Educreations is originally designed for teachers. It turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Users can create an animated story, or a tutorial video, with pictures, adding notations on the pictures, recording voices, and, of course, writing on the board. You can use it teaching almost anything. Once you finish recording, you can share it with people of your choice through email, Facebook or Twitter. As a FREE app, it is a great teaching tool for teachers and home-school families… Read more

Even if you don’t like games or never played Angry Birds, you probably have seen those red birds somewhere – toy store, candy store, …  I have heard two completely different opinions about Angry Birds from parents.  Some think it is a great educational game.  Some believe kids are wasting time playing Angry Birds.  As you can guess, I am in the first camp.  I think Angry Birds is a great physics game.  If you are interested, here is an… Read more

Have you ever watched “Are you smarter than a fifth grader”?  Do you like it?  Now it has an app with the same name. This is a fun academic family game.  Any one started school can play.  Kids in first or 2nd grade may not be able to answer all the questions, but I am sure, there are some questions they can answer better than mom and dad. There are two ways to play the game: Normal Round and Play… Read more

The Opposites is a game app helping kids learn opposite vocabulary.  Kids will have a good time acquiring new words not even thinking about learning, because it is a game.  In addition to learning opposite words, kids also improve their hand-eye coordination and reading speed, because to win a gold medal they have to find the right word and tap on the word quickly. It is free now, but for a limited time. Introduction at the app store: An exciting… Read more

Creatures of Light is the companion app for the popular exhibition Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence. The exhibition was run at the American Museum of Natural History in 2013. Introduction from American Museum of Natural History: The app “offers a close look at some of the extraordinary organisms that produce light. Enjoy interactive animations, photo galleries, and videos that reveal the beauty of this amazing natural phenomenon, how it works, and how scientists study it. Each chapter of the app… Read more

The Oregon Trail is an educational simulation game teaching kids what it was like to be a pioneer traveling west in the 1800s.  It is based on the classic PC simulation game The Oregon Trail, which was created in the 1970s. It is a fun app that kids can play games and learn history at the same time. In the game, kids join a historic wagon train traveling west ward from Missouri to Oregon. To start, kids can choose who they want to… Read more

Timeline Eons is an app that displays major events throughout the history of the world.  All events are organized along the timeline.  You can choose to zoom the timeline to see more events during a certain time period.  Most events have pictures.  Tap on each single event will bring up more detailed information of that event.  If you are connected to the internet, the app will also bring up the auto search results of the event in Google or Wikipedia… Read more

Now kids are back to school.  This means weekly spelling lists started.  I found a great app that can help the busy parents keep track of the lists, and ensure the kids are learning the words with fun: VocabularySpellingCity.  It is free. With the app, your child will be able to learn the words from the list you or the teacher gave them.  You do have to have an account (FREE to sign up) with them and have to create… Read more

After iGameMom introduced the Audubon Birds App, I started paying attention to other bird apps. Thanks for Nigel Hall’s note, I learned about Peterson Feeder Birds of North America. It is a FREE app about feeder birds. Similar to Audubon Birds, you will be able to look up birds with pictures, locations (state), nest, etc. What is different is this app’s focus on feeder birds, ie., the birds you see in your backyards. It covers 160 common North American backyard birds. It… Read more

iLuv Drawing Monsters is a fun drawing app teaching kids how to draw monsters with step-by-step guides.  iGameMom reviewed another app from the same developer iLuv Drawing Animals.  You can go HERE to get an idea about the app.  Note it only works on iPAD. Introduction from the App Store:  Learning to draw monsters will boost imagination, creativity and confidence in your budding artists! This step by step learn to draw application offers 20 different ways to create cute monsters… Read more

I have been trying to find a good dictionary app for my son. After some search, Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Dictionary.com became the top two choices. Both are pretty good, but I don’t want to load too many apps on the iPAD, so I picked Merriam-Webster (Free). Here are the reasons: Intrusive ads: Both apps have free versions. The main difference between paid version and the free version is running ads in the free version. Dictionary.com has two ads at the… Read more

Another educational app went FREE today – Geo Walk. It is designed by the same team who made Star Walk. It is one day only. Hope you can get it. Introduction at the App Store: Do you like to discover new things? Geo Walk is an interactive globe model with handpicked articles on various topics (Animals and Plants, History, People and Inventions), which are placed on the Earth with respect to their location with pictures and short descriptions making most… Read more

This is FREE for TODAY only.  Go get it when you can.  I didn’t get chance to take a close look, but have heard good things about it. Introduction at the App Store: For age 9-12. Marble Math is a fun, engaging way to practice core math concepts that your kids are learning in the classroom.  The object of the game is to solve a variety of math problems by collecting numbers as you roll or drag your marble through a… Read more

Everyone seems is watching the summer Olympics.  Here is a FREE app that can add some music fun to the sports.  Piano Summer Games by JoyTunes is a free iPad app that provides directions and feedback for playing the national anthems of forty countries on pianos.  Kids can play on a virtual keyboard on the iPad, or on a real piano – no wires or adapters needed, the app just listens to your piano. Kids can practice first.  When they feel they… Read more