The iPhone Mom

My Silly Sounds Farm app has given me the best case of giggles that I’ve had in a long, long time. Let me explain why. When I receive promo codes I usually put the apps on my iPhone or iPad right away, even though I might not get a chance to use the app for a week or so. My kids know to check for new apps and they usually get to the children’s apps before I do. This was the case with My Silly Sounds Farm. It’s been on my iPad for a couple of weeks but I had no idea my son had been using it. He usually tells me when he’s found one that he really likes and I know for a fact he really enjoyed this app. Here’s my proof. I went to test the app today and first of all, it’s adorable. I love the graphics and the animals are completely appealing. The idea is to tap on an animal to hear it’s sound. By default the animal sound is one that matches the animal but the fun comes when you record your own silly sounds and then play them back. Each animal screen has a big red button that you tap when you want to record a new sound. The recording is then integrated into the app and when you tap on that animal you’re going to hear your recording. So unknown to me my son had gone through the entire app and recorded his own animal sounds. But they weren’t really sounds, it was more animals doing monologues and sometimes dialogues. And it was hilarious! His imagination has taken off over the past few months and this was a much needed laugh as I went through animal after animal listening to his random creativity.

When you’ve gone through and played with all the animal recordings you can move them around on the screen to create a farm scene. You can tap on each animal and get them talking all at the same time – it’s quite the ruckus! Reminded me of dinnertime at our house. This is a wonderful app for young children and it’s obviously been a hit at my house!

Just for kicks, I’ve taped a few of my favorite animals as voiced by my son. Keep in mind he’s five and the thoughts are at times random. This is probably a mother’s bias but his recordings made the app a big winner for me. I highly recommend this app if you have a preschooler in your house. The video quality isn’t the best, I put the whole thing together with iMovie on my iPhone and I’m quite certain my settings weren’t the best. I’m also a YouTube novice. So don’t judge the app’s graphics by my shoddy workmanship. One last thing, when he’s talking about the pig nose looking like a “pause” – he does mean pause and not paws. And he’s spot on.

I tested out the iPad version of My Silly Sounds Farm but there is also a separate iPhone version available. I have a promo code to give away for the iPhone version. Leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner tonight.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

See the app in iTunes

Seller: Sequel Creative, LLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review

Interactive Alphabet for iPad is a wonderfully enjoyable flash card app for toddlers and preschoolers. I truly enjoyed testing this one out. The app begins with a screen that is filled with alphabet letters. They are bright and colorful and look so inviting you just can’t wait to tap a letter. So you do and are rewarded with a full screen flashcard that shows the letter and something that begins with it. Narration accompanies the flashcard, telling you the letter’s name and what it is for on the screen. (Example: J, J is for Jack in the Box) The flashcard is animated and if you tap on the pictures something extra fun will happen. You can also tap on the letter and words to hear them spoken out loud again.

To navigate through the app you can return to the main screen that shows the different alphabet letters. Or you can pay attention to the two small letters at the top left and right of the iPad screen. These will be the letters that come just before and just after the one you are looking at. You may tap on one of these letters to move forward or backwards through the app without returning to the main screen.

Accompanying the app is a very catchy soundtrack. It’s not loud or annoying as some children’s app music tends to be. It fits the app and didn’t get on my nerves at all. The developers included an extra treat by adding two extra soundtracks so you have three total to choose from. They’re all great and I love that you can swap them out when you’re tired of hearing one over and over again.

Interactive Alphabet for iPad is polished, well thought out and will absolutely appeal to toddlers and younger preschoolers who are beginning to learn their letters. Great app!

Price when Reviewed: $2.99 (this is a 40% off price through 9/16)

See the app in iTunes

Seller: Pi’ikea St. LLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review

I love Math Bingo! And even more importantly my kids are enjoying it too. To find a math app that my kids enjoy is terrific!

Here’s how Math Bingo works. First you’ll enter in your player name and choose an avatar to represent yourself. The game supports up to six different players. Then you’ll choose whether you want to play with addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. Finally you’ll choose a level of difficulty – easy, medium or hard. Now you’re ready to play! Math Bingo gives you a bingo board with a twist. At the top is a math problem, it will be an addition problem if you chose to play with addition, or subtraction, etc.. In the board’s squares are 25 different numbers. At least one of them is the answer to your problem. To play you’ve got to solve the math problem and tap on the square with the answer. Then you’ll be given another problem to solve. When you’ve lined up five squares in a row you get Bingo and you win the game. Strategy comes into play when you have the same numbers in different squares around the board. You’ll want to choose the one that will be most likely to earn you a bingo.

