We reviewed the first book app in ABCmouse Search and Explore series, The Grand Canyon. Today we are sharing another book app in the series: The Golden Gate Bridge.  Like The Grand Canyon, The Golden Gate Bridge app is also free. In this app, kids will follow the mice ABC and 123, learn the history and fun facts about the famous bridge. After finishing the books, kids will know why it is called Golden Gate Bridge, who designed the bridge… Read more

We love Smithsonian. This institute has done so much in education! Recently I found an excellent non fiction reading program from Smithsonian. It is called Smithsonian Tribune. It collects appropriate news stories that will interest kids and deliver these stories on the website or the free apps, and invite kids take quizzes or post comments. All readings are leveled by Lexile score. The content includes passages, photos, graphics, and audio and/or video materials about current events, history, art, culture and… Read more

Storm and Skye is an animated story app for kids. It is designed for kids age 5 and up, but younger kids can enjoy the story as well, as long as they are not afraid of knight and dragons. The whole story is narrated vividly, with no text to read. It is a 45 minutes long story with 9 chapters. It is almost like a short movie to me. Storm is a boy. One day after shopping, his mom drove… Read more

Teaching kids creative writing is a complex process. It involves many elements, such as idea generation, plot structure, vocabulary, character development, review and revision, … and many more. We are trying to put some learning tools we discovered over time that are helpful in our writing learning journey. Hope this is helpful to you as well. I’d also like to hear from you what tools do you use while teaching kids writing. This is part of our Best Learning Tools for… Read more

Gilbert Gas Science Experiments is a book app teaching kids about gas, or carbon dioxide in particular. It is one of the book in a 26 science book series: The Quirkles apps. They are also available as print books. Gilbert Gas Science app is usually $10, and is free for limited time.  However, if you missed the free app, you can download the eBook on Quirkles website when you sign up a free account. We have the download link at the… Read more

Many people have heard of or even are using Lumosity. Now Lumosity has a new app designed especially for toddler and preschool kids: LumiKids. Looks like it is going to be a series of apps, and the first app LumiKids Park is Free. According to the designers, LumiKids is a collection of intuitive and adaptive play-based experience for young children. The focus of the design is on children’s cognitive, motor and social-emotional skills. The team has made great effort to… Read more

Sight word recognition is an important stage for kids’ literacy development. Sight words, like is, of, you, make up 50% of texts.  If kids can read and understand sight words, they are well on their way to being fluent readers. Although sight words are used frequently. they usually cannot be easily sounded out. Most times, kids learn sight words by simply memorize them, some with the help of flashcards. Today we have an app that makes learning sight words more… Read more

Switch Zoo is a free app about animals. It is a little weird, but definitely fun to play. Kids mis-match parts of different animals to create new animals, along the way, learn facts of the original animals. After they create a new animal, they can write a story about it. So it is a good writing app too. Kids start the app with a busy interface filled with fun. In the middle is the frame showing the animal creation. Below… Read more

Stay on the Ice is a quick, fun game that teaches agility and hand eye coordination all the while letting your little ones play with penguins. It is a fun penguin game to keep the little ones occupied when travel or at family gathering. It is easy to play so the even youngest can join the fun. Gameplay is simple.  Penguins are on the ice, but they keep sliding off into the water. Kids tap or swipe the penguins in… Read more

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

Is your child afraid of dark? Do they see monsters in the dark? The visuals in the dark is very different from that in day light, and one big component of it is the shadows. DisMonstes is a fun puzzle game of shadow, showing kids where shadows are from, and how they can become so big and in weird shapes. Hopefully when kids really know what the shadows are, they can eventually turn this shadow play into a special platform… 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

My Santa Claus Game is a fun game app for kids. There are 10 mini games in the app. Most are fun and easy to play, that a preschool kid can enjoy. The 10 games are arranged around Santa’s life and job: from waking up, to having breakfast, to fixing toy factory, and delivering toys. All games address skills preschool and kindergarten kids are expected to master, such as color and shape matching, fine motor skills of leading objects through… Read more