Many studies have shown that taking notes by handwriting helps kids better understand the material, better at connecting the dots of what they know, and memorizing more of the content. However, we also know digitized notes are easier to keep and organize. It will be ideal if you can take handwriting notes on iPad or other tablets then easily digitize the notes. MyScript Smart Notes is just an app letting you do that. It is best to go through the… Read more

We are all familiar with the concept of photo editing thanks to the many photo editing tools and apps like photoshop. We can not only change the lighting and color of the picture, we can also add or take away parts of pictures, or combine several photos into one. You might think these photo editing is relatively new, but as I learned from Faking It, photo editing has been used for long time. Faking It is a free app from… Read more

I have heard of SimCity for a long time, and my son has played the game. However I have not really get the chance to really look into the game till now. It is a free app available for both iOS and Android. After spending sometime on it today, I like it. In the game kids will build a city and learn city planning and building. It is another simulation game I don’t mind my child playing. When kids start… Read more

Learning math is fun. It should be. Today we share an app that teaches kids math tricks for algebra: Mathemagics. It is the 2nd app in the series. The first Mathemagics app focuses on math tricks on mental math calculations, like adding and multiplying two digit numbers, or dividing a number by 7. This 2nd app in the series teaches math tricks on algebra. It is a great way to learn thinking differently and encourage kids to find better solutions… Read more

While school coming to the end for the year, I start looking for fun games for the child – fun yet mentally challenging brain games. I just find out the free app of the week on Apple Store is a fun one — Quetzalcoatl fits my criteria of challenging brain games for kids. I have seen similar game concepts before, but the overall design of the game play is much more smooth in Quetzalcoat. It require visual identification of shapes… Read more

Every year kids bring home a lot art works from school. We had a closet just to store child’s art. Yet quickly we ran out of space. A couple years ago I found this app called ArtKive, and was so glad that I can just keep all the art works digitally to save all the space. Plus I can pick some of the art to make them into art books, for keepsake or for gifts. ArtKive is an app that… Read more

Are your kids tired of memorizing words for school? Do you feel like trying something new to spark their interest in learning new words or spelling? You may want to try this fun app — Guess the Word with Art. It is not designed for student or any school curriculum, but it is fun to play. Players guess the word based on the letters they get and the picture they see. Each picture is original art and is funny in… Read more

I remember when I was young I liked tracing pictures on comic books or picture books. It was soothing for me. Now thinking back, it also taught me drawing and most importantly the portions between parts of a picture. Tracing Paper is a simple app that lets you do just that — pick a picture from your device’s photo albums, and the app gives you an translucent canvas on top of the chosen picture for you to trace it. It… Read more

We have been using OverDrive for a while. I really like it. It saves trips to the library and brings the library books to your mobile devices and computers. You can borrow digital books to read or audio books to listen. You can even borrow videos to watch. It is a free app works on almost all devices: Apple, Android, Windows devices, PC and Mac computers. I have mostly used the app on my iPad and iPhone. But you should… Read more

Four Letters is a free app of fun word games. It is not for young children, but it is a fun one for school age kids who have certain vocabulary already. All words in the games are 4 letter words. Think it will be easy? Try it out. It is fast paced fun vocabulary game that the family can play together. You can even set up a competition among family members. The game play is quite easy. The player is… Read more

Winky Think Logic Puzzles has a series of fun logical and critical thinking games for kids. It starts with fun shape and color matching, but gradually goes into complex puzzle games full of obstacles that require reasoning, observation and spatial cognition skills to solve. It is a fun game for the whole family. It is currently free for limited time. The games are roughly grouped into 3 skill levels, with over 180 puzzles in total. The first level is very… Read more

LeafSnap is a free app developed by Columbia University, Maryland University and Smithsonian Institute. It is a tree leaf identification guide that helps users identify trees with the leaves. You can snap a picture of the leaf, and the app will compare the image with the database, and tell you what tree is the leaf from. It is a fun app to have for your walking in the park. The most fun part of the app is the Snap part… Read more

Medelia is a free app helping kids learn about the history of Mediterranean cities. Kids visit the cities, learn and explore at their own pace. It is a fun way to learn history. There will be more cities included the app, but currently there are 3, and one city is free. When kids just start the app, they can create their own avatars. The created the character will be the one explore the cities. Currently the city that comes free… Read more

I remember one of the early games my son played was Oregon Trail. It is a history simulation game for kids to role play as a pioneer traveling west along the Oregon Trail in the old days. My son learned so much by playing the game. It is a fun way for them to learn the history first hand. Those visuals, pictures, and games really bring the history to life, help the kids to understand what was going on in… Read more