Math, age 3-5 was created by EuroTalk and is exactly what it's title indicates - a math app for kids ages 3-5. It consists of 10 categories that increase in difficulty - as do the specific activities within each category. Price: The first one comes free and the rest are available as in-app purchases for $1.99 each, totaling $9.99 for the complete series. Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental appropriateness: It says that this app was developed by teachers and educators and it shows. This definitely has a classroom feel. The activities here are like many items that you would find in a math assessment for preschoolers. What I like best is the "teacher" who speaks very clearly, repeated very key math phrases and reinforcing what kids have just completed. It might not seem like much, but her repetition and phrasing is really just right. So in terms of the appropriateness of the activities, this delivers and gives plenty of practice. Rating: 5/5 (aim for around 4 years). Now I start to get a bit more critical. Balance: While the activities themselves are very simple and clear, the pacing might be a bit slow for some, especially for older kids doing some of the earlier rounds. Within each category, you are encouraged to go in order, and you must complete all of them in order to unlock the surprise. I would like to be able to know what each activity is so that I could pick and choose for my child, especially given how many there are. I think just in general, more settings would be great to cater to individual needs and also to keep kids engaged. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: This app is as straightforward as it's title. There's no plot/story to keep you going. There's no collect the prize for finishing. Oh, the surprise I mention - it's a quiz. Not really what a kid wants, huh? In general, while I think the activities are ones that kids should master, the app has a feel of taking a test. Don't get me wrong, the teacher is encouraging, and it flashes a star for finishing an activity. But maybe the appeal of an app is to learn while not being a classroom. Oh, you get a certificate if you get all the quiz answers correct - but only it you get 100%. Where's the fun? Rating: 2/5 Parental Involvement: You would think that there would be some sort of review, but there isn't. Even with the quiz, it marks which questions you get wrong, but it does not tell you what the question was. Did you sort a color wrong or a shape? The quiz could be used in a more meaning way - to set the difficulty, to tell parents what kids need to work on, to be more game like and make it fun... just to name a few. Rating: 2.5/5 Total: 13.5 out of 20 = 3 stars Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.
Little Monster at School was created by Wanderful, Inc. and is based on the book by Mercer Mayer originally published by Living Books and may already be familiar to many of you. It follows Little Monster and his day at school, the lessons he learns there and shows you his friends. It includes a fully functional Spanish version (any text in the illustrations change to Spanish too!), with possibly more languages to come, making the price a little more understandable. Price: $4.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: This is a really cute and relatable story, with some great interactive features. Kids can really take part in the "lessons" at school with Little Monster. When they work with numbers and letters on the chalkboard, kids can tap on the numbers and letters to hear them labeled and practice right along with the class. Aside from the functional interactive features, kids can also follow along with the text highlighting and also tap on individual words to hear them repeated. They've really added some great touches to bring the story alive and give it a different feel from the print version.
Where I do wish there was more is for it to provide prompts or a review at the end for deeper learning. (While it may seem unfair to criticize for this as I've rarely seen this done in e-books, it's time to raise the bar!) The story actually covers a lot here - routines, school lessons, helping friends out, being different, etc. Some of this may not come through with just the story itself. Rating: 4.5/5 (aim for around 4 years).
