welcome to their world apps

Thursday, December 29, 2011

@Reks apps

@Reks has a lot of really awesome learning apps. All their apps can really help our children get into spelling and math in a cute and friendly way. Their apps help by adding a friendly dinosaur frind to leed our children into a whole new way of learning things that are needed for everyday living such as adding, subtracting, spelling, time, patterns, and more. They offer apps geared toward children from preschool to about 2nd grade but even higher grade levels can learn from their spelling and math apps :)

Build A Word Express- Practice spelling and learn letter sounds and names- This app offers two modes of play: Practice and Quiz mode. There is many options with this app such as wheither or not you want upper or lower case letters, verbal or visual prompts or both, and more. This app will help your children enter the world of spelling in a fun and educational way and can be geared for your child with special needs. This app has been used with my daughter and she loved it. She is just starting to enter the world of spelling and even though she has a difficult time with this she loves this app. I can set it up so she can easily use this app and start learning how to spell different words. There is even positive reinforcement throughout the whole app to keep her interested and engaged throughout :) Highly highly recommended :)

Build A Word- Easy Spelling- Learn to Spell Sight Words, Long Vowel and Short Vowel Words- This app is a wonderful app that offers over 600+ words for your child to start learning. There is 4+ word lists for short vowels, long vowels, sight words, or you can even add your own word list. The app offers the option of practice and quiz mode and allows you to choose upper or lower case letters.The positive reinforcements in this app helps keep your child using this app over and over again for learning. There is the option of custom made features for special needs which helps gear this app towards our children. You can set it up so it's easy to focus on the letters, no time restraints, and more. Wonderful app that is highly used in our home :) Highly highly highly recommended :)

Memory Game: Letters, Numbers, Shapes and Colors- This app is perfect for all three of my children as it can be adjusted many different ways. You can have either upper or lower case letters or a mix, block or cursive letters, numbers 1-20, all different shapes, all different colors and more. You get to pick how many cards you have them use between 6, 12, and 18 cards at the same time. I love the option that this app can be used with more then one child as it offers single, two-player, or iComputer modes that make this even more fun. My oldest two love to play togeather all different kinds of games now that they started school and are starting to do so in school but they make a huge mess with common board games and don't really learn anything from them so any app that brings learning into my home with more then one child at a time is awesome and this app definatly does that. I also enjoy the X-Ray option in case your child needs to look at the cards they can do so for 5 seconds to learn their postions on the screen. Once again this is a highly highly highly recommended app :)

Memory Game: Addition and Memory Game: Subtraction- These two apps are similar to the one above but go into the higher levels of learning. They have the same options listed above of one, two, or iComputer modes which make both of these apps awesome. My children can't use these apps togeather but my daughter can still play against the computer which makes it a little more fun and interesting to her. She's all about competing to win so these apps help her do that along with learning. I loved that there is three levels of difficulty so my daughter is able to play these apps as she is just starting with adding and subtracting with only one-digit numbers. I would highly highly recommend these apps :)

Caboose- Learn to Recognize and Complete Patterns- Shapes, Colors, Letters and Numbers is a wonderful wonderful app for toddler to kindgergarten. This app works wonders with all sorts of patterns. With this app your child will learn patters with all the things listed in the title and they will continue to learn these things all through the early years of school for future math skills and other catagories. My boys love this app as it involves Reks the dinosaur pulling a train :). With this app I find that you can adjust it to your childs ability to do patterns so if your child is working on colors you can do colors or if they are in the older group and are learning letters you can work with letters in a pattern. The pattern types are wonderful since it offers so many different types such as ABAB, AABA, AABB, and so on. My daughter still even uses this app in the first grade as they still work on patterns and she has a tough time with them so I will get out this app to help show her how patterns work and to expand on her skills. I would highly highly highly recommend this app :)

All @Reks app are wonderful for all children I highly highly recommend trying at least one of them with you children to see if their apps will work for your family :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reks/134779223208224?ref=ts

Friday, December 23, 2011

X is for X-Ray

X is for X-Ray by Touch Press is a wonderfully amazing app. It's hard to find apps that will go this in depth with every detail and this one does not disappoint. In this app each letter of the alphabet is explored with an item for each letter. For example O is for Onion and you actually can zoom all the way to the center of an onion with this app. You can see each layer of every item as you "X-Ray" each and every one. There is even a stereoscopic view when you double tap each item. With this option some can see it without special glasses but most can not. The app includes a link on how to purchase the special glasses to receive and extra special view of the items. Each item is talked about in depth throughout the entire app to let your child learn about each and every item. To me it's kind of like an extra special encyclopedia of 26 certain items. Then there is also a rhyme for younger children instead of the in depth explanation. My children really enjoyed exploring this app. My 6yr old is amazed by x-rays since he's seen his MRI of his brain. He really enjoyed seeing the insides of so many everyday objects. Highly Highly recommended app :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Touch-Press/114459035236586?sk=wall
https://twitter.com/#!/touchpress
http://www.touchpress.com/titles/xray
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/x-is-for-x-ray-ipad/id480460922?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4


Thursday, December 22, 2011

Photo Table

Photo Table by Paul Solt is a cool app for all your pictures. This app is fun for children to explore the pictures in you album on your ipad. My kids loved enlarging and minimizing all our pictures and then throwing them off the page. I used this app with my kids as a look and find thing also by mixing all the pictures up and then having them find certain ones or by discriptions of each one. You can also have your child make a bunch of pictures from your other apps and then throw them all on the table to explore. With this app you are able to make slideshows of your albums, add music (one song to an album), and save complete albums to places such as facebook and Flickr. This app is a lot of fun to play with and my kids found it to be a lot of fun. Highly recommended :)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-table/id455322208?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
http://blog.artworkevolution.com/ios-apps/photo-table/
http://www.facebook.com/PhotoTableApp?sk=wall


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

i See-quence... Christmas

i See-quence... Christmas by I Get It, LLC is a wonderful social story all about what happends during Christmas. I love the fact that you can add your own pics and your own voice to the app. I would love to see where the button for your voice was made more noticable for children as it is on the top of the app and not very big but otherwise this app is awesome. So far I've loved all the I Get It apps that I own and find them very usefull with my special needs children. My kids always need and want to know what comes next and this app definatly helps with that. I also liked the fact that you can check the pictures off as they are completed. You can add your childs name and picture also to the app to make it even more personal to your child. You can change titles as needed and make this app perfect for your family. The preloaded pictures are even great if you find you don't have time to personalize it and they show the steps of Christmas very well. I would highly highly recommend this app to special needs chilren that need to know what happens next :)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/igetitapps
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i-see-quence...-christmas/id489606084?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4


Magical Jigsaw SANTA

Magical Jigsaw SANTA by Classic Kid Productions is a wonderful puzzle app for adults and children of any age. I really liked this puzzle and so did my almost 8yr old and my 6yr old. I was surprised when they were able to do the puzzle but they were just exstic to keep trying to finish it. It's only one puzzle with 96 pieces but I found it to be well worth it. There's a surprise ending with this puzzle that makes it a lot of fun to do over and over again. There's a peek preview if you need help with the puzzle at any time during the puzzle and of course you can't lose any pieces like you can doing a normal puzzle at home that would be at least twice the cost if not more. I recommend this app for a fun puzzle during the Christmas holiday season :)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magical-jigsaw-santa/id482494813?mt=8
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ClassicKid-Productions/268456169873142?sk=app_255547477837900
www.classickidproductions.com.

