Trunky Fishing Game

Trunky Fishing Game was created by UpsideDown Games. It's the digital take on the classic Fishing Game - yes, you know, the one at carnivals that you can never win or you might know it from it's toy form. The fish spin in a pond and they open and close their mouths. You have your little fishing rod and have to time it just right to land in the fish's mouth and pull it up without dropping it. So does it work as a digital game? How is it educational? Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: This app presents the game in a few different ways - a just for fun, fish your heart out mode, and then modes where it asks you catch the fish with a specific color, letter, and or number - so tapping into recognition. I like that it sets up the learning in a game setting - makes the learning fun. You can even have a two-player mode and play on the same device at the same time. Some friendly competition can help motivate play. I actually do remember this Fishing Game as a kid and loved playing it.  However, I don't feel it quite feel it captures what made the fishing game fun. Here, you tap on the target fish when it's mouth is open and drag it to the bucket. There's no thrill of using a rod, timing your actions just right, and then the best part, pulling the fish up and praying that the mouth has closed tightly and it doesn't fall off. So while the app has put the player in the Fishing Game setting, it doesn't really feel like you're actually playing the Fishing Game.

I would also prefer a bit more initial instruction. It took me a minute to figure out what to do. Trunky, the elephant is there with his fishing rod, and since I expected a fishing rod as part of the play, I thought Trunky would have a role in it. But he doesn't. He's merely the cheerleader. A few simple directions would help. Also, in the learning modes, the target is said in the beginning, and then you see the label in the top of the screen. I would like to hear the target repeated or prompts given, especially if the child is taking long to find the correct fish. Kids at this age cannot read the labels, and they may not know to tap on the label to hear it repeated. The letter and numbers are also kinda small to read - making them more salient would be helpful. There's some simple feedback when you get it right, but more reinforcement of both getting the correct and incorrect answers could help support the learning. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years)

Balance: As mentioned a few more features to help support the learning are needed. Otherwise, the game is set up simply, colorfully, without much distraction. Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: While you get a point for every fish you correctly catch, it doesn't really record your score or keep a record if you're playing against others. And although you can choose to work on colors or letters or numbers, there aren't really any levels. It doesn't get faster or more difficult. Rating: 3/5

Parental Involvement: Trunky Fishing Game is linked to YogiPlay, a feature that parents can login to. Here, parents can look at usage reports (time spent on specific apps, time spent on reading/math/etc. apps), get recommendations based on your child's preferences, and also send messages to their child based on their usage and performance. YogiPlay also has a reward system where you collect coins and can "purchase" kid-friendly items. So this a great way for parents to stay connected, especially with games that are child-centered/meant to be a one-player game. Reviewing performance is important, but parents should also remember to reinforce the material and add-in real world context. Rating: 4.5/5

Total: 14.5 out of 20: 3 stars

Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes. Also, I've been working with YogiPlay as a reviewer!

The Dream by Swipea

The Dream is an e-book by Chong Siang Kai. It's a fictional story that also aims to teach facts and about the Arabic world. It includes a bunch of mini-games too - currently its free, with in -app purchase options (mainly for the mini-games). Price: Free

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: From the description, this e-book sounds great - and for the most part, it lives up to the description. It's a solid e-book that was definitely designed with learning in mind. I really like how it's a fictional story and then uses the interactive elements to teach about the Arabic culture and environment. For example, you can tap on the camel, and a definition will pop up and also give some facts about camels, or you can tap on a word, like Ahmad's name, and it'll give you what it means in Arabic. There's also a separate mode where you can just search through for the interactive elements, but it doesn't narrate the text - so more of an exploring mode and you can focus on just the story in the Read to Me mode. The activities are kept separate from the story. 

So why am I not more excited about this e-book? While the illustrations are nice and kid-friendly, I think I just didn't find the book as engaging as it could be. I guess this is for a few reasons... The text, especially with the facts are not overly complicated, but not exactly kid-friendly. Kids like a bit of humor, it helps to engage them, leading to better memory and learning. I also thought the interactive elements could have been better and taken it to the next step. First, saying what you are defining first is important! It just jumps into the definition without labels. Second, the definitions are just paired with a static picture. Some animation or videos could be used to highlight the definitions. Finally, I think the activities could be beefed-up. A couple do add to cultural knowledge, like the clothing and the food, but they are pretty one-dimensional games. The rest are more like ads. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 7 years).


