The app starts with 10 clearly marked icons, each leading to a set of five or so games. Each has a nature or animal theme. Activities include puzzles, matching, coloring, concentration, hide-and-seek, dot-to-dot, and spot the differences. It is easy to get out of any activity instantly, and there’s plenty to discover. Features include the ability to adjust the sounds. 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 set of timed maze game challenges is embedded with multiple-choice problems. For example, in order to use a ladder to rescue a kitten, you must “find and tap the number ten” (from four possible numerals) or “find and tap something round” (from four shapes). This is one of the four new free FingerPrint apps created by former Leapfrog executive Nancy MacIntyre. Other titles in the series include Big Kid Life: Veterinarian; Big Kid Life: Fairy Princess; Fingerprint Play Maker; and DoReMi, 1-2-3. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Shape-O is a matching game where you build objects out of shapes, and then spell the word, by dragging and dropping each letter into place. Geometric shapes are pieced together to form images including animals, plants, landscapes, transportation, faces, robots, dinosaurs, pirates and many more. Content includes 100 puzzles. Features include the ability to turn off the background music or the game sounds. 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 preschoolers to pre-reading and critical thinking skills, this app contains four activities: Bug Catcher – practice colors, shapes, number recognition and counting while you search for wiggly creatures to complete the collection; Present Search – follow the directions and listen to the hints to discover which of the pets is hiding a prize; Matching Duckies – a memory game where you must match the quacking ducks to reveal a message; and Barnyard Fun – master upper and lowercase letters with the help of barnyard cows. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
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.
Diego comes to the small Nintendo DS screen, in this one player game. As you explore five different animal habitats, each with three levels, you help the animals find their way home. The more you play, the more content you unlock. Games are automatically saved into one of three player profiles. Created for 2K play by Black Lantern Studios. 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.
Drill and practice gets a new face, voice and brain, with this updated edition of one of the first robotic learning toys. Powered by three AA batteries (included) the 9 inch tall robot is controlled by inserting one of 30 two sided cards into his belly, covering every letter of the alphabet and numeral up to nine. The cards are color coded on the bottom so Alphie can keep things straight using an optical reader. There are eight possible button combinations so children can make matches (e.g., 2D shapes with 3D shapes; sets with numerals, and so on). The LED screen and light-up mouth gives Alphie a wide range of expressions. 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 “Learning is Fun” line, this $1.99 app includes 36 tangram puzzles. The idea is that you drag-and-drop the puzzle pieces, scattered on the bottom of the screen, onto the outline. Incorrect matches self-correct by dropping to the bottom of the screen. Correct matches snap into place, as if by some magnetic force, to the sound of a crisp bell. When all the parts are put together, you hear a round of quiet applause. You can then return to the menu to select another puzzle. We reviewed version 1.4. 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.
Baby Einstein content comes to your mobile device for the first time in this mixture of short video, and do-it-yourself fact screens in which you can record your own voice and follow links to online purchases. The videos consist of six three minute video segments taken from existing content (Baby Neptune and Baby Beethoven). Each follows the tried-and-true formula of mixing classical music with close ups of interesting objects. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
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.
This touch-and-explore book for the iPhone/iPod Touch contains 20 pages of surprises, hidden in simple, hand drawn illustrations. In the story, two best friends, a Monkey (Madera) and a Frog (Figaro) work together to find a lost cat named Ginger. As you move throughout the story, you can either freely touch to find hidden routines, or complete simple matching, counting and sorting tasks on par with what a child would encounter during the first week of Kindergarten. For example, in one screen, children touch and drag acorns to a matching squirrel hole. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.