Monday, December 19, 2011

PkclSoft math apps

The apps from PkclSoft are wonderful math apps that are educational and fun. My daughter really likes the little squirrels in the apps and thought they were just darling. I liked that these apps Incorporated fun with learning.

Math Plus Minus- Arithmetic is a wonderful app for addition and subtraction. This app lets your child practice addition and subtraction in a fun way with a little friendly squirrel friend. This app is perfect for learners just starting out and learning the basics of math. This one was great for my daughter and she had fun using it. She's just starting out with math. I love how the numbers rain down on the ice. The options are great in this app as it will grow with your child's ability to add and subtract by limiting the numbers it can go up too and you can take away the timer if you don't want your child rushed for the answers. Highly recommended app :)




Tap Times Tables - Arithmetic is a great app for learning multiplication. I I could not use this app on my children as they are not up to multiplying yet but I played around with it some and thought it was a lot of fun. There is a lot of levels to master in this app which adds to the fun of this app. Multiplication can be a very difficult subject for children to learn. I had lots of trouble learning to multiply growing up and found it was difficult to do no matter how anyone tried to teach me. This app makes learning to multiply fun and engaging. I even found that I was starting to remember things while playing that I haven't practiced in a long time. The squirrel is great in making this app fun and the backgrounds are very pretty. I would highly recommend this app to anyone helping their child learn multiplication and even try it out on your self sometime. What mastery can you get too? :)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tap-times-tables/id457383394?ls=1&mt=8

http://www.facebook.com/pkclsoft?sk=photos#!/pkclsoft?sk=info
http://www.pkclsoft.com/pkclsoft/taptimestables.html

Friday, December 16, 2011

iPrompts XL

iPrompts XL by Handhold Adaptive, LLC is sonderful app for picture schedules, visual support, choices and even includes a visual timer!!!. This app helps special needs children with creating visual supports that may be needed in everyday skills and learning. Picture Schedules: This app alows you to create picture schedules for your child to use for everyday support of what is going to happen that day in order. You can set this up how you need it in your home. So if you want just a first then and then this schedule you can do that or if you need the whole morning routine down you can have that. This area of the app is very versitle to fit your home. I loved using this part of the app especially with my 6yr old as he forgets many steeps and then gets mad when he has to rush to get everything done. I especially liked this for the morning routine which is always a mess before school. Visual Countdown timer: The countdown timer is perfect for sharing time and or when an activity ends or begins. You can place a picture of what comes next and when the timer goes off it's time for that activity. Visual timers can be quite spendy on their own and this app has one built right in. Choice Prompts: You can place images on the screen to offer choices to your child. This part is especially helpful for non-verbal children to let them have a voice in what they want to do. Image Library: This part of the app includes all "starter" images and includes hundreds of already made images. You can find many images in catagories or make your own catagories. You can add your own images which comes in handy since you may want familar objects for your child or you can search the web for additional items if none of the preset images fit with your needs. This app is very versital to what you need in your home. It includes many different things that is hard to find with anyother app I've ever seen. Be sure to check out my review of their other apps SharingTimer and AutismTrack.  Everything you may need is all in this one wonderful app. I highly highly highly recommend this app :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/iPrompts/132791645728?ref=ts
http://www.handholdadaptive.com
http://www.twitter.com/iprompts
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iprompts-xl/id410386084?mt=8

Snowman Joe

Snowman Joe by HippoArtoMus Books is a very good winter time story. This app is perfect for bedtime or anytime. There is many interactive surprises along the way which keeps the reader interested. The colors in this app are amazing and totally engage the reader with every page turn. There is three modes of play: Auto Play, Read to Me, and Read it Myself. The voice in this app is clear and easily heard by readers. I like the rhyming in this app as it makes the app a lot of fun. This book is about Snowman Joe who wants the stars to hear him. He won't play with his friends as he's trying to reach out to the stars above. His friends decide to try to help Snowman Joe reach the stars. His friends help him realize to reach the stars he needs light!!!. This story could become a faviort winter time story in your home very easily. I highly highly recommend this story for all ages :)

http://www.hippoartomusbooks.com/hippoartomusbooks/Welcome.html
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snowman-joe/id467211380?mt=8&ls=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9n7v8ykiBw



Autism Tracker Pro (Track Analyze Share ASD Daily)

Autism Tracker Pro (Track Analyze Share ASD Daily) by Track and Share Apps, LLC is a wonderful tracking app for autism. You can track many different things for your child with autism with this awesome app. With this app you can track: Mood, Behavior, Food, and Health and then put them all into a wonderful report to share as needed. You can customize this app to fit your child and your needs. You can add a picture if needed, do daily, weekly, and monthly graphs, make notes, and customize how you track items. There is a wonderful calander included on the front page of this app which helps you track items as needed such as how bad some behavior was each day of the month. I had another parent also use this app and she fell in love with this app as she is trying to track many different things with her child right now ans this is what she said: "This app has helped me track my childs behavior and stool as we try new diets with him. This app has also helped me figure out when his behaviors such as pinching occur and what may be causing them. We have tried different meds and he is currently on a new med at this app has helped show me that the med has made no difference with his behaviors. I love that I can chart this and hand it to his dr. to show that there was no changes with the med." I loved with this app that you can track all the things you want added such as moods, weather, sensory, activity level, and more. With each item you are able to change how you rate it to make it more indepth or easy to just click and go. You pick how you rate and for some things you might want one but for another you want something else. There is so many preset items but it also gives you the option to make your own items so it fits best with your child. The only thing I did not like with this app is that I wish it was possible to use with more then one child. You could do it but it would take a lot of work to do and I would rather see where you could just click between children. The only way I found to track more then one is to put their name next to each item which would meen spending a lot of time customizing but for the price of this app compared to some others it is wonderful. I would highly highly highly recommend this app if you have one child you are trying to track :)

