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<\/a><\/p>\nEndless Reader<\/a><\/p>\n i am soooooo excited about this one!\u00c2\u00a0 my very favoritest ever app (endless alphabet<\/a>) has developed a sequel that is (if possible) even better than the first.\u00c2\u00a0 or at least an excellent sequel.\u00c2\u00a0 you really should have them both.\u00c2\u00a0 but enough gushing–what does it do?\u00c2\u00a0 game play starts off similar to endless alphabet–kids pick a word out of the rolodex in the monster’s mouth, the monsters run through the word, scattering the letters hither and yon and kids put the word back together (listening to the letter sounds and names as they go). here’s where “reader” is different than “alphabet”– once the word has been built, a little flying monster comes along, picks up the whole word, flies it out of the way and a sentence appears that incorporates the word.\u00c2\u00a0 the chaos monsters run through the sentence and scatter two\u00c2\u00a0 other words and kids have to put the three words back into the sentence where they belong.\u00c2\u00a0 when they touch the word to drag it back into the sentence, the word says its name until its dropped back into place in the sentence.\u00c2\u00a0 when the whole sentence is reconstructed, an animation illustrating the sentence is played.\u00c2\u00a0 many of the words that get scattered are repeats of the words from the “rolodex” so there’s great reinforcement.\u00c2\u00a0 this one gets a ton of play in our house and is so delightful that i’m even happy to play it…. if i could ever get it out of the happy little dude’s hands.<\/p>\n My Little Work Garage by Filimundus<\/a><\/p>\n The developers of Pettson’s Inventions sent me a free download code to try out their newest app called “My Little Work Garage” awhile back.\u00c2\u00a0 Basic premise is that a car drives into a garage with seven different workstations, each with their own service.\u00c2\u00a0 The driver requests the services they want.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids can either just do the services requested, or can get creative and do a little bit of everything.\u00c2\u00a0 When they’re done, the driver pays and drives away.\u00c2\u00a0 There is also a racing component of this app, where they can race cars through 3 different tracks or trick out one of four “racing” cars in the garage.\u00c2\u00a0 The racing is a bit tricky as you need to find the balance between going fast enough to win and not so fast that you spin off the track.\u00c2\u00a0 The first few times we tried this game, I wasn’t quite sold.\u00c2\u00a0 it seemed complicated, one or two of the features were just glitchy enough to be frustrating to the happy little dude (those have all been fixed at this point, hooray!), and i thought maybe it was better suited for older kids.\u00c2\u00a0 turns out, i just needed to give my kid a chance to really dig into the app by himself for awhile and figure out how it works on his own.\u00c2\u00a0 now, he plays it often. i love the graphics and the fact that it’s wordless (translates across any language and kids don’t always listen to spoken instruction anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 an app that kids can figure out on their own without text is a well-designed app in my book.) and there seems to be a good mix of “follow the instructions” and “let’s get creative” (for instance, you don’t have to limit yourself only to the requested services on each car.\u00c2\u00a0 they could ask for new tires and you could paint flames on their vehicle instead.\u00c2\u00a0 Or add a snail shell for a trunk.\u00c2\u00a0 if i could add one thing to the developer’s wishlist, at the end of the car’s time in the garage, the driver pays coins for all services rendered during their visit.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the cash register shows the new total and if you buy new gadgets and accessories for the garage, it subtracts the proper amount of money from the cashdrawer, it never says how much the driver is paying.\u00c2\u00a0 If the attendant could say “28” or “14” or whatever they owe beside a picture of a coin, that would (subtly) add in a solid math component–both addition and subtraction (and budgeting!).\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 If you have a vehicle fanatic in your house, this might be a good choice.\u00c2\u00a0 Available for both Apple and Android.<\/em><\/p>\n Breathe\/Think\/Do by Sesame Street<\/a><\/p>\n This simple little app aims to promote emotional intelligence–a lofty goal for an app–and does it well (no surprise, knowing it’s from Sesame Street).\u00c2\u00a0 there are 5 scenarios in which\u00c2\u00a0 a little monster is feeling strong (uncomfortable) emotions [frustration, nervousness\/anxiety (separation), disappointment, impatience, apprehension (bedtime)].\u00c2\u00a0 The player is encouraged to help the monster put his hands on his belly and take three slow deep breaths (by tapping the screen for each action).\u00c2\u00a0 Then, we “help the monster think of a plan.”