Millie is an interactive adventure app series for kids. We are big fans of Millie and have been so ever since her first adventure, Millie Was Here. By her second adventure, Millie and the Lost Key, we fell in love with her even more as she roamed and combed vast and mysterious regions (some of which look suspiciously like Central Park in New York) in search of a lost key. She encountered several treacherous obstacles and enemies on her quest and no… Read more

Little Poets is a fun app that opens the world of poetry for kids. It offers parents the comfort of knowing that their children are having fun whilst learning and offers children an engaging way of playing with words and developing their poetry and literacy skills. The app developers at enablinGenius LTD provide something that is both original and educational. By introducing the joy of poetry through exploration, children can experience words as fun. Aimed at preschool and Reception/Year 1 and equivalent in… Read more

The app begins at the Disney Princess Pet Salon where kids meet and pamper six pets from various past Disney Princesses. There are dogs and cats of course but we also have a horse and a bunny. They all have clever names with subtle nods to their respective princesses, my favorite being Cinderella’s dog Pumpkin. When kids pick the pet they want to pamper they click on them and get a short and sweet narrative highlighting when the pet and… Read more

In the spirit of Halloween we have an interactive book app to share. My Beastly ABCs is an alphabet book about a boy and his journey through the alphabet and the various ‘beasts’ he encounters. Books are a great way for children to learn words, experience letter recognition, and expand their vocabulary. When mixing a book with the tablet world, it transforms it into something even greater: an interactive educational tool. This book is narrated by Jim Dale. If you… Read more

Today I have a very nice website to share.  It of course works on mobile devices, iPhone and iPAD included.  Oxford Owl  is a fun learning website designed for kids up to 11 years old. It has eBooks, Math games, learning activities ideas, and printables, all are free. To access the content, you need first sign up for a free membership. Then you can choose between Math and Reading. In Reading, there are over 250 eBooks, all can be read on… Read more

Sid the Science Kid Read & Play doesn’t deviate from its name, it takes the best of book apps with the best of educational games and melds them into a fun and useful tool for preschoolers. It comes with two books (three if you count the joke book) all with the option to have the book be read to child or your child read it.  You can even record your own voice or your child’s to have the book read in… Read more

A while ago I reviewed a kids reading program Bookboard. It received great response: a large number of visits to the article and Bookboard membership sign up. In trying to understand why Bookboard got so popular, I put together some of my thoughts on kids eBook features.  I am sharing here as a starting point for discussion. The intent is not to make it a comprehensive list of features, but some points for thought, so please share your thoughts in the comment. The… Read more

Have you watched the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs?  There is a storybook app from a movie, and now with the 2nd movie coming out, the storybook for the first movie is free for limited time. Storybooks based on movies many times are effective in getting kids to read.  Plus it is good for them to get different perspectives of the story and storytelling via different media. If you are not familiar with the story, it is about… Read more

Autumn is a wonderful season for kids to explore and learn. Have you found some books about the season for your child? Today I am sharing 10 wonderful picture books about the fall season that you can read with your child on your mobile devices. All these books are Kindle books, and you don’t need Kindle to read Kindle books. With the free Kindle App, you can read Kindle books on any devices, including iPhone, iPAD, Android Devices, or even your computers. For instructions on how to read Kindle books on… Read more

Have you used Starfall? If you have a preschool to kindergarten kids, you should really check it out.  It is a great website with tons of free reading materials and printables for kids in preschool and kindergarten age. When my son was that age, he liked it a lot.  I have not been recommending it here, because it uses flash, and flash doesn’t function on iPAD and iPhone.  Now I find a solution to access a website with flash via a… Read more

What do you do after dinner as a family?  For a while, we have been doing tongue twisters and we all love it.  It is a fun way to bond with kids and it is a good activity to help kids understand the importance of speaking words clearly when they talk.  Kids learn words and phrases, practice their mouth muscles, and enjoy the family fun. The book we’ve been using is a FREE iBook Tongue Twisters for Kids. It is… Read more

News-O-Matic is a kid-friendly news app. It publishes 5 pieces of news every day Monday through Friday. All news is tailored to kids level (age 6 to 12) and includes various topics from international politics to sports, to new movies. It is free to download with subscription options. Without subscription you can still receive daily news, but can not go back to previous news. School teachers are able to receive free subscription via a link provided below. What I like about the app… Read more

Classical Kids is a music app that tells stories about famous composers in an engaging and fun way.  There are 7 composers’ stories in the app, and one is free with the full story – Beethoven. Beethoven Lives Upstairs tells Beethoven’s story via the voice of Christoph, a young boy living in Vienna, at the time when Beethoven comes to stay in his family home.  It is told through back and forth letters to his uncle with Christoph complaining about Beethoven and his… Read more

When my son was young, we read together every day, at least at bedtime.  Once he gets to school age and is able to read by himself, we have not been reading together as much, not to mention read aloud together.  I wanted to re-start our reading together time, and found poetry being great to read aloud with kids.  They expose kids to sound and rhythms in addition the contents itself, and there are also many imaginary activities you can… Read more