Here's some images right from their website :













Graphs














http://www.facebook.com/ClickPod?sk=wall
http://www.trackandshareapps.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/ke/app/autism-tracker-lite-track/id478527813?mt=8 (this is the lite version)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

First Phrases HD

First Phrases HD by Hamaguchi Apps for Speech, Language and Auditory Developement is a wonderful app for children learning to talk. Your child will tell the cute animals what to do such as cut the cake then the animal will do what it was told to do. After you see the animal do what you asked it to do your child will then get the chance to record the sentence back. It's really cute because after your child records it will go back to the animal doing the action with your child's voice telling it what to do. Each word of the sentence is said individually when pressed so the words are singular until you press each one and the animal is told to do the action. This really helps since when your child first starts to speak it's usually one word at a time but you want to build them up to sentences and this app helps bring the single words into one whole complete sentence with very cute animals your child will love. There is three levels of play with this app such as easy play where your child just touches the screen to play the sentence, Normal play where your child touches each part of the phrase and Challenge play where your child must put each of the words in order. The example above is from normal play. My children use the challenge play since they do use sentences just not correctly. In challenge mode your child must put each part together to form the sentence. I love that it will read the words aloud and has wonderful pictures so it's easy to see where they should go in the sentence. I would highly highly recommend this app for children still working on saying sentences or working on sentence structure :)

http://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=apps%2fhamaguchiappsforspeechlanguageandauditorydevelopment
http://www.hamaguchiapps.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hamaguchi-Apps-for-Speech-Language-Auditory-Development/142325612538781?sk=wall



Fun With Directions HD

Fun With Directions HD by Hamaguchi Apps for Speech, Language and Auditory Development is a wonderful app for listening and following directions, colors, spatial concepts, auditory memory and auditory processing. There is simple to complex directions making this a wonderful app for many age groups. No matter the age this app can be adjusted for the child. There is ten concepts included give, touch, close, top, middle, bottom, push, color, and erase. There is three levels of play for different users from easy to advanced. There is an awesome feature included with this app called "Superstar Direction" where your child will get the chance for extra practice of remember by responding to questions which will then be recorded. This helps build on your childs expressive language as well. This option can be turned off if it is not wanted. I did this app with my 6 1/2yr old son who has a been working on these skills in speech class regularly so I started him on intermediate. Your child will be asked a question such as "look on the bottom shelf, find something red, put it in the basket." Your child will then be told if it was correct. I do wish it would move onto the next question automaticaly but it's still pretty simple with the button being right on the bottom to move onto the next question. I think this is a wonderful app for many aged children that need extra help with following directions. A lot of special needs children need to work on these skills and this app does a wonderful job at it. I could see this app being used at home, school, and therapy easily and the pictures and sounds make it a wonderful app for the child using it :) Highly Highly recommended :)

http://www.hamaguchiapps.com/
http://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=apps%2fhamaguchiappsforspeechlanguageandauditorydevelopment

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hamaguchi-Apps-for-Speech-Language-Auditory-Development/142325612538781?sk=wall


Picture the Sentence HD

Picture the Sentence HD by Hamaguchi Apps for Speech, Language and Auditory Develpment is a wonderful app for working on speech. There is many different settings in this app for different users such as color drawings or stick figures, three levels of play, choice of subjects (pronouns or nouns), and sentence types. There is a wonderful door reward game that you can use after either 3,5,or 10 correct responces or no door game at all. I like the door game because it gave my kids something to look forward to after getting answers correct so they would try harder. When you first start the app you will get one picture per words, then you must try to remember it, after that your child then must pick out a picture that fits with the sentence that was givin and put it in the picture frame. This app helps your child learn memory skills and putting sentences togeather and forming one picture at the end. The only thing I found that I did not like about this app is that when they pic their answer instead of having an arrow to go to the next one or just going to the next you have to hit new sentence. This can cause some confusion to the child as there is an arrow to go back. I would also really like to see some type of reward for getting the answer right each time even if it was just a sound. Other then these two things this app is wonderful and great for working on speech and thinking skills. I love the color drawings and find them wonderful to work with my kids with. The voices are very real and not computer generated sounding so that really helps when trying to follow along with the pictures. I would highly recommend this app :)

http://www.hamaguchiapps.com/Home.html
http://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=apps%2fhamaguchiappsforspeechlanguageandauditorydevelopment

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hamaguchi-Apps-for-Speech-Language-Auditory-Development/142325612538781?sk=wall


Scene Speak

Scene Speak by Good Karma Applications, Inc is a wonderful app for special needs children. This app will help build receptive language and visual memory. I really loved the body chart that is included so your child can help tell you what hurts. This comes in handy even if your child can talk because at least with my three have they still have problems explaining to me what hurts and with this all they have to do is point to it. I also love the fact that you can add sounds in the "sound areas" with your own voice or type to speak with pre-set voices. This makes this app really familiar to your child as it is your voice and you can also add your own images. You can make multiple books that can include different rooms of your home such as you may want one with their bedroom. If you do one of their bedroom you can add different sounds such as when you tap the bed it can say "go to bed" or whatever you may want there. You can also do another book titled bathroom which in there you could have your child touch the toilet and it could flush if you add the flushing sound. This becomes your child's own personal book about their home as you recreate your house into books. You can add, re size, and crop images, add sound areas, have multiple books, and you can even use the preloaded screens if you don't want to add your own images and then you just add sound. There is a lock so your child can't get into edit the books if you want which really does come in handy. I will add a word of caution though that this app will take time to set up as it is meant to be a personal app geared toward your child and obviously it can't be that will all preset images. I would like to see more instructions added on how to do everything but I figured it out fairly easily once I did some trial and error. I also found this app could be really helpful to non-verbal children if set up right. You could set up each room in the house where they could use it to communicate with you around the house such as where they want to go, what they want to do (by pointing to an object in their room), and the body image chart is especially helpful with non-verbal children. I would highly recommend this app if you are looking to work on many different things with your child especially speech, visual memory, and communication :)

Here's straight from their website on how to set up the app:


Add multiple “sound areas” to an image.

