who can’t sit still. The story is designed to bring up, or illustrate the topic of children who can’t focus- who might have special needs. Besides the story, a game called The Extra Special Feelings Game lets you paste expressions over a child’s empty face, to match the feeling being described. This is designed for kids with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and PDD, to help them recognize feelings and facial expressions.
This is one of a series of ebooks and activities; each book in the series focuses on one child and one symptom, not a disorder. This is done so that any child can play with the app, to better understand another child’s diagnosis. Other books include Little Lily’s Touch Book and Timmy Tastes Textures. The books were written by Pamela Sloane-Bradbury for her son, Oscar, who has developmental disabilities. Illustrations are by Allison Garwood. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This app is designed to help children learn to write their own letters and words using the correct sequence and strokes by tracing uppercase and lowercase letters. Features include: meets some of the basic reading and writing Common Core State Standards for kindergarten such as the introduction and mastery of print and word recognition concepts; create 36 custom name tags with your own pictures and recordings to personalize learning for your child; animations upon completion of each letter or word; more than 100 common sight/Dolch words; records student progress as word cards are completed; and a fingerpaint mode that shows completed letters in child’s own handwriting. There are no advertisements or in-app purchases. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app features 26 letter-themed animated routines. It is especially designed to introduce children to various art techniques. For example, the letter V is made out of popping popcorn, which morphs into a volcano. After they watch the short video, children can trace the letter, uncovering a variety of interesting textures. Developed by 1K Studios in collaboration with designer Ulrike Kerber. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Part of the Brainy Fables series of storybook apps, Uxmal is an English/Spanish story about a young boy, Uxmal, who is growing up in the Mayan world. The story was written by Franco Soldi, illustrated in blue and white by Pedro Bascon. In the story, a local carnival brought together the county’s strongest men to compete in the famous pyramid challenge, but none of them succeeds in throwing the coconut over the pyramid. But, then a little boy named Uxmal is able to do it, and changes the history of his town. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Classic paper doll play comes to the iPad, complete with well-stocked libraries of shoes, hair styles, dresses, tops, bottoms and accessories. After you choose a doll, you pick a name and a setting (such as a barn or a wedding) then you start mixing and matching. Content includes 120 stickers, eight background scenes including a wedding, beach, shopping and a disco. Each scene can be enhanced with things, such as, dogs, butterflies and ice cream cones. In addition, you can name each doll. A child’s work can be saved as a photo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Featuring a simple art style and a compelling story about a trouble-making dog, Quem Soltou o Pum? (Who let Fart out?) is proof that you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to tell a story on the iPad. The story is simple — a much loved dog keeps making a mess, but the dialog (in Portuguese) is full of puns. The creative writing combined with the simple but compelling interactivity earned the title an honorable mention in the 2012 BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize. Too bad it doesn’t cost less (the high price earned it a lower rating on our scale). Teaches: reading, Portugese. Companhia das Letras. www.companhiadasletras.com.br, $8.99. Best for ages 3-up.
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How’d you like to stick the head of a shrimp onto a rhinoceros? Now you can, with this mix-and-match app from Mexico. By swiping the head, middle and tail, you can combine the creatures until you get what you want. Then, you can color your animal with a set of art tools. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
How many circles can you find in a puzzle? This “I SPY” like shape finding game contains 12 puzzles. The objective is to touch the shapes to find them. For example, you might have to spot all the squares in a construction site. The app provides simple explanations of eight geometric shapes including circles, diamonds, ovals, rectangles, semi-circles, squares, trapezoids, and triangles. The app also reinforces counting from 1-20, because each shape is counted as it is discovered. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The first in a series of Disney Classics storybook apps, this is the story of three children (Wendy, John and Michael) who enter Neverland with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. Children can touch some of the illustrations to hear them labeled. Some of the pages have typical jigsaw puzzles, games of concentration, or coloring pages. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You might as well admit it; everyone “goes to the bathroom.” We have to brush our teeth, wash our hands and clothes, take baths and clip our nails. This app is designed to bring up these sometimes touchy topics, by way of a rather wild looking child named Pepi. You start by choosing whether Pepi is a boy or a girl, and then are shown four icons (a washing machine, toothbrush, bath and toilet paper). You then help Pepi go through each routine, one step at a time. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Designed to help children learn and practice the fundamentals of reading both analog (with hands) and digital (with numerals) clocks, this app drills children with five monsters who have eyes that watch your fingers move on the screen. Children can unlock up to 15 photos of the monsters by completing the three levels of difficulty for each character and earning 5 stars. In the easy level, time is kept on the hour and half-past the hour as an introduction to telling the time. In the medium level, time is tested at 5 minute intervals, introducing the concepts of “past”, “to”, “quarter past”, etc. Getting an answer wrong will remove a star you’ve already earned. The hard level will test children across the full range of the clock, but in this round you have to earn 5 stars in a row to please the monsters. If you get a question wrong you have to try again. