Category: Technology

Don’t fancy letting your kids at your iPad?

My daughter has been flying around my iphone since she was about 2.  It’s loaded up with tons of fantastic educational games for her.  However, there are times when I need to use my phone for work, but I also need her to be quiet in the background when I’m trying to make calls which can be a conundrum  There is nothing worse than talking to a head teacher or potential client and she shouts loudly that she needs a POO!  It’s not the professional air that I want to give off!  ;-)

So, this is why I was so pleased when the lovely Kirit from out local toy store Cuthbert’s offered us a vetch Mobigo Touch Learning System which retails for £49.99 to review.  It’s a handheld device for children 3-8 years of age, similar to a DSI, which in fact is what my daughter calls it, that is touch sensitive.

Ours came with the Disney Princess Cartridge which had 6 different games which teaches everything from colours, counting letters, shapes, and matching.  If I’m completely honest my daughter, who is four, struggled with the activities as it didn’t seem to respond to her touch which left her frustrated.  I had a go myself at connecting the dots (pearls) and I couldn’t do it either.

However, once I realised you could download other games from the Learning Lodge, that were more age appropriate, she was much happier with it.  It was very straight forward to register for the Learning Lodge and to download games.  I had a wee hiccup with Flash but we sorted it quickly.  Plus, the Mobigo comes with 3 tokens which entitles you to 3 games which normally cost £2.99 each.  I opted for Monkey Disco, Shopping Spree and Rapid Recycling.

Unfortunately, shortly after the arrival of the Mobigo I received an iPad for my birthday and it has superseded the Mobigo for the time being.

I would never suggest buying an iPad for a preschooler as it’s far too expensive and fragile.  Yes, apps are cheaper than the learning lodge games but the outlay for the iPad is about ten times as much as the Mobigo.   If you purchased an iPad and 10 apps it would cost you in excess of £500; now if you purchased the Mobigo and 10 games it would set you back about £60.  It’s a no brainer really.

The Mobigo is a good alternative and would be a great Christmas present.

Thanks Kirit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iPad Apps for Kids: Park Math HD

I was looking for an iPad app for my daughter that introduced basic addition and subtraction using picture stories and came across Park Math HD (£1.49) by Duck Duck Moose. I’ve come across their apps before and liked them. I do like this one as well; there are activities for counting, adding, subtracting and sorting with 3 levels of differentiation. I wasn’t huge fan of the Swing Counting one but the others are good.

For more of our app reviews click here

Ipad Apps for Kids: Puppet Pals HD

Yet, another fantastic Ipad app recommendation from my mate Danny Nicholson from The Whiteboard Blog.  I absolutely love this app Puppet Pals, it’s also available for iphones but can’t help thinking the screen would be too small and fiddly for little fingers.

Simply choose your characters, a background, resize the images and when you’re ready push the record button, move your characters around and narrate your story.  Within seconds you have an animated story.  My daughter is only four and cracked it right away.  The educational value is limitless (literacy, listening and speaking, drama).

The basic version is free and comes with the Fairytale characters, but I’m tempted to buy the Director’s pass (£1.99), which includes custom content and all the characters, so we can start using our own images; including my daughter so we can plonk her right in the stories.  She’d go crazy!

Here is my daughter’s first attempt.  Do bear in mind she’s only 4 and the concept of a beginning, middle and end to a story is still beyond her.

For more of our app reviews click here

Kids don’t watch TV!

I found this comment from Alice Taylor, a Bafta award-winning gamer, very interesting.  It was during a panel discussion at Microsoft Soho Studios.  Kinect has recently added National Geographic and Sesame Street to the Xbox peripheral allowing children to be more interactive with the games.  They’re trying to move away from the Dora style attempt at interaction on TV, where she asks a question, pauses a moment and then applauds the child even if they get it wrong or have walked out of the room.

Ever since my daughter was little we’ve worried about the amount of TV she watches.  I remember sitting in the waiting room to see the health care visitor and chatting with a more experienced mother.  Embarrassingly, almost in a ‘holier-than-thou-new-mum’ type of way I professed that we restricted her TV watching to 30 minutes a day.  She looked at me in that ‘bless you’ type of way and said ‘don’t worry you’ll get over that’.  I have to admit that it’s been a slippery slope since and she watches more TV than I’d like her to.

However, I have absolutely no problem with my daughter playing games as long as there is some kind of educational content.  This may have something to do with me being an ICT consultant in education.  She’s been using my iPhone since she was two and flies around my Ipad.  I have more apps on it for her than myself.  I’m constantly amazed at the quality of ‘edutainment’ content that is out there.  As a parent, I have to say I’m more comfortable with her playing educational games than watching TV especially if they get her off the sofa jumping around.

However, it’s another thing for us parents to worry about.  I lump computers, Ipads, Smartphones and games consuls into one larger category which I call screen time and as a parent I’m going to do my best to try to balance these with playing outdoors, eating mud, cooking, crafting and socializing.

And when I come to think of it, I watch very little TV except the odd episode of Embarrassing Bodies or Strictly on the Weekend.  However, I spend far too much time on the PC but in my defence I’m not watching soaps or reality TV, I don’t knit and this is my hobby.  Unlike television where there is very little social interaction, as it’s a very passive activity, my online activities are very social and educational.  I spend most nights chatting with others via twitter/facebook, composing blog posts (hoping to engage others in discussion via comments) or commenting on others blogs, so I guess I’m not a crusty after all!

I’d love to hear your comments on this.  Does this worry you?  Do you allow your kids to play games?

Disclosure:  I was paid to attend this event

Ipad Apps for Kids: Jellybean Count

I absolutely love this Ipad app, Jellybean Count and to boot, it’s FREE!  It was recommended by my mate Danny Nicholson from The Whiteboard Blog.

Children count the different colour of jellybeans and then use the same number of fingers to input their answers.  For example, if there are 4 green jellybeans, they need to press on the green with four fingers; a very simple introduction to counting.  Plus, when they start to get to larger numbers like 6 they’re introduced to simple number bonds as they have to use 5+1 fingers.  Fantastic!

There is also a mode to have multiple players.

Download it now!

For more of our app reviews click here.