Select an image from your:
Home Computer
Online image search
iPad’s Photo Library

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Visual scenes can then be grouped into a “book”.





























































http://www.facebook.com/GKApps?ref=ts&sk=wall#!/GKApps?sk=wall
http://www.goodkarmaapplications.com/Good_Karma_Applications/Home_Page.html
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id420492342

Kung Fu Panda Holiday Storybook

Kung Fu Panda Holiday Storybook by FrogDogMedia LLC is a great story for the holiday's. This book is packed full of wonderful images and audio clips from the movie. There's an activity for your children to do all through the book of finding the hidden lantern which adds to the excitement of every page turn. This book also helps young children learning to read since it will highlight the words so your child hears and sees the word as it's spoken. I love the fact that this story is familar to children since it uses Characters and scenes straight from the movie. I've found that the more familar the characters the more likely all my kids are to sit through the whole story. This story is about Po and the Winter Feast. He always spends the holidays with his dad but this year Po is in charge of the festival and he finds out he can not invite his father as there is to be no guest. Po realizes that family is the most important thing even over the winter feast for the masters. This story is wonderful for children to learn that family is more important then anything else in this world even over an obligation. This story is a wonderful story for the holidays with great values, wonderful images and audio clips, and fantastic familar characters. Highly recommended app :)

http://www.facebook.com/generainteractive?sk=wall#!/istorytime
http://www.istorytime.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kung-fu-panda-holiday-storybook/id405320348?mt=8

Christmas Song Machine HD

Christmas Song Machine HD by Genera Kids is a wonderful app for Christmas songs. There is 5 Christmas fav's included in this app- White Christmas, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, Oh Holy Night!, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. The graphics in this app are amazing. My kids really like the elves when you first start the app. They also like that all the scenes are so animated and interactive. I love that the words are on the bottom of the screen so you can easily sing along even if you don't know all the words. All the songs are sung by children which is really cute and easily related to our children. The song choices are wonderful in that some get you up and dancing and some show you the true meaning of Christmas. This app is wonderful for any aged child even babies as the graphics and music are very stimulating for even the very young. My kids are learning some of the songs in music class at school so this really helps them the songs in a fun easy to follow along format. Highly recommended app :)

http://www.facebook.com/generainteractive?sk=wall#!/generainteractive?sk=info
http://www.generainteractive.com/
http://www.kidssongmachine.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id478296002?mt=8

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

FizzBrain apps

FizzBrain apps are wonderful apps for special needs children especially those with autism as they teach our children to look into peoples eyes, smile at people, and to get up and move. These apps have been really enjoyed by my children and are doing amazingly well with all that we have. I am going to group these apps that I have into categories and then explain what each category has to offer :)

Look In My Eyes 1 Restaurant, Look In My Eyes 3 Undersea, Look in My Eyes: Math Facts, Look in My Eyes: Steam Train, Look in My Eyes: Steam Train 2,  Eye Contact- Toybox, Eye Contact- Zoo, and  Look In My Eyes Dinosaur :

These apps mentioned above all help teach your child about eye contact in all different ways. Some of these apps use math and others use numbers in the eyes and then your child must answer a question about the number they saw or the total of the numbers (depending on the app). My 4yr old just discovered Look in My Eyes: Steam Train 2 today and he automatically fell in love. He was screaming and laughing and jumping up and down all over the place because of the train. When picking between all the eye contact apps pick one based off what your child loves and this will give them great motivation to follow the directions of the app to get to the "play" part of the app. Some of these apps such as the Toybox, dino, and zoo ones offer simple rewards for younger children (3-5yrs)while others such as the restaurant one offers scene building for the older children (5+). I would say the steam train ones are wonderful for all ages as they offer running the train which is fun for any age including the adults :). These apps have have wonderful motivators that when your child gets so many right they get a bounce play section :)

Steam Train Activity Center and Steam Train: Europe:

These two apps are based around Trains and little activities your child can play around with and have fun. Your child will get to know everything the want to know about running a steam train such as running the controls to running the track. These apps are not competitive and are just a fun entertaining app for your children :)

Dance Party Dino, Dance Party Cars and Dance Party Zoo:

These are wonderful apps to get your child up and moving. My children love to dance around with these apps and I have one that loves the dino's and two that love the cars and they all love the zoo. In each of these apps either the dino dances, the car dances, or different zoo animals dance along with the music.  This app will track your child's movement and show them how to get in rhythm. With each of these apps it starts out with your child dancing to music either from your ipod/ipad or the stereo and then they can sit back and watch either the dino, the car, or the zoo animals (depending on which app) dance back depending on how your child danced. These apps can also be two player by comparing the two children's dance patterns. Both of these apps are very fun and entertaining :)

Dino Brain:

This app is a crossword learning game about dinosaurs. There is 5 dinosaurs to collect and three cages. Your child can play around with the dino's cage and see what the dino will do. There is learning pages to learn what you need to know to answer the crossword puzzles. This is a fun and educational app :)

Smile at Me:

This app is all about emotions. Emotions can be a major problem for children with autism and this app helps children recognize emotions. I love the real pictures that are in this app. When your child gets four pictures right they will be able to visit the virtual zoo. This app uses reflection from the Ipad/Ipod by dimming out so your child can also practice each facial expression. If your child gets a wrong answer there is verbal support to help come up with the correct response. This app is a very helpful app for social skills and emotions. :)

I highly highly highly recommend all FizzBrain apps that I have tried at this time. These apps help our children with many social skills and all the apps add fun into learning :)

http://www.facebook.com/Fizzbrainapps?ref=ts
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/fizzbrain/id349835342
http://fizzbrain.com/
Twitter name: @Fizzbrainapps
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7385686n

Are You My Friend? A Raymond and Sheila Story

Are You My Friend? A Raymond and Sheila Story by Annie Fox and Illustrated by Eli Noyes and produced by Electric Eggplant is a wonderful story about friendship. Raymond is a little alligator brother that is always following his sister Sheila and her best friend Illana around. Raymond's only friend is Snowball a stuffed bear and is wanting to find a real friend to play with. Raymond eventually uses Snowball to make friends with Illana's brother Iggy and his stuffed monkey Rumford Wellington. This story is a wonderful way to show our children about making friends. I love the sounds in this book as they are real voices and all different. This book also teaches our children about feelings as you go through different emotions throughout the book and also at the end each character talks about all different types of feelings and gives the parents/teachers time to talk about feelings after reading the story. My children enjoyed this book and thought that the characters were great. I thought the characters were friendly looking an very cute. This is not an app but an iBook you will have to make sure to have iBooks (a free app) downloaded to read this book. The book is all narrated so your child can listen whenever they want with or without you at their side. I recommend this iBook for teaching your children about friendships and emotions :)

http://www.electriceggplant.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/are-you-my-friend/id459787145?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
http://raymondandsheila.com/