Balance: This is really where I was impressed. First, there are two modes - a let me play mode where kids can tap their hearts out and a read to me mode - standard where you just follow along and the some of "interactive parts" automatically go and it becomes a bit more like watching a tv show. This is actually one of the recommendations we (Cooney Center) made after our e-book report. It allows parents and kids to have two different experiences depending on the purpose of the book reading. In addition to the two modes, there are a bunch of settings so parents can further control the type of experience. One of the settings addresses my personal pet peeve of where the tapping on things can interrupt the text reading or overlap with other interactive features. You can actually turn this off so that nothing overlaps. It'll also highlight where all the hotspots are if you want too. In terms of all the features, there actually are a lot. Most are functional and relevant to the plot, but a few aren't - like finding a hidden object on each page. But, that being said, given the modes and settings, at least the distraction level can be controlled in a way. Rating: 4.5/5
Sustainability: This is an award winning story for reason - it really is a good story! I usually try not to comment too much on the quality of the story because I don't consider myself a children's story expert, but I did really enjoy it. And I think the two modes will really stretch the usage of this app. Rating: 5/5
Parental Involvement: There's a big plus and a big minus here. The plus is that some of the "deeper learning" I mentioned earlier is available through a teacher's resource guide that provides extra activities that go along with the story. You can take a free sneak peek but the full guide needs to be purchased. The minus is that you can't turn off the narration! Children's books, to me, is a great and easy way for parents to spend time with their kids. With the narration here, it kinda takes away from that. Sure, parents can still read along, but it's not quite the same. Could just be a simple setting. Rating: 4/5
Hot Dots Jr. was created by Educational Insights and aims to teach kids colors, letters, shapes, numbers, and patterns. It includes Ace the Talking, Teaching Dog. I like the idea of have a virtual "teacher" so let's see if Ace delivers. Price: $0.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Developmental Requirements: In general, the activities assess appropriate skills for preschoolers and kindergartners. The app basically just takes kids through rounds of multiple-choice questions like, "Match the uppercase and lowercase letters" or "Which completes the sequence?" (By the way, using the words completes the sequence is too hard! Many little kids do not know the word sequence or even pattern. Many assessments use the phrase, "What comes next?" instead.) The difficulty in each round ranges, especially with letters, but there's no setting to select specific tasks. Some will be too easy and some will be too hard, but it goes fast enough where it's maybe ok. But it would be nice if parents and kids could select specific tasks to work on, or at least instead of a total score, it actually broke down scores by task. The activities remind me of actual assessments, but with less information. Where I've set myself up for disappointment is with this whole Ace the Talking, Teaching Dog. To me, that means that Ace provides good instruction and feedback to help kids understand their answers - correct or incorrect. However, Ace does not offer anymore feedback than most apps, giving approval when correct, and maybe a bark when wrong. A "bow wow" tells me nothing. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years).
Balance: The tasks are very straightforward. The voiceover is clear and repeats the question. Sometimes, especially in the case of "which completes the sequence," kids who are unfamiliar with the tasks may need the prompt repeated, but also rephrased. Rating: 4/5 Sustainability: There doesn't seem to be a goal here, you get a score at the end of each round, but nothing else to really keep kids going, unless they just like answering questions. Rating: 3/5 Parental Involvement: Given the structure of the tasks, this is where I think it needs the most improvement. While its good to just have kids practice, there also needs to be instruction involved for them to improve and there is none within the tasks themselves. So what it needs is to provide parents with the knowledge of what and how to help their kids. Rating: 3/5 Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes
RangerKidz Counting Corral was developed by Sudden Industries. It's a game targeting early math skills and color for preschoolers. It's got a whole Wild West theme where kids have to help Rango Ringo round up all the sheep and animals. You should know by now that I like it when apps have a theme or goal that ties the activities together - so how does this one do? Price: $2.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Developmental Appropriateness: The theme delivers. It's definitely a fun way to sneak in some math while kids think they are playing a game. The illustrations, animals, narration, and sound effects are well-done, entertaining and go with the whole Wild West theme. (Does anyone else think that it says "lassu" instead of "lasso"?!) While the theme delivers, let's not forget about content though. The educational content always comes first in my book. Overall, color matching, counting, number recognition are all appropriate very early preschool activities. There are 3 levels, with 6 rounds in each level so 18 round total where you cycle through a bunch of variations of activities that target those three skills. So initially, I was fine with the super easy tasks with obvious hints like for color, it asks for the color, but shows that word in the same color, so it really IS just coloring matching instead of learning to identify a color. Or, when it asks kids to catch the sheep in the correct number order, there's a hand that points to each number in sequence so kids know which ones to go for - so this is just really counting along instead of kids actually having to put the numbers in sequence. Where I have a problem is with the progression of difficulty, or lack thereof, through the many many rounds. It's not until level 3 (after 12 rounds), does the hand hint go away. And then all of the sudden, the sequence starts at various numbers - just wish there was a smoother, and faster progression. The same goes for all the other activities. For some, I don't think it actually gets harder other than to increase the number - like instead of taking out the color/word correspondence, they simply add in different animals for level three - which doesn't add any difficulty at all in terms of counting. I think while this is an engaging activity for kids, more consideration is needed some of the details of the content. