Musical Me! is the new creative and fun educational app from the developers at Duck Duck Moose, aimed at stimulating the interest of music in young children. Both iPad as well as iPhone versions are available.

It is great fun how this app stars Mozzarella the Mouse, taking place around the Eiffel Tower, much like Duck Duck Moose’s previous app Word Wagon.

Here, visit five activities, nicely varied and beautiful to look at, which include the fundamentals of music in such activities as a Memory section in which a Simon-styled mini-game helps train the memory as the player tries to play back notes heard. Rhythm is taught by tapping birds as they appear left of the screen, as these spacing of these birds teaching about long and short notes. Dance is introduced by the tapping of friendly monsters to make them dance to the beat of music being played, a favorite section of my son’s. My son also really enjoys the instruments section a great deal as he can make his own music nicely accompanied by a selection of upbeat kids songs, with instruments such as drum, cymbals, triangle, egg shaker, or a duck that squeaks just for fun – a nice touch. Another interesting section is included where the player can change the notes used in favorite traditional songs, creating one’s own music on a staff. Do tap the other animals one may find amongst these sections to find many surprises that are all utterly Duck Duck Moose.

I enjoy how this app makes use of vertical space as Moz leads the player to different locations with the tap of a finger, from the base of the Eiffel Tower, up into the sky, with the Tower seen in the backdrop as one taps the birds flying by in the rhythm section and up higher into the upper atmosphere to play the memory game, with a nice use of planets that play notes one must memorize and play back. From the sky, Moz takes the players down into the ocean, teaching about notes on a staff underwater, complete with fun water sounds and fish to tap at for fun, and then back to land again to play various instruments.

The sense of space this creates is very good and quite unique. The details of Moz’s change of clothing for the different modes are really fun details as well, ranging from a space suit to wet suit as well as a tux for when he conducts during the instruments section.

The rhythm, memory, and notes section contains three levels of difficulty, and it is impressive that different instruments can be used during these activities such as piano, guitar, or violin, as well as the use of solfège syllable, sung do-re-mi-fa-sol. It is also impressive the amount of popular traditional songs used in this app, both as instrumental as well as sung, and I have greatly enjoyed hearing the verses of these popular songs that I am not familiar with from such tunes as Yankee Doodle Dandie, Pop Goes the Weasel, or The Farmer in the Dell, finding this experience educational in and of itself.

This app has a lot to offer kids of many ages and skill sets. The youngest kids will have fun tapping fun, colorful monsters, making them dance and making music or noise from the instruments offered. Older children will have fun tapping on the birds as they move across the screen. My son, now 3.5 years, also has a lot of fun with the memory mode of this app, watching intently as I play this mini-game for him as he is not yet able to remember the sequencing of these notes, something he will enjoy when he is older, I am sure.

Possibly the most impressive part of this app is the notes section where one can play instrumental versions of many popular kids songs, changing the notes at will with a vertical slide of a finger, watching as these notes’ names, sound, and color transform, helping the child visualize the differences they experiences as these notes change. Everything is provided to allow a bright, musically inclined child to decode the basics in the complex task of reading music as they changes notes and listens to the music played back – be it a slightly altered rendition of an included song or a completely new piece of music, but I do wish the spacing of these notes could be moved horizontally on the staff as well to truly create something entirely different.

I have no musical training; keeping in mind parents such as myself, it would be a wonderful inclusion for a future update to include a parents section explaining how best to use this activity, as without prior music instruction themselves, adults may lack the vocabulary to fully articulate what is being explained in this section.

The sounds from each individual note played to the full songs used, both instrumental and sung, sound amazing and this app has a great deal to offer kids of many ages and abilities. You simply can’t go wrong with a Duck Duck Moose app, I look forward to their next app.

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

Yes, the name of the app I’m reviewing today is the entire alphabet. From this point on, I’ll refer to it as abcdefg for the sake of my fingers.

I stumbled across this app thanks to the title, it initially seemed like a unique way to learn the alphabet and practice word sounds, but I soon found it was that plus a lot more and it turned into a favorite of mine and my daughters very quickly.

Upon opening abcdefg and hitting play, you’re presented with a simple and easy to access play field. The alphabet is split into 2 halves, one on each side, running lengthwise on your device. At the top 4 different words: “Gravity”, “Crickets”, “Vehicles” and “Birds”. At the bottom are 5 buttons, “Recycle”, “Arrow”, “Bomb”, “Camera” and “Info”. Honestly, this is all that you need to know to get started.

Simply take a letter from either side and drag it into the middle of the screen. When you let go, the letter will go off on its merry way. When my daughters first grabbed it, they dragged a few letters and nothing happened. Once the letters hit the edge of the screen, everything changed.

With gravity (the option selected by default), the letters simply move with your device. Each time the letters hit an edge, the “sound” of the letter is played.