\u00c2\u00a0 This is the most difficult part of the described process to illustrate in an app.\u00c2\u00a0 They chose to illustrate this with some floating bubbles while the monster is thinking and the kid are supposed to pop the bubbles to help him think.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m really not sure how this will translate back to the real world, but I don’t have a better suggestion.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, after popping\u00c2\u00a0 a few bubbles, the monster comes up with a plan (and then pop more bubbles until he has three plans).\u00c2\u00a0 One of the plans is usually solo, one is with a peer (or just a second solo plan) and one is always with the help of an adult.\u00c2\u00a0 The player chooses which of the three plans they’d like the monster to try and then that solution is played out in an animation.\u00c2\u00a0 I love the concept of this game and I am eagerly awaiting the day when, in the midst of an actual tantrum, I can actually get him to “Breathe, Think, Do.” (at this point, when I offer the suggestion of putting his hands on his belly and breathing when he’s throwing a fit, the response is generally…. not accommodating.)\u00c2\u00a0 Note:\u00c2\u00a0 If you’d like to develop this concept further, away from the screen, the Sesame Street site also has these free printables that illustrate the concept.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 Also available on Android<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Toca Boca: Lab<\/a><\/p>\n Toca Boca has bunch of new apps out since I last wrote reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s even a few we haven’t tried yet (see the “looking foward to” list at the bottom of this post).\u00c2\u00a0 But when I saw that their newest one (just out today!) features playing with chemicals in a lab and the cutest periodic table of elements I’ve ever seen….. I just had to try it out.\u00c2\u00a0 F.A.N.tastic!\u00c2\u00a0 (of course, I expect nothing less from Toca Boca, but this one is possibly one of my very favorites from their whole line-up.)\u00c2\u00a0 Gameplay:\u00c2\u00a0 There are five actions you can do to an element (heat\/freeze\/centrifuge\/pour chemicals on it\/zap it with electricity).\u00c2\u00a0 Whenever you do one of these actions, the element changes into a different element… or maybe it doesn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 You have to experiment to see which actions produce which results and along the way, you’ll “discover” new elements.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m assuming that once you’ve played this long enough, you’ll have uncovered all of the elements, but that’s a LOT of different cute anthropomorphized chemicals and gasses!\u00c2\u00a0 Originally, I assumed that it was just a made-up table, but I just went to compare it to a real table of elements and… um, it’s actually based on the real thing.\u00c2\u00a0 With the real abbreviations and atomic number of each element.\u00c2\u00a0 whoa.\u00c2\u00a0 but it’s such a subtle part of the game…. now i want to know whether a generation of kids raised on this game will enter chemistry and every time they hear about bromine think of this little brown blob with teeny sticks for arms and a goofy expression.\u00c2\u00a0 anyway, there is still much to explore in this game, but it has excellent potential to strengthen STEM skills (experimenting, theorizing, categorizing, predicting…) and it’s also super fun to turn those little elements into ice cubes.<\/p>\n Bellamon:\u00c2\u00a0 The Math Tree<\/a><\/p>\n Lovely design, lots of scaffolding, and a simple premise drew me to try this app, but it’s earned a review here because i’ve actually seen real-world addition\/subtraction learning in my son now that he’s used it for awhile.\u00c2\u00a0 i will say that the other night, while he was playing, he apparently got tired of the voiceover’s constant commentary (“eight is too many.” “2 is too few.” “how many birds are in the tree?”) and yelled “stop saying that!” at the phone.\u00c2\u00a0 it would be nice if there was an option to turn the sound off.\u00c2\u00a0 (although it’s not that unpleasant if you’re not mad at the lady for constantly correcting you…)<\/p>\n we are excited to try: Toca Boca “hair salon me<\/a>” and “mini<\/a>“, Sago Mini Ocean Swimmer<\/a>, Kapu blocks<\/a>, Cowly Owl’s Little digits<\/a><\/p>\n if you’ve made it to the bottom of this post, vote in the comments whether you prefer chatty paragraphs (like the post you just finished reading) or the fill-in-the blank formula i used on my first app-review post<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" there’s a whole crop of new apps coming out right now and a big season of traveling ahead of us, so it seems like a good time to post a few new favorite apps we’ve found. Endless Reader i am … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/filimundus.se\/storage\/img\/MLWGOutNowSplash.jpg\")
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