AppCraver » Kids

MonsterABC Wraps up Entertainment and Education in One App

Barbara Holbrook — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:42:30 +0000

MonsterABC – Keeping your little tyke occupied on long car trips and boring waiting rooms has gotten easier in the AI-era (after-iPhone). The App Store holds lots of fun and educational apps made especially for little hands still learning how to swipe and tap.

One of the newer edutainment apps to hit the marker is MonsterABC, an alphabet primer with a monstrously cute theme. The schtick is simple and well rehearsed: A is for Apple, B is for Bunny and so on. What MediaBrand does differently is the real story.

MonsterABC is an app that can grow with your child (or be shared by siblings in different age groups). The app has two flashcard-esque learning modules. Letters is the “A is for Apple” side and Words is a fill-in-the-blank game for the over-k crowd. A child’s voice sounds out letters and words to combine auditory and visual learning and reinforce new information.

MonsterABC uses an easy tap control system so it’s easy for kids to play alone and doesn’t require any shaking — or dropping — that might cause parents to second guess a decision to let a three year old handle such an expensive device.

MediaBrand knows that they’re not the only kids on the block when it comes to iPhone apps. The company website offers a couple value-added features that tie in with the game and make it more than just another app. Anyone, not just MonsterABC owners, can visit the website to download free coloring pages to match the Monster theme. In addition, MonsterABC users can download a free desktop version of the game (PC or MAC) with ”enhanced features.”

The “iPhone for Kids” department continues to grow — especially as families trade up to newer gadgets and have an extra phone available for young fans. MonsterABC is a well-designed app that does a good job of combining learning and fun. It’s a game that tiny tots and grown ups can both agree on, for different reasons of course.

app_name: MonsterABC
rating: 8/10

Touch Karma

Michael Alexander — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:36:25 +0000

Touch Karma (Parenting), from Karma World LLC, is for moms and dads who like to keep a record of who has been naughty and who has been nice in the past year.

With Touch Karma input the names of children, other family members and friends, along with a few “behavior benchmarks” and what comes out of Touch Karma could be either a hit list or a gift list, Actually, Touch Karma is three apps in one.: Karma for Kids, Karma for Friends and Piggy Bank.

Parents can use Karma for Kids to keep a record of each time the sweet little darlings make them laugh like lottery winners, whimper like a lonely pups or growl like grizzlies.

Your tracking system consists of positive and negative karma points. When you add them all up, you’ll see to whom you’ll pay forward and to whom you’ll pay back.

Set up Touch Karma by entering names, titles and goals into the fields as indicated. For example, a child named Junior could be assigned the task of cleaning his room every Tuesday.

Then, adjust the Karma Meter, a sliding menu, to set the number of points—between 10 and 100–to reach the objective. On the Kids’ home screen, you’ll be able to see just how far along Junior is to acting like a good little boy. If Junior dyes the family’s dog Fido blue, you might want to give subtract a few karma points, for example.

Run the numbers and well-behaved children get prizes, poorly behaved children get paddled and the parents get jail time for assault.

The Piggy Bank mini app is intended to help parents encourage their kiddies to save their allowance, money for mowing lawns and so own. Coins are added and subtracted from the piggy bank depending on each child’s behavior. Karma for Friends is conceptually similar as Karma for Kids. What’s different here is that you can keep track of your positive and negative interactions with your friends. Tally the pluses and minuses and you can decide who are and who aren’t your BFFs.

I weighed the pluses and minuses of Touch Karma and concluded that it’s a toss up between utility and entertainment. It’s too much of a bother to seriously keep track of your meanies and goody-two-shoes.

On the other hand, it might be useful to motivate some children. My kids would have laughed at me if I had tried using Touch Karma, but yours might not. As for your friends, it’s not hard to recall who’s been naughty and nice to you without having to keep track in an app but what fun would that be?

rating: 7/10
app_name: Touch Karma (Parentlng)

Wheels on the Bus Tickles, While Your Toddler Does!

Casandra Armour — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:00:29 +0000

A charming interactive book by duckduckmoose, Wheels on the Bus encourages you and your little one to “poke or slide things on the screen to see what happens!” The song, Wheels on the Bus narrates along with the images you and your child play with.

The ability to change song options is really neat, with a very impressive variety, including English in either a male or female voice, French, Spanish, Italian, German, violin, piano trio, cello, duet, kazoo, gibberish or the sound can be eliminated. You can explore recording your own voice — sing to your child, let your child singing alone or create a duet. Easy-to-find arrows in the bottom corners of the screen guide through the eight pages of Wheels on the Bus and a pointing hand cursor provides an example of how to engage the graphic.

