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

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

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

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

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

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