The iPhone Mom

ABC by Paul McDougall is another unusual ABC book. This one features some unique characters and very silly text. Take for example C – C is for Chelsea the charming young carrot. Chelsea’s illustration shows she is indeed a carrot and quite charming. Then there’s G – G is for George, the ghost made of goop. Every letter has a very original illustration and I found the entire app delightful. ABC has no narration or sound effects, it’s designed to be read aloud to your children and this one would be great fun to share.

*I’ve been told that proceeds from the purchase of this app will be used to donate copies of the printed version of ABC to children’s hospitals and other services that need new books.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Paul McDougall

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

WordTotz is a nice flashcard app for toddlers. It features four main categories – animals, objects, food and numbers. The animals, objects and food that are shown on the flashcards are real. There are no cartoons or illustrations in this app and I appreciate the fact that  photographs of the actual things are used. As you view the flashcards you can touch the word to hear it spoken out loud. You may look at each category separately or mix things up by shuffling the cards. WordTotz also has a terrific category called “My Cards”. Here you can create your own flashcards by importing a picture, adding in the name of the picture and then recording yourself saying the word.  The process of adding personalized cards was very easy to understand and work through. You can also share your cards through Bluetooth with other iPhones/iPod Touches. I wasn’t able to snag my husband’s iPhone long enough to test out this feature.

I really enjoyed seeing the real photographs in WordTotz and having the ability to create my own flashcards is a big plus.

WordTotz is designed to work on both the iPhone and iPad. I tested it out on my iPhone.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Ingenious Monkey

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

My five year old and I both thought Spell Blocks was a great app. It combines the idea of alphabet blocks with sight words. You’ll hear a sight word spoken aloud and then you spell it by dragging and dropping the blocks into the correct order. In the settings you can add in extra letters to make spelling the sight words more of a challenge. Here you can also choose which level of words you’d like to play with. The app has words from the Pre-Primer level to the 3rd Grade level lists. All together that’s more than 200 words.  If you’d like you can view the word lists and see how proficient your child has been with their spelling. You can also flag the words that your child already knows so they don’t show up in the game.

Spelling Blocks is a fun game that helps children learn how to spell the sight words, not just memorize them. It’s been a hit at our house!

The Spell Blocks app will work on your iPhone and/or your iPad. One app for both.

I’ve been given NINE promo codes for this app. Yes, NINE. Leave a comment and on Sunday evening I’m going to randomly select the winners.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 (Currently on sale)

Seller: 2BPM Software

Last year Oceanhouse Media brought Dr. Seuss’s Grinch to the iPhone. Just last week they released an iPhone version of “The Cat in the Hat” and “Dr. Suess’s ABC”. This weekend I tried out the Dr. Suess’s ABC app because that is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. It’s a fun twist on an alphabet book and as far as Dr. Seuss books go, the words are easy enough to pronounce. The book’s illustrations translate well to the iPhone and I like the way Oceanhouse has kept the story’s text in different sizes, just like it is in the book. You can read the story to yourself or listen to a narration. The narrator does a great job and there are fun sound effects that add to the story.  The app itself is simple to navigate. Swipe the screen to turn pages. Tap on words to hear them said and tap on pictures to learn words from the page. I love having this classic on my phone. Well done Oceanhouse!

**Update 4/5 – I’ve been told that the new update (version 1.1) to this app includes an iPad version. If you already own the iPhone app then download the update and you’ll have the high resolution version too.

Price when Reviewed: $3.99

Seller: Oceanhouse Media

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

Funny Flashcards-Morphing Alphabet is brought to you by the same developers behind the Morphing Animals app. In this one an object morphs into the letter of the alphabet that the word begins with. For example, a dog morphs into the letter D. You can also tap the “sing” button to hear the ABC song sung by a high pitched, silly voice. Once the song starts there’s no stopping it until it’s over. Kids will love it, I honestly don’t know if I could listen to it over and over again. There’s also a “fact” button. Tap that and you’ll hear a random fact about letters and the alphabet or an encouraging statement. (“Dad starts with the letter D”, “The alphabet has five vowels” or “You’re learning fast!”)

Funny Flashcards: Morphing Alphabet doesn’t have the same silliness as the Morphing Animals app. But it’s a fun and unusual way to look at learning your letters.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: FunVid Apps

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

iTouchiLearn Words is designed to help your child learn to read some basic words. The app features fifteen sets of words. They’re grouped together into themes of a sort. For example, apple is featured with worm, seed and tree. Baby goes with crawl, fall and walk. The app has two modes. In “ABC” mode the words are displayed on the screen. Touch on them to hear them pronounced aloud. There’s also a picture next to the words. Tap that and you can watch an animation that demonstrates what the words mean. When you’re done with that group of words you can tap the arrow on the right to see the next group. (The left arrow takes you back to the previous group.) In the “Picture” mode you can choose from the different animations that go along with the words. Tap on the one you’d like to see and it will play for you. These are the same animations featured in the ABC section. I’m hoping that the developers plan to add more words and animations as time goes by.

iTouchiLearn Words was recently updated and is now easier to navigate and more polished. We enjoyed the animations and it was a nice change of pace from the usual flashcards. Check out the name of the company behind the app, Staytooned. Another clever play on words. Wonderful!