Monday, December 12, 2011

Be Confident in Who You Are: A Middle School Confidential™ Graphic Novel

Be Confident in Who You Are: A Middle School Confidential Graphic Novel by Electric Eggplant is a wonderful story for middle schoolers. This app helps kids learn about self esteem, bullying, stress, peer pressure, and more. This book is in a very cool format much like a comic book style so it doesn't seem kiddish and makes it enjoyable for older children to read. There's different effects throughout the story also such as sound effects and music. There's an auto-save feature which makes it great for classrooms since it will save your spot if your not done with the story but have to stop. There is 44 pages in the story and you even have extra pages that let you meet the cast. I enjoyed reading this and thought that it's a wonderful story for any middle schooler but especially helpful for special needs students entering middle school to high school as they face many of the issues brought up in the story. Look for more books to be added to the series soon. I was unable to use my own children to review this story with so I had a friend use this story in her classroom to show how this app is great. Here's what her and her class said about Middle School Confidential:

I used Middle School Confidential – Be Confident in Who You Are with a group of upper elementary students that I see for pragmatic language skills.

Student Likes:
• Laid out in a comic book format.
• Talked about things we are interested in not the typical boring
• Liked that graphics and sounds

Student Dislikes
• “Way to long, it is going to take to many sessions to finish before we get to have a fun day.”

Teacher Likes:
• Great layout for the “Tweens”. Doesn’t look like the typical picture book from the elementary school years.
• Isn’t a “how to” book with the message delivered by adults. It has kids talking to kids.
• Chapter layouts. It allows you break up the material over numerous sessions so the kids can have time to process what they are hearing.

Teacher Dislikes
• None

I would highly recommend this app for middle schoolers to highschool aged children especially with any type of special need or who may be just shy :)

http://www.facebook.com/Electric.Eggplant?ref=ts
http://www.middleschoolconfidential.com/be_confident.html
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/be-confident-in-who-you-are/id428588931?mt=8
http://twitter.com/ElectrcEggplant


Tiga Talk Speech Therapy Games

Tiga Talk Speech Therapy Games by Tiga Talk 3 Inc and Tactica Interactive is a wonderful speech tool for parents and speech teachers alike. This app was developed with speech and language pathologists and it is a very fun way of learning for our children. Your child will learn clarity, articulation, and instill confidence in themselves with this app. There is many different games for your child to play with while using this app such as driving a boat by using certain sounds and popping ballons plus many more all using speech. You child will first be interduced to the letter sound and will have to say it so many times before being able to play the game. There is a speech meter at the bottom of the screen that will catch your childs sounds as they use them. You can also see an actul mouth use each of the sounds by clicking on the mouth. Clicking on the letter will repeat the sound that is to be made. This is a very fun way to learn speech skills and the pictures are very cute. Your child can even run the app by making any sound not necessarly the one giving which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing if your child is non-verbal and you want them to start using sounds in general and by using this app you get a cause and effect type of response (car moves as your child makes a sound). But at the same time a bad thing if your trying to get your child to use the correct sounds with the app which in this case you have to use your own judgement in whither they are saying it correctly or just making sounds to be "silly".  I highly highly recommend this app :)

http://tigatalk.com/app/
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/tiga-talk-speech-therapy-games/id412024533?mt=8#&partnerId=30&siteID=6pnvjxKjsS4-sScAj21AO55NLrc2dI4.qg

The Social Express

The Social Express by The Language Express, Inc is a wonderful app for social skills. This app has to be the top social app I've seen on the market. This app has everything imaginable about social skils learning except for the live person!!! This app is amazing for children with ADHD, Autism, and Asperger's. This app teaches your child how to manage social situations and how to deal with stressful ones too. The Social Express is available on the Ipad, PC, and the Mac. The graphics of this app are amazing and the sound is perfect. The price might seem high but once you try the app (which you can do on their website) you will see why immeditatly. The Social Express app has 16 lessons that are all interactive with 30 scenes and 2 levels of play. Level 1- is for younger users and/or children that have a significant difficulty understanding of social skills and level 2- is for children that have understanding of social skills just not sure how to use them correctly in the real-world. Each level will end with a review and a key that will unlock the Clubhouse at the end. This app has been a magic worker for my almost 8yr old daughter and I plan on starting my 6yr old son on it too. I used my 8yr old to test out the app and she is currently on level 1 and we are about half of the way through. She is starting to use what she learned in the app in the real-world and I'm amazed everyday by the progress made. She has significant social skill problems in that she has high functioning autism and selective mutism and ADHD. She has even started to talk with other children one on one slowly with a little prompting and a few reminders of social skills but is getting the hang of it. I could go on and on about this wonderful app but I will leave the rest for you to learn about on their website with a few key points below:


 Here's some of the info right from their website about this app

The 16 interactive lessons target a comprehensive set of skills, including:
● Joint Attention
● Identifying Emotions
● Problem Solving
● Conversational Skills
● Self-Regulation – Coping Strategies
● Reading Non-Verbal Cues
● Sequencing
● Perspective Taking – Theory of Mind
● Understanding Figurative Language in Conversations

Printables
The Social Express features five sets of Printables comprising 17 total pages. The Printables include:
● Achievement Certificates, personalized with the user’s name and presented at the completion of a skill level
● Character Profiles of all the main characters in the software, including a blank template for drawing and writing “Things I Know About” details regarding people the user knows in real life
● Hidden Social Keys for Being Part of a Group, including a blank template that can be used to list the Hidden Social Keys for additional real-world locations and situations
● Feelings, including eight feelings and three blank templates for drawing and writing additional feelings
● Coping Strategies, including 12 coping strategies and three blank templates for writing additional coping strategies
All Printables can printed out individually, by set, or in total. Many of the Printables feature high-quality artwork that can be colored in by the user, and some can even be cut apart and bound into booklets.

How Will Children with Social Learning Challenges Benefit?