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This a memory game designed to provide practice making eye contact, or “eye contact skills.” It is designed for use with children with special needs, specifically those with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. You are shown a close-up view of a person, and a numeral is shown on their retina for a few seconds. You are then asked to type in the number, making this a memory game. By answering the correct number, you earn money. You can use the money you earn to buy things for your restaurant, creating a fun, accumulative play pattern. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Learning to write letters and numerals will never be the same after a child tries LetterSchool on an iPad’s slippery screen. Content includes both uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers from 1 to 10. You can toggle between three types of letters/numeral styles — D’Nealian (used in many US schools), HWT (Handwriting Without Tears) and Zaner-Bloser (the “traditional” format). You start with a set of letters (or numerals, if you have it set up in numeral mode). Each letter or numeral comes with three tracing games designed to introduce the name, sound, and the strokes required to learn it. In Tap, children find the “magic dot” at the beginning of the letter, tap it, and watch as the first part of the letter comes to life. (The letters and numbers might be displayed as grass, that you mow as you trace.) You can then tap the next dots shown at the end of each stroke to complete the next line… when finished you earn a star, and unlock the next game. Trace requires children to trace the letter correctly all the way to the end to earn a star and unlock the next challenge, Write. In this activity children must write the letter on their own without a helper line. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a 32 screen rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk that follows the original story line, with audio narration, read-along text, and some interactive features. Created by Ayars Animation. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Play with a set of beautifully illustrated, zany monsters (on par with Moshi Monsters) in this Italian-language app. The narration is especially colorful, giving you a nice dose of the sound of a romantic language. A monster creation studio makes it possible to construct your own monster. Creations can be shared in an online gallery. Contents include 30 screens about a monster who is trying to be more scary, so he figures out that he can join a circus. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Turn your iPad into a vet’s office, with this collection of 24 short activities. The idea is to take care of six animals (two dogs, two cats, a parrot, and a cockatoo) by dragging and dropping bones back into place, clipping nails, combing hair, or catching fast-moving fleas. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Gube is a collection of over 500 pre-screened YouTube videos, each with no ads, and tagged by age. There’s no shortage of science, episodes of existing children’s programing like Sesame Street, and silly animals. Note that you’ll need a live Internet connection. The preferences let you filter the videos by age group (infant, toddler, pre-school, and grade school). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app lets children take control of the “scary” monster and learn how to not be afraid of it. Each page progressively reveals and then removes each piece of the Big Green Monster by cleverly changing the background screen colors. Children can add the Monster’s eyes, hair, ears, and nose, and poke him to see what he does. There are four modes: Read Along with a Friend; Read Along with Ed; Sing Along; and Read Yourself. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app features hundreds of labeled photos to explore. The objects are sorted according to categories, including, animals, transport (this app was made in Australia, so there are some language differences), bodies, alphabets, numbers, shapes and colors. Each screen (or flashcard) contains one simple interactive feature, such as a sound. Second language packs are sold as in-app sales, for $1.99 each. These can be purchased in the preferences screen and include support for Spanish, French, German, Italian and English. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The arcade-style games in this app are based on the online game available at ZiggityZoom.com. There are three play mechanics, plus a Monster Creator-where you can customize and name up to five monsters, who stay in storage. You can grab and drag food from a conveyor belt, and drop them on your monster’s mouth to feed it. If you overfeed the monster, it will will explode. Other games include a food fight, and a food catching game. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a collection of matching and hide-and-seek games, based on farm animals. Each screen contains a simple matching activity. For example, a child might be asked to find a sheep (hiding behind a bale of hay) or move a porcupine to collect falling apples that are counted. There are 20 animals, each labeled with both print and verbal cues. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The traditional print edition of Eric Carle’s classic book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, is an effective way to let children informally discover quantity, as they help a caterpillar count/eat his way through the pages of the book. This app takes a different approach, using the food items cut from the book illustrations and turning them into a highly directive, self-correcting worksheet that deals specifically with numbers 1 to 10. You start by choosing one of five levels, from easy to more difficult. These range from “please eat the strawberry”,which is limited to touching an object to hear it counted, to a timed race where you must count specific food items from a set to earn points. