app – Mediocre Mum

Manage your Children’s Pocket Money with an App

Roosterbank Allows you to Manage your Kid’s Pocket Money

Your example is everything when it comes to teaching your children about money – Rachael Cruze

I’m crap with money and always have been. However, I would like to instil in my daughter the value of money and getting her saving from an early age. I’m lucky my husband is a bit of a miser and set up saving accounts for her at an early age. She now probably has more money than I do.

Money doesn’t grow on trees!

It really is a tricky one, especially with online shopping as no physical money changes hands. She once wanted a yellow slide and said ‘Mummy, why don’t you just go online and get it’. I had to explain to her that it still costs money and we can’t just have everything we want.

If you’re like me any time we go to the shop, into town, school fairs, events or dreaded gift shops they are always asking ‘can I have this, can I have that’ and it becomes a bit of a battle and I often say to her, ‘Did you bring any money?’ and she always replies ‘No!’ and expects me to shell out.

Roosterbank allows you to manage pocket money via your phone

So, I was thrilled when I came across The Roosterbank App which allows you to manage your children’s pocket money. You can set an amount that they receive each week and specify the day. I have set ours to £3 a week as she is only 6 years old and she gets it on a Friday. Then when we are out and she asks for something she then has to decide whether it’s worth spending her own money on and on few occasions she decided she really didn’t need it. Genius!

Teaches the connection between work and money!

Plus, she can also ponder whether it’s better to save it up for a few weeks and get something more substantial. We haven’t had to yet but you can also remove money if they have been naughty or not done what you asked them to.

And the best thing of all is that the App is FREE! Oh the irony.

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!

Iphone App – GPS Wakeup

Have you ever stayed after work in London for a few drinks and ended up falling asleep on the train and missing your stop? My husband has a couple of times in the last 6 months and ended up at the end of the line in Bedford, resulting in a very expensive taxi ride home at 4am.

I haven’t tried this app myself yet, but I absolutely love the idea of it. GPS Alarm (free from iTunes) lets you set an alarm based on your location and will go off when you get close. The only other solution is to stick a post it note on your forehead with your stop written on it, like this slightly inebriated woman did!

Recommended Iphone App – Time to Roast

When I first saw this app I thought ‘how ridiculous, who on earth would need that?’ but apparently I do. It’s brilliant. I’m forever googling cooking times for different cuts of meat then digging out a calculator to work out cooking times based on the weight.

It’s dead simple, simply choose the type of meat (e.g beef, lamb, chicken, pork), enter the weight, how you would like it cooked (rare, medium or well done) and presto it displays the exact instructions, including time to sear. There’s even an alarm but I didn’t try that.

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Available to download (.69p) from

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.

Polly Parrot, Peppa Pig App

Available from Itunes for £1.79

‘In addition to being a mum of a 3 year old, I used to be a former primary school teacher and I’ve been an ICT trainer for 10+ years (I do software/hardware training in schools). All apps that ‘we’ review are not only trialled by Madame but I’ve also had a good play with them.’

We were sent the New Peppa Pig App, Polly Parrot, from P2 to try out. Madame loves it just as much as she loved the Happy Mrs. Chicken App. It has 3 activities: The Talking Parrot game, Where’s Polly and Feed Polly. However, as a mum, I cast my eye over it and there really isn’t a lot of educational content.

There is a smattering of numeracy in the Feed Polly game, as the children have to correctly count the number of crackers you give Polly. However, Find Polly just has kids exploring screens looking for the parrot behind the sofa etc which is a bit random and the Talking Parrot game just has them select 3 pictures and then the parrot says a silly sentence. Although, Madame did find this hilarious

However, I do like the ability to be able to collect stickers as they go along. One note for the developers, when you exit the game it would possibly be better to have a smiley face or frowny face instead of an ‘X’ or ‘✔’ to confirm that you want to exit as the little ones really don’t understand these symbols yet.

So overall here is what we thought:

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