As a safe, controlled, and familiar learning environment, The Social Express provides an opportunity for users to become more socially competent and have successful social interactions.
Potential benefits include the ability to:
● Identify feelings in others
● Understand the importance of “eye contact” (thinking with your eyes) in order to figure out what to say or do in social situations
● Read non-verbal social cues
● Identify appropriate coping strategies
● Learn how to start conversations
● Learn how to be part of a group
● Learn about the hidden rules in social situations
● Sequence situations and infer what will come next
● Figure out what to talk about with friends
● Monitor when others are using appropriate social behaviors
● Learn about using figurative language (idioms) in conversation
● Stay on topic when having conversations
● Watch social situations unfold and see how behavior can have negative or positive consequences

Highly Highly Highly recommended app!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Social-Express-Interactive-Software/191570134257222?ref=ts#!/pages/The-Social-Express-Interactive-Software/191570134257222?sk=info
http://thesocialexpress.com/what-is-the-social-express/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-social-express/id477525808?mt=8





Saturday, December 10, 2011

Eddy's Number Party! HD

Eddy's Number Party! HD by Scientific Learning Corporation is a fun app for preschoolers and kindergarteners learning their numbers. My 4 and 6 yr old love to play with this app. My 4yr old is just learning counting and this app is very fun for him to play with as he loves dogs and loves ballons so he gets the best of both worlds. My 6yr old is still working on some of these skills in the app and enjoys all the colorful pictures and of course the dogs. There is 4 levels of play Level 1and 2- the basics such as matching numbers 1-10 to objects, Level 3- strategy (make as many matches as fast as you can to win the race), and Level 4- adds to the challenge of level 3 by adding memory into the mix. There is other activities also such as sticker play and little bounce activities along the way. For the parent there is a report card of your childs progress and also you can get suggestions for your child. This app is fun and enjoyable for your child with education added in :) Recommended app :)

http://www.brainsparklearning.com/kinderspark/support/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eddys-number-party!-hd/id461063939?ls=1&mt=8
http://www.brainsparklearning.com/kinderspark/eddysnumberparty/#.TuQUxnmHMlY.twitter

Friday, December 9, 2011

QuestionIt

QuestionIt by LanguageLearningApps, LLC is a very awesome app for learning WH- questions. You get the choices of who, what doing, when, and where with each catagory of  sort, sentence, advanced sentence, and paragraph. Once you pick which your going to use then within each one your child will work on who, what doing, when and where. This app will help your child learn about each catagory depending on their skill level. You can track your children/students with the therapist settings if you would like. Sort and sentence has 3 levels of play each and advanced sentence and paragraph has two levels each depending on where your child is at you can bump them up a level if they are doing really well or lower the level if not. I'm not a big fan of the voice in this app as it is computer sounding so it's hard to understand for some children but otherwise the app is awesome. I really like how this app explains each catagory to your child as they get the answer right. Sort- helps your child learn where the word provided fits in each catagory of who, what doing, when and where. Sentence- gives your child a sentence and then asks a question. After the question is asked your child must pick where who, what doing, where, or when fits into the sentence such as uncle, playing, stadium, tonight and then the question is asked what doing. Your child then should pick playing to answer corectly. Advanced sentence- is just a little bit harder then sentence. Paragraph- Your child will be givin a paragraph and then asked a question. Each level starts off with color coded squares but if you pick the highest level the squares are no longer color coded so it makes it harder. I really do like this app and believe it is worth the cost. It helps a lot with wh-questions and the levels provided are wonderful. The only thing I would like to see in a future update of this app is the quality of the voice. Recommended app :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Language-Learning-Apps-LLC/248143675232551
http://languagelearningapps.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/questionit/id458737797?mt=8


So Much 2 Say- Picture Communication

So Much 2 Say- Picture Communication by Close 2 Home Apps, LLC is a wonderful AAC app with easy to use features for you and your child. You can choose weither to have 1 to 6 objects per page, and optional passcode to protect the edit mode, record your own voice to go with the pictures, and more. This app can be used with just about any child as it is so easy for children to use. I loved that it was so easy to add your own pictures to it with the iPad2's camera but that it also comes with so many already built in pictures. The pictures included already are lifelike and not like some others that have stick figures and cartoon drawings. My friends son who just started using another AAC app was able to use this one quickly with very little prompting as a supplement until he gets familiar with doing whole sentences on his other AAC. My friend also liked the fact that you can add new catagories.  I found that I was able to use this app with my own children differently then an AAC app but as a speech learning tool as it is so easy to use and put pictures on and voice recordings. I would put two pictures up and make them say what they were using the microphone. They love hearing themselves back and it helped having the pictures for them. My kids have done this now with many of the pictures included and they can hear back if it doesn't sound right and they want to keep trying until they get it right. I also use it as a choice board when they are being stubborn and don't want to talk or are frustrated and can't seem to get the words out this app really helps. I highly recommend this app as a AAC starting app and/or supplement to another AAC, a speech learning tool, or as a choice board. :)

Great for individuals with:
  • Cognitive and language impairment
  • Non-verbal language disorders
  • Autism
  • Apraxia
  • Dysarthia
  • Parkinson’s
  • ALS
  • Aphasia
  • Stroke complications
  • Traumatic Brain Injury

http://www.facebook.com/close2homeapps?ref=ts
https://close2homeapps.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/so-much-2-say-picture-communication/id452389274
https://close2homeapps.com/?q=video_tutorials

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Elly book's

Elly book's by Dipali Vaidya are wonderful and fun stories for your children. I personaly own books 1 through 9 except book 2. Each story takes you on an adverture with Elly the Reindeer. All the Elly books are wonderful for young children because of the great pictures and stories.

Book 1 takes you on an adventure with Elly to a birthday party.
Book 3 takes you on an adventure with Elly and her friends as they search for Elly's missing parcel that got blown away after the mailman delivers it.
Book 4 takes you on an adventure with Elly to a picnic with her friends but she gets very hungry along the way.
Book 5 takes you on an adventure with Elly to the seaside with her friends in Aapo's new car!!!.
Book 6 takes you on an adventure with Elly as she wakes up to snow!!!
Book 7 takes you on an adventure with Elly as she starts a band with her friends after finding an accordion in her toy box.
Book 8 takes you on an adventure with Elly as she searches for her friends on a very wet day.
Book 9 takes you on an adventure with Elly to a costume party.

All the Elly books are cute, loveable, and very child friendly. Each of the books are perfect for early readers as the words are not too difficult for young readers to start trying to sound out. These books offer fun and adventure to all children throughout :) Recommended stories :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elly-the-Reindeer/137496002932435?ref=ts
http://www.jonhigham.co.uk/ellythereindeer.html
http://itunes.apple.com/app/elly-book-1/id361751905?mt=8%EF%BF%BD
http://itunes.apple.com/app/elly-book-2/id365914141?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/app/elly-book-3/id366218425?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elly-book-5/id381954887?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/app/elly-book-6/id395867450?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elly-book-7/id415067489?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/elly-book-8/id441445539?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elly-book-9/id467600457?mt=8


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Oceanhouse Media Christmas apps

Oceanhouse Media bring many different type of books apps that are wonderful and fun. Today I'm going to tell you about two different Christmas apps that are fun, cute, and wonderful for all children young and old.

