Category: Technology

Scribble Press: Kids Ipad App

I’m absolutely loving this iPad App ‘Scribble Press’ and the best thing of all it’s FREE! Scribble Pad allows children to write, illustrate and share their own stories. They can use a story template as a starting point (e.g. If I were a Fairy, All about my Dad, If I ruled the World or The Craziest Day) or they can make their own from scratch.

There is a huge bank of drawing tools; everything from markers, to stamps and to stickers. All of which are very easy to use. My daughter is only 4. The Ipad’s camera is also integrated so your child can transport themselves into the story.

It’s entirely up to you whether you want to share their work, but there’s also a public gallery, which is great for checking out other children’s stories and giving your child inspiration for their own masterpiece. My favourite is ‘The Loin King’ and that isn’t a typo.

I also read somewhere that it may be possible to get your children’s work printed but I haven’t investigated closely.

The possibilities are endless.

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Music to our ears! Kids’ Ipad App Reviews

My hubby and I are pretty much tone deaf. The only exposure our daughter really gets to music is the radio playing in the background or in the car. We have abandoned music classes because, if this is hereditary, it’s probably better to spend our money elsewhere. However, I was recently sent the following two music apps which we really like and hopefully will foster an appreciation of Music.

Tap-A-Tune (free)by the folks at Mindshapes, this app reminds me of whack-a-mole. You have the option of either a keyboard or mole holes, where a selection of hilarious characters pop up and by clicking on them in order you end up playing a nursery rhyme. You can choose from a selection of Nursery Rhymes and instruments. There is also an option that allows children to create their own music and another for babies; no matter what they click it will play a nursery rhyme.

 

Meet the Orchestra (£1.49) this is an excellent app that introduces children to the different sections of the Orchestra (Brass, Woodwind, Percussion, Strings, Piano). Children can tap on each of the instruments to listen to the sound they make. After exploring the instruments there are a selection of quizzes.; identify by appearance, find by sound, matching and my favourite but a bit challenging for my four year old, defining the order where they listen to a short piece of music and then they have to press on the instruments in the order that they hear them. The graphics are amazing along with the sound. Shortly after playing this app we attended a children’s concert by the local Symphony Orchestra and said mummy ‘that’s a violin’! Brilliant!

 

Kid’s Ipad App Review: Word Wall HD

When I was at school we learned the alphabet by singing the alphabet song but this  a major ‘no-no’ now, as it is all done by phonics. Even though I’m a former teacher the whole phonemes, word families and CVC words is all a bit of a mystery to me, as I taught slightly older children and they tended to be able to read when they got to me. However, now that I have a four year old I really need to get my head around all of this.

About the App
I was sent Word Wall HD (.69p) by Punflay which was designed to develop early reading skills. To start there are two sections that introduce children to the letters and their sounds individually and then the children are introduced to word families (am, an, ig, un) and are asked to drag and drop any letter to create a word, which is then supported by the pronunciation and picture of the object.

After they have explored the writing sections there are then 4 activities to consolidate their learning; see and find, hide a word, bubble words and jigsaw. The matching game is pretty straight forward; children have to match the picture to the word.

My four year old really likes the Seek and Find where you have to swipe your finger over the screen until you find the hidden object. Once they find the object it reads the word to them supported with a picture to reinforce the meaning.

The Bubble Words, where you have to look at the picture and drag and drop the letters to spell the word that matches the picture, was too advanced my daughter as she is at the really early stages of reading.

The Jigsaw does pretty much what it says on the tin.

What we thought

Overall, I thought the app was okay and helped me, to some degree, better understand word families. My only worry is the American accents, as we’re based in the UK and the way they teach phonics is ‘unique’. I’m Canadian so I have no problem with this but I know parents who have removed some Ipad apps as they felt it was confusing for their children. However, many others have stated that they grew up on Sesame Street here in the UK and it’s not a problem.

Come to think of it there are huge differences between accents in the North and South in the UK. Would this put you off buying an app for your kids?

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Disclosure: I received a free promo code for this app.

Do as I say, not as I do!

I work in education as an IT consultant so I’m all too aware of the importance of e-safety when it comes to kids and the internet. Personally, I’m at the adage that I’d rather teach them how to deal with uncomfortable content or experiences rather than closeting them to it. Basically, teaching them what to do ‘when’ it happens, as it’s only a matter of time.

In all the years, I’ve been on the net I’ve rarely come across inappropriate content but it can easily happen. I won’t mention the time I tried to go to the Mr Men website, put the full stop in the wrong place and ended up in a gay men’s website. I have to admit there were some pretty hot men and wasn’t that bothered that I couldn’t get out of it! ;-)

However, it made me think of my own internet use. Here are a set of typical rules for kids and how I’ve broken them…..repeatedly!

Never give out personal information like your telephone number or home address
I don’t know how many times I’ve given people my mobile number over twitter. I hate seeing people struggle with anything to do with social media (twitter, Facebook, blogs) and not offer to help. And on several other occasions, normally to do with a bereavement, I’ve given my home address so people could pass on cards etc…

Never, under any circumstance agree to meet with anyone you meet on the internet
I’ve lost count of how many tweet-ups I’ve been on. If you’re wondering what a tweet up is it’s when you meet up with other twitterers. I’ve even been away for the weekend with a few and had one for Christmas last year!

Never send pictures
Well you just have to see my ‘recent images’ on my twitter profile to see how many times I’ve done this, most recently a photo of me with a glass of wine and a crash helmet. Back in the summer I also received loads of tweets saying they saw a photo of my daughter in face paints at Lollibop, a children’s festival in London, she’s a star and doesn’t know it.

Don’t respond to mean or abusive messages
On more than one occasion I have fired back and ‘F’ Bomb at people or engaged in some quite heated debates, but it’s usually followed by hitting the block button!

Stay out of chatrooms
Does twitter count? Ooops

Don’t share your passwords with anyone
I personally never share my own passwords with anyone, as I’m not that stupid, but I do have access to at least a half a dozen people’s blogs, twitter and Facebook accounts from when I’ve helped them out. I even have passwords for a few blue chip companies that I run twitter accounts for. I wonder if they’ve been changed recently. *runs off to check*.

This is tongue in cheek. However, the biggest difference here is that I’m an adult, not a child, and I have the reasoning abilities to work out the risk and would never put myself in unnecessary danger but a child might.

Nevertheless, as adults I think we really need to think about the messages we are sending out to our kids.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Please do leave a comment.

iPad Apps for Kids: Fun Felt

A friend of mine, with the technical ability, would like to develop an app for kids so I’ve been trying to help him come up with an idea. The other day, after spotting my daughters Fuzzy Felts, I thought they would be a great idea for an app. However, by the time I text him and he replied, low and behold I found one already existed, Fun Felt by Quiros Apps (.69p).

I absolutely love it. My four year old and I’ve been playing with it for ages. It’s great for creativity, shape recognition, fine motor skills, spatial awareness and you’ll see it also lends to literacy and numeracy.

Only negative is that it froze on a couple of occasions which was a bit frustrating.

So what do you think of our first attempts?

Click here to download

Disclosure: I have used my own affiliate code for this post. So, on the off-chance that you purchase it I get a measly couple of pence.