Many kids like to play jigsaw puzzles. Playing puzzles has many developmental benefits for kids. While playing puzzles, kids develop hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills; learn to understand surrounding environment, recognize shapes, improve memory and problem solving skills; Kids also learn to set goals, and be patient. There are many puzzle apps for kids on the App Store. I recently found one that really stands out, as it also adds word recognition into the play.
101 Animal Puzzles for Kids is developed by Little Clever. It has 101 animal puzzles in 9 categories: On the Farm, Riverside, Woodland, In the Sea, Africa, In the Garden, Dinosaurs, Pets, and Around the World. Each category has 8-12 puzzles. Each puzzle has 7 difficulty levels, with puzzle pieces ranging from 2 to 8.
What I like the most about this app is the word association feature. When kids pick up a category, they will hear the category title. When they pick a puzzle piece, they hear the color of the piece. When kids finish a puzzle and tab on the finished picture, they hear the animal’s name and see the written word. If they touch the animal again, they hear the sound the animal makes. It is a playful way for kids to learn color words and animal words. With 101 puzzles, kids will learn 101 animal names!
In addition to word association, there are several other features I like about the app:
1. It automatically adjusts difficulty level. What is especially unique is parents can decide on the criteria for level change. For example, to add a puzzle piece, kids need be able to solve the puzzle within 30 seconds for two consecutive puzzles. Parents can adjust both the number of consecutive puzzles and the time kids solve the puzzle.
2. Parents can adjust the precision level required for the app to recognize the puzzle piece based on kids fine motor skill. For younger kids, they don’t need move the piece to the location as precise for the app to take it as a correct location.
3. Easy navigation interface for kids to move from puzzle to puzzle. Kids can pick the category from the home screen. On the screen for each puzzle, kids can easily move to the next or the previous puzzle via the arrows on both side of the screen. The big down arrow at the bottom of the screen leads them to home screen to pick a different category.
4. Bright pictures and friendly voices. When kids finish a puzzle, they always hear congratulation.
101 Animal Puzzles for Kids is a fun puzzle app for kids. It is available for iPhone, iPod and iPad. It is also available for Android on Amazon App Store and Google Play. There will be one coming soon for Windows devices too. For all platforms, there is also a free version with 21 puzzles from 2 categories for you to check it out. Below the first row of links are full versions, and the 2nd row of links are lite versions.
If you would like to check it out or purchase it, please use the App Store link provided below. The cost is the same to you, but iGameMom gets a small percentage. Thanks for your support! Note: The link works for all countries.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I’m glad I found this, my first grandson was born in April and it looks like there are some great things on here. 🙂
Thanks for the visit. Enjoy the fun with the little one!