Is your child learning a music instrument or singing? Do you know how to play the instrument yourself? I have a child studying piano, but I had no knowledge of music. It is very hard for him to practice listening exercises at home as there is no one can tell him if his answers are correct or not. Practice like this is still helpful, but it is just not as effective as if you can get immediate feedback. A while… Read more

Do you read traditional fairy tales with your kids?  There have been some discussions about the benefits of reading fairy tales with kids. Some are concerned about the dark side of the stories, some don’t like those traditional princess images who overly depend on others. However, there are still places for fairy tales in children’s literature. With the right stories, kids will learn the right moral value, gain vocabulary and grow their imagination. My best advice is to read ahead… Read more

We love to read Christmas stories, they help to bring the holiday spirit and it is great bonding time. Nothing makes me feel better than snuggling together with the family to read a holiday story together. Compared to years ago, now you can find many Christmas stories on your iPad or other mobile devices, book apps, Kindle books, or iBooks. We are listing here some of the best Christmas stories for kids you can find on your iPad. The nice… Read more

This week is Computer Science Education week. To correspond to the campaign Hour of Code, we are sharing a fun coding app designed for preschool kids, and it is Free.  The app is called The Foos: Code for an Hour. The app introduces programming concepts through exciting puzzle adventures. It is for kids or adults who know nothing about coding or programming. So get started, download the app, put in your hour of code this week! There are 24 levels… Read more

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are very important for a child’s academic and future career, or even life success. How do you teach a child critical thinking skills? How do kids get better at it? There are many elements in critical thinking, assesse, analyze, compare, question, create, … I find the best way to help kids improve the critical thinking skills is to present age appropriate challenging problems and encourage them to solve the problems in their own ways. Today… Read more

This is a true story. Two weeks ago, when we were getting ready for our son’s soccer game, we couldn’t find my husband. We did not know where he went. We looked and found out he was downstairs trying to take apart his phone – he dropped phone in the toilet and was trying to dry the wet phone! Has this happened to you? Accidentally drop your phone into water, like toilet, sink, swimming pool, … ? What do you… Read more

Who Lives In A Tree is an app about forest animals living on trees. Kids learn many fun facts about the animals. With the simple interface and safe settings, it is a fun app for even young children to use on their own. It is available on both Apple and Android devices. It is a very simple app. When kids start the app, they will see a tree. Scroll the screen up and down, kids will see animals on the… Read more

Do you like donuts? I try to eat healthy and not eat as many donuts. Recently we had a new Dunkin Donuts open within walking distance, and I am pleasantly surprised that they are offering many healthier food and beverage choices. Last week, I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Dunkin’ Brands. I found out they have an app and a loyalty DDPerks Reward Program. For this post, I received a promotional item to thank me… Read more

Math Ahoy is a math strategy game app for kids in kindergarten to early elementary school. Kids must use their math skill and strategy to win the game. In addition to math, kids will also learn world geography. It is available on both iOS devices and Android devices, and it is free for limited time. The app is essentially a board game. Kids will be the captain of the pirate ship to collect treasures from cities all around the world… Read more

We reviewed the interactive math toy Tiggly toy when they just came out. It is a fun learning toy integrating the interactive feature of the touch screen. The first set is focused on shapes. This 2nd set is about numbers and additions. It is a great idea for a holiday gift or birthday present for kids 5 and younger. What is Tiggly? Tiggly is a set of toys that interact with the touch screen. With this new set of toys… Read more

My son loves watching videos and short movie clips. He would go into Youtube, search for videos he wants to see. He found many good ones. We found some educational YouTube channels to follow. I am glad he can find educational movies and videos for free, but am also concerned that he may see something he’s not supposed to when searching for videos. That is why I immediately downloaded MagicFlix when I first read about it. MagicFlix is a collection of videos and… Read more

How often do you charge your phone? I have been charging my phone almost every night. Isn’t it nice if we have a phone that we don’t have to charge that often? Recently, I got a chance to participate in the program for Huawei’s new smartphone Ascent Mate 2 via TapInfluence. The best thing I like so far – the 60 hours battery life. This is 2 and half days that you don’t have to charge the phone. If you… Read more

Things for iPad and Things (for iPhone iPod) are great productivity apps that help you manage the tasks, or things you have to do. They are chosen as apps of the week on App Store, and are free now, from the respective price of $20 and $10. I just downloaded the apps on both my iPhone and iPad and really like what I see so far. If you are looking for a task management app, don’t miss this opportunity. What… Read more

I’m always on the hunt for the best literacy ideas to use with my own children and those that I work with on my blog, Growing Book by Book. I’ve come across some wonderful digital resources for building literacy skills. Here are some of my favorite apps, eBooks and websites to help young children grow as readers and writers. Digital Literacy Ideas Apps Short Vowel Word Study and Spelling is a wonderful app for children who are learning to spell… Read more