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years). Balance: The features go with the theme and I don't find them distracting from the task. Some additional features could be added to support the learning - like more feedback, especially when they answer it wrong. Kids can answer wrong until they get it wrong, and it just counts as right, so it might be hard for parents to gauge how well their child is doing without constantly watching. Rating: 4/5 Sustainability: As I said, this is an engaging game - kids will probably enjoy it. They might however, get a bit bored of the same tasks that don't increase much in difficulty to challenge them. Rating: 4 Parental Involvement: There is a separate website parents can log-in to. It shows parents how far their kid has gotten in the app and it is where kids can access some of their prizes such as additional puzzles and activities (not all math related). While this is a good start to get parents involved, more useful information could be given here. As is, it kinda has a promotional kinda feel. Rating: 3.5/5 Total: 14.5 out of 20 - 3 stars Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes
i Learn with Boing: Savannah Adventures! is another cute educational app from Tribal Nova. While the previous installment, iLearn with Boing: Iceland Adventures! focused on literacy activities for preschoolers, Savannah focuses on math activities for the same age group. Price: $2.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: A strength with Tribal Nova apps in general is that they do a good job of making the activities have a game like feel. In this case, there are three activities led by animals found in the Savannah targeting counting, specifically quantity-number association, order - counting forwards, backwards, and skip counting, and calculate - early addition and subtraction. As with Iceland, some nice features are the leveling through each activity, adapting to kid's progress, rewards, and the parent center.
Where it falls a little short is with the details. First, the labels of the activities are a little misleading. "Counting", I think is really enumeration because kids have to judge how many objects are shown and then tap on the corresponding number in "Whack a mole" style. "Order" is actually counting, because it's just all different patterns of counting or getting the frog to jump to the different numbers on the lily pad. Finally, as is, the "calculate" activity is not really calculation but more counting or kinda early or precursor to adding and subtracting. Other little details that could be improved is in the feedback/prompts/scaffolding features. For example, in the counting/enumeration, it would be nice if kids could tap on the items and hear them counted. As is, if you tap anywhere around the objects, it just tells you how many total there are. Kids should be able to be given the objects, asked, how many, and then they can count them by pointing, pushing, grouping, etc. The activity I could see the most improvement is with the calculation activity where kids have to go and catch a target number of ostriches and put them on the truck. At times, there are already some ostriches on the truck, so kids have to "add" x more to get the target number or in the higher levels, there are more than the target number of ostriches on the truck, so kids have to "subtract" x amount. I think the adding and subtracting could be made more obvious - as is, it just seems like a counting activity. Like the already present ostriches should be separated from the to be added ostriches so that kids can see that, for example, 3 already there ostriches + 5 added ostriches =8 total. And that should be highlighted by some voiceover feedback before the truck drives away. In general, the activities are good, - these little details just add a little oomph to help learning. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 4)
Balance: I think the activities have struck a good balance between fun game features and keeping the focus on learning. Again, there are just little details that could be improved - like the objects that are to be counting in counting could be bigger and made more functional. Rating: 4.5/5
Sustainability: The activities are cute, and I see an nice new feature here is that once you've been playing awhile, when you start again, you can pick what level to start with and it gives you the recommended level as well. The rewards are nice and you can go to the reward world to play with them. For more competitive kids or kids who might find going through the levels repetitive, a score or high scores list might be nice, especially with the two-player activity. It seems to take time into account, so it could be easy to convert that into points. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: All iLearn apps are linked to a parent center which provides how well kids are doing on the specific activities and if kids have multiple iLearn apps, parents can see what topics they are spending time with. Parents are also given a brief explanation of the target skills within the activities. Parents can stay involved by reviewing. It'd be great if there were then suggested activities parents can do outside of the app that targets their kid's strengths and weaknesses so parents can share and link to the real world. Rating: 4/5
Total: 16 out of 20 - 4 stars.
Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.
Mini Fish Tale was created by Bakul Books. It's an e-book about a girl who receives 2 fish for her birthday and one dies and she needs to figure out what to do to make the lonely fish happy. It also includes closing and puzzle activities with marine life trivia aside from the e-book. Price: Free
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: This is a simple and very basic story and e-book. The only "extra" features are narration and text highlighting. While there is no problem with that, I do have some slight problems with this book, especially when it comes to promoting literacy. First, the text highlighting is not accurate. It does not highlight when the words are spoken. Second, there are a couple of grammatical errors in the text. The main one being "fishes", which appears multiple times. Plural forms of words is something that young kids tend to over generalize and can be confusing given all the exceptions in the English language. As an e-book presented in English, it's very important to get these basics correct because kids pick these things up.
What I DO like are the extra activities. The coloring and puzzles may seem like a standard addition nowadays, but what they've added here are some facts to go along with the picture. Although some of the facts could be reworded to be more kid-friendly, it's a nice way to extend the learning. I wish there was more. Rating: 2/5 (aim for around 4 years of age).
Balance: Everything is simple here. the activities are kept separate form the story. The pictures are colorful, but I wonder if that's enough to keep kids engaged in an otherwise bare story. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: I think adding the activities with the facts was a nice way to add extra life to this app. But there are only 3 pictures and facts for each. Also, some of the production quality is a bit lower than many other e-books out there - and I think kids will notice. Rating: 3/5
Parental Involvement: Again, with e-books, there's always co-reading. Parents can also elaborate on the facts in the activities. Rating: 4/5
The Singing Alphabet was created by the Ministry of Letters ltd (kinda sounds like some Harry Potter reference, doesn't it?) As you can tell from the title, it's an app that combines music and the alphabet, where each letter sings its letter-sound in an artsy, jazzy, kinda way. I'm probably not doing it justice with my description, so please take a look at the video below. Price: $0.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: I think the purpose of this app is really to get kids exposed to letters/letter-sounds and music/rhythms, as opposed to any direct teaching. It's pretty free form, where kids can choose whatever letters to start singing. It doesn't label the letters and my version shows only the lowercase. I can see it encouraging kids to try spelling out different words or their names to see what that would sound like. But then you realize that you can't use a letter more than once, so that limits the types of words you can spell correctly. I also think it's easy to get lost in the music and rhythm than to really focus on the letter-sounds. So overall, I think this is actually a cute app to get kids in music with some light exposure to letters. But learning potential may be low. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 4).
