Monki Shake It is a new app of fun learning games for toddler and preschool age children. It is very easy to play. A toddler or a preschooler can easily play it by themselves. Kids learn to recognize different objects, count objects, match and sort be various features, and practice fine motor skills. There are 4 games in the app, and the first one is free coming with the free download. Identify the musical instrument: kids see two instruments in… Read more

Mia the Happy Helper is a fun early learning app for preschool to first grade kids. Kids will help Mia the helpful mouse to do chores and errands, along the way they have to use some critical skills to differentiate colors, identify shapes, or count berries. It is a delightful learning app for kids to have fun while gaining the important skills. Someone at the General Store is sick, Mia the helpful mouse steps up to offer help with the… Read more

We reviewed the first book app in ABCmouse Search and Explore series, The Grand Canyon. Today we are sharing another book app in the series: The Golden Gate Bridge.  Like The Grand Canyon, The Golden Gate Bridge app is also free. In this app, kids will follow the mice ABC and 123, learn the history and fun facts about the famous bridge. After finishing the books, kids will know why it is called Golden Gate Bridge, who designed the bridge… Read more

Gilbert Gas Science Experiments is a book app teaching kids about gas, or carbon dioxide in particular. It is one of the book in a 26 science book series: The Quirkles apps. They are also available as print books. Gilbert Gas Science app is usually $10, and is free for limited time.  However, if you missed the free app, you can download the eBook on Quirkles website when you sign up a free account. We have the download link at the… Read more

Many people have heard of or even are using Lumosity. Now Lumosity has a new app designed especially for toddler and preschool kids: LumiKids. Looks like it is going to be a series of apps, and the first app LumiKids Park is Free. According to the designers, LumiKids is a collection of intuitive and adaptive play-based experience for young children. The focus of the design is on children’s cognitive, motor and social-emotional skills. The team has made great effort to… Read more

Do you read traditional fairy tales with your kids?  There have been some discussions about the benefits of reading fairy tales with kids. Some are concerned about the dark side of the stories, some don’t like those traditional princess images who overly depend on others. However, there are still places for fairy tales in children’s literature. With the right stories, kids will learn the right moral value, gain vocabulary and grow their imagination. My best advice is to read ahead… Read more

Is your child afraid of dark? Do they see monsters in the dark? The visuals in the dark is very different from that in day light, and one big component of it is the shadows. DisMonstes is a fun puzzle game of shadow, showing kids where shadows are from, and how they can become so big and in weird shapes. Hopefully when kids really know what the shadows are, they can eventually turn this shadow play into a special platform… Read more

We love to read Christmas stories, they help to bring the holiday spirit and it is great bonding time. Nothing makes me feel better than snuggling together with the family to read a holiday story together. Compared to years ago, now you can find many Christmas stories on your iPad or other mobile devices, book apps, Kindle books, or iBooks. We are listing here some of the best Christmas stories for kids you can find on your iPad. The nice… Read more

My Santa Claus Game is a fun game app for kids. There are 10 mini games in the app. Most are fun and easy to play, that a preschool kid can enjoy. The 10 games are arranged around Santa’s life and job: from waking up, to having breakfast, to fixing toy factory, and delivering toys. All games address skills preschool and kindergarten kids are expected to master, such as color and shape matching, fine motor skills of leading objects through… Read more

Developing a good number sense in the early years has a direct impact on a child’s future math achievement. There are many ways to help preschool kids gain number sense. Today we have a great app for it: Quick Math Jr. It is designed for kids in preschool to first grade. Kids gain number sense via fun interactive games. There are many aspects in relate to number sense: what the numbers mean; how numbers relate to each other; how numbers… Read more

I have always liked Kidaptive Leo’s Pad series. I like how the kids are addressed as holistic persons and how the app is designed to help kids to develop multi-dimensional skills, such as social emotional skills besides knowledge. Now Kidaptive took the part I like the most of the series and expanded it into a separate app Learner Mosaic. It is like a personalized parenting advice handbook. Like Leo’s Pad, it is a free app, but the content it carries… Read more

We reviewed the interactive math toy Tiggly toy when they just came out. It is a fun learning toy integrating the interactive feature of the touch screen. The first set is focused on shapes. This 2nd set is about numbers and additions. It is a great idea for a holiday gift or birthday present for kids 5 and younger. What is Tiggly? Tiggly is a set of toys that interact with the touch screen. With this new set of toys… Read more

I’m always on the hunt for the best literacy ideas to use with my own children and those that I work with on my blog, Growing Book by Book. I’ve come across some wonderful digital resources for building literacy skills. Here are some of my favorite apps, eBooks and websites to help young children grow as readers and writers. Digital Literacy Ideas Apps Short Vowel Word Study and Spelling is a wonderful app for children who are learning to spell… Read more

Making friends is an important life skill for everyone. How to teach kids about friendships? How to teach them the skills of making and keeping friends? There are many things you can do, such as reading books, role modeling. Today we focus on educational movies for kids teaching friendships. Most these movies are available on Netflix, which is the app we use to watch movies and TV shows. For more information about Netflix, please visit Netflix offers good movies for… Read more