Tacky's Christmas is a wonderful book about Tacky the penguin and his Christmas with his friends. Tacky's kind of the odd one out of the bunch but in this story Tacky gets to save the day with his present to all his friends. Well going along with the story you watch as Tacky becomes their tree, santa, and finally their "savior" from the hunters. Like most Oceanhouse Media books you can choose read to me, read it myself, and auto play. This book like most others of theirs also offers the ability to push pictures to have the words zoom up and be spoken as you tap around the screen. This app is great for children learning to read and offers wonderful pictures and great sound quality throughout :) Highly recommended app :)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!- Dr. Seuss is another wonderful book brought to you by Oceanhouse Media. Most of us grew up with this story during Christmas time and have watched the movie over and over again but it never gets old. This story along with all the other wonderful Dr. Seuss books bring rhyme, love, and laughter to our homes all year round. This story in particular teaches our children about how love can keep a village alive and happy no matter what happens and that you don't need gifts to make you happy on Christmas day. This app brings back the old black and white pages with touches of red throughout that make this less colorful then some of the others but it helps keep the book true to itself. This book helps our young readers learn to read by offering the read by myself option and has where if you point to an item on the screen it will tell you what it is in zoomed out words and will speak what the word is. Highly recommended app that is perfect for all ages :)

http://www.facebook.com/OceanhouseMedia?ref=ts
http://www.oceanhousemedia.com/products/
http://itunes.apple.com/app/how-the-grinch-stole-christmas!/id343766429?ign-mpt=uo%3D6&mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/app/tackys-christmas/id407709500?ign-mpt=uo%3D6&mt=8
http://bit.ly/omapps
Twitter @OceanhouseMedia

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

KidsMag 3 and KidsMag Christmas Special Edition and Christmas Wordfind

KidsMag 3 and KidsMag Christmas Special Edition by Portegno Apps are such wonderful apps I can't stop telling people about them everywhere. All the KidsMag apps are wonderful for so many different ages with so many different activities. Each regular KidsMag apps have 30+ pages and the special editions have 15 pages included. KidsMag reminds me of the old Highlight magazines I used to love as a child except even better. Christmas Wordfind is also another one of there wonderful wordfind apps that have pictures of each of the words so your child can learn what each of the words represent.

KidsMag Christmas Special Edition has 15 wonderful pages. There is activities galore such as puzzles, coloring, decorating, dress up, hidden pictures, and so much more. My kids especially liked the dressing up santa in the app. The puzzles are wonderful for fine motor skills and there is so many different learning activities such as the Christmas wish list where your child needs to put the first letter of each of the pictures to make a word. Highly recommended app :)

KidsMag 3 has 32 wonderful pages filled with education and games throughout. Your child will learn so much from this one app such as numbers, shapes, some spanish, and writting skills. This app along with the other KidsMag apps work wonders for fine motor skills along with educational learning skills for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade to beyound. I enjoy even playing with the KidsMag apps and find many different activites to be fun and enjoyable throughout. The following activites are in this app: Listen and learn, Play and enjoy, draw and color, counting and writting, and read and listening. Each of these activities bring so much learning to our children at a resonable price. I highly recommend this app :)

Christmas Wordfind is another wordfind app by Portegno Apps that is fun and enjoyable to your child. Your child will love the Christmas pictures as they learn to spell and sound out each of the words as they find them. The pictures that are above the words your child needs to find also helps with word recognization for latter or current reading skills. This app along with the other wordfinds offered by Portegno Apps are amoung my daughters faviorts :). I highly recommend this app :)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kidsmag-christmas-special/id483768443?l=en&ls=1&mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/christmas-wordfind/id483790262?l=en&ls=1&mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kidsmag-issue-03/id482383933?l=es&ls=1&mt=8
http://www.facebook.com/PortegnoApps?ref=ts
http://www.portegno-apps.com/

Monday, December 5, 2011

Flying Poodles- A Christmas Story

Flying Poodles- A Christmas Story by Poodle Dog Productions is a cute book app about the Poodles. When you first enter the app you can pick Meet the Poodles (where you get to meet each of the Poodles), Read to me, and read myself. This story is really cute and my children enjoyed it a lot. The whole story is is just like the story we all know so well "The night before Christmas" but in a really cute and fun version. Whoever knew that reindeer could have the flu and Poodles would have to save Christmas :). This is a very cute and funny book for our children to enjoy for many Christmas's to come. I highly recommend this story for all ages :)

http://flying-poodles.com/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2uHSfsGhB0
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flying-poodles-a-christmas/id396776295?mt=8
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flying-Poodles-A-Christmas-Story/137718532908933?sk=wall

When Santa Got Sick

When Santa Got Sick by Food 4 Thought Productions is a very good book for children to learn that giving not receiving is the best part about Christmas. In this book Santa becomes ill and may not be able to do Christmas. A little elf in the story comes up with the idea that Santa should retire and alow friends and family to give gifts instead of Santa. I really did like this book but with three young children was a little concerned about the loss of Santa when he annouced he was going to retire next year. I have three children that take everything literal and worried that this might get them all worked up that Santa wasn't going to come no more. The whole idea around this story is wonderful though about friends and family giving gifts and the "true" meaning of Christmas comming back that so many children have forgotten or may have never known. In this "commercial" world we live in now the "true" meaning of Christmas is lost and our kids seem to want more and more gifts. This book is very cute and interactive and is read very well. :)

http://www.amazon.com/When-Santa-Got-Sick-ebook/dp/B005ZTYKI4/ref%3dsr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322598380&sr=8-1
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/when-santa-got-sick/id427204185?mt=8&ls=1
http://whensantagotsick.com/


Saturday, December 3, 2011

TaleSpring apps

TaleSpring offers many different types of book apps for children. A lot of these books are wonderful for special needs children and help explain things that we might not know how to easily. Some the books are perfect for older children and some are perfect for younger children. I have reviewed some of the books on another review. This will be the remaining books that come from TaleSpring right now :)

My Daddy is a great interactive and animated eBook about a boy and his dad. This book is very cute and fun for all little boys. This book shows little boys about all the things they can do with their daddy. This book keeps your little boys attention with all the things they can push throughout the book and see what will happen or what sound will be next :)

