Who like the movie Frozen? If you have an Anna and Elsa fan at home, you may want to try this coding program, that kids will learn coding with Anna and Elsa. It is a free coding program from code.org that teaches kids the basics of coding. With the program, kids not only learn fundamental coding concepts but also learn to love coding. At least, they won’t think coding is mysterious. To access the free program, you just need get… Read more

Would you like to have your child to learn Spanish? They all say it is better to start the 2nd language when kids are young. However, if you don’t speak the language yourself, it will be hard to teach your child the 2nd language at a young age. Signing up for a class? I don’t feel it is a good idea for young children. Kids need play, not another class. One solution I found is to read bilingual books for… Read more

Do you know why birds have white and dark meat? How about human? Can you prove that the Moon Landing isn’t fake? Do you know basketball teams with teammates touching each other more often perform better? I learned all these with the free app Curiosity. It gives 5 fun facts with pictures and videos everyday. If you want to, you can also use their website on your computer. I love how broad the topics are. You will find interesting topics… Read more

A while ago a teacher friend told me she lets her students do KenKen in the classroom and spoke very highly of the program. I checked it out, and agree it is a very helpful math game for kids of any age, as long as they have learned single digit addition. It not only develops kids’ math skills, but also logic thinking and concentration stamina. It is available on their website or via the free app. What is KenKen? It… Read more

I have seen some apps using augmented reality to turn ordinary coloring pages into 3D pictures on mobile devices. Today I am sharing an app that can do that and more. DreamWorks Color is a free app that brings coloring pages to life into 3D pictures. Additionally, kids can collect the objects they colored, and put them into a 3D setting and interact with their colored animals or other objects in the new 3D settings. When you first start the… Read more

I have reviewed the first 2 MathLab apps. I like them being so simple and easy to follow, and the math activities being so diverse and different so kids won’t get bored easily. The first two MathLab apps are for kindergarten and first grade. Now they have a 3rd one in the series: MathLab for 2nd grade. Although it is designed for 2nd grade, any kids in early elementary school or kindergarten should find it helpful. Like the first two… Read more

Many kids in the US are learning Spanish as the 2nd language. I have been trying to collect books and reading resources for kids to read in both English and Spanish. They are great for both English speaking and Spanish speaking kids who are trying to study the other language. Here are what I found so far. I welcome any suggestions if you know a good digital resource for English and Spanish bilingual reading, such as apps, websites. 18 Bilingual… Read more

Now more and more kids are on devices that have internet access. Survey data have shown that majority children are receiving their first smart phones between the ages of 8 and 12. Even for kids who don’t have a smart phone, they have access to parents’ devices or family computers that have internet access, with social media apps that they can use. We have seen many articles about kids spending too much time on devices and posting irresponsible posts on… Read more

Many studies have shown that taking notes by handwriting helps kids better understand the material, better at connecting the dots of what they know, and memorizing more of the content. However, we also know digitized notes are easier to keep and organize. It will be ideal if you can take handwriting notes on iPad or other tablets then easily digitize the notes. MyScript Smart Notes is just an app letting you do that. It is best to go through the… Read more

We are all familiar with the concept of photo editing thanks to the many photo editing tools and apps like photoshop. We can not only change the lighting and color of the picture, we can also add or take away parts of pictures, or combine several photos into one. You might think these photo editing is relatively new, but as I learned from Faking It, photo editing has been used for long time. Faking It is a free app from… Read more

Learn sight word is essential to a child’s reading skill development. It is also hard to many kids, as many kids felt it is boring. The more fun you can add to the learning process, the more and faster kids will learn these words. Today we have a fun app for kids, where kids will learn sight words while solving mysteries. If your kids are into detectives and mysteries, this will be a great sight word app for them. The… Read more

I have heard of SimCity for a long time, and my son has played the game. However I have not really get the chance to really look into the game till now. It is a free app available for both iOS and Android. After spending sometime on it today, I like it. In the game kids will build a city and learn city planning and building. It is another simulation game I don’t mind my child playing. When kids start… Read more

Many kids have free access to internet. As parents and educators, we all know there are many good educational content out there, however, there are also content that are not kids appropriate and we don’t want our children to see. A lot of app developers and educators are working hard to create safe environment for kids, and today’s app WonderBox is a wonderful example. It is a completely free app, where kids can find articles, visual, videos on educational topics… Read more

Recently I met several parents whose kids have different levels of difficulties in handwriting. The poor penmanship is due to some handwriting disabilities, like dyslexia or dysgraphia. It could be very frustrating for both parents and kids when they have to write for the school projects or tests. Today I found a free app that can help kids with handwriting difficulties – SnapType. SnapType is designed by a Occupational Therapist who had a student with dysgraphia, a condition that impacts… Read more