Recently I found a wonderful free resource from National Geographic for kids – National Geographic Young Explorer Magazine. It is available for free on their website, and as apps for both iPad and Android devices. There are 7 issues every year. Each issue covers 3 topics about nature, such as rain; plant roots; animals cover – fur, feather, and scales. Each page is mostly a big image with one line of text. The images are stunning. Kids can choose to… Read more

Learning numbers and counting are the first steps of learning math.  The more different approaches of learning, the better kids understand the concept, and the easier of future math learning.  That is why I like the app Count Up to 10. It offers various number games for kids to help them learn numbers. There are 4 sets of games in the app, each set has 3 levels. The Penguins: help children connect the number symbol with the actually quantity. At the first… Read more

Science concepts can be taught at a young age. The challenge is to make the concepts easy, fun and safe for the young kids to play with. Piiig Labs offers cool science experiments for kids, and it does a wonderful job in letting kids to do the experiments hands-on on their own, safely.  The added bonus – science experiments without the mess! Piiig Labs offers a digital playground for young children to explore science concepts in an old fashioned way… Read more

Welcome to Mom’s Library! Today we are featuring 5 Science and Math Games for Preschool kids. I believe kids should start science and math early in their life. Many concepts are simple that even toddles and preschool kids can understand. Of course, we need do it right, so kids not only understand the concepts, but also have fun learning the concepts. 6 Science and Math Games for Preschool Kids Today’s features are all easy and fun activities for preschool kids. Let’s start with… Read more

Where’s My Mickey is another fun app from Disney that is part of the Where’s My Water series. Where’s My Water and its’ sequel Where’s My Perry are physics games for kids. Kids learn liquid physics, problem solving and strategic planning while playing the games. Where’s My Mickey is a new add to the series. There are 8 stories in the app, each story has a set of games. The games in the first 4 stories are free, and the… Read more

We are big fans of Splash Math apps. It is a CCSS math app system. CCSS stands for Common Core State Standard. We have been using it almost daily for my son’s math practice. I like it being comprehensive and matching the school curriculum and the weekly report I receive. My son likes it for being fun and the game reward after practice. I am glad to see Splash Math’s new addition for Kindergarten. The overall structure of Splash Math… Read more

We love hands on science activities for kids. Today we are sharing 18 science activities for kids. These are amazing, yet easy to do activities at home. I love all the ideas, and hope you will too. 18 Science Activities for Kids First is the Mad Science Play Color Exploration – How is color connected with exploration? You have to visit the site to find out. After exploration, we can do some science research on melting ice. It involves ice, salt, color… Read more

I am very excited to find a great free app goREACT. It is designed by the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. It lets kids explore the chemical reactions of different elements on mobile devices – safe and fun! It is not only a good learning app for middle and high school students, with the visual and interactive features, it is also a fun exploratory app for younger kids, even kids in kindergarten or preschool, as long as parents are… Read more

Have you ever played tangram? The traditional tangram is a 7 piece puzzle game, each piece in a different shape, such as square, triangle, diamond. Using the 7 pieces, you can create endless pictures and patterns. We used to play with it a lot. There are many variations of the game now, and Dragon Shapes: Geometry Challenge is a great app that expands the original idea to a full array of 50 shape puzzles. Kids will learn to recognize different… Read more

Math In Action is a math app designed for kids from preschool to early elementary school.  In addition to math facts, it also addresses sorting by colors and shapes, fine motor skills, and fun math related games. There are 4 sections in the app: Sorting, Addition, Subtraction, and Transformation. Each section has 20 levels, and 5 are free.  There are also 3 game rooms for math related fun: Abacus, Music room, and Play Room. When kids enter a section, there… Read more

‘She’s a beauty!’ passed through my mind as we slid through the Human Body Anatomy App by Tinybop. What a gorgeous learning tool, especially for a first effort from this new Brooklyn based development company. There were a few glitches, but overall, this company will be worth paying attention to. This creatively sophisticated (and stylish) app allows children and adults alike to marvel in our understanding of the human body without being too scary or too over/underwhelming. Your child can create… Read more

Last year I introduced a multimedia insects encyclopedia: Meet the Insects – Forest Edition. I was very impressed by the app. I am glad to find out the same developer NCSOFT now has another insects app out: Meet the Insects – Water and Grass Edition. This one focuses on insects living near water and in grassland. Not surprisingly, this one is just as wonderful as the Forest Edition, with beautiful photograph and art works, high quality videos, smooth transitions between sections. It… Read more

Fix The Factory is a new free app from LEGO. LEGO calls it a puzzle game, but I view it another cool game app teaching kids about programming. The story of the game features a humanoid robot fixing the factory, where battery packs are dropped in all the wrong places.  The players’ jobs are to write instructions in code blocks to guide the robot move to the right spot, pick up the mis-placed batteries, and put them back to the… Read more

Today I want to share a series of math apps – iLiveMath series.  It is very unique in a way that it combines math with another subject, such as animals, oceans, transportation.  It helps kids connect math with the real world and see how math are used in real life. There are several apps in the series, including Oceans, Animals of Africa, Animals of Asia, Speed, Ford Cars, Farm Fresh, and Entomology.  Each app has three levels, covering grade k… Read more