I love this app! Monster Melody Mash is an adorable, addictive and unconventional musical app which challenges users to create unique electronica-inspired tracks by toggling off and on a variety of different hilariously and beautifully rendered cartoon monsters, each of which has a unique rhythm or melody attached to it. When activated, the monster will make the sound and dance along to the music. To keep the melody constant so that you can focus exclusively on rhythm, a pin toggle is available

Three “monster worlds” are available; Alien Monster (my favorite), Classic Monster, and Volcano. Alien Monster contains adorable sea-like alien monsters with a chime tool that shoots alien eyeballs from the craters of a planet, a decidedly cosmic keyboard sound, and monsters ranging from an anemone-shaped harpsichord of creatures to a cyclopean squid. Classic Monsters is a veritable graveyard of horror-show creatures, with a Thriller-inspired soundtrack, and a skeleton, vampire, mummy, zombie, and swamp creature. A piano keyboard consisting of spiders on a web, each with a different tone, lines the sidebar. The Volcano world pairs fiery sounds with a two-toned Volcano that sings the word “Volcano” at different pitches. More worlds are planned.

My 4-year old had a ball with it and got his 2-year old sister up and dancing to his musical stylings.

Did I mention that I love this app?

By Age Range, By App Feature, Just For Fun, Music, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Toddlers

Wondering how to talk to your kids about race? Well, as they say, there’s an app for that. Two apps, actually: Who am I? and Guess My Race, both created by Playtime Interactive for Cambridge Diversity Consulting’s Race Awareness Project, a project directed by Harvard cultural anthropologist Dr. Michael D. Baran with the goal of inspiring dialog about race through the integration of art, technology and education. This review focuses on the former app, though both are interesting and reccommended.

Who am I? can be played by two people or teams and is essentially an elimination game in which one party selects a face from a panel and then hands to iPhone to the opposing party, who can ask questions about the person’s appearance, including questions relating to race. “Easy” and “Hard” options are available; “Easy” includes 12 faces, “Hard” includes 24. When the correct face is selected, the face appears on a panel with “I consider myself a particular race, such as White or Asian” and the option to tap the picture to learn more. When tapped, a balloon is launched containing a quote from the individual describing his or her understanding of their own racial makeup. A person who considers themselves white may elaborate that they have Japanese, Irish, and Italian origins.

The individual quotes get at the heart of the message that the Race Awareness Project is trying to communicate: that race is fluid and easy to misinterpret. It may seem, at first blush, a bit hokey to use a computer application to address the topic of race with your children. However, the Race Awareness Project website points out:

“Research shows that even though many parents wish their kids to grow up “colorblind,” kids as young as three-years-old are actively learning about categories of race and ethnicity that they hear in everyday language. Therefore, it is critical that parents learn to responsibly talk about these issues and not leave children on their own to learn about race from the media or from others.”

The “Who Am I”? face elimination game was very fun to play with my 6-year old niece and 4-year old son, and sparked some interesting discussion about racial and gender differences that have lasted well beyond the game.

By Age Range, By App Feature, For Parents, High School +, Middle School, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Social, Toddlers

“MathGirl Number Garden” is an application designed to help girls gain confidence in math, specifically counting and beginner multiplication. This app is pleasant to look at and has girls in mind with the garden aesthetic. There are twelve levels that increase in difficulty, and the faster you answer the questions, the more points you get. Redeem your points to buy objects such as flowers or butterflies to add to your garden.

I like the fact that although you get more points for speed, there is no time limit to win the base number of points for a right answer, and if you answer wrong at first, you can keep trying. I think adding objects to the garden page is a nice motivation for girls to go back and practice their math skills.

I showed my garden to my 2.5 year old son, and he was really interested in this until he asked me to add a second pink bunny, but I could not. I wish you could just buy whatever you want with the points that you have earned. I do think that this is a fun app and a nice teaching tool that girls will enjoy using.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Math, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews

Geometrix is a simple collection of 3 games based on various permutations of collisions between circles, stars and squares. The three games include Chain Reaction, Star Chaser, and Orb Assault.

In Chain Reaction, the player taps on small squares to initiate a “chain reaction” which looks like a series of small bubbles. Each chain reaction garners points, Timed and free play modes are available.

In Star Chaser, squares are moved around a grid by taping the screen. The object is to collide with stars, garnering points, while avoiding red circles, which end the game. Options include Free Play, Timed mode in which a clock is continuously counts down to zero and is restored through gathering stars, and Challenge mode which challenges the user to obtain a specific amount of points. Three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard) are available.

In Orb Assault, the square is moved along the screen by tapping at the location where you want it to go. Four color options are available at the bottom of the screen; the user chooses a color for the square, and then must collide with the corresponding circles of the same color while avoiding circles of a different color. Three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard) are available.

Eight electronic songs options are available.

I found the games to be very challenging and not seem terribly responsive to my taps. My 4-year old got the hang of it much faster than I did (so what else is new?). The graphics are reminiscent of the 1980’s Atari, but this is a solid game with enough depth to engage and maintain interest.

By Age Range, By App Feature, For Parents, High School +, Just For Fun, Middle School, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews

I really love the fishing game apps on the iPhone! I would have to say that Flick Fishing is my son’s all-time favorite app! What is it about these fishing games that is so entertaining?

