“Pre-K Safari” is an amazing education app, teaching letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. Each activity has a safari theme and is great for kids who love animals. The music has an African beat, the sound quality is high, and I find it relaxing to listen to. Each game is narrated by a friendly hyena who gives praise for the correct answer and lets the player know when the answer is wrong but is always kind and encouraging. You can also track your child’s progress with an achievement screen.

I don’t think I ever taught my son how to use this app. All the activities are very intuitive, and he picked it up very quickly on his own. My son knew all his letters, numbers, shapes, and colors by just over 2 years, and I give this app and ones like it credit for helping him learn these things without any struggle whatsoever. As an adult, I find this app enjoyable as well. The colors game is taught by touching different colored butterflies, and I find their flying around quite lovely. There is also a free lite version to try, but this app is worth much more than $.99.

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“Colortoons” is a nice coloring book app for young children. Consisting of four different themes and now twenty four animals to choose from, kids can either use “paint brush” to paint with their finger much like a traditional coloring book or with the “paint bucket” mode where they can fill in shapes with the tap of a finger. There is also a blank page for kids to draw on free-hand. You are able to save the finished page to your photos, but parents can also disable this if they desire.

My son is not a “keep inside the lines” kind of kid, but at 2.5 years, his fine motor skills are still being developed, and sometimes his fingers don’t do what he wants them to do, so for now he mainly chooses the “paint bucket” setting to color in the animals. I do wish there was an “erase” button because sometimes my son will ask me to remove a mistake if he switches over to “paint brush” mode. When I am not able to, he can get frustrated and lose interest. I do like that both the “paint brush” and “paint bucket” features are available, as well as a blank page for him to draw on.

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iSee123 – A  Counting Adventure is a nicely animated interactive app that would be a good choice to introduce number recognition. Text, narration, numbers, and animation are incorporated together to help kids learn their numbers and count from 1 to 10. The music and ocean sounds make the animated scenes peaceful and relaxing to watch. 

I am really impressed by the unique aquatic animals chosen, making it stand  apart from the usual barnyard-themed  applications.  My son (aged 2 1/2) has known his numbers for a long time but is still engaged.  He quickly found the section of this app where he could just watch the animations and went through all 10 of them again, sitting quietly.  

Although great for number recognition as well as being beautiful and creative, many of the animations don’t alone lend themselves well to counting.  Before the animation begins, I would like to be able to touch and to count each animal as the narrator counts for me, and then the animation should start.  Having said this, I still recommend this app because of the peaceful sounds and intriguing animal choices. 

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“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. 

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The duck is back! “Captain Duck” is a story book app based on the popular children’s book written and illustrated by Jez Alborough from HarperCollins Publishers.  “Captain Duck” is a continuation of  Alborough’s  book and iPhone app “Duck in the Truck.” This story begins where “Duck in the Truck” left off, with the duck out of the muck, but now his truck needs gas. He stops by his friend Goat’s house to borrow some, and along the way invites himself on a boating trip with his old friends from the first story. All I can say is that antics ensue, and it is great fun watching it all unfold.

My son may enjoy “Captain Duck” more because there is some real slapstick humor happening and even some drama and suspense. Without giving anything away, there is a point in the story where the tone changes, my son’s eyes grow wide and he gets very quiet, extremely engrossed in the story. Beautifully illustrated and with a lot to tap on, the animals “speak” as they move across the screen, and there are many other ingenious sound effects as well. The  narration is superb, but you have the option of reading it yourself as well. If one is looking for an entertaining story book for an iPhone, I recommend “Captain Duck.”

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“Really, that’s all there is?” was my son’s response to this charming but light-on-content app about barnyard animals.

