Price: $1.99

Astro Kids ABC Color HD Review

Our Review

Astro Kids ABC Color HD is a super-cute coloring book app for iPad which includes a short space-themed story as well as many pages to color, mixing in number and letter recognition as well. All combined, this app has a lot to offer in terms of both entertainment and education.

My son and I really enjoyed listening to the included story, which does a nice job of introducing the characters you meet in these pages to color, as well as of explaining a bit about the space theme of this app, specifically how these space kids are explorers from “planet aquablue,” having just arrived on earth. Each page is an adventure they experience. This bit of background information made coloring these pages more enjoyable for us than other more random coloring books we have used.

I think this application does a nice job creating a coloring book using a “paint by numbers” or letters method for filling in the spaces. Each area to be filled in has been given a number or letter which corresponds to a specific color. First, tap a color found in a row on the bottom of the page and then fill in all of the same areas of the picture with these matching numbers or letters. I think it is great how numbers as well as upper and lower case letters can be chosen, all of which are narrated when tapped – great for recognition skills. There is also a free coloring mode as well, and I especially like that you can choose to work with ten or twenty six different colors. These pages tend to have more spaces to fill in then other apps available, and I like that these pictures can be intricate without being difficult to use.

This friendly app congratulates the player each time they correctly colors in an area, and there are also astro badges available for a completed picture. Saving or emailing your work is also an option. It is also possible to turn off all of these options and sounds if you wish, customizing the experience. I really like that there are sixteen pages to choose from, but it would be nice if one could go back to a page to continue coloring at a later time. All in all, a very good experience from this coloring book.

Art, By App Feature, Creativity, Just For Fun, Matching, Music, Preschool, Primary School, Reviews, Stories, Toddlers

December 28th, 2010 by Amy Solomon Share

Application Detail

Astro Kids ABC Color HD

Developer: Model Rocket Solutions, LLC
Released: 2010-11-17 00:00:00
Price: $1.99

Description from the Developer

Ray, Dawn and Cosmo get ready for the holidays with new coloring book pages, background music, enhanced marker stars, and more!

Astro Kids ABC Color HD is a fully voiced interactive coloring book designed to teach young children letters and numbers using a "color-by-letters" approach.

Astro Kids ABC Color HD brings together story, engaging characters, entertaining sound & music, beautiful artwork, animation, professional voice work, and a positive reinforcement accomplishment system to create a truly unique learning experience that your kids will love. Astro Kids ABC Color HD is available in both English and Spanish.

Coloring by letters and numbers has never been so much fun!

Recognition:
- AppAdvice: "Out of this world."
- Apple: New and Noteworthy Education App.
- Apps4Kids: Great App of the Week.
- GiggleApps: Super-cute. Entertaining. Educating.
- iPhone Mom: Cute, Adorable, Fabulous, All Around Winner
- PadGadget: 4.5/5 Stars. PadGadget Recommended App.

Teaches:
- Numbers by sight and sound, using a “color-by-letters” approach.
- Uppercase and lowercase letters by sight and sound.
- Creative expression (choose any color to paint pages).
- Optionally teaches English and / or Spanish.

New Features for 1.1 - "Happy Holidays":
-Happy Holidays book added with four new coloring pages and Astro Badges.
-A selection of background music now plays while coloring.
-Larger & more clear marker stars.
-Wrapped gift or coming soon star now displays in Astro Badge case for unearned awards.
-Support for iOS 4.2.

Features:
- The Astro Kids - Ray, Dawn, and Cosmo.
- Color-by-letters and color-by-numbers, fun learning experience.
- Animated “storybook” introduction.
- Engaging character-driven, themed environment.
- Beautifully hand-drawn art and coloring book pages.
- Positive reinforcement awards system (collect all 16 Astro Badges and 96 ribbons!).
- Ability to save and email coloring book pages.
- Adult in-game voice-overs (English and Spanish).
- Original sound effects & music specifically selected for Astro Kids ABC Color.
- Animated effects and characters.
- Designed from the ground-up for the iPad.
- Customizable experience - sound effects, voice, and congratulatory messages can be individually disabled. Playing order of languages can be chosen.