Dash and Ditto’s Playground is a lovely and sweet app containing seven games that kids will enjoy, both classic as well as games developed specifically for this app.

With original hand-drawn illustrations and relaxing music, this app is engaging while also having a calming influence on the children who play these games.

Hopscotch, like the name suggests, is a variation on the classic kids’ games, here with the flick a finger, one tosses the ball in order to land on the numbers 1-10 in order. As with all the games within this app, this section has a lovely bunny theme, as Dash and Ditto – the bunnies starring in this app – are found doing cute things within these fun and simple games. Here, players are rewarded with each correct toss of the ball with Dash, the white bunny, jumping hopscotch the way only a bunny could, as well as added illustrated confetti and the praise from the child narrators who also give spoken prompts on how to play this game – a nice touch.

Also included is a jump rope section where Dash and Ditto turn the rope for various animals who take their turn at jumping with a well-timed tap of the screen. It is cute to watch the other bunnies of different colors play on the swings and seesaw in the background, adding richness to this cute motif.

Another activity included features baby bunnies that one can interact with using a tap of a finger. Here, a touch of the screen sends Dash to open the door to the rabbit hutch, letting the bunnies loose. Tap a bunny and choose an action – specifically feed, cage, or play. Send the bunny over to the carrots in the garden to eat, a tap of the cage button sends the bunny back into the hutch to take a nap, and one can have the bunny dance as well. This is a nice, open-ended area that kids will enjoy.

A mini golf section is included where one flicks a finger to move a ball through a simple mini golf course, with an emphasis on getting the ball into the hole on one try, but it is nice that players are rewarded with dancing bunnies, confetti, and other pleasant, congratulatory sounds. I enjoyed this section, but I do with there was more than one course offered.

Tic tac toe is also included where players attempt to get three in a row before Ditto. Game play is as one would expect here, and it is cute how X’s and O’s used here are two carrots positioned into a cross and an apple – a nice touch. This section is a good choice for kids who are new to this game as Ditto is more concerned about his completing his three in a row and not blocking the player, so this game remains light and easy, with a nice difficulty level for young players.

An original game, Bus Driving is one of the more complex sections offered. Here, players must drive a bus, and with the use of an illustrated photo of an animal friend, stop the bus at the side of the road when the friend is found. Game play is simple here, with a green button used as speed and ignition and a red button to stop the bus and make pickups, but it does require some focus to use the photos to match animal friends to pickup. After ten friends are collected, the player is rewarded with a charming animation that kids will enjoy.

Carrot Race is a whack-a-mole-style game. Here, tapping the carrots as they first appear shooting up from the ground before a gopher takes them. This game has the most arcade elements within the bunch and is a good choice for hand-eye coordination. I did find this section a little glitchy when I played by myself, as my near-bionic ability at whack-a-mole allowed me to play this game much faster than this app was intending. After I reached 100 carrots, only the first two digits showing “10″ appeared on the screen, among some other issues, but I don’t think that most children will reach the speed I needed to get to before the glitches began happening.

I appreciate the use of both narrated and written instructions at the beginning of this game as well as the use of spoken prompts used throughout to help and encourage players, and it is always nice to be able to turn off the sound effects or music here at will and separately. A choice to move between these scenes is also an option, but I never figured out how this works – not a big deal as one can easily go back to the home page to make a selection.

The games included here are all cute and fun, as are Dash and Ditto themselves.

Animals, Art, By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Just For Fun, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Toddlers

Gingham Games is an interesting iPad application which includes three educational mini games. This app stands out among others like it with its wonderfully rich retro style illustrations that include cherubic, apple-faced kids, creating a wonderful vintage feel.

These wonderful illustrations are the highlight of this application, with images that remind me of such Americana as classic Campbell’s Soup Kids or Shirley Temple.

The three mini-games are nice as well. Ducks in a Row allows the player to count baby ducks in rows on the screen, tapping and dragging them to the bottom of the screen in numerical order. These ducks must be counted from 1 to 10; a tap allows their number to be seen for only a moment, so one must remember where these numbers are found throughout these ducks before time runs out and the ducks run away. This nice, simple game is fun for number sequencing, but also in sharpening one’s memory, a nice touch. The baby ducks used here are cute, yellow and fluffy the way one would expect. I like the polka-dotted background and muted color scene of cream, golden yellow, and sage green which add to the vintage feel as this pattern fades into a scene of a duck habitat of tall leaves, flowers, water, and a mother duck as well, creating a nice style that is found through this app.