Math Bingo uses “bugs” as markers. They’re cute and animated and they add charm to the game. Each time you win a round of Math Bingo you also collect a different bug. You can view them from your player profile and tilt and tap your iPad to move them around. They bounce off each other and make noises, my son really gets a kick out of this part.

I found Math Bingo to be completely charming and I think it’s a must have app if you’ve got a child who needs a little extra help with their math skills. I’d say the best age range for the app is from late first grade to fifth grade. Love, love, love this one!

**Update 8/13 – Math Bingo now has a bonus game – Bingo Bug Bungee! After you play a round of Math Bingo you can play this bonus game. In Bingo Bug Bungee! you launch bugs onto the screen and they bounce around collecting coins. The bugs are adorable and it’s a fun little break from math. The bonus game is a fantastic addition to this terrific app.

*Math Bingo works on either the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. I tried it out on my iPad.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: ABCya.com

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I hadn’t gotten a chance to try out the iPad app Maggie and the Trouble of Monkeys so I asked my eight year old daughter to give it a try first. I was in the other room while she was reading the story and I kept hearing her giggling to herself. I figured the app must be funny but I had no idea what she’d found so appealing until I tried it out for myself. Once I’d read the story I immediately understood why my daughter had related so well to Maggie.

Maggie has trouble with monkeys. She especially has trouble with a certain little monkey that jumps, makes noise and plenty of messes. At the end of the story Maggie’s monkey is revealed to be her little brother and that is what got my daughter giggling. She also has a little brother and she completely related to Maggie’s troubles.

Maggie and the Trouble with Monkeys has a delightful feel to it. The story’s text comes in a variety of colors, styles and sizes. At times it’s even animated on the page. The story is accompanied by fun, jazzy music that compliments the app’s original feel. The price seems a tad high but this is a delightful iPad app that is very well suited for young children. Especially those with little brothers.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

See the app in iTunes

Seller: Brighter Minds

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Over the past week my family has fallen victim to an Angry Bird addiction. I bought the silly game and one by one we’ve been sucked in. Green pigs have stolen the birds eggs and they are angry and ready to wage battle. Using a slingshot you need to fling the birds against the pigs fortresses and try to destroy them. Different birds have different powers and you’ll need to think about physics, timing, flight patterns and more. It all sounds completely ridiculous and it is. But the game is virtually impossible for us to put down. There are 135 different levels and each one is unique and a challenge. A frustrating, twisted and addicting challenge.

The $.99 version of Angry Birds will work on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. We’ve been playing it on our iPhones and iPad. There is also an HD version that will only work on the iPad. That version costs $4.99. Unless you want the HD graphics I’d suggest buying the $.99 version and playing that on both devices.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Chillingo Ltd.

Last week Duck Duck Moose released an iPad HD version of their Wheels on the Bus app. We gave it a whirl at our house and compared it to the iPhone app. The app is the same in both versions but the HD graphics are more impressive than the iPhone version. The images are brighter and bolder and will absolutely appeal to young children. The iPad version has all of the crazy song options (kazoo or gibberish anyone?) and you can still record yourself singing the song.  In my opinion Wheels on the Bus is one of the best iPhone apps for toddlers and it translates wonderfully to the iPad.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

See the App in the App Store

Seller: Duck Duck Moose

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Olivia has been a part of our house since my eldest daughter was very young. We bought the very first book when it was published, not knowing what a magical story it would turn out to be. Since then the books have continued to join our bookshelves and my second daughter was particularly entranced with Olivia. I think it’s because their personalities are very similar. I wish that I had Olivia’s mom’s patience. My kids aren’t in the Nick Jr. demographic anymore but the Olivia cartoon is one that they will all watch together when we catch it on TV. It’s one of the few children’s shows that I can handle watching myself. Earlier this week I received an email asking if I’d like to preview Olivia’s brand new app – Olivia Paints. Absolutely! was my reply. So here goes!

Olivia Paints is a painting app featuring none other than Olivia herself. There are several different scenes to decorate and they’ve got names like “Olivia Acts Out” (a theater scene), “Olivia Plays a Game” (playground) and “Olivia’s Room” (self-explanatory).  Once you choose a scene you can drag stickers into the picture. The stickers are outlines (of objects, show characters, etc.) and you can tap on them to paint in the color. The paint shows up on a palette and you can mix colors together or use them on their own.  When your sticker is finished it will become animated for a moment. My son tried out the app before I did and he had no trouble figuring out how to make things work to create pictures.

