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

“Meritum Paint Pro” is a creative art application that can turn the most basic scribbles into swirling psychedelic works of art. The use of the app is simple: just draw on the blank background and watch your design begin to morph, swirl, change color, and begin to fan out all over the screen. There are many options to choose from to control how the patterns develop and what colors to use. You can also change the background to a photo of your choice.

My son (2.5 years old) really loves to paint using this app. He will scream, “I made this for you … I made this for you,” every time the color changes, watching as his work takes on a life of its own. He loves to shake my iPhone, saving a copy of the current screen to the camera roll. The sound of a shutter clicking and the feel of vibrations are very satisfying to him, leaving me having to delete hundreds of photos from my camera roll.

I think this app would be a hit with anyone creative. Adults will appreciate the multitude of options there are to control every aspect of how their designs are created. Kids will simply love the ease of use and the beauty that they can create at the flick of a finger.

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

“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.

Animals, Art, By Age Range, By App Feature, Creativity, Just For Fun, Preschool, Reviews, Toddlers

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

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

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

Wee World (weeworld.com) is an online social networking site and virtual world for teens and tweens that utilizes self-created avatars. Players can perform a variety of virtual activities, including finding and chatting with friends, playing games, spending money on products and services related to their avatar, and being marketed to. The site professes to restrict registration to those 13 years and older.

The WeeMee iPhone app is NOT an online companion to the social networking site; it is simply an avatar creator. The avatars can be assigned to contacts, saved, and shared on Facebook and Twitter. The avatars bear a resemblance in size and proportion to South Park figures. Users can start from scratch or can edit pre-fabbed WeeMee’s, tweaking hair, skin color, face shape, eye color, hair style, facial hair, eyeglasses, hatwear, clothing,food, hobby, and environment.

As a mom of a 2 and 4 year old, I downloaded this not realizing it was based on a teenage social networking site. Once I delved into the WeeMee virtual world, I became filled with dread for the dawn of the teen years. The iPhone app itself, however, since it is unconnected to the virtual world, is actually rather innocuous and entertaining. My 4 year son and I had fun creating and saving avatars and trying to fashion them after people we know. A word of caution: there are some in-app purchase opportunities to clothe your avatar in the latest trends, so beware your password security with the kids.

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

“Let’s Bead Friends” is an application that lets you design your own friendship bracelets and email them to friends, post to Facebook, or add them to your jewelry box.  This app is intuitive and easy to use. There are five basic shapes as well as a multitude of colors and designs to choose from.  When you are done beading, you can add a message charm such as “miss you” or customize your own and then send the bracelet on its way. 

I did not know if my 2.5 year old son’s attention would hold, but he really enjoys this app.  After taking a moment to show him how everything works, he took over designing his own beads and the stringing of his bracelet. “Mom, I’m good as this,” my son said, smiling.  It’s really fun to see what shapes, colors, and designs he likes to choose, and he enjoys the sound effects and sparkles that play when your bracelet is done. There is also a button to tap to add more “fairy dust,” and he taps this button often, saying “it’s pretty.” I would recommend this app to any child who is into crafts but also to crafty adults.

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Similar to Brickbreaker, this is a strange but fun and addictive game for my four-year old and, I have to admit, myself too. FoodBreaker is a kind of perversion of pinball in which the player slides a plate back and forth across the bottom of the screen. The plate bounces a small ball across the field, which breaks up tiny little hamburgers into even tinier pieces. Once you have broken all of the hamburgers on the screen, you advance to the next level.

Options inlcude changing the hamburgers to fruit, veggies, ice cream and cake, blocks, (possibly Jell-O blocks)?,or a smorgasbord of all of these. Each level has 3 lives; if the ball slips past the plate, you lose the life. Each time you clear the field, you progress to the next level; twenty levels in total. Little red and yellow treats float down from the broken food, which if caught in your plate do a variety of things; they may increase the size or velocity of the ball or plate.

Amusing and engaging, my 4-year old loves it (and so do I!!).

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