In Apple Toss, the player moves a girl across the screen to catch falling apples, learning about alphabet letter sequencing along the way. I like that these apples bounce from the girl’s open hands into the basket, and a near miss can be bumped repeatedly until it makes its way into the basket as well. Note that each time the player misses an apple, leaves begin to fill the screen from bottom up, and one has three lives to use before the leaves fill the screen and the game is over. The apples are tossed by a boy in a tree, and his basic arm movement that tosses the apples is very simple, reminding me of the moving pieces seen in an antique toy or bank from very long ago, adding to the vintage feel, something I appreciate.

Shape Catcher is our personal favorite, where the player chooses one of five color and shapes lures that are used to catch corresponding fish off a dock. When the correct fish is seen, line up the lure to catch the fish by tapping the button closest to the direction in which the fish is swimming. There are three rows of fish to focus on, with buttons on either side of the water. I like that one must be patient to catch a fish and then act quickly, lining up things right to make a catch, then continue on until each of the five lures is used. This mini-game makes good use of colors, shapes, and matching, as well as some basic logic to understand which button the fish is swimming towards, something my son enjoys. I appreciate how the boy and this scene in general remind me of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Each of these games is narrated by a child who either counts the ducks, recites the alphabet as the apples are tossed, or names the color and shape of the fish that is caught. These voices include a lot of character one may expect to hear in a young child’s voice, which may be slightly hard to understand by some children. Other than this slight issue, this is a very nice app as the games are cute and the illustrations are wonderfully vintage, slightly kitschy and extremely well-done, appealing to children as well as adults, especially those who collect or appreciate Americana from days past.

Art, By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Just For Fun, Matching, Primary School, Reviews, Shapes, Toddlers

Yoku-Gami is a game that represents, to me as a parent, everything that is right in the app store, in relation to games for kids. It’s a puzzle game that looks and plays like a standard match-3 game but is, in reality, anything but.

It is designed by the great mind of Reiner Knizia, a German board game designer heralded for his simple designs that lead for complex gameplay. Being a fan of his, I jumped on Yoku Gami and it’s been a game my daughters and I have enjoyed immensely, and I feel happy in knowing that they’re not just playing a mindless game, but instead are really working their brains as they play.

The entire goal of the game is similar to match games, clear the tiles. But how Yoku-Gami works is this: “If the greatest number in the group equals the total of all the other numbers in the group, you have a successful turn”. So if you select a 3, 2 and a 5, your 3 and 2 equal 5 and you remove those tiles and get a score. That score is based on how many numbers are in the group and if you create groups of 5 or more numbers, you then get a bonus.

There are 3 different modes. Endless is just that, it continues until you can go no further. In Arcade, your goal is to clear a whole role or column of numbers, the game also ends when you can go no further. In Level Mode you try to clear as many numbers in each grid. You start with 24 levels, and at the end of each level when there are no more turns, you lose as many lives as there are numbers left. You gain lives when you create groups of 4 or more. As long as you have lives, you continue progressing in the game.

I was incredibly surprised with how far my 6 year olds got in the game, but for some reason, they were able to go quite far for their age and math skills. I know they are a bit young for it, and it isn’t a game they can play for hours, as the difficulty does continue to ramp up, but they have enjoyed what we do play together quite a bit. As well, a nice touch to make it kid-friendly, is that good old “Yoki” is always there to tap on and get a hint from when needed.

If you have a child that might be struggling with math, or one that loves math and just wants a fun way to put his/her skill to the test, I honestly believe Yoku-Gami is a stellar choice. I’d never want to leave a child in front of any gaming system for hours, but this really is an honest-to-goodness learn-while-playing gaming that does exactly what it sets out to do, and I do not doubt that it will certainly be a help to those kids who struggle with math.

I’d also like to make it clear that it is equally great for parents. As silly as it might sound, I’ve seen an honest increase in my math skills through playing it, and honestly that’s worth the price of entry right there. All-in-all, Yoku-Gami is a hidden gem that I wish more people knew about, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, For Parents, High School +, Math, Middle School, Puzzle, Reviews

PBS KIDS Videos for iPad is full of fun and a highly educational collection of segments from favorite PBS Kids television shows.

These video clips are all nicely arranged with a simple interface that I am sure kids will have no problems navigating. To the right of the screen is a vertical scroll bar containing many of kids’ and parents’ favorite PBS kids shows. Tap to select, and one can slide out a menu as well giving the child a choice of many video clips from this TV show. The bottom left hand corner contains parents’ information about the specific show and clip being watched as well as other info. The rest of the center screen is where these videos will play; tapping will fill the iPad with a larger letter-boxed version of these clips, removing the other menus.

