the ikids blog

App Review: Wheels On The Bus

Wheels On The Bus deserves notice if only because it is the most popular app within the education category. There’s a reason for its success too – it’s a highly engaging, fun experience that puts kids inside of an immersive environment that they can explore. Essentially an iPhone version of an old-school pop-up book, the app is centered around the children’s song that is also its namesake. The app is broken down into a few scenes, each of which feature a snippet of the song and a couple of touchable elements that kids can interact with.

In the first scene, you can swipe on the school bus and watch it drive down a road.

In the second scene, you can open and shut the doors on the bus.

In the third scene, you can interact with the bus driver and make the teddy bear bounce in his seat.

And so it continues. Other fun aspects of the app are the ability to have the song play in a variety of languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. In case you’re looking for more to do you can also record yourself singing the song.

The strength of this app is its engagement value – the graphic design is top-notch, the animations are fun, and the variety of languages is a nice touch. That said, Wheels on the Bus may not be quite as strong of an educational app as some of the other kids-focused options out there. Don’t get me wrong – there’s a lot to be said for singing songs in lots of different languages, it’s just that the app is not as focused on learning as it is on fun. Which is okay – and for any parent looking to keep their kid entertained while at the doctor’s office or in the car, this is a must-have.

Get it here..

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