Reviews of iPad/iPod/iPhone (iThing) apps

[Skylark]

Very nice recommendations, DadDude! Are those just for ipad//iphone or you can run them on Mac? karma to you for such an extensive list and review!

[early learning17]

Hi
apart from bringing this very useful post up again, a beginner´s question (sorry, just starting to look into this and need help)

Somebody recommend to get a Samsung Galaxy S instead of the iphone because you cannot use any memory card with it. Of course I don´t like the idea of having a memory limitations spending all that money but I am also keen to get the education apps posted in this thread. Here is the question:

It wouldn´t be possible to use this apps on the Samsung Galaxy S phone, right?

Without having had the time to look much into it, I assume that possibly there are better options than the iphone in terms of freedom to use other programs that circulate "for free" on the net but I suppose the iphone will become an industry standard and the majority of educational apps will simply be offered as a iphone apps, right?

Would be great if somebody who is more familiar with this subject than I am could help me out.

Thanks in advance!
Isa

[DadDude]

You're inspiring me to post a new set of reviews based on more recent discoveries.

First, to isapabi: apps are sometimes rewritten for other platforms, but not all of them are.  I couldn't tell you what percentage of these are available for Android machines, which is what the Samsung Galaxy S is.  iPad has many more apps.  But lots of people are getting Androids...

I ran out of time while writing this, so I don't have reviews for all of these, and there are quite a few others that I downloaded but don't use so much, so...



Five star apps

National Geographic World Atlas HD - 5/5 - can't believe I didn't get this earlier.  Now one of our most-used apps.  For purposes of teaching, this has gotten more use, recently, than Google Earth, because it simplifies the geographical information intelligently.  But it also integrates Bing maps, which are almost as good as Google Maps.

Shredder - 5/5 - my favorite chess app (and I've tried a half-dozen).  Touch a piece and it shows all legal moves it can make.  Excellent playing strength feature.  Wonderful built-in puzzle problems, though too hard for little ones.

WatchKnow - 5/5 - OK so maybe I'm a little biased, having designed both the app and the website it's based on, but this is one great educational video app!  Nobody does it better!

Peekaboo/Baby Touch (Ladybird) - 5/5 - really a gem.  Basically, it's a series of four baby board books.  Baby must tap the screen, anywhere (?), and the app shows the next slide.  The appeal is the story.  The illustrations are very abstract, as you might have seen in some baby books, but still very attractive to baby E. (and H. too).  Shows what can be done when you call some true design professionals in.

Tap Tap Baby - 5/5 - another gem.  It's like a bunch of baby toys.  It's unique--I've looked for others like it and couldn't find any.  We use this one with E. almost as much as the Counting app.

Counting (has a 1 2 3 logo) - 5/5 - this is what I do with E. when we turn on the machine to play.  Fantastic, simple way to teach about numbers.  Now, when I go down stairs counting, or hop around counting, E. starts giggling.  E. tries to touch the objects himself.

Rocket Math - 5/5 - any app that makes H. want to do math this much and for this long gets my vote.  Hard to describe briefly, it combines rocket construction with two different space games that heavily integrate excellently levelled math problems.

Stack the States and Stack the Countries - 5/5 - we love these.  H. has played Stack the States for hours, literally, and learned lots along the way.  These are very well made and I can't really think of any improvements.



Four star apps

Various Smart Baby Apps - 4.5/5 - we use these all the time.  They're excellently customizable--the programmers/designers really put a lot of thought and work into putting in lots of options that make them maximally usable by people.  The other great thing is that there are a lot of words for a very little money.  One thing that's missing is some sort of management system features for Doman users...  I'd like to make a special mention & praise of My First 1,000 Words--excellent value.  If there is a problem with this, that would prevent me from giving them five stars, it's that--well, they're just flashcards, and even with all the features, there isn't anything extra that puts them over the top.  If they had videos, or extra sounds, or something...