The Shortest Cactus Springs Tale Ever is a book about the old west and a hero that doesn't seem like he would be. This poor little cactus farmer is always managing to get in trouble with his cactuses. Come join this fun  cactus farming "bunny" on a fun adventure through the old west :)

Randy the Daydreaming Dog- Interactive eBook is about a dog named Randy and his ability to let his imagination run wild while his owner is out of the house. This story was "cute" according to my kids. The loved all the adventures Randy took while his owner was out. This book shows our children how it can be fun to just sit and daydream sometimes about far away places :)

Little Fraigglepants: Builds a Rocket Ship is a book about Little Frigglepants and what happens when he gets board. Mom won't help him find something to do so he starts to use his imagination and builds a rocket ship for him and Baby. This book has a lot of hidden things throughout to add to the fun of the story. This story was a lot of fun to read and play with. My kids really enjoyed this and learned they can turn anything into something with a little imagination. Yes I had to help them build a rocket ship afterward lol :)

Lucy has a Straw is an interactive story about Lucy and using her imagination with a straw. During the story Lucy finds all the different things she could use her straw after using one on her birthday. Follow along as Lucy finds some really funny uses for her straw. Warning your children will try all the uses out afterward. Positive great oral motor skills if they do try :)

It's Halloween is a wonderful story for Halloween. There is many different interactive things such as bats, pumpkins, and witches all throughout the story. My kids even enjoyed this story after Halloween and had fun playing with it :)

Darla of the Deep is a story about a Mermaid named Darla. This mermaid is a little different in the since Darla is a little girls mermaid friend from the bath. Join this little girl go on an adventure until her mom knocks on the door. This story is told in rhyme and is fun and enjoyable for all ages :)

My Adventure is a story about Trevor who thinks he lost his imagination. His dad helps him along to regain his imagination after taking a hike. Trevor even meets a friend that he can't believe is real. This story was fun I thought but my kids had a hard time paying attention for long so I would say it's for ages 7+ as it is a little long but is cute for older children who think they no longer have an imagination :)

The Winters, A Snowman Family, Storm and Windy's Busy Weekend is a story about a brother and sister snomen named Storm and Windy. Storm and Windy have a very busy weekend after their grandma and grandpa come into town. They have all sorts of fun with their grandparents sleding, building snowmen, and eating grandma's cookies. There is a lot of activities to do in this story including mini games at the end of it. This story is long but seemed to still hold my kids attention with all the different things to do along the story. It's very cute and the games at the end are great. :)

Searchlight Kids: Let's Learn Colors and Searchlight Kids: Let's Learn Shapes are two separate stories but are both made for preschoolers learning about colors and shapes. These stories are great for teaching all about shapes and colors and turn these stories into wonderful teaching methods with little test along the way. As your child learns different things they will be asked to find a certain thing. When they get it right they will be able to earn prizes and stars along the way. These stories are layed out really cute and fun for your preschooler to learn through. My youngest enjoys playing and learning with them a lot :)

Destiny Discovers Purpose. Road to Self Discovery is a book about learning about yourself and your gifts, talents, and abilities. This book helps your child learn all about themselves as they unlock gems to find Destiny and Christophers purpose in life. This story teaches your child about careers and finding their place in the world. I could not use this story on my kids as they are too young but they did play around with it a little but didn't understand what they were talking about so I would say it's for older at least middle school children but it is still a great book about finding your place in this world :)

Growing Up: Why Do I Feel This Way? is a great story for children growing up and becoming an adolescent. This is part 2 out of the growing up series. This book helps adolescents learn about changes they are experincing as they grow older. There is no sexual references but this book is for older children grades 4-6. This book is great for you and your child to work on togeather and helps explain a lot about growing up :)

Growing Up: What Is Adolescence is part 1 out of the growing up series ment for grades 4-6. Again this book helps explain adolescence and growing up to your child. This is a great story for you to work on with your child to explain growing up :)

See Rainbow Careers! is about career choices. This story helps teach your child about different careers based on their talents and their abilities. This book helps with showing your child different careers that are out there and helps them make choices for their future while still in jr. high/highschool. Your middle schooler may even enjoy this book and may want to start looking at different careers and learning about what they want to be when they grow up :)

http://www.facebook.com/talespring?ref=ts
http://www.talespring.com/

Friday, December 2, 2011

Being Benny

Being Benny by Purple Sneakers Studio is a story about a boy that goes off on an exciting adventure through imagination. This book has wonderful colorful pictures that bring Benny's imagination to many wonderful places. You travel through Benny as he goes on an adventure to dinosaurs, rocket ships, and more. This book is all in rhyme which is a really wonderful thing for teaching our children to be able to start reading on their own and to learn about rhyming. Your child can push items as the story goes along to hear different sounds which keeps them wanting to see and hear more. My children have a hard time with imagining and I believe this app helps teach them that they can go anywhere they want in their minds if they just try :) I recommend this app for a fun and exciting rhyming adventure through Benny :)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Artgig-Apps/183056311741030?sk=info
http://www.artgigapps.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/being-benny/id423409369?mt=8

Alien Buddies

Alien Buddies by Artgig Studio is a fun, cute, entertaining learning game. This game is super cool. I loved the fact that when doing the matching you could either do regular matching of colors, shapes, letters, and numbers or you could also do them by listening. This offers a little bit of a challenge for children that are learning all these different things and also keeps the older children interest also. The aliens themselves are so cute in this app. The dot-to-dot offers wonderful counting skills along with fine motor skills. Then there's the sticker book, my kids love sticker books in any app and this one does not disappoint. There is many fun and lively stickers with wonderful color included in this app. This app is great for preschool age to early 1st grade learning skills. I would highly recommend this app added to the collection of preschools and kindergarten to help teach these skills to their students in a fun but educational way. I also highly highly recommend this app for any child to learn these skills at home :)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Artgig-Apps/183056311741030
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alien-buddies/id469461540?mt=8
http://www.artgigapps.com/


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Kid Cart

Kid Cart by Spark Your Imagination Ventures Inc. is a great shopping trip app. I know my kids are horrible at stores but with this app it turns shopping into a game. First you make your list from pictures already preloaded of different grocery items and then once your at the store you can have your child find and take away how many you checked you needed. This app helps with daily living skills and counting. It will also help your child learn different foods and the words that go with them. Your list can be in English, Spanish, or French :) This is a highly recommended app!!! I highly love this app :)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/SparkYourImagination
http://www.sparkyourimagination.ca/
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/kid-cart/id423495162?mt=8