Taking care of pets is a great opportunity for kids to learn responsibility, companionship, and that you better be careful where you leave a fish that can jump out of its fishbowl!
Guppy Butter, a witty and relatable tale, written by Kevin M. Penelerick & illustrated by Amanda Gielen, is available in iBooks for $3.99, and is recommended for child ages 2-8, though I think even older kids would enjoy it, too. The book might be too long for 2 year olds to sit through; it has two short chapters, and 36 pages (illustrated pages included).
Guppy Butter is a story told from the view of a young girl that wants a puppy for a pet desperately, but her parents use better judgement of her and her wise-talking brother, and decide on their best interest to start off with a pet guppy instead.
I love the realness and the relatability of the characters. Guppy Butter has humor that kids of all different ages will enjoy (parents too), and is a great example that we don’t always get what we want, or things don’t always go as planned in life. It’s a growing up story with perfectly placed humor to lighten the small sorrow.
The illustrations pop with color, and have a modern vibe that meshes well with the tone of the story. Guppy Butter is cleverly written, easy to read, offers great teaching moments with vocabulary, and has a wittingly tragic climax in this tale of an identity-confused goldfish.
Parents, you won’t be bored reading Guppy Butter, and chances are, your kids will love it and ask you to read it over and over, so why not choose a fun, smart, life-lesson-learning, humorous book to read to your kids? You’ll definitely want to add Guppy Butter to your iBook library.
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
Your child detective will love searching for number clues to solve math problem mysteries, and interactively engage with spooky and humorous surroundings along the way, in the Mystery Math Town app.
Mystery Math Town, by Artgig Studios, challenges your child’s math skills while he or she helps a friendly ghost save fireflies throughout Mystery Math Town. Mystery Math Town is available for the iPad for $2.99, and is recommended for children ages 6-12.
Your child will explore creepy buildings and interactive with portrait artwork, while rescuing fireflies and solving math problems presented. Tap on all the numbers hidden in each room to use as the answers to fill in the blanks of a math problem. Whenever your child answers a math problem correctly, new rooms will be unlocked. Your child can also collect the portrait masterpieces of the people of Math Town in a gallery.
I love that in the Mystery Math Town app, your child can take basic math memorization, like 4 x 5 = 20, and he or she will be challenged to solve __ x __ = 20, from the number clues they’ve gathered throughout their journey in the app. Instead of your child simply memorizing answers, he or she will be given an answer, and have to fill in the blanks to create the problem. This approach challenges children to develop critical thinking skills, instead of just tapping on an answer till they guess the correct one.
The game offers multiple player accounts so every child’s progress can be saved respectively. You can also customize the difficulty and types of math questions presented in the Settings; determine math equations consisting of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and/or Varied Number Representations.
Mystery Math Town uses a unique approach of solving math problems, that brilliantly reinforces mathematical critical thinking skills, while providing an engaging mystery game for kids to enjoy. Math can be intriguing and fun, who knew? Your kids will love it!
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
Raise your hand if you have suffered from one of the following three “Ah’s!”:
1.You just got home from the park with your kiddos, hop on the computer, and see that one of your mommy friends just checked-in at the same park. Ah! Could have been a playdate!
2. You’ve sent out a really long text inviting moms to join you for a playdate somewhere, with frustrations with the autocorrect spelling, reread, edit, reread, edit, send, oops, forgot to put the time, retype (dang autocorrect!) send. Ah! Could have been an easier way to invite friends to a playdate!
3. You don’t like the idea of “checking-in” to places with your kids all the time on Twitter and Facebook, and maybe you aren’t checking your Newsfeed and Tweets all the time (sheesh, what’s wrong with you? )You tend to miss invites on Facebook. Ah! You missed a playdate!
So even though I can’t see you, I know your hand is up, or maybe if you had three hands, they all three would be up.
Ok, put them down. I have the answer to the “Ah’s” – Redrover app. This great app makes it a cinch to contact all of your mommy friends about your plans for playdates. Redrover is FREE, let me say that again, this app is FREE, and it is for Android and iPhone. Yes! I love an app I can share with droid and i-mommies.
So the app works like this:
Create a profile for Redrover, then invite your friends to join. Next, create an event. Go to the Meet tab along the toolbar on the bottom, and the app instantly pulls out places in your area closest to you, places that have clean bathrooms and are kid friendly. Choose a location, time, snap a picture of the location if you wish, and then announce it to all your friends. Your event will be sent to all your friends’ phones and reminders of upcoming events are sent via email too. You can message each other within the app itself, saving from a long chain of convos on Facebook that everyone (well everyone of your approved friends) can read. You also have the option to share via Facebook and Twitter if you wish. You can use this app to schedule a playdate in advance, or just send a shout-out that you are taking the kids to the park now, and will be there for a couple hours if anyone wants to join.