Balance: If I think of this as an alphabet learning app, then I think the music aspect overshadows the letter-sounds. I think even if kids are singing along and making the sounds, they might not connect it to the sound that particular letter makes, but rather cute sounds these cute letters are making. It would be more effective if there was a "learning" section first, where the letters at least clearly annunciate their names and sounds and then have what the app currently is as the "putting it all together" game that they could play. From reading the description on iTunes, it sounds like there was clear educational intent for letter learning, so I will rate it as such. Rating: 2.5/5 Sustainability: This is an innovative way to get kids interested in music and letters. If kids like this kind of music, then I think they will enjoy coming back to this app. However, if this kind of music is not their thing, then they might not be engaged. Rating: 3.5/5 Parental Involvement: Parents might find this app engaging for them as well. They can spell words out with their child and see what music it makes. There's no explicit role for parents, but the app can easily be played together. Rating: 3.5/5 Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars
Kids Crosswords was created by Learning Touch. It boasts 100 words, 10,000 puzzles, and 10 levels of increasing difficulty. I like crosswords so let's go. Price: $0.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: Ok, I must admit, I was at first disappointed. I was expecting crossword puzzles. Yes, for kids, but some form of here's a clue, figure out the answer. This is more of a put the words together. There are pictures, and you make the word for that picture and the words cross and intersection. But even on the highest level, you can just tap on the picture and it tells you the word. But, after I got over the initial realization that this was not a crossword puzzle app, I thought that this was actually a pretty good phonics app. The 10 levels may seem like they only increase in difficulty by a smidgeon, but the progression actually makes sense - although I'd still like to see it get into a larger range of words and combinations of sounds or even not providing the labels for the pictures so kids have to figure it out. For what's there, throughout the process, it very clearly sounds out everything, from the letter options to as you place them correctly. The blending of the sounds together could be smoother - as is it's very separated so it's hard to hear how all the sounds together make up the word.
I've let go of wanting this to be more like a real crossword puzzle, but I do have to say that the developers still could have given the crossword aspect a little more thought. For example, all the pictures start off in black and white. For one, it's a picture of a painter, and the target word is actually red. But there would have been no way for someone who was trying to figure it out to get "red" from a black and white painter without tapping on it, thus eliminating the fun of "figuring it out." Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 4 years).
Balance - Everything is very simple and focused. I like that it doesn't allow you to do anything until it has completed sounding out and saying the words. Rating: 5/5
Sustainability - Although it seems like there's endless puzzles, there are really only 100 words and animations. Another reason I'd like to see a larger library of words is because a lot of the words start repeating, even within one level. This could get repetitive, and kids will just start memorizing. Rating: 3.5/5
Parental Involvement: There's not much to do here for parents. It'd be great if it could what words the kids are struggling with or at least a list of the words that appear on each level or just some sort of review for parents to generalize and reinforce. Rating: 3/5
Total: 15.5 out of 20 = 4 stars
Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.
i Learn with Boing: Ice Land Adventures! was created by Tribal Nova. It is a literacy app targeting preschool and kindergarten. It has three activities targeting Letters, Phonics, and Words. I was looking forward to checking out this app because I previously reviewed iLearn with Poko: Seasons and Weather, which was a solid app and has now (along with other apps by the developers) been updated to include a parent center that tracks kids progress. So how this Ice Land stack up? Price: $2.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: The developers have clearly given thought to the design through an educational lens. Are the activities appropriate? Check. Is there leveling for each activity? Check. Is the leveling adaptive according to performance? Check. Is there instruction/tutor? Check - in the form of Boing, the character. Are the games engaging? Check - in general, yes, and one of the games even has a two-player mode to launch "snowballs". This is all great.
Now here's me being critical and possibly nit-picky. First, is it me, or do some of the phonics pronunciation sound a bit off? I am not a phonics/speech expert, but I have some experience administering literacy assessments that include phonics and I feel like some of these are not quite right. For example, "e" here seems to always presented silent - which yes, there is the "silent e", but not always. How would you say "sh" or "ow"? Second, there seems to be a wide range of vocabulary here - which is good, but it's kinda randomly presented. Figuring out the phonetics of "yogurt" is way harder than "sun". There's a progression not only for vocabulary, but letters and phonics and I don't get the sense that the level of difficulty within these domains were considered. The first point of the pronunciation concerns me quite a bit, and for that, I have to give a lower rating than what I thought initially.Rating: 3 out of 5 (aim for around 4 years).