Kids have the option of selecting many varied choices in video clips, but it also nice that they can relax and watch all the selections from a specific show as they play in order from the menu; the choice is theirs.

I am very pleased with the wonderful shows offered in this app, including our family’s favorite show, Sesame Street, as well as other shows my son is familiar with such as Martha Speaks and Super Why, plus many others new to us. I appreciate that there is something for every age of grade school child, including the health- based show Fizzy’s Lunch Lab whose target age range is 6-10, geared to children older than the preschool set whom I commonly think of when PBS kid shows come to mind, primarily, no doubt, because this is my son’s age. Having watched many of these clips, I am sure that older kids will enjoy this app as well, and it can certainly be shared between different-aged children.

There will always be people who think TV is bad for children, and I am sure that the idea of handing your child a portable television per the iPad seems like an even worse idea to some. As a parent, I find that these shows from PBS are undeniably educational, smart, age-appropriate and very socially aware, so I have no issues with my son watching small amounts of his favorite show Sesame Street, unlike unspecific cartoons from a random cable channel, something I would not allow.

This is a wonderful resource for parents, especially when traveling and wanting to keep their children distracted in places like an airport or the airplane itself is of the utmost importance. For at-home use, I do prefer my son to spend his screen time working on puzzles, playing games, creating artwork or listening to a story, much of this time being spend with a parent who is equally involved with the app at hand.

This time with our son is precious family time, but when traveling, I don’t really want to have to entertain my child with “together time” the entire length of the trip, and I think this app would honestly keep him quiet and distracted, keeping my boy happy and not bothering others with the banter that comes along with many of his favorite apps.

We have not traveled a lot as a family yet, one reason being not knowing how good a traveler my sometimes wild child would be, but I think this video player may just be the trick to keep my boy as well as the other passengers sane over a long flight or delay at the airport, as long as I don’t forget to purchase a set of kid-friendly headsets.

Having an older model iPad, I do not know how these videos play on 3G. For us, the use of this app is only in areas that offer WiFi, but I am happy to report that these video clips play effortlessly, which is nice because I do have problems loading clips from other apps that take the viewer directly to youtube.

In all honesty, this is an application that I have not asked my son to test for me, because if I did, I would never hear the end of his asking for this app and I really want his iPad experience to be as varied as possible. We went through this when we first go the “Netflix” app which I had to finally bury in a file, telling my son it stopped working. I know this app would be an even huger hit, which is wonderful in some ways and problematic in others.

I really appreciate the info provided in the parents’ section. Here, the name of the show and specific clip are listed, as well as a basic premise of the show, its goals, and age range. If you like a specific clip, you can email yourself a link or post it to Facebook or Twitter. Options for buying the video associated with specific shows as well as info and links to their PBS Kids Apps are included. I am not a fan of in app purchases, but nicely tucked away in a parent’s info section is acceptable to me, as well as something many parents may find helpful. You can “favorite’ a show, bringing them higher on the list of shows available, but it would be nice to have a section on the app of previously watched and chosen clips as well. I would also love to see all the names of celebrity guests from Sesame Street as part of the info given about these clips, as not all of them have this information. I know most of these faces but when I can’t place one, I would really like to be able to reference the clip’s info to see who it is. I also like that one can look up local listings for favorite shows as well, very helpful to those staying in hotels away from home.

In the end, it will be the parents’ decision regarding when and how much access their children will have to this app. Having said this, this free app is a simply wonderful collection of very special video clips from children’s shows. I think that this would be my son’s new favorite app, something I will keep in mind when I am looking for the ultimate distraction.

Animals, By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Creativity, Just For Fun, Language, Math, Music, Nature, Phonics, Preschool, Primary School, Reading, Reviews, Science, Shapes, Social, Special Needs, Spelling, Stories, Toddlers

I know, Halli Galli is probably one of the silliest names for a game on the app store, but I urge you to look past that and spend some time with a simple and incredibly fun set-collection card game for the entire family.

I have to say that this is one of the most frequently played and one of our most requested. Its execution, while simple, provides flexibility that will work as a great challenge for adults, but is easily played with children as young as 3 years old.

