Kids and Home

I'm sending you to another app review blog for this one because he's got a great video on this app and how it works.

http://www.crazymikesapps.com/build-a-home-while-traveling-the-world-kids-and-home-ipad-app-video/

Search Amazon.com for Kids global awareness

Wild Fables Come To Life!

www.wildfables.com

Creators Ray Wenderlich, Vicki Wenderlich and Andrea Coulter have created a magical re-telling of three of Aesop's Fables in this Wild Fables app for iphone, itouch and ipad. Search Amazon.com for aesops fables for children

 The first free book sample is The Crow and the Pitcher.  My daughter and I read and played with the features tonight and I love, love, love this app!

The graphics are crisp and classy.  Using physics based code the interactivity of this app is second to none.  The crow wobbles like a real bird, the pitcher tilts and the water rises as you drag and drop the pebbles into the pitcher.  Wonderful!

My daughter (app tester Ruqaya aged 5) would have liked to hear some sound options but I enjoy that sometimes we have to actually READ the stories on iphone together.  I can't wait to see the rest of the series that the creators come up with.

Search Amazon.com for Orchestra for kids

Melody Street by Genera Interactive is an entertaining and educational app for children aged 3-10.  Children enter the house on Melody Street to meet all the instruments of the orchestra in their families.  The graphics are professional and my daughter enjoyed the interactive features.  The thunderstorm cloud at the end of the story is particularly engaging and it's fun to make the lightening flash.

I like the easy layout of the app and appreciated the hidden pop up menu that parents can access at anytime during the story by touching the music staff and notes at the bottom of the page.  The app comes with both auto play and interactive modes to choose from   The autoplay mode does not include the text and plays more like a video.  

Authors and app designers need to remember that apps are available globally and children like to see names that represent their culture and language in books.  All the names of the instrument characters in this story sound a bit eurocentric. So far the app comes with Chapter One which is a rhyming introduction to the different instruments. I would have liked to see more plot introduction to peak the reader's interest earlier.  Hopefully chapters 2 and forward will be more exciting.

This app provides good value for money and gives us more to look forward to.

http://melodystreet.com/

Our rating:  This baby rocks!

(Disclosure: a promotional code was provided to us for this review)

Five Green and Speckled Frogs - CJ

Search Amazon.com for five green and speckled frogs
Five Green and Speckled Frogs by CJ Time ( for iphone) Review

CJ Time provides a lively rendition of a favourite "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" with song. Children can choose to listen to the story/song and follow along with the words or colour along by filling in the colour for line drawings.  The song is toe-tapping and the illustrated frogs are cute and engaging.

We wish that the frogs were interactive and actually jumped into the pond! Ruqaya (5) also would like the frogs to surf at the end of the story.  This is just one of many storybooks featuring classic children's songs.

CJ has a number of children's classic songs published as ebooks. www.cjtimes.com for more details.