the ikids blog

App Review: Peakaboo Barn

Peakaboo Barn is an easy app to love. The user interface is simple, the animations are cute — and it’s among my toddler’s favorite apps. She keeps coming back to this one, which is part of what pushed it to the top of the ever-growing list of apps to review.

The app itself is simple — upon start-up a barn animates in on a country landscape while “Old McDonald” plays.

The barn then hops on the screen and makes animal noises until you touch it — the doors then open, and you get to see the animal inside the barn.

The name of the animal is displayed until you touch the screen at which point your view zooms out to the barn again. From there, the app repeats in a loop of 10 or so animals. There are pigs, horse, donkeys and more. There is a bit of a twist when the scene turns to night – but I’ll let that be a surprise for those of you that end up getting this app.

One aspect of this app that really helps my daughter connect with it is the fact that the audio is actually kids saying the names of the animals. It makes her feel comfortable to hear voices that sound like hers, and she usually repeats the animal names as she goes through the app.

In my mind, however, the biggest reason this app succeeds is because of the simplicity of the interface. It’s great to see how naturally a child can flow through this learning experience simply by continuing to tap the screen. The simplicity of it all definitely delivers a sense of being in control of the experience – and what toddler isn’t excited about that?

If this sounds like the perfect iPhone app for the kid in your life, you can get it here.

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