Mate in 1 - 4/5 - wonderful set of mate-in-1 puzzles, highly recommended for chess players (H. isn't doing this yet--maybe soon)

ABCDE and for Russian, iAzbuka (iAttractor LLC) - 4/5 - nice ABC app.  Includes a presentation (only problem is that the letter and the illustrating picture are not separated) and a nice simple quiz feature (obviously for toddlers and preschoolers, not babies).  H. has been using the trace app, which has a feature nice features, but a very nonstandard font to trace.  For our purposes iAzbuka gets a 5/5 because we haven't found any other Russian alphabet apps, and this one has helped H. quite a bit.

Spongewords - 4/5 - I really like this app.  It combines some great features that nobody else uses:  showing/reading the word, letting the word recede into the background (but still visible), then showing a video (only videos), then bringing the word forward again and showing and reading it again.  As it turns out, this is very effective.  As to the voiceover--where is that accent from?  (Just curious.)  And where were the videos made?  (They are all, it appears, home-made, but pretty well made.)  Also, you get eight different presentations--and some, like the animals one, are very long.  Each presentation is a video (you can't do anything but play or exit the videos), and so not customizable, but the videos are so well-designed that I don't care.

Animals HD (Let's Hear the Animals HD) - 4/5 - really like this app.  Flashcards combining good pix of animals with animal sounds--for lots of animals.  Would make it even better to let us see the words separate from the pix, but it's still a great app.  Excellent feature includes all animals on one slide, or four at a time on one slide; the latter allows one to ask baby, "Which one is the tiger?"  E. was getting the answers to those questions right much better than chance!  Includes Spanish version.

Countries/World Countries (ADS Software Group) - 4/5 - while its components are three-star, this one becomes a four star app by dint of sheer hugeness and uniqueness.  It essentially combines over a dozen "OK" apps, including flashcards and quizzes about country shapes, capitals, flags, and more.

Othesr: 1st Grade/Teach Me; ArtMatch; Art Sliding



Three star apps

Baby Flashcards 2 HD (Baby Cortex) -  3/5 - LOVE their "quest" feature, which shows the picture and then shows/reads the word.  No one else has this.  Two problems: can't separate words from pix, and the pix are cartoon illustrations, not photographs.

Various Tipitap flashcard apps - 3/5 - word on the same slide as an excellent full-screen photograph, and has the sound that the thing (e.g., vehicles or animals) makes; but doesn't read the word, and navigation is clumsy.  We mainly use this to teach the sounds of various things.

Speak & Read/Read English (WinkToLearn.com) - 3/5 - I want to like this, but it has the pictures first and then the words, and navigation is clumsy/slow.  For this reason, I'm afraid, I just don't use this much; I like my apps snappier (and customizable--this has no customization).  Quite a lot of words & decent pictures.  Seriously needs to pick just one name for the app.  Is it Speak & Read, Read English, or WinkToLearn.com?

Farmyard (has pic of a rooster for the icon) - 3/5 - pix and sounds of farmyard animals.  I like this and use it occasionally.  Its strengths are unusually good pictures and effective integration with sounds of the animals; but doesn't include the names of the animals (in either text or audio form).

Geomaster - 3/5 - we like it quite a lot.  It's a find-that-country (and state, city, French dept., etc.) game.  It got some nice features, and we do play it from time to time, but it needs a little work.

Others: Sky Writers; JukeBox (pic of elephant on the icon)



Two star apps

eFlash2 English - 2/5 - we just don't use this.  It has lots of categories, but it's just words-on-pictures with simple, somewhat clunky navigation--and what basically makes me use the others is the ad.  Sorry, I don't want ads and won't show an app with an ad, not when there are other apps that are as good or better in most respects.

Toddler ABC (Toddler Alphabet on the icon) - 2/5 - a puzzle game that is supposed to help teach ABCs.  For a while I didn't know one could move the icon on the top of the screen to move to the next letter; but this is very clunky navigation anyway (especially if a toddler is supposed to do that himself).  Not for babies, but even for toddlers this has made some weird design choices, such as relatively small text, and no clear distinction between the moveable pieces and the rest of the puzzle.