I thought that Olivia Paints was an adorable app and it stays true to Olivia. I liked being able to mix paint colors and the way the stickers become animated was a nice touch. Each scene has about five stickers and they all fit in with the scene’s theme. My only wish is that there were more a few more stickers available. If you’ve got a young Olivia fan in your house this app is a must and I’m hoping this is the first of more Olivia apps to come!

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: Soma Creates

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

My seven year old daughter is thoroughly enjoying the Math Ninja app. It combines an arcade style game with math practice and it does it in a way that’s a lot of fun. You play the game as a Math Ninja who is battling the evil Tomato-San. Tomato-San wants to take your math treasure and he sends his army of Cat-bots and Dog-bots to attack your tree house. First you’ll try to fight off the robot cats and dogs with ninja weapons. This phase involves you tapping the screen as you try to destroy the enemies. Once you’ve destroyed them all the game switches into math mode. A key pad appears on the screen and you’re presented with math problems that you must answer. You’ve got to quickly  enter in your answers using the key pad before Tomato-San  appears. Once he shows up you’ll need to use more of those Math Ninja skills to fight him off. As you move through the different levels you’ll earn money. Money can be used to buy health for your tree house, extra ninja weapons and more. I think my favorite purchase so far was the set of Ninja Stars, those can really take down a Cat and Dog-bot.

The game has three different levels of difficultly, easy, normal and ninja. You are also able to choose what math skills you’d like to practice. You can answer either addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problems. Or you can choose them all and the skills will be mixed together.

Math Ninja is a fun and clever way to get in some math practice without realizing you’re doing math. I’m going to admit that I found myself sucked into the game beyond what was necessary for review research. I’m going with my daughter on this one and declaring Math Ninja a winner.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Ray Wenderlich

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

123 Color HD is the updated iPad version of the app 123 Color that I reviewed awhile back. The original is a fantastic app – a twist on the idea of coloring by numbers.  The HD iPad version looks terrific and it makes good use of the increased screen size.

In 123 Color HD you choose to color by number, uppercase letters, lowercase letters or by matching colors. Next you’ll choose a drawing. Right now the categories that come with the app are shapes and cartoons. You also have the option to purchase a set of world maps to color for $1.99.  Once you’ve chosen your category it’s time to choose your picture. Select a drawing and it will be displayed on the screen in black and white. If you chose to color by number then numbers will be scattered around the drawing. At the bottom of the screen is a row of colored numbers. You need to tap on a number at the bottom of the screen and then tap on the matching number in the picture. When you get it right that chunk of the picture is colored in, the number disappears and you’ll see stars. If you didn’t make a correct match the picture is colored in but you’ll hear a sound effect and the number in that area won’t disappear. If you chose to color by letters the numbers are replaced by alphabet letters but the process is the same.

123 Color HD is filled with settings that you can customize. You can set the app to talk to you in English, French, German or Spanish. You can reduce the number of colors, numbers and letters that show up at the bottom of your screen making the app easier for younger users. You can decide whether you want the colors to appear like they would in a rainbow or in a more random order. There are also sound effects to turn on and off and songs to choose from. A song will play when you complete the drawing. You can choose which songs you’d like to hear, or not hear.

My son loves playing 123 Color on my iPhone and he was pretty excited when I installed this version on the iPad.  The app looks great on the iPad screen, works smoothly and is a great teaching tool that also provides plenty of fun. I can’t recommend KidCalc apps enough!

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 – 50% off regular price (that’s a steal for this app!)

See the app in the App Store

Seller: KidCalc

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

123 World HD – Geography Coloring Book features the world maps that are available for purchase within the 123 Color HD iPad app. In this app they are the only pictures available to color. The coloring process is the same as it is in 123 Color (read how it works here) but there are a few twists to the maps.

You can choose from eight world maps with an additional two maps to be added in an update next week. When you successfully color in a section of the map a flag pin will appear marking the country or state’s capital city. If you tap on this pin you’ll be taken to a Google map. I loved seeing the real map take the place of the drawing. 123 World HD has the same great customizable settings as 123 Color HD. You can also turn on background music that comes from around the world.

I was already a big fan of the 123 Color apps and I think 123 World HD is another fantastic addition. I love the way Geography has been combined with coloring and number and letter recognition. This is a terrific all-around educational app.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 (Sale Price)

See the app in the App Store

Seller: KidCalc

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.