Balance: Overall, it's pretty simple, and not too much distraction. But when there is an interactive element, the narration for the facts will overlap with the narration of the story. Since there is a separate mode to find the facts, maybe the facts should not be on in the Read to Me mode, or at least not accessible until the text is read. Rating: 4/5


Sustainability: Like I said, I would love for this e-book to be more engaging. To me, but maybe others will differ, I didn't the tone of the e-book to be too kid-oriented. Rating: 3/5


Parental Involvement: Parents can obviously read with their child, and they might actually learn some facts too! This e-book is a great start to teaching starting conversations about other cultures. Rating: 4/5


Total: 15 out of 20 = 4 stars

50 Reviews!

I've finally reached 50 reviews here and to celebrate, I wrote up a Top 5 wish list that just got posted on the Joan Ganz Cooney Center blog. So give it a read - and here's looking to 50 more reviews!

Smart Flashcards - Addition 1

Smart Flashcards - Addition 1 was created by Lexpaper. There are a lot of flashcard apps out there. And to be honest, too many. Educational apps have much more potential than to simply be flashcards. Sure digitized flashcards are much more mobile and easy to make and even personalize, but do they really add that much to learning than regular ol' flashcards made on index cards? But what makes these flashcards more interesting is that it provides "help" on how to solve each problem. What kind of help? Price: Free.

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.


Developmental Appropriateness: This app provides 100 simple addition problems. You just scroll through them at your own pace, slowly memorizing them. Ok - that's the basics. Now onto the more interesting part. If you need help on 9+5, you tap on the card and it shows you the answer, 14 and also a number line where it starts at 9 and then moves up 5 one-by-one, until it gets to 14. I applaud the developers that they took this app to the next step, showing some kind of strategy and support. But, I still have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I wish it offered more. It only showed one kind and level of strategy - count-on. Beginners would not be ready for it - they are likely still using count-all where they would start from 1. More advanced learners might be using 10's or deriving the answer with something like, "I know that 10+5 is 15 and 9 is one less than 10, so the answer is 14." Also, for young kids, verbal prompts along with the illustration would be really helpful. As is, it felt a bit limited. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for 6 years)


Balance: The cards are very simple and clear. Again, the subtlety of the movements of the "help" may be lost on kids, who may not pay as much attention without verbal cues. Rating: 4/5


Sustainability: This is probably not something kids would choose to do on their own - they are flashcards. Rating: 2/5


Parental Involvement: Parents don't have much of a role here other than to enforce practicing with these flashcards. Rating: 3/5


Total: 12.5 out of 20 = 3 stars

Kids' Dental Health

Kids' Dental Health was created by Alexandr Stacanov and is an e-book that teaches kids about oral hygiene. Yes, there's an app for that! I have to admit that I was not a very good teeth brusher as a child, but luckily, no cavities to date! Would this book have encouraged my younger self (and probably current self) to brush and floss better? Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: The topic matter is of course relevant to young kids. Brushing teeth is probably part of their daily routine. This book explains why brushing and flossing is important and that you should go tot he dentist for routine checks. Although you can tell that there was effort to make the text more kid-friendly, it could've gone farther. While the graphics seem to aim for a young child, the text seems to be aimed for older. Also, the text is pretty much informational - it's not really a story that draws you in and makes you care about oral hygiene. It attempts to draw you in in two ways. First, you can choose a character that then becomes the character in the story. This is a good way to get kids to identify with the character in the story - unfortunately, nothing is really happening to the character in the story. So there's nothing to identify with, other than to learn the information the character is learning. Second, there is one game within the book (there are supposedly more games coming with the updates). In this game, you tap on bacteria until they go away. You earn points, but there's no real goal. Actually, when it was done and told me that I was great at brushing away all the germs, I still had a mouthful of germs plus some that I didn't get that became plaque. So, the feedback was not all that accurate and actually teaches you poorly about the consequences of not brushing well. You would also think that the way to kill the bacteria would be some kinda brushing motion or something related to brushing instead of tapping. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 5 years).


Balance: The story is pretty simple. You can tap on some of the pictures and it will label it. Some of the areas are not so accurate though - like if I tapped on the child's body, it says toothbrush. And tapping on the pictures will interrupt the reading the text. But overall, the focus is clear - brush, floss, and go to the dentist. Rating 3.5/5


Sustainability: Since there's no real story, kids' aren't likely to repeatedly come back to this e-book. The one activity/game might be fun at first, but without a goal, is not too engaging. Rating: 3/5


Parental Involvement: Parents should read this along with their child so they can reinforce what's taught in the book to real life. It's also probably a book parents would pick for their child rather than a book a child would pick on their own. Rating: 3.5/5


Rating: 13 out of 20 = 3 stars


Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes.

