A while ago, I reviewed three baby-friendly iPAD cases. For babies, the cases must have drop protection and water proof. For older kids, there will be less drools or spills (they still happen, but are more manageable if you set up good house rules, such as no drinks while using iPAD). Today I recommend four iPAD cases for older kids. All these four cases have good drop protections, but offer no water proof. Gripcase: the case is made of shock… Read more

I wanted to review Thomas and Friends Apps for a long time. There are several of them available on App Store, and are well made book apps for toddlers or even elementary school kids. Today I’d like to share Thomas and Friends Hero of the Railways. If you have a Thomas fan at home, I am sure you will like it. After a race with Spencer lands Thomas in the bushes, he discovers Hiro, an abandoned engine from a far-away… Read more

Toontastic is an app teaching kids storytelling by letting them make their own animated movies. Different from StoryKit and Educreation, the little figures in the app have moving parts – you will not only see the boy move around, you will see his legs move while he is walking. Another big difference between Toontastic and StoryKit or Educreation is that Toontastic provides guideline of story telling, and does it in a very fun way. When a child is ready to create a… Read more

The other day I took my son and his friend to their soccer practice.  During the ride, I overheard the two 4th graders talking about who they will vote for if they can vote.  Their discussion triggered my search of good educational materials about election.  Of course, I started with apps.  I found that quite few news companies have election apps.  They are designed for people to keep track of the poll results and election related news.   I only found… Read more

Real Friends vs. The Other Kind is the 2nd book app in the Middle school confidential series. As the title suggests, this book app addresses friendships among middle school kids. What is a real friend? What do you mean when you call someone friend? What do you do if a friend gets her way all the time? What do you do if a friend ask you do something you don’t want to? … These are all real questions from real… Read more

If you kids are into soccer, they will love FIFA Soccer 13.  It is a soccer simulation game using real league names and following real game rules. It features 30 soccer leagues, 500 licensed teams, and more than 15,000 players. In the Quick Match mode, kids play the game as soccer players.  Using a virtual joystick and couple other buttons, players can run, sprint, pass the ball, take shots, and slide tackle opposing team member.  This is a great way… Read more

Solar Walk is an information-packed interactive model of the Solar system and the Milky Way galaxy.  It is developed by VITO Technology, who created Star Walk and Geo Walk.  It is now FREE, for limited time, on App Store.  Featured by Apple as Best Apps for both 2010 and 2011, Solar Walk is a great tool to learn astronomy. To learn more about this app, please visit iGameMom’s earlier post. If you would like to check it out or purchase… Read more

Paris 3D Saga is an educational and entertaining app.  It is FREE for limited time as part of the release of Paris 3D Saga project!  Through interactive 3D models, it takes the users through the history of Paris beginning 20 centuries ago.  If you like history or virtual reality, this is a must have app on your iPAD. Introduction from the App Store: A time-travel through more than 2000 years of history: discover Paris’ most famous monuments, with new 3D… Read more

Do you like felt board? Have you used it before? I liked felt board, except that it was hard to find the pieces you wanted many times. Now with Felt Board app, this won’t an issue anymore. All pieces are well organized, and you don’t even have to worry about losing any. In the Felt Board app, you will find pieces in different categories: background; body and figures, such as faces, different hair styles; clothing; animals;  accessories, like hats, wands… Read more

Learn Times Table is a key stage for kids to get fluent in math. As my son’s math teacher told me, you want the child be able to memorize the basic facts, so he can tell you the answer without even thinking about it. This is not an easy job. Luckily, there are quite some tools helping kids to achieve the goal, MultiFlow is one of them. MultiFlow is an app to drill the kids on multiplication facts. There are… Read more

I can’t believe it is already time to think about Halloween. My son just got his Halloween custom yesterday! Here are some good Halloween themed apps. They are educational and kids friendly that young children can use. Trick or Treat Picture Me is designed for kids 2 to 5 years old. It lets parents add their child’s photo to this personalized book app and see them dressed up in adorable Halloween costumes such as a silly scarecrow, pudgy pumpkin and… Read more

Have you seen any of the Ice Age movie? Do you like them?  Now it is available on iPhone/iPod/iPAD.  Even better, for a limited time, it is FREE. This is a book app developed by iStoryTime, who also developed Wee Sing & Learn ABC.  With the initial download (now it is free), you get Ice Age story.  It is essentially a picture book with background music.  Both the pictures and the narration are authentic.  There are three options to read… Read more

If your kids study any type of music instrument, you probably have used metronome.  We had one, but it was broken.  Where shopping for a new one, I explored the App Store.  Metronome+ is the third metronome app we used at home, and this is a keeper. The reasons we like this one: The interface is very user friendly.  It is very easy to set the speed. The tempo is very stable. The sound is loud enough for the user to… Read more

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