There is also an emergency tab that allows you to call emergency numbers quickly, text emergency contacts, and provides you all the local hospitals in the area of where your event is located. Nice feature to keep us calm and prepared in emergencies.
*Updated* Download the 3.0 update for your RedRover app, and enjoy knowing about all the kid-friendly events from the best institutions across the country. Currently, the app just caters to New York mommas, but the developers promise that the rest of us will see this part of the update in the weeks to come. The developer also warns that you may have to update your password and reconnect with some friends that may have gotten disconnected during the update. *
The Redrover app is an essential app for mom’s devices; not only is it efficient in scheduling playdates and events for your kids, but it also enables you to be more social and intentional in your friendships with other moms, and it allows your kids to experience new things through others. I believe that the more great role models you put in your children’s lives, the more inspired they will be to emulate the character of these role models. Surround yourself with great Redrover moms and get out there and play!
I know for me as a kid (and still today), math problems always made me feel like I was losing my marbles. Now, I can help my daughter master the mazes of solving math problems while being challenged and rewarded in fun, cool games with Marble Math & Marble Math Junior apps.
Marble Math, by ArtGig Studios, is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch for $1.99, and is recommended for children ages 9-12.
To begin, create an account and player profile for your child. This part is fun! Create your own profile character pic by swiping different features for hats, eyes, and mouth. Here, you can also customize the curriculum of the games, and set the difficulty at an appropriate level for your child. You can also choose what type of math concept for your child to concentrate on, or let the game present random math problems.
Have more than one child that wants to play? No problem; you can add as many player profiles as you would like, and save each child’s preferences and high scores within their own account.
Next, choose your difficulty level with number one being the easiest, and number three the hardest. In the options field your child can choose their own marble, and other features to enhance their gaming experience to their own preference. Now, push play!
Tilt the screen or lead the marble with your fingertip to roll over the correct answers within a maze to correctly solve the math problem presented at the top of the screen. Roll over all of the correct answers and gather bonus points objects, while avoiding the wrong answers & obstacles. Get the answer right, and a new math problem and maze will be presented. Your child also earns points to upgrade their marbles for more fun.
What I really love is that the app provides a way for children to learn from the math problems if they don’t know the answer, or incorrectly answer it. You can replay the math problem to try again, or you can choose to show the correct answer option. This option is really great for turning on the light bulbs in kids’ minds, and providing them that “aha!” moment.
Marble Math challenges kids in these mathematical concepts:
• addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• adding and sequencing fractions with different denominators
• sequencing roman numerals
• factoring
• sequencing decimals
• adding and subtracting negative integers
• counting money (USD, AUD, CAD, EUR or GBP)
• comparing number values
• simplifying equations
Watch Marble Math in action in the video below:
Marble Math extensively covers elementary mathematics curriculum, and intensively challenges, teaches, and assists kids in mastering a vast variety of math skills, while also putting their balancing and hand-eye coordination to the test in this fun and engaging math app.
With all the same awesome features of Marble Math, younger kids can get in on mastering early elementary mathematics too, with Marble Math Junior. Marble Math Junior is recommended for ages 5-8.
I love how in Marble Math Junior, the math questions are read aloud for those younger children who may not be able to read the math equation; just tap on the problem for it to be read audibly.
• shape recognition/matching
• sequencing number values and ordinals
• addition, subtraction and multiplication to 100
• identifying fractions
• counting money (USD, AUD, CAD, EUR or GBP)
• telling time
• completing addition equations
Be sure to also check out these other great apps from ArtGig Studios:
Alien Buddies is a brilliantly animated, educational and interactive app, that brings out-of-this-world fun down to your little one’s hands, while they learn colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. Alien Buddies is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod, and is recommended for children ages 3-7.
Shake-a-Phrase focuses on increasing vocabulary and mastering parts of speech in a very fun and silly way. Shake-a-Phrase is available for the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android, and is recommended for children 8 years of age and older.
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
The holidays are supposed to be a relaxing, warming, loved-ones gathering, time to enjoy company and delicious food, right? That is, unless you are the one hosting the gathering. Leave the stress out of the holiday celebration, with the Holiday Recipes & Party Planning Guide, by Food52, the perfect resource for preparing and planning your party.