Halli Galli is broken into 3 modes, and although the goal in each version is to collect all the cards, how you go about it varies. In each game, you have a split set of cards, and each turn one card from every player’s deck is placed on the board. When playing against other players, it’s a race to ring the bell, and I’ll explain further how each mode works below:

Junior mode – Our MOST played mode and the most accessible mode in the game. In this mode, you watch the cards until you see 2 smiling clowns that are of the same color. If you’re wrong, you give one card to each other player. If you run out of cards, you’re out of the game and the first player to collect all the cards, wins.

For more complex playing and for older kids and adults, the other 2 modes are great.

Classic – In this mode, each card is of a type of fruit and has a specific number of fruits on each card. Once you see a a set of cards that totals exactly 5 fruits of one kind you ring the bell. The same rules for Junior apply for winning.

Extreme – This is where it gets really complex and challenging. The cards deal faster than other modes, and you ring the bell when you see 2 identical cards or when a monkey appears and there are no lemons, an elephant appears and there are no strawberries and when only a pig appears. Another difference is if you’re wrong, you “Go to Jail” and your cards get placed under the bell. The next round you win, you only get your jail cards back. Lose a round while in jail you’re out. Everything else is the same.

Each version has 3 different modes. Arcade, Single Player and Multiplayer. With Arcade, you’re the only player and if you’re wrong, you lose 3 cards (there’s no Jail in Extreme). Single Player pits you against 4 computer players with 3 difficulty levels and Multiplayer allows you to play with 2 – 4 people.

I have had so much fun playing this with my 6 year old twins. Huddling around the iPad makes you realize just how perfect a platform it is for these types of games. And it’s great, you don’t have to set up any cards, you don’t have to worry about the bell not working, or someone missing hitting it. You just get to really bond as a family and play a unique and fun game.

I also think it’s an excellent educational tool that will get your kids (and you!) to really learn to focus your mind to watch for matches, and is a great way to improve your reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

I cannot recommend Halli Galli highly enough, it’s a game that will grow with your family no matter how old they are. And most importantly at the time of this writing both the iPhone and iPad version are on sale for $0.99. You can’t even buy a plain deck of cards for that price!

By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, High School +, Matching, Middle School, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Shapes, Social

How Many What? is a nice universal educational app focused on counting, object and word recognition, lovingly illustrated by famed Italian comic strip artist Giorgio Cavazzano who has also worked as an illustrator for Disney. This application, although pleasantly interactive, does not contain extra bells and whistles that some parents and children may find distracting.

There are seven modes to choose from, making up two basic activities – animal or object picture and word recognition or basic counting. In the first Flash Card section, one can tap an illustration or corresponding word to hear the name narrated, later being quizzed on what has been learned, being given two and then three words to choose from. In the number sections, one counts a group of animals or objects, given the choice of two or three numbers to choose from as well as offering two and three number choices spelled out in letters instead of number symbols.

I like how easy this interface is to use and the basic Flash Card section would be perfect for toddler with or without parental involvement, but the other sections are best used with the help of an adult.

In the object and word sections, one can tap the animal or object in question to hear the name narrated and one must tap the matching word on the top of the screen as well, with either two or three word choices. I wish these words could be tapped to hear before the player’s decision is made, also with a tap, as I think kids will have be familiar with these words by hearing their names, allowing them to correctly match what they have heard. I don’t, however, believe it is realistic to think kids will be able to recognize these words by sight alone.

If a wrong answer is made, this word is narrated and disappears, leaving the correct answer on the screen also to be tapped and heard, so one will be able to solve these exercises by the process of elimination and some children may learn to recognize these words in this manner. However, I use these sections a bit differently with my son.

My son, 3+, understands his phonic sounds so I will give him hints to these words, asking him to look for the “Z” zebra in Zebra, or “W” sound in Watch, giving him what he needs to be able to choose the correct word in question.

We like the counting section as well and my son enjoys counting what there is on each page, but it would be nice if when tapped, the narration would count the objects in sequence, helping the player get to the number he is looking for. My son is very good at choosing the correct number in question but needs help recognizing these numbers in word form, so I give him clues here as well.

As one may expect, these drawings are simply lovely, and I have enjoyed them very much. Coloring book pages are also available that one may email and then print from, a nice touch.

Parents may need to add hints of their own to help their children recognize the correct words they are looking for, but working together, children and adults will have fun with this educational app.