LH Animal Sounds

Animal Sounds was developed by Synthcomm sp. z o.o. It should come as no surprise that in general, kids love animals. Animal names and sounds are some of the first words and sounds babies make. It makes sense then that animals is the subject matter of many apps. Do these apps, specifically, Animal Sounds, capture what makes animals so appealing to kids? Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: From the research world, we know that kids, even babies, attend to animals more than inanimate objects. For example, babies under 1-year would watch realistic videos of animals more than they would watch videos of inanimate objects moving. What is it about animals that make them so interesting? I'm sure experts in biophilia have studied and can say more about factors like face and the movement of animals that make us attend to animals. So before I digress too much more, my point is that I think these factors should be taken into consideration when looking at an app about animals. You might be thinking that maybe I'm taking this too far - an animal app is just a fun, simple app for kids. True. But I do think that consideration of realistic photos or videos and the movement and characteristics of the animals can separate an ok animal app from a great animal app.

So Animal Sounds - The animals are pretty cartoonish, with many of them dressed in clothing. Again, young kids have an easier time generalizing from what they see in a book to the real world when the images look more realistic. I'm not saying that they have to be photographs only, but the images here are really not realistic. With each image, there is a female voice saying, "The cow goes moo." The voice is animated and kid-friendly. While this might simulate a parent reading with their child, the animal sounds are not at all realistic. Finally, if you tap on the picture, it moves up and down, but not in any motion that an animal would make. So while this may be a fun app for parents to use with their child and make some animal sounds together, this app does not really capture what may make animals so interesting to kids. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years).

Balance - In order to choose what animal to look at, there's a kinda wheel on the side that you would spin. While I like this feature, a 2 year old may have some trouble spinning it. I'm not sure how the animals are organized within this wheel, so it might take a little effort to figure out where the favorites might be.  The written label is provided at the bottom of the screen but it doesn't highlight or it doesn't repeat so kids can hear the label again. Only the animal sound is repeated if you tap on the picture. Also, I rarely mention in-app purchases or links as I like to just focus on the content, but there's a pretty attractive and distinctive icon of a super hero in the top corner that leads you to access other apps by the developers. This icon is not just on like the main menu page, but is present throughout the app. I can see kids easily tapping on this icon and accidentally exiting out of the app. Rating: 3/5

Sustainability - There are 44 animals - which is a good amount. But again, since this app does not really capture the essence of the animals, I'm not sure to what extent kids will keep coming back to it. Rating: 3/5

Parental Involvement - Animals are an easy topic for parents to talk about with their kids. This app seems to be one where parents should play along. Rating: 3/5

Total: 12 out of 20 - 3 stars

Magic Sorter/ Poll results - What age should kids start using apps?

Magic Sorter was created by Igromatic and is a puzzle app recommended for toddlers 1-3 years of age. It's been awhile since I've reviewed an app targeting such young kids - my target age range is really 3-8 years. I set it at 3 on the lower end because I'm not sure how beneficial it is for kids younger than 3 to be using apps?Canthey use apps? Sure - kids are amazingly tactile But should they - we still don't know. We've been warned not to let kids under 2 watch tv - should the age range differ for apps? You, my readers, seem to think so - or some of you at least. Remember the poll to the right of screen? Yes, the one that's been up and closed forever and I've forgotten about - I've reopened if you want to vote now. Here are the results (out of 52 votes):

The most number of votes went the the 1-2 years range. Tying this back to Magic Sorter, the majority of the votes fall in the 1-3 year range - the target age range of the app. So maybe it's just me being conservative on the age. What do we expect from apps for these young kids? Does Magic Sorter convince me that apps should target kids under 3? Price: $1.99


Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.1 or later.


Developmental Appropriateness: This app is all about puzzles - puzzles about color, sizes, and a classic jigsaw puzzle. sure, these are great puzzles for toddlers. Does making them into an app add any value than just have regular old physical puzzles? Not really. I guess when I think about educational apps, I think about what can it add that the traditional activity doesn't have? Sure, convenience/portability, etc. But I don't think that this app takes learning to the next step.


In terms of usability - I"m going to say it again - drag and drop is not easy for young kids. Watch the video. This girl was chosen to do this video - meaning she's probably been prepped. Watch her drag the puzzle pieces - it's not exactly easy for her. 

Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years).


Balance: The app is very simple and user-friendly. For this age group though, parents will need to help navigate and show their child what to do. There's some animation at the end of each puzzle (watch the little girl dance) :) Rating: 4/5


Sustainability: There are a bunch of puzzles and the categories of puzzles also add to the variety. Rating: 4/5


Parental Involvement: The developers acknowledge that parents may need to assist, but again, usability is not the type of involvement I look for from parents. However, I will say that some of the puzzles lend themselves to "teachable" moments like talking about size, shape, and color. Rating: 3.5/5


So, I'm still not convinced of the benefits of apps for kids under 3.


Total: 14.5 out of 20 - 3 stars


Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.