Holiday Recipes & Party Planning Guide, by Food52 is a virtual cookbook, co-founded by the New York Times writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. Holiday Recipes & Party Planning Guide, by Food52 goes beyond just any old cookbook; it’s basically a lifeline for hosting your event. It’s jam-packed with 127 recipes, 100 minutes of expert tutorial videos, tips on shopping and planning the details of your party, and over 800 beautiful photos, helping you create a food masterpiece.
Holiday Recipes & Party Planning Guide, by Food52 breaks down it’s amazing and vast content in these categories: drinks, snacks and starters, soups and salads, main courses, side dishes, breads, desserts, breakfast and brunch, holidays and special diets, techniques for cooking, baking, making drinks, entertaining tips like menu suggestions and party planning, and the equipment essential in all kitchens.
Besides just the delectable-looking food, the helpful party tips are great! I love how it explains strategies for washing mountains of dishes, controlling the chaos in your kitchen, and creating centerpieces. The most stressful part for me in hosting a party, is the disaster that happens in my kitchen; I don’t think my kitchen looking like a tornado stormed through it is very welcoming.
There’s also a handy glossary were you can search for certain ingredients or meals, and also help you out, if you don’t know the definition of a cooking term.
Whether you want to just whip out a lovely breakfast on a weekend morning to serve for your family, or you want to have a holiday party and meal to be remembered, the Holiday Recipes & Party Planning Guide, by Food52 app will give you confidence every step of the way in preparing an amazing menu, while also helping you create an experience your guests will remember, and you’ll enjoy, too.
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
Since she’s been a baby, my daughter has always been fascinated by this crazy bright screen, fingertips clicking letters, and contraption you sway around called a mouse (a mouse? does it like cheese?). It cracked me up when she would ask to use her “email”, i.e., me opening an excel document and letting her go to town. Now, there is an app that lets her learn and explore emailing at her level.
Maily is an app designed just for kids, to help them learn, effectively use, and have fun designing emails to send to friends and family; an important tool that was never a thought when we were kids. Maily is your kid’s first email app, available for free on the iPad. Maily is recommended for children ages 4 and up.
Open Maily and setup a Parent account with your email address or Facebook. Then setup your kid’s account, so you can email each other back and forth. You can also setup other contact accounts, too, for family and friends. Your child can only send and receive emails from people that you have personally made a Maily account for. The instructions are really easy and simple to follow, and it takes no time to get everything setup. You can even adjust the safety settings to allow you to have a copy of all your child’s incoming and outgoing emails, and you can even validate the emails coming in before they see them.
Check the inbox in the yellow message icon in the top, left-hand corner to see what new messages your child has received. Choose from several of the design features in the bottom toolbar to create your own special email. Choose text boxes, pencils, paint brushes, erasers, stamps, insert a photo from the camera roll, or change the background. Once the masterpiece of an email is complete, pick a contact to send the email to, by selecting the envelope icon in the top, right-hand corner.
When your child sends their email to you, it will come straight to your inbox with the email address you used to setup your account. What’s really awesome is that you can choose to reply, and be directed to a Maily site that allows you to respond with the design features unique to the app. Send a fun message back to them, and it will be waiting for them in their Maily app inbox!
The graphics are very clean, bright and engaging to young kids, and the whole navigation is intuitive and easy for anyone to figure out. My daughter was absolutely giddy for me to hurry and check the email she sent me, and it was like her receiving a present to see what surprise of a message I sent back to her. A cool feature that would be awesome to add to this app would be a recording option, so even younger kids who can’t read or write yet, could send a voice message along with a designed picture.
Maily is a helpful learning app for children to understand and use email; it promotes creativity with its many design features, and brings gratifying fun with the excitement and anticipation of recipients opening special emails from their proud little senders. This app has a lot of fun and educational value in store, for the remarkable price of FREE! Get it for you iPad!
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
The big truck, the sirens blaring, heros arriving to the rescue. Does your little one dream of being a fireman or firewoman?
Let them explore a fire truck to their heart’s content while playing 4 fun discovery and challenging games, in the Interactive Fire Truck 3D app from 22Learn. Interactive Fire Truck 3D allows your child to take the driver’s seat and drive the truck to the emergency, investigate all the neat tools and features of a fire truck, use a powerful hose to put out fires, and search and find hidden tools.
Interactive Fire Truck 3D is available for the iPhone and iPad for $1.99. I would recommend this app for children ages 2 and up.
