I have been following Melissa Taylor’s ImaginationSoup for a long time.  She has tons of creative ideas for getting kids to read.  Now she condensed all her experience and knowledge on helping kids read into this wonderful book Book Love: Help Your Child Grow from Reluctant to Enthusiastic Reader (Can’t find it? Here is a similar one).  It is a Kindle book, but you don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle books.  You can read Kindle books on almost… Read more

Meet the Insects: Forest Edition is a multimedia encyclopedia of forest insects.  What I am most impressed are the images and videos.  They are so real that you feel the insects can jump out of the screen.  Another thing I really enjoyed is how different elements come together – content, transition between sections, background, music, image – all are integrated seamlessly into one beautiful package. The app has 5 sections: Insect Story, See Insects, Multimedia, Observational Journal and Quiz.  I suggest… Read more

Time flies. It is only one week away from Thanksgiving. A good app for the kids is the book app The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks written by Jan and Mike Berenstain, developed by Oceanhouse Media. The key message of the book is thankfulness and family love. The Bear cubs act out the first Thanksgiving, then the family will have a full Thanksgiving feast. But Sister Bear is so attached to the pet turkey. Will the family still have the turkey as… Read more

Britannica Kids: Ancient Rome is such a great app for upper elementary and middle school kids.  It has rich content yet all at the appropriate age level, no matter it is the length of each article or the vocabulary choices.  The games are fun and are tied very well with the main contents.  As an app full of historical facts, it is surprisingly engaging. When kids open the app, they will be at the articles section.  At the bottom of the… Read more

Little Blue Jackal is a bilingual app.  In addition to an interesting story, it also teaches kids Spanish. The story starts with the little jackal trying to run away from a village after being caught of stealing food.  He fell into a bucket of blue paint and his entire body turned blue.  Looked distinct, he was asked to be the king of the jungle…. till one day the animals found out he was just a jackal. The app is designed… Read more

Country Mouse and City Mouse is another book app by McGraw Hill.  It is FREE for limited time.   It is a very cute book with just about right interactions on each page.  It is designed for kids age 3 to 8.  It is only available on iPAD. Introduction on App Store:  Country Mouse and City Mouse may live in very different worlds, but through the pages in this book, they still become friends.  With this interactive ebook, your child… Read more

Little Red Hen is a re-tell of the classic story from McGraw-Hill.  It teaches kids the value of hard work.  It is FREE for limited time.  It works on iPAD only. Introduction from the App Store:  The classic fable, retold like your child aged 3-8 has never experienced it before. In this retelling, your child not only hears the story of the industrious hen and learns about the value of hard work, but becomes a part of the action. Engaging… Read more

Peterson Birds of North America is FREE for two days only. It is based on Peterson’s comprehensive bird guide for North America, including 810 birds. Usual price is $15. I don’t know when it started being free, so I don’t know when the price will be up. If you are into birds, or you know someone who likes birds, this is a must have app. It is also a good holiday gift. If you don’t want the person see the… Read more

PlayART is a very creative art app.  Using elements taken from the original art works of five master painters: Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Henry Rousseau, and Paul Klee, kids can create their own master pieces and save the work in the museum within the app.  Some example elements are the sunflowers from Van Gogh, fruits from Cezanne, lily pads from Monet.  Currently there are over 100 art elements in the app.  Kids can choose the elements they… Read more

Jazzy 123 is a fun app teaching kids numbers with music instruments.  From the developer of Jazzy Day and Jazzy ABC, Jazzy 123 has the same quality of a good educational app. Kids can learn counting 1 to 10 with music instruments.  For each number, there will be corresponding number of certain instruments shown on the screen.  When kids tap on the instruments, they will hear the sound of the instrument and a child’s voice counting the number of the… Read more

Marble Math Junior is a fun math app for kids age 5 to 8.  It is FREE today for one day only. After starting the app, kids collect numbers that can solve the math problem by rolling or dragging the marble through a series of mazes.  To reach the number they need, kids must avoid obstacles.  Along the way, they can collect prizes and win new marbles.  For early readers, the problem will be read aloud if the child taps… Read more

Treasure Kai is a series of book apps designed for kids 5 to 10 years old.  Currently there are two apps in the series.  Kai is a boy who likes treasure hunt.  In each book app, he goes to a different adventure.  In the first book app, The Lost Gold of Shark Island, Kai takes kids to the treasure hunt on a desert island. In the 2nd book app, The Seven Cities of Gold, Kai goes back in history to… Read more

With the weather getting cold, I started searching for indoor fun activities for kids. I found this interesting app called KidScience. It is an app showing you how to do some science experiments using materials you can find at home. It is a handy app for indoor science learning activity ideas. In the app, you can search for science experiments by “Experiment Name”, “What is in My Pantry”, “Age Group”, “Science Type” (biology, physics, etc.), and “Amount of Time” the… Read more

For so long, I forgot I had Kindle app on my iPhone and iPAD. With the app, I could download a Kindle book from Amazon on my iPhone and iPAD. In fact, Amazon has Kindle apps for all different devices: iPhone, iPod, iPAD, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Mac, Windows 7, XP, Vista, and Windows8. Here is the website if you need more information on Kindle apps. They are all free. Once you installed the Kindle app on your device, you… Read more