QDancer is a fun dance app for kids.  Kids can choreograph and create their own dance routines on their iPAD, and watch them play out on stage at showtime!  They can pick between Ballet and Hip-Hop, so it is something for both boys and girls Designing the dance routine is easy.  Kids can just pick the moves they like, drag and drop them in the order they want.  They can add or delete a move, or change the order of… Read more

Sprinkle is a fun physics based game. It just went free for a week.  It is like a combination of Angry Birds and Where is my water.  The story behind the game: inhabitants of Titan, a moon of Saturn, lived out their days peacefully in their straw hut homes – until space tourists from Earth crashed through Saturn’s rings, bringing a storm of flaming asteroids crashing down on the Titans. To combat the widespread fires threatening their homes, the Titans… Read more

Bolt by Happsan is a fun math game. It is FREE for limited time. As it’s said on App Store introduction, it is a “challenging, social number game” that everyone can play, regardless of age and education. You can play against the Glenn, the built-in character within the app, or you can play with your friends on the same device, or challenge other online players around the world in multiplayer mode! The gameplay consists of a board with 42 tiles, numbered… Read more

When we talk about kids learning math, we tend to think about math facts practice.  While math facts are important foundational math skills, there are more math skills kids need learn – critical thinking and problem solving are two of them.  I have not found as many math apps focusing on these skills as those on simple math facts, so I get excited whenever I found one, and even more excited if it is FREE.  MathLands is a free app… Read more

Do you have your child do math or reading practices with worksheets? I have found many free printables recently while searching for some fun learning activities for the summer. These printables are great, but I don’t feel like to print out all of them, so I found a way to read and write on PDF or image files on iPAD directly. All you need is the app GoodNotes. GoodNotes can read files from your device’s photo album, your Dropbox, or… Read more

Easy Studio – Animate with shapes is a fun app you and your kids will all like.  Just like the app title suggested, it lets kids put together animations on the iPad using only geometric shapes. There are two play modes: Easy and Expert.  When kids first start the app, they will be in Easy mode.  Kids will watch a tutorial on the basic functionalities – how to move pieces onto the canvas, how to take single pictures, how to play the… Read more

I have been looking for text free solutions for a while.  When I first got my iPhone, I thought I was not going to text much, mostly just use it for phone calls, so we bought the mobile plan with monthly phone call coverage, and then pay text by number of texts we send and receive.  But now more and more of my friends started texting instead of call, I feel we need to re-evaluate our mobile program, and I… Read more

I spot this app on App Store yesterday.  It is a very interesting music app – no key boards, but random objects shaped like a square, a round button, a triangle.   To make music, you simply move different objects around, the interactions among the objects create different sound, thus a beautiful piece of music.  The movements of the objects follow some physics principles: if you throw an object towards a wall, it will bounce back.  If you swing an object… Read more

I recently came across an app called Book Creator for iPAD. Just like the app title suggested, it is an app kids can use to create digital books. I reviewed some other apps with similar functions, like StoryKit. Comparing to StoryKit, both apps have the basic functions like adding pictures and text, recording voices and sound effects. Book Creator is more versatile than StoryKit. Some neat functions I liked: 1. Kids can resize the picture and rotate the picture into… Read more

Do you have a lot pictures on your phone? Today I am sharing two collage apps I have been using, plus one I just discovered. All apps are FREE. They are all very easy to use. You can use them yourself, or you can use them with your kids and create some family picture collage together. I am sure the kids will have fun and the collages can easily become mother’s day gifts. There are tons of collage apps out there, if you have one you… Read more

When people think about apps, they usually think they are for screen activities. In fact, many apps are used for screen free activities. Today we share some fun apps designed for kids to have screen free activities. All are educational activities too. These are great tools to break kids from screen and have them start moving. These can be used for the yearly Screen Free week, as well as any week of the year! Apps Encouraging Kids Screen Free Activities… Read more

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr Seuss is another app produced by Oceanhouse Media and adds to their mighty cannon of Dr Seuss related products. I have to admit to being a very late latecomer when it comes to Dr Seuss. I was never introduced to it as a child and hadn’t read any of the stories until I had children of my own. I know, I know! My only excuse is that it just never featured… Read more

Traveling with kids can be one of two things…an absolute joy, or a terrifyingly stressful ordeal. The best thing a parent can do to prevent the latter is to BE PREPARED. Enter my secret weapon—the iPad. On long bus, train or plane rides, we do as many non-digital activities as possible. But the inevitable point always comes when the iPad is the best solution. My arsenal of Apps always have a real world component, that means whatever activity we do… Read more

We have introduced several common core standard aligned apps, such as SplashMath, iTooch Elementary and Middle School, Math on Video.  The other day, I saw the FREE Common Core Standards app on App Store.  I found it very handy for teachers and parents to have. In the app, you will see three sections under Standards: Math – Traditional, Math – Integrated, and Language Arts.   According to corestandards.org, Math – Traditional is typical for schools in the US, while Integrated Math… Read more