Like Flick Fishing, Doodle Fishing engages the cast with a “flick” of the phone and a flick back to “set the hook” when a fish bites. The reel-in is a bit flimsier; instead of dialing a rotary spool, the user simply slides a bar across the bottom to control reeling speed.

The game includes an map which the player navigates around by boat, which is controlled by a small steering wheel and throttle. When a location is selected, the player taps the screen to initiate the fishing expedition.

The grapics are consistent with the other “Doodle” games; (Doodle Jump, etc.), the graphics are a pleasing palette of bright colors and hand-drawn cartoon characters.

I don’t think think Doodle Fishing exceeds Flick Fishing in quality, but it’s a pretty fun little game in its own right; further development of the map portion of the game has the potential to improve it and add a new dimension of play.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Just For Fun, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews

Lola the Panda Bear flies through the screen on her choo-choo train, on her way to deliver presents to her friends, making frequent stops to complete letter-matching and reading puzzles. Each time Lola (i.e., your child) successfully completes the puzzle, the train zooms along it’s way, and Lola earns five coins which are tallied in the upper right corner of the screen. Every so often, the train stops at a toy store where the child can use the earned coins to buy presents, adding an element of math to the game. The purchased toys are then stowed on the flatbed of the train.

Three levels of difficulty are available (Hard, Medium, and Easy) which adapts the game for preschoolers through school-age. My 4-year old enjoyed the Easy and Medium levels, and even my 2-year old, who cannot yet recognize letters, liked to touch the pictures and delighted in the panda and the train. The game can be played in English, French, Spanish and German, which adds value to students studying other languages.

This is a cute and engaging pre-k and early reading game. I recommend.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Language, Math, Preschool, Primary School, Reading, Reviews, Toddlers

An ingenious mix of the old and the new, the Intro to Math app by Montessorium includes five separate interactive math skill games, recommended for children age 2-6. Within each activity, multiple layers exist to reinforce skills such as proportion, counting, number writing, number recognition, and number order. Topics are presented as fun, intuitive games using sliding blocks, numbers and dots. The games are based on time-tested Montessori teaching methods.

The proportion game scatters wooden blocks of different lengths with a shake of the phone, and challenges the child to place them in the correct order, with a pleasing chime each time the pieces are moved. The counting game challenges the child to recognize the number of blocks. The number writing asks the child to trace a number “in the sand”; a scraping sound is played as the child traces. The number recognition game displays the numbers one through ten and asks the child to touch a given number The number order game plays out the number one through ten then asks the child to scatter them with a shake of the phone and re-order them

Both my 2 and 4 year old enjoyed the game. It is pricey but recommended.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Math, Primary School, Reviews, Toddlers

The app merges two or more faces to create a hybrid face based on the features of the input photos, which can be taken from within the app or selected from the iphone library. Up to six input photos can be selected. Resulting photos can be saved and shared via MMS or email. Faces are divided into six components: eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth, chin and hair. Mix mode allows the user to shuffle through features or arrange them at will. Play mode will show the user a face and challenge him to rebuild it based on the available features, challenging the player to utilize facial recognition skills.

This all is a great concept, but achieving good results is very difficult in practice. Pictures must have exactly the same lighting and scale to merge effectively. Getting kids to sit still long enough for an unblurred front face shot was more challenging than I had imagined.

Pretty fun, with the caveats mentioned above, I recommend.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Creativity, For Parents, High School +, Just For Fun, Middle School, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews

“Animals’ World” is an interactive book app which introduces you to the sights, sounds, and other facts about animals.  Learn where these animals live by looking at a 3D globe,  or see how large they are in comparison to an average male adult. Tap on the animals to hear the noises they make.  You have the option of enlarging in order to see more detail as well. There are over 60 animals in Animals’ World, and I find the sheer number to choose from  impressive. 

My son enjoyed scrolling through the animals, tapping them to hear their noises.  I showed him the other choices too, and he enjoyed making them bigger, but the other features did not grab his attention.  My husband, however, did enjoy the globe and scale.

I think kids of all ages will like this app, but they need to be older than my son (2 1/2) to fully enjoy it. I wish there was narration to explain more about what’s going on in the globe and scale areas to engage younger children. It’s probably best for grade school and up. 

Animals, By Age Range, By App Feature, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Sounds, Toddlers

This is a limited but cute little game in which a dancing skeleton (Mr. Bones) waves his arms and legs from a stage, dancing to an unidentified tune, The child can select a bone which then becomes highlighted on the skeleton. As the selected bone is highlighted, song lyrics appear at the bottom (e.g. the hand bone is connected to the forearm, the hip bone is connected to the back bone, etc.). Setting options include six different colors for the skeleton and three for the stage curtain.

The tune is not the same as the well-known bone song, and I found myself wishing the skeleton would sing the song rather than just printing the lyrics at the bottom. My 4-year old son found it amusing for a very short time. Some planned updates include themed theater sets and holiday outfits, the ability to record your own dance loops and share them, and tickling Mr. Bones, the skeleton.

Despite being cute and funny the app is very limited; not yet worth the money.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Just For Fun, Music, Primary School, Reviews, Toddlers