Vehicles zip around the screen, making sounds as they move. Crickets skitter and make sounds when they group up together. Birds is the most diverse, with varied sound, tempo and pitch depending on where/how it’s placed.

As each letter moves, it leaves a unique trail behind it, making a visual representation of the soundscape you, I mean your kids, are creating and it’s easy to stop a single letter, group of letters, erase the whole picture or take a snapshot of the insanity using the buttons below.

People might dismiss abcdefg, but if you look closer at what the app actually provides, I think you’ll find that it’s an invaluable tool for kids. In the app, you’re a conductor of sound, and you learn concepts like pitch and tempo. You also get a quick into to physics, seeing how the different letters move and interact with each other, things you don’t often see in “kid” apps these days.

While abcdefg is no replacement for music lessons, it allows children to draw outside the lines of music and just perform these strange experimental mini-concerts with letters. Some of the things I’ve heard my daughters create simply blow my mind. They have to experiment in combining sounds together, finding ones that match in tone, pitch, whatever to create an appealing and melodic sound. They also end up with these crazy pictures of letters strewn everywhere. They get to interact with art in a way that I’ve never really seen, at least not in this medium.

I can honestly say that I think any kid would benefit from putting their hands on abcdefg, even if it’s just to increase familiarity with the alphabet and word sounds. Beyond that, it’s an introduction to physics and a way for kids to create experimental soundscapes, by simply placing letters on a screen, turning that into honest to goodness music.

For the price and for the features offered, abcdefg is much more than a simple novelty. It’s an app that I recommend for kids and adults of any age. It’s never too early (or too late!) to make crazy music and pictures. I look back in regret, wishing that I’d have had something even close to this as a kid, it might have gotten me that much more interested in creating and experimenting with music and sound.

Art, By Age Range, By App Feature, Creativity, For Parents, High School +, Just For Fun, Music, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Sounds, Toddlers

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

The app Piano Ball is a great way to begin to bring colors and sounds into your babies’ and toddlers’ lives, especially since they can make their own music with just a simple swipe or tap of their little hand. Young children are not very coordinated at this young age, so something as simple to use as this app, is just the key for little ones. It’s an easy way to develop motor skills. Older babies can just shake the iPhone or iPod, hear an array of musical notes and see a shower of stars. Then a random musical picture pops up on the page and its word repeated, “drum.”

You can introduce your young ones to new sounds by letting them listen to you playing the drums, horn, piano or xylophone. As they get older, you can tell them the names of these instruments. (I remember as a kid how I thought there were only two “X” words in the alphabet: X-ray and xylophone.)

The app has a variety of choices. First, there are four different balls: Color Ball, Tune Ball, Rainbow Ball and Instrument Ball. The piano keyboard is transformed into different colored pallets with the Color Ball, so the young musicians can learn their colors. With the Tune Ball, older children can play five popular songs by following the lit-up stars—and then get a rousing applause for their efforts. Then the song is played again for listening. More songs are to come in the future.

Or, if your children want to be more creative, they can play their own songs as the stars swirl around the keys. They can also change instruments, to the jazzy drum for example, and make up a song. If parents want to keep toddlers from switching from one mode to another every two seconds, there is a feature lock. This way, the child can be focused for what? About three minutes, which is par for a two-year-old. The Rainbow Ball turns the keyboard multihued. The tiny little arrow in the back left corner brings to back to the menu.

Of course, this app actually does not teach music. There are no notes, scales or musical letters. However, it’s a fun way to stimulate your child’s auditory and visual senses. The app says it’s for players nine months to five years of age. Think more along the lines of the younger ages. With all the other musical apps available, your five-year-old will be ready for something more challenging.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Music, Preschool, Reviews, Toddlers

Monster Chorus is a super-cute musical app which my son really enjoys. With a simple interface, kids will delight in tapping eight varied monsters who each sing a different note. Recently, this app has had a significant update adding a recording feature as well as the addition of four popular kids’ songs that children can easily play following highlighted cues.

This app is nicely space-themed as these monsters are displayed along side of each other, standing on a sphere much like the moon with satellites and shooting stars also seen in the sky. The look of this application is very pleasing, as are the sounds these monsters make. I really enjoy the world created here and I like how each friendly and adorable creature is different, as are each of their sounds. Now babies, toddlers and beyond can look for the hidden monsters in this app, a cute addition. I appreciate that you can play various monsters together to make even more harmonious noises, but I do wish I could drag a finger across them like a piano.

After tapping around this app the first time, my son was beaming and clapped for me as if I were an accomplished musician. Later I asked him if he liked this app, and he said “Yeah, thanks for getting it for me.” I am impressed by how this app holds my boy’s attention much longer than expected. Now he calls it his “monsters singing app,” sometimes asking for it right before bed, and I do my best to make the monsters sing peacefully.