AlphaBaby - 2/5 - Basically, you tap on the screen, and where you tap some random letter, number, shape, or color appears.  OK, so this has a few features like Tap Tap Baby, but it's basically a touchscreen experiment that looked like it might work, but it doesn't.  The main problem is that the object appears under your finger, so your finger consistently obscures the object.  Also, the objects end up being too jumbled to be made sense of by baby.  I'll bet that a later version of this could be made into a 5 star app, though.

NOOK kids - 2/5 - we've used it to read The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.Way worse than iBooks or Kindle, it loads in landscape mode and takes tapping to make it portrait, difficult to navigate, no bookmarking, extremely poor dictionary.

[ShenLi]

Thank you Daddude! I've been looking for baby apps that would appeal to my younger one. Although I haven't been keen on letting him use the iPhone or the iPad, it's just impossible not to when his older brother is. Unfortunately most of the apps that his brother uses are frustrating for him because he hasn't got the dexterity to play them even if he knows what he needs to do. Will definitely check out the baby apps you recommended!

I've been starting to explore apps for the iPhone and iPad because it's just so much easier carrying the iPhone or iPad around rather than lugging around a bag full of toys and books for those occasions when the kids are bored of waiting.

[early learning17]

Thank you so much for the updated list DadDude!
And thanks as well in advance to Shen-Li because undoubtedly there will be a very interesting post on this soon on her blog (the pressure is on ;-))

ISA

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Surely it's semi-foolish to give your children a "toy" this expensive and not watch them as closely as you should...

My kiddos have done so good with this thing, I got too lax with my supervision today. Hubby and I were both in the room though so I cannot take full credit for this one, we are both at fault. I don't know if it was my 1 year old or my 2 year old that was the guilty party. My husband saw it fall off the couch when one of them was playing near it and lost interest for a few minutes but it only fell about 2 or 3 feet. So I am not convinced it was the fall, but we don't have carpet so I don't know it's possible. If I had to, I'd bet that it was my one year old son and an unintentional misplaced foot. We think maybe after it fell one of the kids accidentally stepped on the screen, we just didn't see it happen? The glass had a nice big crack running through it, with the screen not as responsive as it should be.  That's how we noticed, the kids couldn't get the screen to work properly. You could barely even see the crack initially unless you held it up to the light.

Apple wanted $369 upfront and then would refund any excess after the fact, so we had no idea of the real cost beforehand

Homeowners Insurance wanted a $250 deductible

We are choosing to repair it ourselves for $170 ordering the parts through Amazon and voiding the warranty. When my DH took off the screen, the pressure released and the whole screen cracked the rest of the way. Heartbreaking to say the least! (PLEASE do not attempt to do this yourself without a background in this this sort of thing-- I am NOT advising people to go out and void their warranties at all so do not misinterpret that.)

Anyway, I will be an example to the group....::sigh:: Yes, they are great [expensive] teaching tools, but monitor your children accordingly.

[waterdreamer]

All I have to say TmT is ouch and I'm so sorry.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Exactly how sorry?  .......Sorry enough to replace it for me      hahahah j/k

Expect a bill in the mail shortly, courtesy of Lily & Owen. 

[waterdreamer]

  Sorry, its more of an empathic sorry feeling. Not sorry enough to foot the bill though.

[Mela Bala]

Thanks DadDude so much!! Karma to you! I just bought my son an ipad and after 3 weeks of waiting and looking at apps it is finally on the way!! Your list will save me alot of time!!
TmT I am so sorry about your ipad.

[Raising Ethan]

Somebody PLEASE list great educational App.'s for Android Users too!! 

[early learning17]

Raising Ethan: which product do you have/are you satisfied with it? Have you compared it a lot with the iphone/ipad b4 buying an android based one? (Maybe we should move this discussion to another thread - where would it best fit in?)