Balance: Everything looks cute, yet simple at the same time. The phonics game, where you launch snowballs can get a little distracting as aiming and timing them correctly can be a little tricky! Also, not sure where to mention this, but my second player froze up during play. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: So as you play, you collect rewards. These rewards can then be used in a connected app where you can make your own avatars and "play" in this other planet. It's kinda neat. However, while you are doing the activities, it may get repetitive. While you do collect rewards as you go, the activity remains exactly the same as you progress through the levels. This may bore some as there's not much to break up the activity play itself, since the reward system is a separate thing. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: A great addition to Tribal Nova apps is the parent center. Like other apps that have also started including a parent center, this one allows parents to review their kid's progress within the app an then makes recommendations for other apps that target other subject areas. This one includes a comparison of their kid's accuracy rate with the general population's. There's also a nice kinda guide for parents, explaining the activities and what's available in the parent center. Like I've said with other parent centers, this is a wonderful start for parents to stay connected. Perhaps there could be different packages for parents depending on the level of information they'd like.
One thing I'd like to see (not specific to the parent center) is some sort of setting so parents (and kids) can set the levels within each activity. Some kids might get bored with having to get past the initial levels that may be too easy for them. Rating: 4/5
Total: 15 out of 20: 4 stars
Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.
Little Bee's ABC was created by Lisbon Labs. It's an alphabet app that presents multiple activities for each letter such as connect dots to learn the letter's shape, follow line directions to draw letters, paint missing parts of letters, and writing missing letters in words. So lots of letter writing and recognition in different contexts. Price: $2.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: Little Bee's ABC is a super cute app. The graphics are colorful in a soothing way, the voice over descriptions of the objects is lively and, well, cute! I just wish that more attention was paid to how the content is suppose to teach the letters. For each letter, you first see the target letter formed by a something else - like a Jack-in-the-box spring curls over to form the letter P. Ok - cute and fun. But for learning, kids don't recognize these two-in-one things well. Then, you are presented with 6 activities. Again, they are all cute, and maybe together, they help kids learn the letters. But looking at them separately, I can't help but wonder if they could improve the learning aspect. For example, in the connect the dots activity, you connect the dots to form the outline of the letter, so you don't actually connect the dots in the way that you would write the letter. Or, in the "friends" activity, it presents a few examples of objects or whatever that begin with the that letter, and gives cute descriptions of them. But no where in this activity does it actually ever say the letter! Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years)
Balance: The interactivity focus around the letters and the app is overall easy-to-use. I did notice that the app presents the letters in alldifferentkindsof fonts - ranging from simple to cursive, to more abstract like using the objects. While I can see a purpose to exposing kids to different forms of the letters, I do think that some of the staple activities like writing the letters stuck with the more simpler forms. We can leave the calligraphy to a different app, rather than a learning letters app, or at least until we know the kids are pretty comfortable with letter recognition and writing letters. Otherwise, it may just unnecessarily complicate the learning. Rating: 3/5
Sustainability: The variety of activities is a plus. It's a visually appealing app, and I'm a sucker for cute. But there are no goals or much to egg on play, so I'm not sure how much kids will keep coming back to it once they've gone through it all once. Cuteness doesn't work for everyone. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: There's not much for parents to do here except watch along - and of course elaborate when they can. Rating: 3/5
Total: 13 out of 20: 3 stars
Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.