On the first page, the wheels on the bus do, in fact, go round and round. Sliding the bus ignites its motion down the street, past a vibrant world with butterflies, trees, various road signs — including a sign warning of a chicken ahead followed by said giant chicken. The scenery loops pretty quickly but allows the user forward and backward motions through it.

The child can pet the screen to increase the bus’ speed. The doors on the bus go open and shut in the next panel, a finger slides the bus doors open to reveal a very unenthusiastic looking pigeon, who comes to life with a giggle when you tickle his round belly.

On the third page, the driver on the bus says move on back and a tap to the cute bus driver’s elbow makes her thumb hitch backward with authority. Her little blue bear, behind her, bounces with a poke, and a paper plane goes spiraling from a tap. An upside down chicken and the freckled bus driver look on as the wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish, on page four, and the bus’ headlights are personified to become eyes hypnotized by the windshield wipers which your child controls.

Next, the people on the bus go up and down. And the story goes on. Wheels on the Bus is a fun, visual game with extraordinarily accommodating audio options, Wheels on the Bus will certainly delight children and parents alike.

app_name: The Wheels on the Bus
rating: 7/10

ABC Animals is a Solid Teaching Tool for Preschoolers

Jennifer Beam — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:00:55 +0000

As a huge proponent of anything that makes learning fun for kids, checking out ABC Animals by Critical Matter, Inc. was a personal pleasure. An educational app aimed at teaching letter recognition and sound to preschoolers through flashcard simulation, ABC Animals is friendly and intuitive and includes a couple of features that makes it very worthwhile.

The concept in ABC Animals is simple, as it should be for its intent. All twenty-six letters of the alphabet, accompanied by corresponding animal pictures, are represented in the virtual “deck.” For example, Aa is represented by a picture of an alligator or anteater, Bb is for butterfly, bird or beaver, and so on. Having different animals to represent the same letter is a nice feature that helps balance the monotony of learning through repetition with the ability to keep a child engaged. Plus, it helps children recognize that many different words start with the same sound. However, a few choices, such as Cc for Clam, baffle me just a little bit, but why not keep it interesting.

In addition to the vibrant and colorful accompanying pictures, the letter names are clearly pronounced. (For 1st generation iPod Touch users, headphones will be necessary for this feature.) The cards can be scrolled through, forwards and backwards, with the swipe of a finger — a feat most any preschooler will quickly figure out. Double tapping on the card flips it over and reveals yet another feature that enables children to hear the phonetic sound the letter makes and write the letter by tracing its upper and lower case versions on screen with simulated writing paper. Shaking erases their tracing efforts and lets them start over.

Overall, ABC Animals provides a unique interactive teaching tool that makes learning letters fun. I did find that the developer’s Web site mentions a few minor abilities, such as turning off the tracing function so children can write the letters from memory, but I have not discovered how to do it. It was also through their Web site that I learned shaking would erase their tracing efforts. That said, I would have liked to have seen a brief parent’s guide or manual included that highlights the app’s features to help parents get the most out of it. However, the concept of interactive flashcards has been well achieved with ABC Animals and the combination of visual appeal and interactive sound and writing practice completes it nicely.

app_name: ABC Animals
rating: 9/10

Something old, now new, with I See Ewe

Ofelia Saenz — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:00:25 +0000

I See Ewe – Matching games are always a sure bet when it comes to designing children’s games. They’re great for younger preschoolers because they’re easy to learn and they keep the older ones coming back for more because each game presents new and fun pictures.

I See Ewe, a kid’s app for iPhone and iPod touch by Claireware Software, continues in the matching game tradition with Match Items, and expands the appeal of the app by including a second game: Learn Words. Designed for preschool age children, I See Ewe features various settings that make this $0.99 app adaptable for players at various ages and levels.

Match Items follows the rules of the old standard memory game: touch two cards at a time and try to — you guessed it — match items. With I See Ewe successfully pair up two cards and win audio props, mismatch a pair and the device vibrates. (A word of caution — for younger players, a pillow on the lap is helpful to avoid your iPhone or iPod touch hitting the ground in case the vibration catches your little one off guard).

