With the season change, being sick is not avoidable some time.  Here are two books hopefully will help kids feel better and get over the sickness quicker. Sick of Being Sick is a book app.  A girl is sick and she is sick of being sick.  While lying in bed taking her temperature, her imagination takes her to all over the world performing in different kinds of occupations…  It is a beautifully illustrated book with peaceful music.  A great app for… Read more

Toca Hair Salon is another app by Toca Boca, who developed Toca Doctors, Toca Kitchen, and Toca Store.  All are recommended by iGameMom.  For limited time, Toca Hair Salon is FREE on App Store. In Toca Hair Salon, kids will be hair dressers or stylists.  They will cut hair for one of the 6 characters: a red-head boy, a pink hair girl, a guy with orange hair, a bear, a lion, and a dog.  Tools and items they can use… Read more

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

Angelina Ballerina’s New Dance Teacher is a book app from the TV series Angelina Ballerina.  In addition to the book, kids can play games, puzzles, and coloring pages from the book.  It is FREE for limited time. Introduction from the App Store:  Read, watch, play, and twirl alongside the world’s most delightful little dancer as she meets Ms. Mimi on her first day of dance class at her new school. Ms. Mimi is nothing like Angelina expects her to be… Read more

Bizzy Bear Builds a House app is based on the popular board book Bizzy Bear: Let’s Get to Work, featuring the illustrations by Benji Davies.  It is designed by Nosy Crow, who also developed Rounds: Franklin Frog. The story is very simple.  Bizzy Bear helps out at a construction site with different activities.  On each page, there is a main storyline, read by a child.  The character dialogues are triggered by readers’ tap.  There are visual hints to tell the… Read more

Squiggles is a creative app for young children.  It is FREE for limited time. Introduction on App Store:  Pictures come to life with “Squiggles!”, a revolutionary new educational drawing app for young children. A child’s simple hand-drawn squiggle can become a bird’s nest, rocket smoke, cotton candy, sheep’s wool, a curly beard, and more! Simply squiggle away to complete Lazoo’s internationally award-winning art. Then hit the GO button and watch drawings soar, pulsate, move, twirl, and multiply. Save your child’s… 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

After loading so many apps on my iPhone and iPAD, I got a warning saying my storage space is near the max.  Here is what I did to free up space on my iPhone and iPAD: 1. Move all the photos to Dropbox.  If you have not set up a Dropbox account, you really should.  You can save files there and access the files from anywhere. 2. Go to Video on iPhone and iPAD, and clean up all the video files… Read more