Three classic nursery rhymes hide children’s voices and a chance to count, in this four screen children’s app. Content includes versions of “Little Miss Muffet”, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, all sung by children. Scene 1 covers words and spelling; Scene 2 – colors and numbers; Scene 3 – numbers and counting; and Scene 4 – two additional songs and drag & drop counting games. 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.
What to learn a little “chisenbop?” Here’s your app. This app teaches you how to turn your fingers into a calculator. You start be learning how to count to 99. Next, you learn addition and subtraction. The better you do, the harder it gets, by way of leveled challenges. Features include: the ability to save up to five players; 60 levels that increase in difficulty; 10 touch points on the iPad where you hold your finger down to have it counted. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
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.
This app features four levels, ranging from counting (drag a set of balloons to the matching numeral) to a game of concentration that involves matching sets of dots to numerals. The better a child does, the harder the problems become, and progress is tracked in a management section. Correct answers earn stickers. The management section lets you toggle the background music on or off. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Once you get past the idea of touching the swarms of realistic roaches, ants, or bees, children quickly fall for this collection of 18 counting and classification activities. There are two modes. You can move through a series of structured challenges progressively (progress for one player is bookmarked), or you can freely explore. Management features include the ability to toggle on/off scores, achievements, visual instructions, extended introduction or the background music. The leveling causes the app to get easier if a child struggles. A “bonus mode” presents the hardest challenge. 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.
Put a science center in your iPad, with this collection of three activities, featuring Sid the Science Kid characters. Following a noisy introduction — just like the show — you tap one of the three Sid characters to start a no-fail activity. In the Collection Inspection, you use a magnifying glass to notice subtle differences in 14 sets of items. Chart It presents seven collections, which vary by shape, color and pattern. You can move them onto dynamic charts. Wrong answers fall back to the bottom of the screen, giving the charts authenticity, and realtime feedback. Time Machine lets you play with time relationships as you freely explore 14 sets of objects such as an apple being eaten, a candle burning or a plant growing. Created by Jim Henson Studios and Carsten’s Studios for PBS Kids. 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.
Good for older readers (upper elementary and middle school) this children’s magazine (by Bayard Presse) on an iPad mixes age-appropriate content with some mid-to good-quality interactivity. There’s no doubt that this is a British publication, and the narrator accent is proof. The idea is to continue stories from app to app, so there is continuity from issue to issue, like the printed counterpart. We reviewed the first issue (#1) so quality might improve. At the core of each issue is an animated story. For this issue, “How about a MOOH?” is about Stella the little calf who wakes up but does not moo. The farm animals are worried but a little cuddle with her Mom is all she needs. Features include the ability to record your own voice, or zoom into illustrations for a closer look. Content also includes Science – Why do aeroplanes leave trails in the sky? (note the British spelling); SamSam – GumGum the giant – follow the cosmic adventures of the smallest of the big heroes plus watch an episode of the SamSam TV series; Animal world – learn about Humpback whales; Games – fly your kite, join the dots, maze, match the pairs, find the correct order; and Polo – an adventure without words to lead you into the world of dreams. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This collection of 42 dot-to-dot puzzles can be used to practice counting, the alphabet, or times tables. For example, to connect the dots, you might be asked to follow a number pattern that increased by 1 at the easy level, to 8s or 12s at the harder levels. Other options include the ability to keep records for one child at a time, and a leaderboard feature. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Here’s an interesting new angle on sequencing/counting games, designed to provide playful, auto-correcting practice with counting and alphabet abilities. The numbers appear as colored magnetic beads (that look a bit like M&Ms) that you connect by dragging into order. When you successfully connect, say, the 7 bead with the 8 bead, they stick together, forming a chain. You can also move the bead chain by holding the device face-up parallel to the floor and tilting it slightly to let gravity roll the leading bead downhill. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Those silly five little monkeys. Now they’ve moved into your iPad, with this Oceanhouse Media adaptation of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt picture book, by Eileen Christelow. Christerlow serves at the narrator. As with other Oceanhouse Media books, there are three modes — Read to Me, Read it Myself and Auto Play, and no hidden animations. Instead, the original pictures and words of the story are highlighted, and each story element can be touched to hear it labeled. 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.
