Disney launched ImagiCademy recently as a series of educational apps for kids age 5 and younger. Currently there are only two apps in the series: Art and Math. I only get chance to look at the art app. It has several creativity components in it. If you are looking for art apps for your toddler or preschooler and your child likes Disney characters, this would be good app to have. There are 5 units in the app. Each unit has… Read more

I just read the news that LaunchPad the company who created Toontastic app is bought by Google. As a celebration, they set two of their apps free: Toontastic and TeleStory. We reviewed Toontastic, which is a fun app letting kids create their own stories and making them into movies. Toontastic also teaches kids how to arrange the storyline to make the stories more interesting. Different from Toontastic, TeleStory is an app letting kids create their own TV shows with provided… Read more

Drawing with Carl is a fun drawing app for kids. With so many drawing apps out there on app store, this one still stands out as a good one worth checking out. I like the simple interface, many drawing tool options, especially the mirror drawing and pattern drawing. The first surprise for me of the app is the capability to choose color from the color wheel yourself. Some drawing app for adults allow users to customize the colors this way… Read more

Sago Mini has a series apps designed for very young children. Most of their apps are targeted at toddler and preschool kids, although I always had fun with their apps too. Sago Mini Monsters is a fun creative monster app for the same age group. It is free for limited time on Apple App Store. Kids start the app by making a monster first. The monster making process is quite unique, yet fit the monster theme perfectly. Kids will see… Read more

I like art activities using shapes. It combines art and math. While creating pictures with geometric shapes, kids practice shape and size recognition, cognitive skills, fine motor skills, and creativity. Today we share an app letting kids create pictures with shapes. The app Shape It is designed for kids from preschool to early elementary school. The activities have 3 stages to meet different ability levels. At the first stage, kids can choose pictures provided as template, which include farm animals… Read more

The NGAkids Art Zone app is a FREE app from National Gallery of Art. It is designed to teach kids art with interactive activities. All activities are inspired by works in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. It is designed for early elementary age kids, but kids younger or older and even adults will find them fun and entertaining too. If you don’t have a mobile device, it is also available on NGA website and you can access… Read more

I have seen some iPad art works on the internet, and I have always wondered how people were able to create the beautiful effects on iPad, like water color, shades of painting, and delicate color changes. I started exploring some of the drawing apps available. It is amazing to see the kinds of drawing capabilities you can have with a nice drawing app. Today I found SketchBook Pro is free for limited time. This is a good opportunity to try… Read more

On screen art creation and off screen art creation are different. I have found that many great apps offer great art activities. They use features that are available with the new technology, provide unique perspectives that are otherwise impossible to share. But we should not limit the art on the screen. Whenever possible I like to bring the on screen art off screen. Here are 10 art apps for kids that easily be used off screen for creative activities. 10… Read more

Learning alphabet is the stepping stone to early literacy. There are many fun ways to help kids learn ABCs. Today I have another fun app helping kids learn alphabet. It is a set of alphabet coloring pages and number coloring pages. Kids not only learn alphabet and numbers, but also practice fine motor skills. It is free today. We also have instructions on how to use it with another app to do it on your device, and how to print… Read more

Have you tried origami? Do you like it? We love origami. Origami develops kids’ logical reasoning, attention span, spatial thinking and fine motor skills. It is a fun activity for kids of all ages. Plus many of the final products can serve as toys for kids to play with. It is a fun activity for travel. It is also a nice quiet activity to calm kids down. Today we have an origami instruction app. We tried some origami books before… Read more

Do you kids like to play Mr. Potato head? it is a fun creative open play toy. We had a couple different versions of Mr. Potato heads at home. My son loved to put various parts in all different positions and we have so many funny pictures of his creation. It is a fun playing process for kids to learn about body parts and some other concepts, like symmetry. Today we are sharing an app that is similar to Mr… Read more

Do you have a boy? Do you feel it is hard many times to get him engaged in art activities? Boys seem to have their own preference when it comes to creativity. From my own experience, boys are not looking for things that are pretty or beautiful in mommy’s sense. They are more focused on the fun from the creation process itself and less care about the final product looking pretty. They are more interested in boys’ subjects, like airplanes… Read more

I just shared some apps for travel journaling for kids on my post How to Turn Travel into Learning Experience. Today I have one more wonderful app to add to it: Adobe Voice. It is a new free app from Adobe. I am quite impressed with the quality of the multimedia stories you can create with the app. With many pre-packaged theme options, it is perfect for kids who don’t know how to polish a presentation yet. All you need do is… Read more

Timeline 3D is a very neat app letting you create and present a multimedia timeline of any event on your iPhone or iPad. It is usually $10 on App Store. It is now FREE for limited time. What a great mother’s day gift. You can take pictures and videos of family gathering, and make it into a timeline and watch it as a family once it is done. If you have read How to share iPhone and iPad screen on… Read more