Four classic songs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Three Bind Mice, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are now included where a spotlight shows which monster to tap in order to play these songs, possibly aiding in the basic understanding of piano-playing concepts. I wish I had more of a music background to explain how tapping the lit monsters translated to music theory, but unfortunately I don’t know how to explain this to my son. Still, it is a lot of fun to play these songs this way, and my son was quick to pick up how to play these songs using the highlighting cues.

It is also nice that a record feature is included, allowing the player to record their voice and then tap a monster to hear this recording, as each monsters play back is slightly different. This feature is fun, but I wish the record time was longer and it was more obvious when the recording has started. It would also be nice in the future if a record option was also available for when music in made with these monsters as well.

My son really enjoys this app, and I think this would be a very nice first app for babies or toddlers, also fun for the entire family.

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

Some children’s apps are a breeze to review, since it’s easy to write about all the wonderful things they offer. That’s exactly how I feel about The Day the Music Stopped. The developer of this app, Juno, already received accolades for its Juno Baby Musical ABC’s. Now it added this delightful app for toddlers and preschoolers. These apps demonstrate what really can be accomplished for iPhones and iPads with state-of-the-art technology.

When your children enter the 3D world of The Day the Music Stopped, they will meet Juno and Rai Rai and have time to interact with different items in Juno’s room. Then, it’s off to musical Harmonia Springs with the other cute puppet characters–Bunny, Buzz and Indie. When Murphy describes his new invention the “shush machine,” Bunny presses the red button on top and all the music in the town comes to a halt. (If a button says, “Do Not Touch!” you know your preschooler will touch it!)

Now it’s up to your children to bring the music back with entertaining and musically educational activities. The founder of Juno, Belinda Takahashi, a PhD of music, composed the music in the app, which is played by a real live orchestra. Each of the activities teaches a different aspect about music. At the lily pond, the frogs, like a barbershop quartet, teach harmony, and the birds on the fence, which looks just like a musical staff, help the children create their own song either on their own or with a song provided. (Soon to come will be a game that teaches rhythm.)

One of the things that makes this app so delightful, besides the colorful animation, is that it is a story, as well. Many apps are just separate activities that have a theme, like the alphabet or animals, but do not go beyond these activities. With the Juno apps, your children meet new characters, become part of their story, and bring back music to Harmonia Springs. Of course, the other very special aspect of this app is the music. How many times do your children listen to the actual instruments of an orchestra being played instead of coming from a music synthesizer? Then, they can actually learn how to make their own music.

In most cases, the children’s apps created for the mobile units and tablets have not at all been on par with computer CDs and DVDs. Here is an app that clearly shows what can be accomplished with the technology available and should be used as a role model for many of the apps now in the marketplace.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Music, Preschool, Reviews, Stories, Toddlers

What is my job? is a lovely interactive app for children which explores different occupations. Sections include interactive flash cards and a matching game. A version of this app is available for iPhone as well as iPad.

This is a very sweet app that young kids will enjoy. Adults will appreciate the polish that went into this application, which includes very cute pictures and good music. Two sections are included here: interactive flash cards and a matching game. I have enjoyed swiping through the flash cards with my son, tapping both the sweet children and bright, colorful animal characters who demonstrate different jobs, hearing their occupations when tapped. A related object is paired with the animal or child that corresponds to these various occupations, such as an astronaut and a space shuttle, pianist and piano, or worker and hammer who’s names can also be heard when tapped.

Adults will appreciate the quality of the music used during this educational application. The use of an acoustic guitar with a wonderful Spanish sound is an interesting choice that I greatly enjoy listening to. I also appreciate that a series of narrators, both men and women, are used to narrate both the job titles and related objects, all of which brings a richness of sounds to this app.

It is also nice that although a basic premise, this app is very content-rich with lots of jobs introduced, including some interesting choices like “fish monger,” “sculptor,” and “cobbler.”

The matching game is what one may expect, as the player turns over cards looking for pairs. Here, one matches together the character demonstrating a specific job and the related object. I really like that one can control the number of cards used in this game, from four to eight, as it is great that young players can play this game focusing only on four cards. Typically, my son needs me to pair matching apps down to four cards before he is capable of solving the game, and it is nice that he can start this himself and be able to finish on his own. The same style of wonderful music is also used through these matching games, along with the matched job’s name narrated when a match is made.

The characters used through this app are also used among the K-Magic apps from these same developers – which my son has enjoyed for a long time. I am grateful that this series of apps has introduced my son to Patrick, a red dog, who wants to be a “good father” when Patrick grows up, something my kind son has taken to heart. In this app, we see that Patrick is now practicing as a baby sitter, a detail that both my son and I enjoy. I also like that the title page has a row of characters that one can be introduced to with a tap, my son was happy to see his old friends from the K-magic series.