Leapfrog’s second app is designed to introduce upper and lower case letters, and it can embed your child’s name in the dialog. You start by creating a profile for your child, in one of three slots. This consists of typing in your child’s name from a menu of thousands of possible options, as well as entering a favorite color and animal. The parent options are protected by a four digit pin (your birth year). At any time, you can revisit the control panel to see which letters your child has “learned” and change the challenge level if needed. Your child can then explore Scout’s (Violet is the female option) backyard, which includes a garden where letters grow. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Children swipe their way through the original colored pencil illustrations from the book “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” by Eileen Christelow (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). There are three replay options: Auto Play, which automatically reads and turns pages; Read to Me, which allows children to listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read; and Read It Myself, which lets children read the book on their own. 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.
Thomas the Tank leaves the Island of Sodor for the very first time to build a new Search and Rescue Center, in this 23 screen eBook. When Thomas helps a friend in need, he is rewarded with a trip to the mainland. Along the way, he gets lost at sea and finds himself on the mysterious Misty Island, where he meets Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand. Together they help Thomas find his way home. This is the first iPad Thomas app. Thomas Tilt & Go was released previously for iPhone/iPod Touch. 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 collection of early math (counting, sorting and patterns) activities, introduced by Cookie Monster and Big Bird in a carnival setting. While your kids will like the narration and find the Sesame Street characters to be “as seen on TV”, this title is so overly scripted that any joy is removed from the games. This is one of two titles in a series. The other is Elmo’s A-to-Z Adventure. Developed by Black Lantern Studios for Warner Bros. Interactive. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Help Dora get ready for the Favorite Foods Festival by chopping, stirring, and mixing different food ingredients, using the touch screen on the Nintendo DS. There are recipes for enchiladas, pizza, salad and so on, as well as 30 minigames designed to reinforce early math concepts such as counting, matching and measuring. 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.
Help Dora and Boots get out of Wizzle World and make it to Dora’s birthday party on time. In the Wii version, you hold the Wii controller like handlebars to jump, climb, swing through a forest and slide down a mountain. In the DS version, you will trace, tap, shout and scribble your way through challenges, such as riding a unicorn over the rainbow, floating in a magic bubble across Sea Snake Lake and traveling through mystical lands including the Dancing Forest. 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.
Featuring clean graphics and narration but limited content and interactivity, Josh & Emma Go to the Beach is a nine screen eBook. On some of the screens, children can touch objects to collect them in a bucket, hearing them labeled or counted. For example, on one screen, they can touch a feature to hear “one white fluffy feather.” Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Freddi Fish — the androgynous fish that looks as if he/she could’ve swum out of The Little Mermaid , has been to a lot of platforms, but never before to the Nintendo DS. There are eight games covering typical school readiness content, with names like Bubble Bonanza, Counting Corral, Soup Stir, Costume Catastrophe, Ship Shape, Junkyard Jumble, Freddi’s Toys, Sandy Beach and Refrigerator Magnets. One of the best is Ship Shape, in which a child colors in letter outlines. Created by 1st Playable Productions for Atari, under the older Humongous label. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a sandbox App, where children can freely tap, trace, drag and drop their way through a set of numbers, from 0 to 9. According to the documentation materials, the app was modeled after the teaching methods of Maria Montessori. There are three modes of play, each hosted by either Tam or Tao, two children with strange accents, as judged by someone in New Jersey. The Draw mode turns the iPad into a slate, where children can draw with eight colors. 123 Play consists of a ten screen ebook, with hidden animated sequences, one per number. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This sixth App from Duck Duck Moose is designed for iPhone and iPod Touch and contains seven easy to explore games, each with multiple ways to explore some powerful math concepts — of the variety that will someday loom at the root of an SAT question. The games include Swing (Count up to 50 as a rabbit swings. You can either watch, or “push” the rabbit with your fingertip); Slide (Help ducks climb to the top of a slide. Quantities are show both visually and in an equation, simultaneously); Seesaw (Balance a seesaw by adding and subtracting mice); Apple Tree (Subtract as apples fall from a tree); Sandbox (Complete patterns by dragging and dropping toys); Bench (put dogs and numerals in order, from smaller to larger. It’s especially nice that you can make the order from either left to right or right to left); and Picnic: Counting (Feed a hippo the correct number of food items). 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.
