This application features the talking dog from the PBS Kids television series Martha Speaks. Dog Party is comprised of four games: Chow Time, Doggie Dress Up, Martha Says, and Pop Quiz. All of these games – with the exception of Doggie Dress Up – are educational and aim to hone keen observation, vocabulary, shape recognition, and word comprehension skills. Beyond the multitude of learning opportunities, this app provides a value with four games in one, the production quality is excellent and visually pleasing, and the canine characters are captivating. It’s clever and fun, and makes us giggle. My son and I can’t get enough of the enthusiastic dog tongue that licks the plate clean during Chow Time!

Animals, By Age Range, By App Feature, Just For Fun, Language, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Shapes, Toddlers

As the name infers, this application has a bevy of different features geared toward very young children. In fact, Baby App: All-in-1 contains five distinct categories including: flash cards, a phone display, a piano keyboard, a notepad, and a quiz. At this point we don’t find much use for the phone display and the notepad which require a more advanced understanding of numbers and letters. The features my son and I enjoy the most are the piano keyboard and the quiz which exercise the identification of colors, numbers, shapes, animals, seasons, fruits and vegetables. Aesthetically, I wasn’t impressed by the artwork which looked like cutesy stock clipart and some of the items to be identified didn’t look much like the objects they represented. While it’s not the most artistically innovative app I’ve experienced, it’s functional, full of features, and will likely keep your child entertained.

Animals, By App Feature, Matching, Music, Reviews, Shapes, Sounds, Toddlers

In the Rescue of Ginger, our protagonists Madera the monkey and Figaro the frog go on a quest to find Mrs. Applebottom’s cat. There’s much to offer with this engaging application. The straightforward introduction gives verbal instead of written instructions – fitting since the target population for this game is kids just learning to read – and the characters (especially the mice) are endearing, playful, and full of cunning humor. There are over 100 interactive elements and this application engages the audience in active participation to solve problems along the way (think Dora the Explorer). From an educational perspective, this application encourages critical thinking and learning opportunities for color, shape, size, and number identification. The makers Lyn and Line are on to something very special and I’m eagerly waiting to join in the next adventure of Madera and Figaro.

Animals, By App Feature, Counting, Language, Matching, Preschool, Reading, Reviews, Shapes, Toddlers

Letters, numbers, animals, and various other objects come to life in Shape Builder. This app presents a puzzle outline with several multi-colored pieces. Just drag and drop the pieces into the correct spot, and the picture and word materialize. What makes this app great is that there are over 100 different puzzles, so they don’t repeat often. It also provides audio feedback by pronouncing the word. This app provides a bounty of entertainment—like even the greatest apps, you’ll need your iPhone back before boredom sets in with your little one!

Preschool, Reviews, Shapes

It’s Pickin’ Time! That means you need to choose your assigned veggie out of the garden patch without accidentally pickin’ the wrong piece of produce. That’s all, huh? Not so fast….this game falls into that simple-yet-brilliant category and just about everything about this app is beautifully crafted and executed. The graphics are colorful and vivid, the interface is easy to use, instructions are clear, prompts are easy to navigate and the twang of the bluegrass music is upbeat and cheerful. Have I yet mentioned how addictively fun it is to play? Beyond entertaining, this game also helps to hone memory and dexterity, as well as color and shape identification. This is the first app I’ve experienced from the developer Iconfactory and I can’t wait to load more. This is a quality buy and well worth every penny.

Counting, For Parents, High School +, Just For Fun, Middle School, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Shapes

Choose a background and an animal to create, then follow the prompts to twist, push, and drag a balloon into different shapes. Once you’re done, you’ll have a “balloon animal” to proudly show off or send to friends and family. While the clown in me really wanted to dig this app, I can honestly say I wasn’t feelin’ it. I found this app difficult and frustrating to navigate and in the end, my balloon creations didn’t look much like their critter likenesses. I found myself quickly losing interest in the app, making it hard to justify my .99 investment.

Creativity, Just For Fun, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Shapes