Thanks Isa

[lzp11]

Oh dear, TmT, I am so sorry to hear about your iPad     Good luck with any repair work.

I've been thinking about getting either an ipad or aome kind of android touchpad thingy (they are just soooo much cheaper - and TmT's experience brings me out in a cold sweat - I can just see my DD hurling her ipad across the room at some point, just to see what happens... ). 

So, would also be very interested to hear reviews about android apps, and whether there are enough at the moment to go with this option.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

My hubby's a techie so we have the Motorola Xoom as well,  at least he has that to fall back on. There's not nearly as much out for educational apps yet, but hopefully we will start seeing more soon. Let's see how long it takes the kids to break that one.    Will update as we find and add more apps  though, I need to do a real hunt soon for some. Whoever starts compiling a list first can start the thread. We loaded a few but then reformatted it so I need to redownload them. The nice thing is that as soon as the 4G upgrade becomes available, we can send this one in for an automatic replacement. We'll have to pay for the monthly data plan then, but it's nice that we're not roped into an old model just because we chose to buy early.

[aangeles]

DadDude,

Thanks for compiling the list and for the helpful reviews. We got our iPad 2 a couple of weeks ago and Ella loves:

123 Color and 123 World - especially since she figured out how to save and email her completed pictures, she has been inundating her dad's inbox with her "masterpieces!"

Teach Me Kindergarten

iWriteWords - She loves seeing the words in her own handwriting!

WatchKnow - The only thing that would make this app even better is the ability to save and organize your favorite videos.

Build a Word - There are 4 levels - short vowel words, long vowel words, Dolch's sight words, and custom list. There is a practice mode and a quiz mode. I thought the quiz mode would be a little advanced for her but she has been playing with it a lot. It is a little more challenging than other spelling apps because it gives you more letters and duplicate letters to choose from.

Montessori apps by Rantek - These are a little expensive (as is anything Montessori) and limited in scope but Ella likes doing them. She especially likes the Geography ones.

For parents teaching foreign languages, here are some of the best (in our opinion) apps for learning Chinese, French, and Spanish:

Rye Studio multilingual storybooks - You can read and listen to the stories in English, Chinese (with the options for Trad or Simplified characters), French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Japanese. Most of the stories have all the languages but some are still in development and only have English, Chinese, and Japanese, so check the available languages for each story first before you buy. These stories are perfect for us because Ella is learning French, Spanish, and Japanese. It is certainly much cheaper than buying books in each language, plus there is audio narrated by native speakers!

5QChannel (Chinese) - These are animated storybooks which are great for listening to stories in Chinese and learning about Chinese culture, myths, folktales, proverbs, idioms, literature, etc. The animation makes the stories understandable to kids and non-native speakers and, at the end of each story, there is an English translation for each page. Ella's favorite is the 12-in-1 storybook bundle about the Chinese zodiac animals.

AppleTreeBooks (Chinese) - These illustrated audiobooks make Chinese classics like the Monkey King, Tang Dynasty poems, Three Character Classics accessible to children but at least some basic understanding of Chinese is required. For some reason, Ella has been captivated by these stories. There are lite versions for free to try out.

iLearn Chinese - the best app I've found to teach Chinese handwriting to kids (and non-native speakers). Good for practicing fine motor skills too.

play2learn Spanish and play2learn French - great for learning vocabulary and has a quiz mode in which you color in the picture as the Spanish/French word is called out.

Babblemania Spanish - not immersion as the instructions are given in English but Ella likes it.

Spanish Kids - game for learning Spanish words and phrases with lovely images similar to Rosetta Stone. Have not used this much yet but she seems to like it.

eFlashSpanish and eFlashFrench - I wouldn't use this for English, but good for teaching/reviewing vocab in Spanish and French. Nice pics and they're free.

Ana Lomba storybooks and Bookbox French/Spanish - downloaded the free books in French and Spanish and she likes them well enough but there are better storybooks out there.

24/7 Tutor - nice free app I've found for parents trying to learn another language along with their kids.

 

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