*One last note…I kept typing in “iTouch iLearn” into iTunes, trying to search for the app. Don’t do that. You’ll get all sorts of touchy feely apps instead. There’s no space between iTouchiLearn. Lesson learned.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Staytooned

LAZ Reader apps are brought to the App Store by a company called Learning A-Z, Inc. This company brings leveled reader books online. A leveled book is one that’s matched to a reader’s skill level.  The books are supposed to not be too easy and not too difficult either. Learning A-Z, Inc. has taken their leveled reading books and turned them into apps. They are not the fanciest storybook apps, but that’s not the point. The point is to give your child something that’s just right for them to read. The stories aren’t read aloud, there are no sound effects or animations. Some may miss the bells and whistles but I think this type of app meets a need for some of the older readers who are using mom and dad’s iPhone. They don’t need a preschooler’s storybook app. They need to practice their reading skills and these apps allow them to do just that.

The LAZ Reader apps are leveled the way that they would be in a classroom. Levels aa to D are meant for average Kindergarten readers. E-J is for 1st grade, K-Q for 2nd grade, R-U for 3rd and V-Z for 4th and 5th grades. Each level should have one free app that’s available. After that they are $.99 each or available in a set for the level at $6.99.

If your child needs a little extra practice in reading I suggest that you find their appropriate level and try out the free app. It won’t cost you a thing and you just mind find exactly what your child needs to sharpen up their reading skills.

Price when Reviewed: Free, $.99 or $6.99

Seller: Language Technologies, Inc.

Sesame Workshop has teamed up with ScrollMotion, the company behind the Iceberg Reader kid apps, to bring the “Where Is the Puppy” Sesame Street book series to the iPhone.

I recently reviewed another book presented by ScrollMotion, Curious George Makes Pancakes. The features in Sesame Street: The Playground are the same as they are in the George book. There is an index that allows you to jump into the story from different points. You can also place an Elmo bookmark at a specific spot in the story and then go to that spot again and again. The app allows several people to record themselves reading the story and then in the settings you can choose which voice you want to read the story or you can turn off the auto-read altogether. The default auto-read voice is that of Chris from Sesame Street. One of the things that I love about the ScrollMotion books is the way they handle illustrations. The illustrations flow with the story and you’re also able to pinch and zoom and pan through them with your finger. At the end of Sesame Street: The Playground you will find definitions of some of the bigger words in the story.

There are several stories from the “Where Is the Puppy” series that are now available in the iTunes store.  They are only $1.99 which makes them one of the least expensive of the storybook apps and you’ll get  quality for your money. Overall, I found Sesame Street: The Playground to be very well done and easily navigated – key in a storybook for children.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Sesame Workshop

Did you know that Clifford the Big Red Dog has an iPhone app? He does and it’s all about learning how to make words. The character of Jetta is trying to paint some pictures but she needs help figuring out what to create. Your job is to spell out words and give her inspiration. At first glance this seems like a simple spelling app – but there is a twist.  You are given several letters and asked to choose one for the first letter in your word. There is no right or wrong answer – any of the letters you are given will work. So pick your letter and now you are given a new set of choices for the second letter. Again, no right or wrong answer, the letter you pick is up to you and any of them will work with your first choice. Pick this second letter and you’ll see one final set to choose from.  Any of these letters will finish the spelling and create a word. When you’ve selected your final letter you’ll hear the word sounded out and read. Then Jetta will paint a picture depicting the thing you have spelled.

I thought the flexibility of this app was terrific.  Instead of using a predetermined list of words the app works with your choices and the words you spell are up to you. According to the description in the app store there are 115 three letter words that can be spelled out. Being able to make their own spelling choices will keep kids from growing bored with the app and it will help them begin to figure out what letters go together to make certain words. Very well done Clifford!

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Scholastic Interactive, LLC.

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

Quick Reader is an app that will help you improve your reading speed. My reading speed is pretty quick already, but that’s due to the fact that I tend to skip over lengthy descriptive passages in books. Not so many adjectives please, just give me the action. Sadly, I just don’t have the time to savor books the way I once did. So I definitely wouldn’t call myself a true speed reader because at more like speed skimming.  Now if I decide that I want to learn to read quickly AND catch every word this is the app I’m going to turn to. It’s pretty slick.

I had a delightful surprise when I opened up Quick Reader and discovered twenty-one classics were included with it. It contains The Call of the Wild, Little Women, A Secret Garden, The Last of the Mohicans and Pride and Prejudice, among many other great books. I have Mr. Darcy on my iPhone now – how cool is that!! Of course I also have Mr. Collins but he’s a necessary evil. The app allows you to read normally or in speed reading mode. Normal works like a regular e-book. Swipe the screen to “turn the page” and off you go. Guided reading is where you work on your speed. In the settings you choose how many words per minute you want to read. Now when you begin the book you’ll see a colored bar highlighting several words as it moves across the page. The idea is to read along with the bar and train yourself to pick up the pace. In the settings you can choose whether the words are highlighted, outlined, underlined, etc. You can also choose the color for the highlighting and lines. Finally there is a “Speed Test”. With this you press start then read from the top of the page to the end of any page. When you’re done tap the screen for your results. My results were too sad to mention.

Quick Reader is extremely well put together and I like how you can customize the speed reading aspect of it. There’s no set amount of words that you must read per minute – you get to make that choice. You’re also able to customize the font and font size, page color, margins and color of text. The fact that you get twenty-one e-books with this app is terrific! You’re not going to be practicing your reading on mundane paragraphs about topics that don’t interest you. You’ll get to read (or read again) some of the best literature.

So maybe you’re going back to school and need to get through textbooks quickly. Or you’re just trying to get through a novel before the kids disrupt your peace and quiet. Whatever your reason if you’re serious about improving your speed reading this app is a must try.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99 – that’s 50% off the regular price

Seller: Inkstone Software