Art, By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Just For Fun, Language, Preschool, Reviews, Toddlers

What child would not want to make toys? That’s what I thought when I saw the name of this app. The app, itself, offers a number of different coordination and cognitive skills, but the title is misleading. The author says it was approved by his/her own toddler. Well, that toddler has a lot more ability than mine ever did! I would actually call this “Children’s Toy Factory” app rather than “Toddler” Toy Factory, because it has more abilities at the level of preschool and even kindergarten than toddler. In fact, the memory game in the “hard” mode could even be played by an older child or adult—admittedly, my memory is not the best, but I even had difficulty remembering where everything was in the “hard” mode. Best for a toddler’s age is the counting in the “Ship” room. I like the music that accompanies the app, it’s whimsical, and the sound effects add to the app’s entertainment value.

The Toddler Toy Factory does offer a good selection for long playing and learning time, and I like the fact that the child can advance upward from the “easy” mode as the skill is acquired in two of the rooms. In the first room, “Make,” the child reads the letter on the left hand side of the screen and chooses the correct letter from mixed up letter blocks on the right hand side. Then the letter is dragged over, so both letters match and then dropped into the toy machine. As each letter is dropped, it spells a word and out pops the toy that is spelled. The word is repeated, so the child knows what was made and how it is spelled. This is not an easy concept, either, and parents will need to explain it to the child. As the toys are made and piled on the factory floor, they can be tossed around and then back into the machine, if desired.

The “Find” room is an old-fashioned matching game, which is always fun and great for memory skills. The children will most likely be on the easy mode for some time. As the correct matches are made, the toys are dropped to the floor. Once again, they can be tossed around or put back into the machine’s spout to clean up the room. The toys are added to a number counter up top when the go back in. Adding a voice over counting the toys as they go in would add another counting skill. In the “Ship” room, the children drag and drop toys from the shelves into a barrel for shipping. The numbers are counted out loud until the last one is ready for shipping. The “easy” to “medium” to “hard” mode increases the number of items, so larger numbers are learned.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Creativity, Matching, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Spelling, Toddlers

Jellytoons Toddler Skills: Bobo’s Birthday Challenge is a really fun app consisting of six mini games designed to develop specific skills among the toddler and preschool age children. I really like the mix of activities that support critical thinking and fine motor skills, as well as working on basic counting, colors, and shapes. A version of this app is also available for iPad as well.

Jellytoons Toddler Skills is an app that my three year old son is asking for a lot these days, calling it his “jelly” game. He really enjoys the fact that this app has a nice mix of narrative as well as multiple activities. As you see, today is Bobo’s birthday. Help his six party guests earn gifts to give Bobo on his special day. Choose one of Bobo’s friends with a tap, and complete his game to choose a prize which is kept in the prize room. My son has quickly learned what friend is associated with each game, and he has a lot of fun telling me their names as he chooses what game to play. Activities include things such as shape-matching as you help blow up balloons, toy sorting by color or shape and a ball and cup / three-card-monty-style game with a good difficulty level for kids is included. It is fun for me to see my son’s face as he tries to focus on the cup with the ball in it as it gets mixed back and forth between two other empty cups. Sometimes he gets it on the first try, sometimes not. It is nice that kids can play these games until they succeed, even if it takes them a few tries to do so.

My son quickly mastered the art of “tap and drag” a long time ago, but his fine motor skills are still being developed. He has some difficulty with game where he needs to drag a character who is balancing on a ball, circus style, down a “S” or similarly shaped path without going off the path. I am glad this game challenges him, as this means he is learning something new in an area in which he could use some help.

My boy really enjoys this app a lot, and I know he has a sense of accomplishment as he navigates through these games on his own, has a lot of fun choosing presents and seeing what is inside, and sometimes goes into the present-room to see all the gifts earned – represented by stickers, as these are saved throughout the different times he has played. He likes to moving these stickers around a bit as well. It is nice that this info is kept from one game to the next, but can be reset easily if one chooses. This app also tracks the child’s progress through these games.

The look of this app is quite colorful, and I like how Bobo and his friends are amorphous, colorful blobs, each with his own name and gameplay. The world created here is equally colorful, fun and unique. This app both opens and closes with a short video clip explaining the story, a nice addition, but after my son had completed the six games, it would be good if he could bypass the video clips and continue playing instead of starting from the beginning introduction.

Do look at this developer’s related site as it gives more information on each character, as well enabling access to extras that one can print from their own computer. This is a great game to help with toddler and preschool skills in a way that will keep them engaged for a long time to come.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Creativity, Just For Fun, Matching, Math, Preschool, Primary School, Puzzle, Reviews

TallyTots is a really fun and creative interactive math app for iPad which teaches number recognition and counting for numbers 1 to 20.