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This talking picture dictionary contains 1,700 words accompanied by pictures and spoken sentences. Children can swipe through the pictures, just exploring, or they can search by keyword. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a simple flash card app based on the Irish illustrator Chris Judge’s picture book, featuring The Lonely Beast. The 26 interactive hand-drawn scenes feature the Beast (a large, dark hairy creature with two eyes), and his friends as they explore each letter of the alphabet. The narration is provided by the author; music is by Simon Judge. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on an early rendition of the story, this app adapts an animation technique called scanimation to create the illusion of motion. This is done by moving vertical black and white lines against one another — one in the foreground, the other in the background. In the “Let Me Read” mode, you control the speed of the animation. No color is used, other than to highlight words as they are read. This app was created by Marmaduke Park and Umesh Shukla. Shukla is also the publisher. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You can bring the world of Neverland to life, in your choice of language, with this rendition of Peter Pan. Pages can be changed by swiping, plus there is an easy-to-access table of contents. Both the on-screen text and audio narration can be toggled and examined, and children can have the story read to them, or read it on their own. Features of the enhanced HD version include: touch pronunciation, explain to me, show me, and Karaoke reading. Two versions of The Adventures of Peter Pan are available: an enhanced HD version for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch (USD $3.99), and a streamlined, non-interactive version for iPhone and iPod touch ($0.99). Designed by French publisher Chocolapps’ (formerly So Ouat!) this app contains 42 screens/pages of content. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This “app toy” (Toca Boca’s approach to app design) takes place in a house where five zany friends live, one on each floor. You help them with their chores, by washing the floor (move the mop with your finger), ironing (move over a shirt to get rid of the wrinkles), sorting the trash (by color), mowing the lawn, and so on. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Here’s a rare collection of seven short stories written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss in the 1950s for Redbook magazine. It is being released along with the hardcover book from Random House. Stories include The Bippolo Seed (the story of a mischievous, greedy cat who leads an innocent duck astray); The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga (the story of how a single eyelash saves a rabbit from an insecure bear), Gustav the Goldfish (a boy overfeeds his pet fish, causing it to outgrow its bowl), Tadd and Todd (about twins in search of their individuality), Steak for Supper (a Seussian creature follows a boy home hoping for a steak dinner), The Strange Shirt Spot (a boy can’t seem to get dirt off of his shirt and everything else around him) and The Great Henry McBride (the story of a day-dreaming boy who fantasizes about his career choices). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This iPad app provides step-by-step reading lessons designed to help young children learn to read. It features the Reading Raven companion, who guides children along as they encounter fly-eating frogs, caterpillars that turn into butterflies, circus acrobats, ball balancing seals, underwater sea creatures, snow monsters, and more. The phonics-based approach is designed to guide children as they learn to read, and to help them become both independent readers and capable spellers. Each lesson is self-paced so children gradually progress through a variety of reading sub-skills. Activities include: letter matching, tracing and recognition, as well as word matching (age 3+); vocabulary, word beginnings, word building, and word spotting (age 4+); reading aloud using voice recording; word tracing; and word groups (age 5+). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This title has been rereleased several times over the years (this is the 16th Putt Putt title in our database). In 2008, it was sold at retail computers.
In case you missed it the first time around, this is a cartoonish scavenger hunt-style program that lets you drive Putt-Putt (a car) around the paths in three zoo regions (the jungle, the arctic and the grasslands) in search of six missing baby animals. As you explore, you find special items necessary to help the animals. For example, a rope found in an arctic snow bank must be taken into the jungle and lowered down a waterfall to rescue a trapped lion cub. Freeing a stranded hippo requires building a bridge of uniquely shaped icebergs and finding a shovel to clear away an avalanche. Unless the necessary special items are found, the animals remain lost and the zoo cannot open. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is the second in the The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library series. Cat in the Hat is the host (and the narrator) who takes us on a fictional expedition to find dinosaur fossils. This includes a trip to the modern day Super Dino Museum, where animated dinosaur visuals are hidden on each page. Each page has developmentally appropriate content for both younger children as well as capable readers, making this a good all-purpose app. For example, hidden information cards from Thing One and Thing Two provide more facts such as “Ankylosaurus: This 30-foot-long dinosaur had an armor-covered body and a club tail it could swing from side to side. A well-placed blow with its tail could break the leg of a T-Rex!” Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Here’s a set of dry, animated lessons designed to cover letter formation and letter sounds. The design is simple and direct, with four multiple-choice activities per letter, a chant, plus the ability to trace the letters on the screen, following a model. You start by choosing a letter from a pull down menu. The letter name is announced and a “letter chant” appears in the center of the screen, surrounded by four smaller rectangles designed to look like picture frames. Each is empty, with a question mark. Children can press the “play chant” button which enlarges the box. A female voice immediately recites the chant while a yellow text box highlights each word as it is read. To complete the activities, children are prompted to “find the word that starts with the /u/ sound” and must then select the correct picture, from three options (eggs, umbrella or butterfly). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Carefully constructed and very didactic (controlled) this letter tracing app contains two activities specifically designed to teach children to write uppercase letters as well as recognize the sound of each letter. Letter Tracing has three steps: Stage 1 – Inside an outline of the letter, your child traces each numbered stroke in the order shown, starting with the circle, along the dotted line, and ending at the star; Stage 2 – the circle and star disappear, but the dotted line remains for your child to trace; and Stage 3 – the dotted line is removed, and your child writes the letter on their own within the outline. In the Letter Sounds Game, your child can practice matching the sound of each letter with its written symbol. The app asks aloud, “Touch the letter that makes the sound R” and your child chooses from 3 on-screen letters. If they tap the wrong letter the sound will repeat until the correct letter is chosen. When they select the correct letter, its sound and name are repeated to reinforce learning before the next letter is shown. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The iPad edition of the famous Disney theme-park ride lets you touch-and-explore 16 watercolor scenes depicting various parts of a happy, exotic world where everyone seems busy and happy. Each scene contains related hot spots that help the story along. In a refreshing touch, the ever familiar “read to me” and “let me explore” navigation options have sidestepped. Instead, each page advances slowly, automatically, or it can be hurried along either with a bookmark — in case you want to jump directly to a page — or with a swipe, that puts the whole production in the context of a balloon ride. The last page includes the famous song, follow the bouncing ball style, and you can tap on the screen to control the fireworks. One word of caution — make sure you download a current version and use a recent version of the iOS operating system. According to the iTunes reviews, this app can crash. It is also a large download — at 133 MB. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a tribute to a golden retriever owned by famous mystery author Dean Koontz. Like many ebooks, this one follows the familiar three mode autoplay, read myself, and read to me format. A unique feature is the ability to add your own narration, and color the pages using Auryn’s set of tools. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Now you can think of your iPad or iPhone as a drawing/flannel board and story telling machine. The drawing is paired with a narration feature that makes it easy to do a “color commentary” on the picture you just made. The end result is a powerful language experience. After you finish your picture, you tap a microphone, and are told to “record your voice — 3-2-1-Go!” As a recording light flashes, you can describe your work. Note that this is a very different process than apps like Doodlecast, where you redraw your picture and talk in real time. With this app, an innovative highlighter is layered over your drawing, letting you highlight features as you talk. Once you have a picture and a highlighted soundtrack, your work is saved automatically in your photo library, making it possible to share by email. This works backwards as well… you can import images and sketch or talk over them, with a glow in the dark marker, if you like. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Designed to introduce young children to Jazz music and it’s instruments, this app follows two children as they explore the Jazz Big Band, where they discover the sounds of each instrument. There’s a full jazz Big Band arrangement that can be mixed and matched. On the last of the 15 pages, children can test their knowledge with an un-timed quiz that asks children to match a phrase (or a lick) played by each instrument, with the correct picture. Instruments include the saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass, piano, guitar and vibraphone. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This one player problem solving adventure features Milli, Geo, and Bot from the Umizoomi Nickelodeon show. In order to rebuild a submarine, children move through 25 activities that consist of mazes and puzzles, some of which involve using your voice as an input. There are two modes: adventure (move through the games in the context of the story) and team training (choose one of the 25 mini-games individually). Curriculum is based on the Pre-K and Kindergarten math skills, which includes counting, sorting, matching, identifying, sequencing, adding, subtracting, dividing, measuring and comparing. Developed by Black Lantern for 2K Play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on the book by David Carter, Spot the Dot is a “needle in the haystack” or “I Spy” type of app, where the same item — a small colored dot, is hidden in nine pages, or screens. Each challenge is presented with the text “can you spot the (color) dot?” forming a predictable pattern. Created for Ruckus Media by Unicornlabs. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This mad-lib style story leverages the power of your iPhone or iPod touch camera and microphone to let you create a custom 12 screen ebook featuring your child’s name and photo, framed in a nature theme. You start by creating a profile. Parents and children then receive 12 prompts to perform certain outdoor, physical activities like running, jumping or finding a smooth stone. Using the iPhone/iPod, parents take still photographs of their children engaged in the activities, and the photographs are uploaded into a pre-developed story narrative for subsequent viewing, reading together, and conversation. The app is designed to be used by teachers or parents with the children, and not by the children themselves, serving as a prop to encourage physical activity. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.