Alphabet Jumbled

Alphabet Jumbled was created by Pixel Interactive and focuses on some early alphabet learning. It's got 5 different activities - two are fairly standard introducing the alphabet and some flashcards. The other three are all about the sequencing of the alphabet with a "jumble" concept - sounds like something new? Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: So the first two, more standard, activities are nice - they are just that - pretty standard. The first just labels the letters and letter-sounds. The second shows flashcards of the letter linked with an object. The last three are all about sequencing and putting all the letters in order. Some with just a chunk of letters, some with all the letters, some timed, some not timed. So "jumble" not in the word game jumble sense, just in a mixed around kinda sense. They are kinda fun and maybe a breath of fresh air from more standard early alphabet games. My question is, just how important is the sequence of the alphabet? Yes, it's important. The alphabet song is one of the most well-known children's songs (in the US at least). Virtually all American kids learn it, and it sticks. It's a simple and fun way to teach the sequencing of the alphabet, which helps build literacy skills. But knowing the sequence of letters is not the same or maybe not as important as knowing the sequence of numbers. That has more meaning - 1 is less than 2 is less than 3. But A has no different value than B than C. So why focus most of an app on the sequence of letters? Especially when the alphabet song is already a pretty effective and popular method. The goal of learning the alphabet is to learn to read - which is learning the combination of letters that form words, not the sequence of the alphabet. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: In most cases, the letters are filled in with a background like polka dots. While this makes the letters look cute, it may actually be distracting kids from recognizing the letters. Remember, young kids have a hard time seeing two things at once. So they may just focus on the colorful patterns instead of the letter. And with the flashcards, the letter appears with the colorful background in the corner, but then in plain print within the word - I'd highlight the letter correspondence here more as they can look pretty different - at least to little kids. Rating: 3/5

Sustainability - It's a cute looking app, and kids might enjoy the game element of the jumble activities. It  doesn't save your times though. Rating: 4/5

Parent Involvement: There's not much to do for parents here... Rating: 3/5 


Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars

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

Cars in Sandbox: Construction

Cars in Sandbox: Construction was created by Thematica and is for construction truck lovers - dump trucks, loader, trucks, tractors, trucks I'd never heard of like the crawler-mounted excavator, trucks with cool names like the telescopic handler, you name it. Price: $2.99

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

Developmental Appropriateness: This is a creative app in that it makes the trucks pretty functional and realistic in what their tasks are. So for each truck, kids have to move them with their finger or tilt the device to achieve a task fitting of that truck - so like putting objects in a dump truck to dump them into a bin. There aren't much verbal instructions but in each task there are cute pictures posted on the walls that show you what should be done, which encourages exploring, without leaving you totally in the dark. A younger kid may not notice these pictures, but once they do, they'll get the hang of it. Some of them are easier to figure out than others - but overall a good exercise in problem solving. Also, at times it takes some good motor skills to get the truck to do what you want, so younger kids may get a little frustrated. I wish there was more info offered about the trucks. I guess learning by doing is answer enough, but some of the trucks are kinda similar - at least to me who's not very well versed in construction trucks, so a brief little explanation with facts and figures would be nice. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 6 years).

Balance: There are some fun additional features like if you tap on the door it opens (only to reveal no driver! Would be nice if kids could create their own avatar and continue the role playing as the driver) and the horn sounds. But sometimes, these features get in the way of trying to make the truck move. And it's sometimes hard to get the truck in the exact position you want, so a gas/brake feature would be nice for more accurate movement. Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: Overall, this is an engaging task for truck lovers. Some sustainability issues may that that while some tasks may be hard for younger kids, older kids may get bored because there is only one task per truck. You also earn various number of stars per truck task which is good, but I wonder if there could be levels, the harder, the more stars - or a progression of some sort. Rating: 4/5

Parental Involvement: Parents may need to help kids figure out what to do at first, but otherwise, this is a kids only game. Rating: 3/5

