the ikids blog » emmas favorites

Toontastic

digitalchristopherrobin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:44:50 +0000

Storytelling is a tradition as old as time. For generations, kids have loved to hear stories of adventure, magic, romance, heroism and all the rest. They’ve also always enjoyed creating their own stories, putting their own special stamp on familiar tales, and bravely inventing new ones. Toontastic, an award-winning iPad app from Launchpad Toys, has taken this simple truth about what kids enjoy, and used it as a foundation for an entire platform that enables kids to tell stories and share them in entirely new ways.

Quite simply, Toontastic is a brilliant idea brilliantly executed. The iPad app enables kids to create their own stories. How? Scene-by-scene, kids are prompted to select background graphics, characters, & music, and then kids are prompted to move their characters around the scene while speaking and recording their own story. That may sound complex, but Toontastic makes the entire experience elegantly simple and easy for kids as young as 4 to manage with minimal adult supervision.

Toontasic also lends itself well to intergenerational play. My four-year old daughter and I play this app together regularly – at her request. Often we’ll split up the characters in each scene and then improvise the story. She ends up being a princess a lot and I am typically the knight, the pirate, or the dragon. Parents beware: you may find yourself enjoying this as much as you did movies like Toy Story or Aladdin. It’s one of those rare experiences that is fun no matter how old you are – everyone can get a little something different out of it. Still, as fun as it is to live the childhood fantasy of controlling my own cartoon, it’s even more magical to watch my daughter’s imagination in action in real time.

If you’ve got an iPad and you’ve got kids, Toontastic is quite simply a must have. Seriously folks, this app is in the App Store Hall of Fame for a reason. Stop what you’re doing and get it now.

Still not persuaded that this app is a must have? Check out the content kids have already created.
You will be inspired: http://toontube.launchpadtoys.com/

Nighty, night..

digitalchristopherrobin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:45:19 +0000

We receive a lot of review requests and we look at a lot of apps. Every now and then we come across one and we just fall in love.

Nighty Night! HD is one of those apps for me. What’s so special about it, you ask? Well, our kids (iPad veterans at this point) just love it. The music is sweet, the visual production values are outstanding, and the concept is both engaging and intuitive. The app, you see, is an interactive bed time story that allows children to put a variety of animals to bed. The interface is elegant in its simplicity – just tap a room, and you see a close-up view of an animal getting ready for bed. Flick the lights off, and the animal goes to sleep. Sounds simple, but the kids adore it. Like any quality bedtime story, part of the value of Nighty Night! HD is that it actually helps my whirlwind of a two-year old realize that it’s time for bed. I’m clearly not the only parent that loves having something that helps put the kids to bed – Nighty Night! HD is currently the #1 paid iPad book app in the US Store.

Check out the video to see why Nighty Night! HD is a must-have bedtime companion for your digital wunderkids:

Then go grab Nighty Night@ HD for your iPad. You can get it in the App Store here.

APP Review: Letters A to Z

digitalchristopherrobin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:51:55 +0000

Letters A to Z succeeds because it takes a simple concept and executes it well. My toddler loves it because it is easy to use, visually pleasing, and helps her learn her letters.

Letters A to Z

Playing with the app is straightforward — you can flip through the letters of the alphabet the same way you browse pictures – by simply dragging your finger across the screen. This is smart, usable design – it makes it easy for even the youngest learners to navigate thru the app. For any given letter you can also tap the letter to hear audio and you can tap the picture to hear the relevant word spoken and see a fun animation.

The Letter F

That’s all there is to it. But for kids apps, this make sense. Hard to go wrong with something that’s easy to use, interactive, and promotes learning.

Looking to help your toddler master their ABCs? You can get Letters A to Z here.

Emma’s Favorite Apps

digitalchristopherrobin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:38:31 +0000

So — my wife handed me her phone tonight and wanted to know how to rearrange her home screen icons. Apparently our two-year old daughter had rearranged everything to her liking. Guess she’s got some favorite apps.

Check it:

Emma's Home Screen

You can get Emma’s favorites here:

Suzy Dress Up
Teach Me Toddler
Letters A to Z
ABC 123 Blocks

And yes, she really did this on her own. Blew my mind.

A review on Letters A to Z will be forthcoming — we’ve already covered the others in her top four.

NEW!! NEW!! NEW!!

digitalchristopherrobin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:24:55 +0000

The tale of a kid asking their parent for a trinket is an age-old story, but lately I’ve found myself living the digital version of it — my daughter Emma is two, and she has recently taken to grabbing my iPhone, navigating to the app store and handing it to me with an expectant declaration of “NEW!”