I enjoy how intuitive this app is for kids, as this is an app that I simply opened to the title page for my son and he took over from there, figuring all that there is to learn from this app on his own, but parents will still want to interact with this lovely math app as much as their children will.

This app opens to a blue sky filled with a series of number cards ranging from 1 to 20, waiting to be tapped. After choosing a number, the next screen includes numbers 1 to 10 on the top and 11 to 20 on the bottom of the screen, leaving room in the middle for an interesting interaction illustrating a chosen number. It is nice that for every number selection, narration says ”Let’s count to number – “ and pulls the number behind an airplane on a large flag, then counting the top and bottom numbers up to the chosen number. This app also counts to the said number in the middle of the screen with the use of large colorful numbers before the interaction begins, all of which enforces the lessons of numbers, names, and counting.

I really enjoy all the different activities. I am happy to say they are all very different, creative, and unique ways to introduce these numbers, like turning on one light bulb with the touch of a finger from number “1.” These interactions may have puzzle components, like putting four batteries in a small TV that shows an image on its screen when properly put together, or putting shapes in a puzzle box. Activities can also be open-ended, such as creating a seven layer sandwich, or be musical as one can make music tapping on eight differently shaped glass bottles. I appreciate that many of these interactions can be done an infinite number of times, but it would be nice if this were true for all the activities. This app does make it easy to go back and play a number again, but it would be fun to do such things as putting away and taking toys out of their toy box again to repeat the process without going through the intro sequence multiple times.

Sometimes this app counts as the player follows through, completing these activities, such as counting coins as they are added to a piggy bank or as balls travel through a maze. However, it would be nice if a counting option was included where the app activity counts through as each action is performed for all these interactions, if the player chooses. Even without this feature, it is nice to hear my son count to himself as he does things like making fireflies glow or feeding a chipmunk.

I am happy to say that these developers really know what interests kids. This app is bright and colorful, and many of these interactions include some of my son’s favorite interests. We love looking at ornately-decorated cupcakes under a magnifying glass and knocking over dominoes. Even older kids who may be past a counting app will be curious to see what interaction is hiding behind each number. I can see kids of all ages helping their toddler and preschooler siblings play with this app. I have had a lot of fun exploring here myself. I hope that in a future update, when playing with 11’s marble run, one can add the marbles anywhere on the course instead of just at the top. This is a minor note in a wonderfully creative counting app. These developers at Spinlight Studio also came up with the app Swapsies, which I enjoyed. I am curious to see what they come up with next!

By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Creativity, Just For Fun, Preschool, Primary School, Puzzle, Reviews, Toddlers

Update (3/28/2011): I was just notified by Elly herself that narration is included in this delightful story book! If interested, turn narration “on” found in the settings, top right side of the home page. Thank you, Elly for letting me know! I am sorry I was mistaken.

Big Red Barn is a lovely universal app from the writer and developers of the “Elly” series of story books. Here, this app teaches number and animal recognition, as well as the various sounds that these farm animals make.

My son is a huge fan of Elly the Reindeer, his good friend and favorite reindeer of all time. I could not resist telling him that these farm animals are also friends with Elly and her gang and doing this got the ooohhhs and ahhhs that I expected. We both enjoy this app a great deal, as the illustrations and content are so very cute and inviting. Just about all the animals one can find on a farm are here, and we learn about numbers from 1 to 10 along the way as well.

As with the Elly books, the text is not narrated, making this a lovely book one reads out loud to children and would also make an excellent early reader book as well. Kids will delight in tapping to hear the number spoken or to hear the various animals make their animal sounds incorporating both interactions as well as a classic reading experience. We also love to count the different animals on each page as well, making it an even more engaging. The animals sound very good here and I really enjoy how one can layer different animals together to make this app sound just like a loud and crazy barnyard if one wishes to do so.

My son enjoyed making all the animals sound at once, something easy to do thanks to the last page that brings all the animals and numbers together for the sake of happy tapping. After he was finished here, he also looked at two other farm-themed apps he had not shown interest in for some time, showing me how Big Red Barn nicely peaked his interest in farm-related things. This app is a must-have for animal lovers who are at an age where numbers are new and different, or for older kids who just want to hear the bleating, mooing, and oinking from the tap of a finger. As with the Elly series of apps, one cannot go wrong buying these for baby/toddlers’ first apps, as well as beyond.

Animals, By Age Range, By App Feature, Counting, Just For Fun, Preschool, Reviews, Sounds, Toddlers