Gnomie Barnyard starts with a cartoon barnyard landscape view including twelve animals. The user then touches one of the animals in the view and is brought to a zoomed-in frame featuring that animal. Further touching of the animals triggers the animal’s sounds as the it vibrates back and forth in the frame. Below the picture, the common and latin animal names are given, along with a brief overview of the animal’s habits; “Ducks love to swim. They are made to swim- their feathers are waterproof like a rain jacket. Ducks give us eggs to eat.” This is followed by the translation for the animal’s name in Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi and Tagalog.

Besides the lack of content, the app is a strange mix of interest and skill levels that doesn’t quite work. Barnyard animals are primarily of interest to the older toddler set; however the app requires the user to read lengthy descriptions and multiple languages, which, admittedly, can be performed by the parent. More animals and sounds and less text, or text that can be triggered to be read aloud to the child, would go toward customizing the app to it’s target market.

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The storybook application “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” is based on the original book by Theodor Geisel – most commonly known as Dr. Seuss. As with many of Seuss’ early books, there isn’t much “story” to this story, yet the clever, poetic lyrics and fantastical creatures aptly capture the imagination and wonderment of readers of all ages. For early readers, “One Fish…” keeps their attention through clever rhyme and offers lessons through word association and word comprehension. Further, the design of this colorful ebook application reinforces these lessons by highlighting words as they are narrated. Also, when objects are touched, they are identified by both spoken and written word. I appreciate how this application has a lot of movement with panning across each page for a more detailed look at different illustrations. The original artwork and text by Seuss work well in the iPhone/Touch format, and even better on the iPad. I was thrilled to learn it’s a two-in-one deal, since the one application works for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.

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“Animal Hide & Seek Adventure HD” is an application that bridges the gap between simple peekaboo and more advanced seek-and-find games. If your little one enjoys playing hide and seek games, this app might be a fun one to try. The premise is straightforward – find the animals that are hiding within each scene. When each creature is found, you’re rewarded by each animal’s playful tricks. The app offers a lot of variety with three adventures/themes that include the jungle, ocean, and circus. Within each adventure, there are four scenes, and there are a total of 15 animals represented. I found the music both intriguing and enjoyable; the intro music has an upbeat, honky-tonk rhythm and beat, and each scene has music that offers a jazzy, suspenseful mood. The graphics are crisp and vivid – just what you’d expect from an iPad application – and the illustrations are colorful and artfully-executed. My son loves to shout out the name or sound of each animal as he finds them. This app is a winner for toddlers and young kids.

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“Baby Piano” is great way for babies and toddlers to explore music. The cute and colorful animals are attractive and eye catching. There are two options to choose from; when touching the note it can either be an animal sound or piano note sound. It’s fun to switch back and forth. There are two different ways your child can play music – he/she can touch any key and play their own little song or play along with a nursery rhyme. There are a total of eight songs children can learn to play. The key will light up and the child can easily follow along and play the song. Also, there is a record and playback option to capture their very own music creation and a lock slide to cover the function buttons at the top of the screen in case you want your little one just to play the notes. This app is certain to become a favorite, and your child will request to play it over-and-over. The price may be higher than some, however it’s well worth the money.

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The wait is FINALLY over and our friends Madera the Monkey and Figaro the Frog have returned… this time to Save The Day! (Duh-da-da daaaa!) “Madera & Figaro Save The Day” is the story of two silly friends who join forces to help their community after a large storm has hit their fair city. Their mission is to help restore the city in time for the big party. An impressive follow-up to publisher Lyn & Line’s first application entitled “The Rescue of Ginger”, this app is supersized with more story, more interactive features, and many more learning opportunities. It’s the most interactive storybook app I’ve experienced yet and provides a perfect symmetry of educational game play and story. It’s a rich source of learning opportunities for young kids including elements that teach sizes, shapes, letters, numbers, colors, and matching. It’s packed full of original interactive features and games, too. Designers have crafted the app so that the sequence of questions are randomized, thereby capturing and keeping the attention of young ones who play this application over and over again. It has vivid HD illustrations that are designed to work on both the iPad and iPhone. What a treat!

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