Interactive Fire Truck 3D app’s 4 games assist your child in improving their problem-solving skills, while also learning all about the important things needed on a fire truck:
Explore the fire truck: Let your child get their hands all over a fire truck, and learn the names of the truck’s features and important tools. Your child can turn around the entire fire truck, 360 degrees, for full exploration. He or she can rotate the tires, turn the lights and sirens on and off, start the engine, draw the ladder, honk the horn, open and close the doors, open the tool compartments, and so much more. Push the question mark in the top toolbar, to display all the interactive places to touch. This exploratory game will come in handy when your child plays the search and find game later.
Drive the Fire Truck: Turn the key in the ignition and let’s go! Your child can steer the wheel, turn on the radio, swish the windshield wipers, sound the sirens, and more while being the driver of a fire truck. Your device’s camera serves as what is visible through the windshield, so you can drive all around the house. This is pretty cool, however, I think it would have been cooler to have the option to drive an animated course they could see through the windshield (like a driving video game).
Extinguish the Fire: Oh no! Fire! Your child needs to grab the hose and extinguish all the firey flames coming from the building. Tap on the fires in the illustrations to direct the hose to point and extinguish.
Locate Parts of the Fire Truck: In this game, your child will seek and find certain tools on the fire truck. Search all around the fire truck and once you find the item, tap on it, and advance to find a new object.
I love how the sound effects, graphics, and even the fireman that helps navigate your child through the app, are all so lifelike! I think this app definitely will win kids over with it’s “cool factor”. You know your kids will go crazy for it, and it’s fairly priced for an app that comes with lots for kids to do, explore, and learn.
Interactive Fire Truck 3D is an informative, exploratory, and dream-come-true game app for toddlers and preschoolers, that they will definitely love. What kid doesn’t want to drive the fire truck, be able to push all the buttons, and be the hero to save the day?
Lay out your beach towel, dig your toes in the sand, and soak up the sun with your preschooler, as you discover and learn the letters of the alphabet in the Alphabet Aquarium app!
Alphabet Aquarium, by CFC s.r.o., introduces a bright way for young kids to learn the alphabet, while also simultaneously challenging them in matching games and puzzles. Alphabet Aquarium is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod for $1.99, and you can download the free lite version to try the app, too. It is also available for Android for $1.99, and free for lite. The lite version just has games for letters A-E.
Open Alphabet Aquarium, and start off by choosing a letter of the alphabet. The app will automatically guide your child through 4 great games using that chosen letter:
Letters Puzzle: Help the crabs put the letter back together, piece by piece. This game helps children to recognize the appearance of each letter, while it is audibly read aloud by professional narration.
Animals Puzzle: Complete the animal puzzle by tapping and dragging each piece, up to its proper place. The animal used in the puzzle starts with the chosen letter. Watch as the animal comes alive when the puzzle is complete!
Sky Puzzle: Match the items starting with the chosen letter to its silhouette in the cloud. The narration also helps kids to learn new words that start with that chosen letter.
Beach Puzzle: The tide brought in lots of odd treasures to the shore. Match each item to its imprint in the sand. This game tests children to match shapes, numbers, and letters to its silhouette.
In the Settings, parents have the control of turning any of the games on or off.
The animations, narration, and music are very well done and are of excellent quality. I love how Alphabet Aquarium help kids tackle learning the alphabet across all fronts, with the challenging, yet very age-appropriate games. I also like that once your child completes a game, the app automatically takes them to the next game, instead of relying on the child to navigate through the games on their own.
The lite version does have lots of places in which to purchase other apps, so make sure if your little one is playing it on their own, to turn off in-app purchases in your device’s settings. Also, I did feel that the app was a bit difficult to play on the iPhone; the images were pretty small, and it was hard to read and tap on the screen. We had a much better experience playing Alphabet Aquarium on the iPad.
Alphabet Aquarium is a great educational app that not only helps your child master learning the letters of the alphabet, but challenges them to match, solve, and critically think about the letters, through four fun games with aquatic animals.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, what’s the fairest Snow White storybook app of them all? We all know the familiar fairytale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but you and your kids have never seen it like this before.
Grimm’s Snow White – 3D Interactive Pop-up Book, by By StoryToys Entertainment Limited, is another great installment in their fairytale storybook line of apps. You can see my review of Little Red Riding Hood here. Grimm’s Snow White takes a classic approach to the loved pop-up book, and transforms it to an amazing, encompassing 3D experience, that makes your child feel like they are right in the book. Unlike real pop-up books, there’s no worry of tearing the pages, but rather, your child is encouraged to touch all over the screen, playing the games within the story!
