Category: Technology

Iphone Apps for Kids – Pocket Playhome

Pocket Playhome (available from iTunes for £1.49)

I know this app was designed for kids but my mate and I, both circa 40, had a scream playing with it. It’s a virtual doll house where you can move around the house, turn the lights on and off, fry an egg, open the fridge, flick the TV on, flush the toilet, open the blinds etc. Being juvenile we spent most of the time trying to kill the fish and getting the entire family to jump up and down in the cot!

Not sure what my daughter thinks yet because…erm….she hasn’t had much time to play with it because we’ve been hogging it.

I have 3 promo codes to give away to the first 3 people who leave a comment on this blog post. Please leave me some way of contacting you (twitter or email)

So overall here is what we thought:

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Iphone Apps for Kids: Pirate Trio Academy

Right from the start I liked the look of the Kids Iphone Apps ‘Love to Count‘ (£2.49) and ‘Shapes & Puzzles‘ (£1.99) from Pirate Trio Academy. Initially I thought they were a bit advanced for Madame, but then I noticed that the Shapes & Puzzles had a special module just for 3 year olds and she loves creating all the pictures using the shapes, great for fine motor skills and shape recognition.

Unfortunately, Love to Count is still a bit advanced for her as she is just coming up to 4 and it involves fractions, number bonds and ordinal numbers. This is not a fault of the developers but I’m sure she’ll grow into it in no time. It’s designed for 4-7 year olds but as an ex-teacher I think it may be more suitable for kids 6-8. It’s still a great app though.

I have 3 promo (free) codes for each of the apps available. It’s basically a first come first serve basis. Leave a comment for me below or tweet me telling me what app you’d like and some way of contacting you and I’ll get them straight over to you.

UPDATE:  ALL PROMO CODES ARE NOW GONE!

 

1 in 3 children in London do not own a book!

I was absolutely horrified to read in a paper a few weeks ago, that 1 in 3 children in London do not own a book!  One child, when asked to bring a book into school, brought an Argos catalogue as this was the only book in the house. Bloody hell! I believe this stems to busy parents, economics and the advent of technology.  Kids prefer an X-box/Playstation to a book any day.  I’m not pointing fingers, as working parents ourselves, we’re guilty as well but personally I think this is very sad.

My hubby and I are not book worms, it’s not that we can’t read we just don’t read a lot, we prefer online magazines, newspapers, twitter and blogs.  I also belong to a book club and have done so for 10 years but to be honest I rarely make it through a book.

However, ever since Madame was very young we’ve always emphasized reading and read her 3 books every night religiously, unless it’s a really long one then maybe only two.   Even when we can’t be arsed and skip a few pages, sadly she’s at the age now that she pulls us up on it!  As an ex-teacher you’ll be amazed at the benefits of reading to your kids for a mere 10 minutes a night.  Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now!

Like with anything, including wine, moderation is the key.  I’m an IT consultant who works in education and have done so for the past 10+ years.  I don’t know how many times I’ve said that technology is to compliment what you’re doing and not to replace.  My daughter is 3.5 and is a complete whizz on my iphone, I have it loaded up with games, music and videos for her…but the difference is they all have an educational element, she’s none the wiser.  You won’t find Angry birds on my phone.

Nothing compares to breaking the spine on a new book, turning the pages and losing yourself!

This weekend, we sorted out Madame’s reading corner.  I was inspired by Trapped in North Jersey.  We’re very limited on space but I think it’s perfect.    They’re picture ledges from Ikea (115cm) and only £8 each, bargain! What do you think?

 

 

 

Toddlers Seek and Find App – Review

Available from I-tunes for .59p

I hate writing bad reviews, but I was sent the Toddlers Seek and Find App by Wonderkind to try out.  I have to say I wasn’t that impressed.  It really doesn’t do that much.  There are 3 areas to explore:  My Farm, My Forest and My Zoo.  Children just click on the animals in the picture and the animal will then do something.  For example, a deer eats the vegetables in the garden, the elephant sprays water and in the case of the pig it farts in the sheep’s face.  However, I must admit my daughter thought this was hysterical.  I think the worst thing as you will see by the image is that they spelled Toddler wrong???

So overall here is what we thought:

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The Land of Me – Interactive Story Book

I don’t know why I didn’t think I was going to like this, when in fact I really did.  There are 6 Chapters that you can download for children age 2-6 (Shape, Size and Colour, The World Outside, Making things, Rhythm and Dance, Songs and Rhymes and Story Time).  I absolutely love the music in the intro, the characters are gorgeous and what I like most of all is that there are over a 100 printable activities.

You follow the 3 characters Buddy Boo the bear, Eric the raccoon and Willow the owl through the Land Of Me.   At each stop, children have the opportunity to choose elements of the adventure.  My favourite is Anthony the Mexican Anteater in the desert, he’s a scream.  We made a castle out of jelly in the mud!

There’s also the opportunity to explore Literacy, with a place to add your own text, there’s also information about the creatures and places you visit and if you watch carefully, in the background, you may see the other characters getting up to all sorts.

The only negatives I found were that it takes quite awhile to download. So, make sure you do this before you sit the kids in front of the PC.  Secondly, as I’m a user of iTunes and rarely pay more than .59p for kid’s apps, I thought that £6.95 per chapter may be a bit dear.  However, you can download the first chapter for free from here.

Plus, this weekend they are offering a whopping £10 off.  All you need to do is type ‘happy’ into the discount code panel at checkout.

Disclosure:  We received all 6 chapters in return for this review