Mermaid Waters was created by Stickery PTE. LTD. Help Hana and Cory rescue sea creatures by playing 4 different mini-math games. The first few levels are free, but then you must purchase the next levels for $2.99. Are Hana and Cory's rescue plot and games good enough to get you to purchase the ending? Price: Free, with in-app purchase for $2.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: The games here are based on the California Preschool Curriculum. So in that sense, the skills that these games target (number recognition, quantity discrimination (more or less), size, and early addition) are right on. The question is, do these games apply those skills well? I think only somewhat. At least for the beginning levels, one could finish the levels without really understanding or mastering the skill. Two of the skills present two options (e.g. which fish is bigger?; or which box has more fish?), so you have a 50/50 shot at getting it right. Even if you get it wrong, nothing really happens, you just pick the other choice. Or in number recognition, you have to tap say, all the 4's as all these bubbles fall. You can tap ALL the bubbles, eventually getting enough 4's to pass the level. More negative feedback and overall reinforcement of the skill is needed. For example, you can get points taken away for tapping the wrong bubbles in number recognition. It's not that I like having negative feedback, but getting the answer wrong should be made clear to the child. Further, at the end of the levels, it could reinforce the skills by showing/saying for example, in the more or less game, that yes, there were 3 fish in this box and 1 fish in this box, 3 is more than 1. Little cues like this go a long way. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years)
Balance: The games are very kid-friendly. There are a lot of "extra" elements put in for entertainment, but not really at the expense of the tasks at hand. For example, when choosing which is more or less, you must tap on the box a few times to break the ice cube (the box is actually an ice cube, and you are rescuing what's in it). Most of the extra elements actually go with the plot, so they are actually nice little touches. However, I did find that sometimes I would accidentally skip some of the parts with the plot, but could not go back to have it repeat (also hitting the back arrow often exited me out of the app). So I lost some of the story. So maybe adding some element where you could go over plot points/goals, etc. would be nice. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: What I really like about this app is that there is this over aching storyline - however minor it might be. But it's nice to have that goal when going through many levels. They also kinda tie it in nicely with the actual tasks and "Stickery". Popping the bubbles, choosing the iceboxes all kinda "rescue" fish and passing the levels earns you fish stickers. It'd be nice if they took it even further and the stickers were the fish you "rescued" and you had to rescue x amount/specific fish along the way. That would really tie everything in together. And it would give the sticker rewards (which is something we often see in games) some meaning. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: Parents can sign up to receive progress reports. While I've been seeing "progress reports" for parents more and more now, this is actually one of the better ones that I've seen. It includes explanations about the target skills and games and even tips on how to continue teaching these games with everyday activities. While this is great, I'd still like to see parents take a role WHILE their kids are playing, not just after. Rating: 4/5
Montessori Revolution was created by MEDL MOBILE and is based off of the Montessori method of teaching. One of the main tenets of Montessori schools is a hands-on approach, that movement is important for learning and cognition. So on one hand, I can see how the interactivity of an iPad may go well with this tenet, but on the other hand, moving things around on a 2d screen is not the same as real world movement. Does Montessori activities really translate to apps? Price: $0.99 (for the initial drawing activity plus one of your choice - the rest are in-app purchases).
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: There are currently six available activities. With the initial purchase, I received The Canvas (freeform drawing), and The Moveable Alphabet. I then purchased The Short Bead Stairs (math) and The Pouring Exercise. Note - I originally wanted to purchase The Pink Tower as I know that as a staple Montessori activity, but received an error message instead. Anyway, back to my question of whether these activities translate well.... I think some better than others. The drawing activity is like other drawing apps - kids who like drawing will like this app. The alphabet activity functions fairly well where you would drag the letter to it's place, as you would a letter block or magnet. It also provides a clear breaking down of the letter-sounds for each word, and letter-sounds for each letter option. These activity seems to be more traditional, and thus the easiest of the Montessori activities to translate to an app. The other two activities work less well. The pouring activity, is exactly that - you pour objects from one beaker into another. While the innovation of translating this into an iPad activity is kinda cool, the movement of pouring using the iPad is not really the same movement of real life pouring. You do not feel the weight lessen as you pour nor does the overall motion seem natural. And further, it seems like there should be more of a goal to this activity, or at least more examples of pouring from different