Grimm’s Snow White is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod for $4.99. It is also available for Android, through Google Play for $1.99. I would recommend Grimm’s Snow White for children ages 3 and up.
Grimm’s Snow White is fully and professionally narrated in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. You can choose to read the story in 3 ways: Read Myself, Read to Me, and Autoplay (great for younger kids to enjoy without help from mom, like when riding in the car). There are also lots of fun games your child will discover along the way: help build and dress a snowman, find the seven dwarfs in the forest, guide Snow White through a maze, dress the wicked queen in a creepy disguise, mix a magical exploding potion, create music, and lots more. Here’s a special hint: tap on the characters on the last page of the story at Snow White’s wedding, and watch as a surprise party takes place!
Check out the video below, demonstrating one of the games, building a snow man.
Grimm’s Snow White is very appealing, and I enjoyed the bright and engaging graphics and animation. I love how the story is enhanced with interactive games along the way, and I also like, that you can choose to skip the games, if you want to keep reading along. The app does take a good bit of time to get through; it has 39 pages with 11 interactive game pages, so younger, preschool-aged children may not have the attention span to sit through the whole app. On average, it probably takes around 15-20 minutes to experience the entire app.
Grimm’s Snow White‘s music, narration, and sound effects really complement the story, and buildup a child’s satisfaction when successfully completing the simple tasks within the games. The audible instructions are great for younger children who can’t read yet, so they can listen and still understand how to play each game. My four year old navigated and completed the app fairly easily, all on her own.
I did however find quite a few punctuation errors in the use of quotations in the story, which disappoints me because other than that, it is an excellent app for your child to experience.
Grimm’s Snow White is a new classic that you’re kids will enjoy over and over again.
Be sure to check out the other fairytale apps from StoryToy’s:
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. I received a promotional code for this app in faith of writing an app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
I’ve shared the amazing Cozi Family Organizer app ages ago, and wanted to update the review and reshare with you all, one app that I’ve used on a weekly basis for as long as I’ve had a smartphone.
You bring your phone with you everywhere, so why not have your calendar with all the kids’ practices scheduled, to-do lists, school and grocery shopping lists, and journal with you too, instead of hanging on the refrigerator? Or maybe you like Google calander for your family’s scheduling needs, but use other apps for grocery lists, meal planning, journaling, reminders, etc. Let’s make it more simple; why not have all those things in one single app, that you can share with everyone in the household easily and instantly? Well, maybe not share it with the dog.
First, create a free account with Cozi.com, and be sure to include other family members that you would like to share information with. Open Cozi Family Organizer , and you’ll land on the home screen. The home screen helps you navigate the app and is like a table of contents; access the Calendar, To Do, Shopping, Journal, or Settings here.
Schedule appointments in the Calendar: doctor appointments, sport practices, and oh yeah, I need to pick up Bobby from school today at 3:15. Don’t be that parent that forgets and leaves your kid waiting at school for half an hour….This app keeps your family on the same page. Instantly share all the calendar events with everyone in your household; share information that can be accessed on Cozi.com, through email, reminders of events sent via text message, or by notifications on your phone, too.
The To-Do list tab helps you knock out those chores at home and reminds you of the places to stop while running errands and shopping.
Speaking of shopping, there is a shopping tab where you can add grocery items or other shopping items, right when you think of it. If you are like me, and you don’t make a note of the toilet paper being low now, you may forget by the time you get to the store, and now Mr. Husband is stuck on the toilet….don’t be that wife What’s also nice is that you can input the stores you commonly shop at, and have separate lists for each store, like your favorite grocery store to list your grocery items, and another tab created for shopping at the drug store, or bulk shopping excursions to Sams Club or Costco.
Lastly, the Journal section is great for when a special little moment pops up on an ordinary day. Take a picture with your phone, and save it in your journal. Leave a note to describe the event.
If you are hopelessly in need of organization, you can upgrade your app to the Cozi Gold that includes meal planning, priority customer support, no ads, an interactive, mobile monthly view, and more. The kicker is that it will cost you $50 per year, but it may be truly valuable to those of you with several children to manage.
Cozi Family Organizer is a vital tool for the smartphone mom; keeping us on top of all appointments, practices, shopping, errands, to-do’s, and also, helping us slow down and capture special moments to record. It should be in y’alls’ Super Mom tool belt. Visit Cozi.com to learn more about organizing your family’s life.
Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.
)You tend to miss invites on Facebook. Ah! You missed a playdate!
