All kids like birthday parties. How can we incorporate learnings into the birthday party activities? Monki Birthday Party app gives us quite a few fun ideas. It is an app designed for toddler and preschool kids to learn numbers, words, colors, shapes, and other skills for kids this age. There are 4 activities in the app, one is free. My favorite is the Piñata game. Once kids touch the Pinata, they are asked to open it by tapping on a… Read more

I like art activities using shapes. It combines art and math. While creating pictures with geometric shapes, kids practice shape and size recognition, cognitive skills, fine motor skills, and creativity. Today we share an app letting kids create pictures with shapes. The app Shape It is designed for kids from preschool to early elementary school. The activities have 3 stages to meet different ability levels. At the first stage, kids can choose pictures provided as template, which include farm animals… Read more

The NGAkids Art Zone app is a FREE app from National Gallery of Art. It is designed to teach kids art with interactive activities. All activities are inspired by works in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. It is designed for early elementary age kids, but kids younger or older and even adults will find them fun and entertaining too. If you don’t have a mobile device, it is also available on NGA website and you can access… Read more

An important early math learning element is the number sense: to truly understand the meaning of numbers beyond those written on paper. Today we have a wonderful app Native Numbers to help kids gain the real sense of numbers. It is a well-designed curriculum for kids age 4 to 7. It is usually $10 on App Store, it is free today. There are 5 units in the app: Number concepts, Number Relations, Number Ordering, Counting, Demonstrate Mastery. Each Unit has… Read more

My son’s school opens two new foreign languages and he is going to take French in addition to Spanish. I am so glad to have the chance to check out the app designed for kids to learn French: Fun French – Language Learning Games for Kids Age 3 to 10. After playing it for a while, we both like it very much. I always feel it will be hard for me to pick up another language, but after playing the… Read more

PBS is one of the most trusted resources in our family so I generally feel like I’m in good hands with any game or activity they come up with for my pre-schooler.  This Daniel Tiger’s Grr-ific Feelings is no exception, based on Mr. Roger’s neighborhood, the whole feel  is gentle and sweet.  What’s so special about this app though is its staying power off screen. The app offers various activities to help kids put names to their feelings and begins… Read more

Fly by Numbers is a math practice app for kids. With the flying theme, kids who like airplane may like this game. It covers addition, subtraction and multiplication from single digit within 5 to mixed operation up to 100, so kids from preschool to high school can use this app. When kids start the app, they can choose among 4 categories: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and mixed of three. The beginning level is very easy, a preschooler should be able to… Read more

Do you like Curious George? We do, and who doesn’t? Today we share a reading app featuring Curious George. It is a new book from the iReadWith series. We have reviewed books in the series before, and loved all the features that helping kids learn, especially those that get kids to talk and make reading a shared experience between parents and kids. Today’s new app is the digital version of the book Curious George and the Birthday Surprise. Like all books… Read more

With kids starting school, many of us are busy getting kids ready for the new school year: school supplies, academic readiness, … One very important aspect of school life is the peer interactions. This involves social and emotional skills. We have shared our top picks of 10 apps helping kids develop social and emotional skills and today I want to share another app Random Acts of Kindness. Why Random Acts of Kindness? Because I believe it is the core of… Read more

Do you have a child learning numbers and counting? Does the child like digging? Today we have a fun digging app teaching kids numbers and counting – 123 Dig. Kids will help the Mole Manny to dig out numbers and learn recognizing numbers and counting to 10. When kids open the app, they will see Manny come out of the mole house ready to dig. He will be on the track labelled with numbers. Manny’s friends will come out digging… Read more

We have reviewed several apps teaching kids coding, like Hopscotch and Codecademy. Today we have another free app for kids to learn computer programming – Kodable. Kodable starts from the very simple concepts and is great for kids as young as preschool to gain the fundamental concepts of coding. When kids start the app, they will see a path built with little square tiles on the grass. On some of the tiles there are gold coins. Kids need give instructions with… Read more

Astropolo is a relatively new app on the App Store, but they’ve been staying on the top chart for quite a long time. It is from one of my favorite developer Les Trois Elles, who developed Easy Studio. Astropolo is a collection of mini games that incorporates visual, auditory and fine motor skills in the play. I love the clever design on play ideas that uses multiple senses and skills. There are 8 games in the app. The first game… Read more

Social and Emotional Well Being is important in Children’s development. It is a soft skill that is hard to teach. I am glad to see more and more educators start looking into this area and over the time, I have found some good apps helping kids develop social and emotional skills. 10 Apps Helping Kids Develop Social and Emotional Skills Since kids of different age have different developmental needs in social emotional skills, we listed the apps by age groups… Read more

PAW Patrol Rescue Run is a new app from the TV show PAW Patrol by Nickelodeon. It has been on the top of the sales chart since its launch. I checked it out, and it is a very fun app for kids age 4 to 6, with fun games and good educational content, like colors, numbers, size comparisons. In addition to academic skills, the app also encourage team work and problem solving skills. All the learning elements are blended in… Read more