Club Penguin: Game Day is a collection of 12 multiplayer minigames designed for the Wii that can optionally be integrated with the Club Penguin virtual world. So it is possible to earn coins in the game, that you upload to your online account. In addition, you can download your online penguin’s identity to your Wii Remote and take it to a friends house. You start by creating a penguin (or you can download your penguin from the Club Penguin website), then find some friends. For children with no friends, the computer can fill in. 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.
Five activities — each previously released as separate apps — have been combined into one $4.99 universal app. See the individual reviews of each app, with ratings. Sound Shaker is a sound making game that uses the accelerometer, so you move the screen to make musical patterns (see the full review). Field Flier lets children control a flying bird. They touch spots on the screen to hear activities like sleeping, resting or hiding labeled. Count Caddy lets children count by 1s, 2s or 3s, by dragging and dropping items into a large circle. Sort Slider shows two objects, and asks children “which one matches.” To make a match, you can either swipe with your finger (left or right) or tilt the screen. In Pattern Painter, children are asked “which shape comes next” and are then presented with three options, multiple choice style. They are then asked to trace the shape on a template. If they have trouble, a short tutorial automatically starts. 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.
Five bite-sized games feature a chatty, quirky little monkey, who serves as the coach and instruction giver. Content includes concentration, color matching (touch all the green fruit), jigsaw puzzles (drag-and-drop puzzles), odd one out (which fruit is not the same), find the fruit that starts with the letter B. Every three activities earns you a sticker,which can be saved on a flannel board. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Poke the spider to change scenes in this adaptation of the classic nursery rhyme. You can make rain come down from the clouds, splash in the puddles, help a caterpillar become a butterfly or play peek-a-boo with a frog. Your child can also count from one to ten as a squirrel builds his house, find hidden eggs on a scavenger hunt, create your own music using eggs that play different notes, stack hats on the spider’s head, listen to classical music with violin and cello pizzicato, and record their own singing. 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.
Children explore with their fingertips, in this colorful underwater playground, where a school of quick swimming fish illustrate numerals (up to 20), the alphabet song, and a set of shapes. In the alphabet song, children can swipe forward or backward, hearing the alphabet backwards if they like. If they stop at a letter, such as U, they hear “U is for Umbrella.” The number line works the same way, only the quantity is presented along with the numeral, in the form of a line of small eggs on the bottom of the screen. The “Playtime” activity fills the screen with dozens of differently colored fish, of every shape, size and pattern. Other more structured activities include a game of concentration, and a discrimination game, that asks children to find the fish that doesn’t belong. The iPhone and iPod touch versions are available for $.99 at http://tinyurl.com/fishiphone; the iPad vesion is $1.99: http://tinyurl.com/fishipad. 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.
Apple Harvest Game
Seven simple math games for the iPod Touch or iPhone provide practice with counting and number patterns. To start a game, you simply touch an icon from the main menu, which it is easy to jump back to at any point (tap the “menu” icon). In the first game, Melon Harvest, children first hear an elephant ask for a quantity of melons, from 1 to 9, for example “I need 7 melons.” Next, they must drag the melons to the basket, one at a time, until the quantity matches the numeral shown on the basket.Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The Sums Stacker app lets you move numerals and sets of numerals around with the tip of your finger. There are two modes of play — solve and race — and two difficulty levels. The challenge is bite-sized and addicting: to make a three column stack of quantities that add up to the number shown at the bottom of the screen. Once the stack matches the sum, the screen clears and you get another challenge.The numbers are represented in eight ways that vary in their level of abstraction. More information is at www.mathdoodles.com. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a simply designed, scripted narrated story for the iPhone/iPod that tells the tale of Gigi (the giraffe) and Frank (the frog).
Frank the frog
Children hear a bit of homemade narration and can page through the 50+ page book, which is arranged in chapter format, set to silent-movie style piano music. There is no other interactivity or hot spots on the pages, other than the quizzes.
Every few pages, you are prompted to “find the house with the banana on top” or to “choose something that is pink and purple” in multiple-choice format. Wrong answers result in a hint. According to press materials, the Gigi and Frank series follows the Kindergarten Curriculum Standards for California and is designed to teach problem solving, counting to 20, and listening comprehension. There are no levels or record keeping. Children may enjoy the story but the scripted format reduces the joy of this tale. Rating: 