containers or different amount of objects. I was most disappointed with the Short Bead Stairs. This is also a pretty staple Montessori material. There are different colored connected beads to represent each number. The activity here asks for a number, say 3, so you would move the strand of 3 white beads over. First, the number they ask for is the same color as the beads of the right length. So you can just match color rather than number. But where this really falls short is that I think these beads could be used for so much more, but this app does not take you there. Often, these beads can be used to help solve basic math problems, like 2+3. So you could take the 2 red bead rod and the 3 blue bead rod (or whatever colors they are) and line them up with the 5 bead rod to see that they are the same amount. The beads also help in that you can count the individual beads, which you cannot do in this app. So in sum, I like the ideas of this app, butsome of these activities do not maximize on the original intent.Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years)
Balance: Overall, the app is presented in a clean, organized manner, similar to a Montessori school. This is down to the "shelves of activities". Where I do think it could use some improvement is on the instructions. You are presented with a pretty busy instruction screen (see pic). I think that some of these instructions could also be embedded in the activities as prompts. For example, in the alphabet activity, if there is no response for awhile, the app could prompt the child to tap on the picture to hear the word. Or if an incorrect response is given, then a prompt could be given to tap on the letters first to hear the sounds. It's great that this type of support is there, it just may be overwhelming to be presented it all at once and only on a help screen. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: Some apps are more engaging than others. The pouring one is least (at least of the ones I tried, but I'm hoping the two that I didn't are better!). Once the child has figured out how to pour, then what? I know that another tenet of Montessori is no extrinsic rewards. While that's fine, the activities do need to have some sort of goal, don't you think? At least the alphabet has 3 levels that kids can work on and master. Rating: 3.5/5
Parental Involvement: This app provides a reporting feature where parents and or teachers can see what the child has done and how much time was spent doing it. It's item-level information, which is great for those who have time to look everything over, but I think it needs to also include some more general information. Rating: 3.5/5
Total: 14 out of 20 - 3 stars
Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.
Reading Raven was created by Early Ascent, LLC. as a phonics-based reading app. It's a step-by-step instructional sequence for 3-5 year-olds. With all the literacy apps out there, can the Reading Raven stand out? Price: $3.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Developmental Appropriateness: There are 3-4 different activities for each age. Parents can select the age and types of activities within the age for their child. The activities are very appropriate and build upon each other. So for example, a 3 year-old activity is to trace letters, and by 5, the activity is to trace words. The feedback is also great, where if you get it wrong, it tells you why. Also, for each age, there are 5 levels. So in each level, you focus on a specific set of letters and letter-sounds and they increase the difficulty of the material (e.g. length of the sentences you see). For the most part, I agree with the leveling. Where I differ is that it seems to focus on lowercase letters first. Research has shown that kids learn uppercase letters first. I'm also not sure about the way they grouped the letters into each level. As I've said before, there's no real pattern to the order in which kids learn the letters. Yes, I think there are some letter-sounds that may be easier than others, or some that are easier to write than others, but then again, you might learn to write the letter "S" faster if your name is Sam. Since parents are already setting the activities and age, it might be good to have an option where they can choose the letters they want their child to focus on. Finally, while the "levels" present different graphics that are fun, the actual activities in each level are identical. I don't think kids will really see them as advancement in levels - but I'm just nitpicking at this point. Great app for learning phonics. Rating: 4.5/5 (age 3-5)
Balance: The different graphics are fun without distracting from the task at hand. (I don't really see where the raven fits in and he kinda has a weird voice.) Rating: 5/5
Sustainability: Given the number of different activities across the age range, there's certainly enough to master in terms of content. Each level shows your progress, but a record of scores may be helpful to encourage kids to repeat a level, especially when they may not have gotten everything correct. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: One aspect I loved about this app is the inclusion of a guide for parents and teachers explaining each activity and what the goals are. However, like I said, I'd like to see some sort of scoring, not only as an incentive for the kids, but more so for parents to review what their kid may or may not be excelling at. I think this is especially important since the parents are the ones setting the activities and difficulty. The scoring would provide at least some sort of crude measure that would help them decide what settings to check. Rating: 4/5
Total: 17.5 out of 20: 5 Stars
Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.