I cringe less when she asks for a new app than when she wants a glass of Coke, a bit of chocolate or some other indulgence. Many of the apps help her learn, challenge her, and occupy her. A new one is much cheaper than a trip to Toys R Us or Target. And as a parent desperate for a moment of sanity, the apps are a godsend for me. They are always around, whether you’re at the doctor’s office, in the car, or at home.

Some of them she loves, some of them bore her quickly, and some are just too demanding for a two year-old. But by and large they are an entertaining and educational part of her rhythm.

As for me, it’s fascinating to watch her shape her concepts about how to interface with a machine and what you can do with one. It’s a computer – wait – it’s a phone – wait – it’s a camera, it’s a stereo, it’s a map – and on it goes… When I was a kid, music came on vinyl, stories happened in books, and code lived inside of my Commodore-64. She has more flexible ideas about where content comes from and how you can play with it.

I do believe that acquiring this digital fluency early will prepare her for the world she will live in, and yet still will admit to the occasional concern regarding the amount of screen time she gets at such a young age.

But my bottom line is that as long as she’s learning, having fun and it’s part of a balanced life, then it’s a good thing.

Check it….

And if you happen to be looking for a new app, you can get the one Emma is playing with here..

App Review: Suzy Dress Up

digitalchristopherrobin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:00:58 +0000

Suzy Dress Up is a tough app for me to review. Let me start with this – my daughter loves it. And that makes sense – lots of little girls like to play dress up, right? This app extends that appeal to the digital domain and allows you to customize a virtual girl’s appearance – her hat, shoes, pants, shirt, purse, dog, eyes, skin, jewelry, purse – much like creating a Mii character for the Wii.

Suzy Dress Up Screenshot

The design of the app is fantastic, the artwork is first-rate, and there’s a wide-array of accessories for you to choose from. You can make Suzy look like anything from a cheerleader to a princess to a nurse to a witch…

Suzy Dress Up Screenshot

So if the app engages my daughter, is easy to use, and has lasting entertainment value, what’s the problem? I guess my concern surrounds what this app (and the rest of the barrage of media coming at her) might do to my daughter’s notions of who she is, what her possibilities are and what society values in women. Perhaps I’m reading too much into the content of a kid’s app, but I can’t help but be a bit concerned because I’m keenly aware of how my little two-year old angel is absorbing everything around her and using it to build her concepts about the world. The other night at dinner I slipped up and uttered an expletive after burning my tongue – which Emma then spent the rest of the night repeating. Not the end of the world – but definitely a timely reminder of how actively she is internalizing everything that she comes into contact with. I hold out hope that my daughter might want to become a scientist, a politician, a historian – or if she so chooses – a fashion model. Yet I’m not sure that this app sets her up for all of those possibilities.

Open to input on this one — especially from Moms. As a Dad, I may be in over my head on this one — and I don’t want to shutdown to an app that is in all other respects great. But I do want to know that as I put digital media in front of my little girl that it’s helping her to grow and not just serving as a virtual pacifier – or worse – something that’s shaping her self-concept in a limiting fashion.

Thoughts?

If you think I’m being too conservative on this one, please do speak up.

And if you’re just looking for the app, you can get it here.

App Review: Teach Me Toddler

digitalchristopherrobin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:20:02 +0000

Teach Me Toddler is definitely one of my daughter’s current favorite apps. The app is pretty straightforward – there’s a talking mouse that asks kids to identify a letter, number, shape, or color from among a few options. After the initial set-up (parental supervision required ) you get a screen like this when you open the app:

Pick A Letter

Pick A Number

The interface is easy and intuitive for a two-year old to grasp and the talking mouse is always at the ready in case the kiddies need a bit of help remembering what they’re supposed to be looking for. For kids, it’s a fun game to find the right answer. Moreover, the app provides immediate audio and visual feedback that lets them know if they found the right choice. Emma typically punctuates her successes by showing me the phone and exclaiming, “YAY!!”, when she gets a correct answer. Like I said, she loves it.

For my part, I love the fact that the app keeps track of her performance over time, allowing me to to view at a glance what she’s doing well with and what she might need more help on.

Maybe we need to work on colors?

Pretty good with numbers...

The stats are pretty detailed — providing letter-by-letter, number-by-number, and shape-by-shape results on her performance.

Another cool part about the app is that it has a fun little interlude that rewards kids with stickers for correct answers.

Great Job! Pick a sticker....

Stickers On The Beach

After answering three questions correctly, the mouse awards a sticker of the child’s choice, which can be dragged around and placed on a rather pleasant looking beach scene.

The combination of great learning activities, fun rewards, and performance tracking make this app a great choice for any parent looking to add another kid-friendly app to their phone. You can get it here.