In Learn Words, a series of pictures is presented. The name of one of the items is listed at the bottom and a voice announces the word. Identify the item correctly by touching the picture that corresponds with the word. For younger children learning new words, the variety of pictures helps broaden a young vocabulary. Turn the voice command off and the game becomes a pre-reading tool for older preschoolers becoming familiar with letters and sounds.

An options page allows you to change the set of cards used in either game, as well as control the level of difficulty for each by adjusting the size, and therefore the number, of cards that are displayed.

I See Ewe was recently updated to include more card set choices. Now players can choose between geometric shapes, colors, household objects and animals.

The developer of I See Ewe clearly used some tried and true games as a starting point in designing Match Items and Learning Words, but regardless, I See Ewe still managed to take something old and make it new.

app_name: I See Ewe
rating: 7/10

Henry & Hailey’s Preschool Pals Is Cute, Entertaining, and Educational

Anna Axster — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:30:59 +0000

Henry and Hailey’s Preschool Pals is a great mix and match game for toddlers and young children that offers entertainment and teaches problem solving skills at the same time.

Developed by 3PM Studios, a company of three brothers that based the game’s characters on their own kids and their playmates, Henry & Hailey’s Preschool Pals is enjoyable and easy enough to pick up for three to four year old kids.

The game’s objective is to match the heads, bodies, and feet of ten different characters. Before starting Henry & Hailey’s Preschool Pals, the players can familiarize themselves with the ten pals by looking at them and listening to them introducing themselves. The group includes a quarterback, a firefighter, a Spanish-speaking dancer, a robot, a dog and numerous other pals that tell you their name and who they are.

Once familiar with how the different characters look, the player has to align the top, middle, and bottom parts of their bodies. Just like the books that the parents’ generation used to play with, this game offers fun gameplay for the little ones.

Henry & Hailey’s Preschool Pals has a well developed interface, good graphics, and suitable sounds and music. It is easy to pick up and offers loads of praise, recognition, and encouragement for getting the alignment right and for matching all ten characters. Henry & Hailey’s Preschool Pals is entertaining, educational, and enjoyable to play.

app_name: Henry & Hailey’s Preschool Pals
rating: 8/10

Sapus Tongue Tree Leaping Game Gets Kids Moving

Issen Alibris — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:00:21 +0000

Sapus Tongue – Thousands of apps have flooded the App Store in the five months since it opened. But, only a handful of them have been kid-friendly games. Parents who don’t mind forking over their iPhones to keep their little ones entertained will have now have an official reason to do so. Sapus Tongue is a classic game designed for kids nine years old and older. Sapus Tongue is bound to keep those little hands moving.

To play Sapus Tongue, you start with your phone in a horizontal position and whirl it around helping Sapus the Frog and Monus the monkey gain as much speed as possible. Then, tap the screen to launch the character from the tree. You earn points by how far your character tumbles. The farther away you toss your character the higher the score.

The graphics are playful, cute and simple. Sapus the Frog and Monus the monkey are simply-drawn characters. The transitions between screens are a fun too. They slide flip and turn away to reveal instructions, menu options and game play. Playing Sapus Tongue isn’t too difficult.

The only thing you have to keep track of is a tree from which your chosen character swings in order to be launched further away. The music in Sapus Tongue is fun and over the top! The cowboy western tunes makes the player feel like they’re on a mission. It’s heroic. It’s wild.

Movement on the screen is easy to follow and the controls aren’t complicated. There is one possible danger. Moves are activated by whirling around the iPhone to help your character get enough speed to launch from the tree. This could be a little scary with younger children given how delicate the handset is.

Sapus Tongue is bound to keep kids entertained but probably not for long. The game is easy to use and very basic. That may be its strength and its weakness. Furthermore, there is no real challenge for players. There is only one static level. There is no nemesis and the other characters don’t interact with the main character in any way.

If you need a quick temporary distraction Sapus Tongue is not an expensive buy. If you’re looking for a quick distraction or to calm your kid down for a whole ten minutes this application is perfectly suitable.

app_name: Sapus Tongue
rating: 5/10

Preschool Adventure

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:53:09 +0000

Preschool Adventure is a set of fun, interactive learning activities. Children will learn about colors by revealing a variety of colorful seas creatures, explore the parts of the body deep in the jungle with a funny chimpanzee, discover farm animal sounds out in the barnyard and learn the names of shapes while traveling to a distant alien planet.

Contains four mini-games parents can do with their young toddlers: ocean colors, space shapes, monkey body and farm sounds.

app_name: Preschool Adventures
rating: NR