Does your child need some help on math? Or are you looking for something to help your kids get ahead on math? Either scenario, Mathemagics – Mental Math Tricks is a good fit. As long as the kids have learned the basic two-digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, they can benefit from this app. What you see in Mathemagics app is not something covered in school. It is all about little tricks to help kids think differently and solve math… Read more

Do you like watching birds?  When kids are out of school, it is perfect time to hit the trail, walk in the woods, and watch birds.  I have found a wonderful app that will help you on birds: Audubon Birds – A Field Guide to North American Birds. Audubon Birds is an encyclopedia on birds.  The Audubon Institute has been working on ecosystems, with focus on birds and other wildlife, for decades.  They made field guides that help people identify plants… Read more

NOVA Elements is a free app about the periodic table.  I like it because it exemplifies my envision of how the future text books should be – the science concepts are explained using multi-media materials, such as short videos, pictures, 3D models, short paragraphs of text.  Built-in games with interactive activities are there to reinforce what are learned. When you open the app, you will see three options: Explore: the interactive periodic table. This is a quick reference that defines the unique… Read more

Have you played Where’s My Water?  Do you like it?  If you like Where’s My Water, you will like its sequel Where’s My Perry? The story of the game is based on the cartoon Phineas and Ferb, featuring the platypus secret agent Perry, ie. Agent P.  Perry is stuck in his transportation tubes.  The goal of the game is to guide water or steam to the generators powering the tubes, so Agent P can go through them. At the early… Read more

NSF Science (used to be Science 360) is a FREE, high-quality science app published by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It has a wealth of information about science around us.  Users can download and share spectacular science images and videos from NSF and institutions funded by NSF.  All the contents are updated weekly, so you always get the most recent development of science and technology. When you open the app, you get this scrollable 360 degree sphere that is made of thumbnails… Read more

ABCmouse.com’s Search and Explore: The Grand Canyon is the first title of the ABCmouse.com’s Search and Explore series.  ABCmouse.com is a fee-based pre-school/kindergarten website with learning games and books.  The Search and Explore Series teaches young children about geography, national landmarks, and points of interest around the world through engaging stories featuring computer mice named as ABC, 123, and DoReMi. The mice inside the computer decide to visit Grand Canyon.  They travel to a computer in a ranger station near… Read more

Bag It is a puzzle game that turns bagging groceries into a challenge.  To win the game, you need to have a very good sense of space and relative weights of different items. In the game, you take groceries off a conveyor belt and put them into a brown paper bag.  By tapping the objects, you can rotate each item to fit into the bag better and not to crush anything. The objective is to place all the groceries that… Read more

Solar Walk is an astronomy app from the developer of Star Walk. Instead of exploring the night sky, with this app, you get to tour the solar system. While travelling through the solar system with your finger, you can tap on any planet you are interested in.  This will take you close to it, and you can spin the planet to get a view from any angle. You can select a particular date and time to get a view of… Read more

Summer is a good time to visit some parks.  I found an amazing app about US National Parks – Fotopedia National Parks.  In the app, there are over 3000 stunning photos of the 58 National Parks in the USA accompanied with park information.  What is more amazing, it is FREE.  The only catch: It requires an Internet connection (either Wifi or cellular – edge or 3G) to operate properly. Introduction from the App store: Discover first the diversity of the… Read more

Feel Electric! is an app that teaches kids emotions and language skills, which are important building blocks for emotional intelligence. I introduced “ABA Flash Card and Games – Emotion”, which is designed for babies and toddlers. Feel Electric is design for kids 6 and older, or kids who have some basic reading and spelling skills. It is a fun app teaching kids emotion expression skills. The app’s characters are from the cast of the PBS show The Electric Company. Through fun games… Read more

Since I reviewed Stack the States and Stack the Countries, I became a big fan of Dan Russell-Pinson, the developer of the two wonderful educational apps.  Once I found out he just released another app Monster Physics, I knew I have to get one!  Monster Physics is a unique physics app for kids. It is a building app that lets kids play with physics! Kids can build and operate their own machines, moving devices with wheels, joins, ropes, propellers.  After they… Read more

Faces iMake is a creative art app and more.  It lets kids create arts with objects they see every day, such as brush, banana, plates, and buttons.  Kids can re-size, rotate, flip the objects they choose, and then put the pieces together to make a masterpiece.  There is no limit to the imagination. The app was developed with renowned artist, children’s book author and educator Hanoch Piven and is based on the creative workshops he conducted all around the world.  According to Piven, the… Read more

Blokus is originally a board game, and now is available on iPAD.  The game is fairly simple. You link your like-colored blocks to expand your territory.  You have to link them diagonally by their corners, with no sides touched between two pieces.  You want to place as many of your own color while blocking the other players from laying theirs.  Whoever placed more pieces at the end wins the game. You can play by yourself, or by 2-4 players.  When it… Read more

Stack the Countries is the extension to Stack the States app.  To learn about Stack the States, please go to iGameMom’s earlier review. The basic game play of Stack the Countries is similar to Stack the States.  Instead of facts about US states, Stack the Countries asks geography questions about countries around the world: capital cities, bordering countries, flag, landmark, location…  When you answer a question correctly, you win a country piece to put in your stack.  When the stacked… Read more