Total: 15 out of 20 stars = 4 stars

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

RangerKidz Counting Corral

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

Monkeys in My Head

Monkeys in My Head was created by PaperPlane Co. It's an ebook that aims to help children cope with internal bullies. Bullying, in any form, has become a recent hot topic. I was curious as to how this e-book was going to address this important issue. Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 5.1 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: This book is really aimed at an individual who has personally experienced bullying and or has low-self esteem and are beating his/herself up inside. While it does not deal with bully prevention or really even how to deal with bullying- internal or external, it does in the least send the message that you are not alone in feeling these feelings. To the extent that this book may help a child who is dealing with these issues (in a clinical sense), I will have to say that this is not my area of developmental expertise. I think this is definitely a book parents should read first and see if they think it is appropriate and relevant for their child. It deals with a pretty serious matter as poor Pirourette (the main character) has to struggle with these demons inside her head. For a child who may be dealing with similar issues, this book may be a good way to get the conversation started. Alone, the book may not offer any "solutions." For kids who may not be experiencing these issues, the book may be a little confusing and contains some inappropriate and aggressive behavior from the monkeys and a frustrated Pirourette who screams, "Shut up!" I would definitely say that the recommended target age by the developers of 4 and up is too young for the approach of this e-book on this more mature topic. The "coping" that takes place in this book - where Pirourette mentally "cages" the monkeys requires some cognitive strength that a younger child may not understand yet. Rating: 3/5 (Aim for around 8 years)

Balance: In terms of the e-book features, this book is pretty stylized in terms of the art and overall feel. The focus is on the story and less on literacy development. The text doesn't highlight, it's presented in different fonts and sizes - so probably not as beneficial for improving reading skills, which is fine. The interactive features are kinda sparse, but when they are there, they are related to the story. Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: This is a hard one. I think for the very specific group of kids, they might identify with this and love it. But overall, when comparing to other books and picking out any book to read for fun or bedtime, or whatever, this isn't going to exactly be the go to book. Rating: 3.5/5

Parental Involvement - This is absolutely a book a parent should read with their child, at least the first few times. It begs for conversation beyond the book. This book does a good job of starting the conversation with kids who may need it - its up to parents/teachers, etc. to follow up and finish it. Rating: 4/5

Total: 14.5 out of 20  - 3 stars.

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

A Garden for Pig

A Garden for Pig was developed by Kane Miller Books. It's a story about a pig who lives on an apple farm and gets sick of eating just apples and wants some vegetables - a cute story about a pig and his food. Price: $3.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: The topic is is appropriate and timely, given the whole organic food trend, and animals are always popular characters with kids. Surprisingly, even though this e-book does have some interactive elements, it feels like a physical book that's been pdf'ed. Not that it's a bad thing. The illustrations are great on their own and I don't think the little extra "e-book-ified" elements really add all that much. Actually, the illustrations are "multi-media" and looks like newspaper was used to make the trees and stuff like that which I think would actually look better in person rather than on a screen. There are some recipes and a bit more information on specific vegetables that are sprinkled throughout - a nice touch, but not kid friendly. They do not read aloud and are not written on a kid's level. There's narration and some light sound effects here and there, and that's more or less it. Again, there's nothing wrong with that - but I'm not rating on how good a book this is, but how good of an e-book this is. Basically, it's a cute book, but folks might prefer just the plain ol' print version. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 5).


Balance: I like the addition of recipes and info on the vegetables and gardening- could have gone farther. And maybe the recipes could have been separate from the story. Some of the other interactive features seem to really just for fun and possibly distracting and don't add much. Rating: 3.5/5


Sustainability: It's a cute story with some humor. Kids will come back for the story, but probably not for the interactive features... Rating: 3.5/5


Parental Involvement: The cards for recipes and extra info encourage parents to elaborate on the points and do some cooking! It's a nice way to lead into cooking together. And perhaps to get kids to eat their vegetables too! Note that this food focuses on gardening and home grown food, but the recipes are not necessarily "healthy ones" - just so that that's not an expectation. Rating: 4/5


Total: 14.5 out of 20 = 3 stars

i Learn with Boing: Savannah Adventures!

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

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


Total: 13 out of 20 = 3 stars