Since I had a child, I have been reading parenting books and articles, talking with teachers and other parents about child’s learning, one common theme always come out is parents’ involvement.  The more parents are actively involved in a child’s learning experience, the better the child learn and perform.  Today I invited Nick Myers, a qualified teacher in UK telling us about his iPhone / iPad app called Guided Play.  Being a husband and father himself, Nick produced the Guided… Read more

A while ago I reviewed iTooch Elementary School app by EduPad.  I was very excited to see such a comprehensive app matching school curriculum.  Today I am sharing iTooch Middle School.  Similar to iTooch Elementary School, this is a very comprehensive learning app for Grades 6 to 8.  For each grade, there are Math and Language Art, plus Health for Grade 6.  The iTooch Middle School App serves as a shell app, hosting the 7 titles.   It is helpful to… Read more

Scribble My Story is a FREE creativity app targeted at kids age 3 to 7.  It is a book and art creation platform where kids can imagine, create, and share what they make with their parents. When kids open the app, they can pick one of the 5 pre-written books: All About Me, If I were a Mermaid, My Dino Book, My Pet, I can Fly, My Vacation. They can also pick the Blank Book to make their own audio… Read more

Valentine’s Day is next week.  I found an educational Valentine app – First Words Valentine.  It is a free app teaching kids about letters, how letters relate to words, and how to spell words.  It is designed for toddlers, with limited words, but all are Valentine related. When kids start the app, they will see letters spread out on the screen.  Their job is to move the correct letter to the suggested spot to make them into a word, such… Read more

Today I found two FREE multilingual apps. They are sequels under Journey to the West. “Journey to the West” is a classic Chinese novel written by Wu Cheng-en in the 16th century. The main character Monkey King is a very well know name in China. Kids as young as toddlers can tell you a couple of Monkey King’s stories. The novel is about a famous Chinese Monk Xuan Zang traveled to India to find the holy book of Buddhism. Monkey… Read more

I reviewed several apps from ABCmouse.com, including the 3 Zoo Sets and Grand Canyon.  Now they have a Beginning Reader Series: Word Families, helping kids learn phonics via word families.  Currently there are 6 titles in the series. All the apps are free. What a great resource of early literacy for kids! This is a series introducing “young learners to the joys of reading through stories that emphasize word families, ie. groups of words with the same ending sound, such as… Read more

After I reviewed Word A Day Visuals and Audios, I found out the developer VocabAhead has some other vocabulary apps.  One of them is SAT Vocabulary Visuals and Audios.  It has over 1000 SAT most common words.  Like Word A Day Visuals and Audios, SAT Vocabulary uses funny pictures and story audios to help kids learn.  I like their full-brain learning approach a lot.  With the combined effect of visuals, audios, and contextual storylines, it makes understanding and mastering tough English… Read more

When I reviewed the SplashMath App, I was really in love with the app. Because it provides a comprehensive math exercise for kids at elementary school, with all the contents aligned with school curriculum.  Today I am even more excited to share another app that is also linked with school curriculum, and what is more, it includes Math, Language Art, and Science for Grade 3 to 5, and Health for Grade 5 – this is a total of 10 titles. … Read more

Today we have a guest reviewer from South Africa.  Nikki Heyman is a speech language therapist with over 22 years of experience.  She also has a qualification in remedial education (cum laude), with a special interest in Autism Spectrum Disorders.  She is married with 2 teenage children.  Today she is sharing her expertise on two apps that help kids on social skills.  Here is Nikki’s review: Social skills are all the things that we should say and do when we… Read more

Vocabulary is a big part of language mastery.  How to make the vocabulary building process fun could be a challenge sometime.  I found a new series of apps I think you will like – Word A Day Visuals and Audios.  Currently, they have an app for Grade 6 and Grade 7 each, with more to come.  I only reviewed the app for Grade 7. Sourcing the words from Sadlier-oxford, the app uses illustrations, voice and short storyline for every word… Read more

GMAT Prep helps students prepare for the tests in three ways: lessons, study questions, and mimic timed tests. It is a great app to have if you are preparing for the test.  It works on iPhone, iPod, and iPAD.  Originally priced at $7.99, it is FREE for one day only! Introduction on App Store: Although the GMAT is a difficult test, it is a very learnable test. GMAT app presents a thorough analysis of the GMAT and introduces numerous analytic… 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

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

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