What is my job? is a simple, lovely app that babies, toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy. I also highly recommend the other apps by the developers at PAKA, especially their K-Magic series, as well as their Farm Animals app, look for them in iTunes.

Animals, By Age Range, By App Feature, Creativity, Just For Fun, Language, Matching, Music, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Social, Toddlers

ABC Music is the third universal educational app from the developers at Peapod Labs which teaches not only the alphabet but now also different musical instruments through various photos as well as video clips and fun facts.

This app works very similarly to the earlier apps ABC Wild! and ABC Go. Tap on a letter from the main menu and then scroll through corresponding pictures of something music-related that starts with the same letter chosen. At the bottom of the screen, the object will be spelled out and any of these letters can also be chosen as well, or you can choose your favorite from the index. If online, a window in the top left corner containing a preview screen of a video can be tapped connecting you to YouTube or just read about your choice by tapping a question mark. It is very helpful that the index keeps track of what photos you have already looked at and what else there is for you to discover.

As with the other apps, the background music and the photographs included are very well done, and I enjoy them all very much. I also enjoy watching the videos as they give great examples of these instruments in use, especially instruments that one may not be readily exposed to such as a zither or unique instruments like the jaw harp. Their selection is nicely varied, and I found some of them to be quite moving and surely inspiring to young musicians. Like the other apps in this series, there is a lot to explore here, but in order to get the most out of this app WiFi is helpful because you won’t hear the sounds of these instruments without the included videos. Sound samples imbedded directly into this app would be a nice addition, especially when an internet connection is not possible. This aside, ABC Music is a great way to introduce various musical instruments to children, getting them interested in letters as well. I am curious to see if Peapod Labs will continue with this series or come up with something entirely new.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Creativity, Middle School, Music, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Sounds

Zoo Train is a nice universal app which contains five train-themed games that toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy. This app includes a variety of activities, one of which consists of simple puzzles that when each is correctly completed by the player, a train moves one step closer to the station. A music mode is included where children can select a traditional song to be played with colorful train whistles. Watch as a freight train pulls a word, such as “cow” and match corresponding letters to the letters on the train. Other options include the creating of a personal train by connecting different cars together and choosing a background. One can also put together a train tracks puzzle and watch a train ride over the tracks, once completed.

It is nice that there are so many different games to choose from and I enjoy the fact that some educational elements are taught here as well, like letters and spelling and the solving of simple puzzles. I think this would be enjoyed by babies, toddlers and preschoolers, especially those who enjoy animals or trains as well and would also be a nice choice for kids who are just getting into app puzzles. My son enjoys making his own trains and choosing different backgrounds as well as putting together the train tracks. I really like the music played with different colored train whistle. Kids are sure to be occupied by this app for some time.

Animals, By Age Range, By App Feature, Just For Fun, Music, Preschool, Puzzle, Reviews, Spelling, Toddlers

Kindermusik Radio App is an interesting music application from Night and Day Studios, much like Pandora radio, here created with children in mind. With the use of an internet connection, over one hundred songs are arranged into specific stations including “Bounces and Rhymes,” “Animals, Animals,” “Get Up and Move,” and “Mostly Lullabies” as well as a station of stories.

I like the idea of this app; the songs are of a very high quality that one would expect from Kindermusic, and I like that the lyrics are included to these songs as are activities that one can do along with your child while listening to the music, much like the activities one may participate in at a Kindermusic class – a lovely way to get kids up and moving.

It is really nice that you can choose “play along” with the songs if you wish, choosing an instrument like a castanet or egg shaker and then tap in time to the music. My son and I took a few music classes together, but he had a hard time waiting until the moment at the end when the kids were allowed to explore a big box of musical instruments, so being able to play along with any song is right up his alley.

I did notice however, that many times by its nature you are brought to a song already in progress, most notably when you choose a story and have no idea what it is going on. This never bothered me before when using the radio as background music, but when choosing an app as an activity, it is nice to have the choice of starting a song or story from the beginning. Maybe I should have more patience and simply wait for a song or story to end and another one begin, but this is an app geared towards young children who are not known for their attention spans. I appreciate that information about each song or story is given as are options to buy it or its album from iTunes, but I do worry that my son may make purchases by mistake. The option of emailing the song information to oneself or a friend is a nice option to have, but it would be great if one could simply add it to a “favorites” list to keep track of songs or stories to be investigate later without leaving the song’s page to do so.

The song and story choices are unquestionably excellent here, as is the fact that activities and the song’s lyrics are included and the ability to play along is wonderful as well. If one is looking for kid-friendly radio-style app with a large variety to choose from, this is a very good choice. Another interesting app from Night and Day Studios – definitely developers to keep an eye on.

By Age Range, By App Feature, Creativity, Just For Fun, Music, Preschool, Reviews, Sounds, Stories, Toddlers