Preschool apps present enticing digital playgrounds
With these new preschool apps for iOS, your child can play games with Eric Carle's beloved storybook characters, help a monster overcome shyness, practice logical reasoning by playing with blocks, discover hidden letters of the alphabet while on a bike trip and challenge yourself to a find-the-match smackdown.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Friends — Play & Explore
(StoryToys Entertainment Limited, best for ages 3-7, $2.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; 3.5 stars out of 4)
Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar book celebrated its 45th birthday by introducing a new children's app called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Friends — Play & Explore." Joining the Very Hungry Caterpillar are characters from Carle's other beloved books, including The Mixed-Up Chameleon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, The Very Quiet Cricket and others. The animals appear in stunning 3-D pop-up presentations that house eight different mini-games. In between the games are pages of narration about different animals. Preschoolers will help the Mixed-Up Chameleon slurp up bugs, guide Brown Bear through a maze to get to her cub, put together jigsaw puzzles reflecting artwork from Carle's books, and play hide-and-seek with Mister Seahorse.
This app reverently reproduces the watercolor cutouts for which Carle's books are famous, making this app spectacular to see. The reading pages are long without any interaction, but the mini-games are magical.
(Busy Bee Studios, best for ages 4-7, $1.99, iPad; 4 stars)
Getting a monster as a birthday present thrills little boy Ben. But when his monster Gurk spends all of his time hiding in the closet or up in a tree, Ben figures out that Gurk is shy. Ben devises a three-part plan to help his monster overcome his shyness, including teaching the monster to smile, demonstrating how to be friendly and reminding Gurk to be his "sweet and silly" monstrous self.
The transformation of Gurk is presented over 24 pages, each with dazzling surprises hidden throughout. As kids tap, swipe, and draw circles on the screen, they will discover eight inventive mini-games, including shooting marshmallows out of a cannon and operating a Rube Goldberg-like machine to make Gurk some orange juice. This charming and playful story delivers a powerful message about how a friend's support can make all the difference. If you like this app, you should check out "Even Monsters Get Sick," the first app in this series.
(Seven Academy, best for ages 2-5, $1.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; 4 stars)
Preschoolers explore an interactive playground filled with objects and holes. As they slide the correct geometric shape into the corresponding hole, the playground changes, as if they, too, have fallen into the hole to discover a new inviting world. As kids touch and scoot the blocks around, the app watches how they play and adjusts the challenge accordingly. After players learn to drop geometric blocks into matching holes, the playground adds colored outlines to the holes and paints the blocks. As the logical thinking gets harder, kids must pay attention to size, use tools, avoid puddles, move obstacles and more. The app is brilliantly designed to teach little kids logical reasoning.
This interface is special because it is programmed to ignore the random touches of little fingers and focus on letting the child's finger move a block when tapped. Parents will appreciate the report the app generates, letting them know what challenges their child has completed. This app also works well in a classroom, since it can handle up to 40 individual profiles.
(Avokiddo, best for age 3-5, $1.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; 4 stars)
Kids join children Beck and Bo on a bike ride to collect the letters of the alphabet. Traveling over a stunning landscape filled with nature and silly scenes, kids use problem-solving to find the missing letters. Traveling to 26 different locations, kids will have fun jumping on jelly to jiggle out the letter J or dislodging a missing letter from the pouch of Kent the Kangaroo, who is keeping the K.
By having kids discover each hidden letter by doing some action, the app challenges them to put on their thinking caps. It piques their interest by having them explore each scene to figure out what items can be manipulated, sorted or changed. The clever alliterations expand kids' vocabulary by inserting big words into silly phrases. Parents have the option of having each letter say its sound (rather than its name) as players drag letters to form words. This app turns learning the alphabet into an adventure.
(Shiny Things, best for ages 3-8, free, iPad; 3.5 stars)
This matching game is unusual because it can be played with up to four players. Presented on an inviting green nature background, brightly colored objects are sprinkled over the surface. For two players, there is a line down the middle and each player tries to touch the object on their side that has a match on the other side. For three and four players, the screen is similarly divided into equal parts.
Spotting a match utilizes visual perception and concentration skills, which are good for preschoolers to practice. "Match Blitz" tracks the speed of your child's answers and adjusts its difficulty to meet to the player's skills. This is a fun app for siblings, or for a parent and child to play together.
Jinny Gudmundsen is the Editor of www.TechwithKids.com and author of iPad Apps for Kids, a For Dummies book. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.