K's Favorite Apps August 2013

I did a post a few years ago on K's favorite iPad apps.  It's way past time for an update.  These are some of the apps we've enjoyed since then. Many of them are great for doing program.


First things first -  Where to get the deals!  I like Smart Apps for Kids  & App Friday
If you watch these sites often you can get some really great deals. There are also a couple of good FaceBook groups that post lots of deals.  One of them is Free Apps For Kids.   I'm Sure there are a couple of other real good ones but they don't seem to be coming up on my FaceBook feed now & I can't find them so please leave me a comment if you have any other suggestions.


Language Builder is an app that we have used for speech. It contains photos of people engaged in various activities & allows you to record a sentence about the picture & then play it back. I was lucky to find this one for free but it is now listed at $9.99


We've just recently started using an app called  Speech Sounds on Cue.  According to their description it contains over 500 videos, sound clips and colour photos designed to help adults and children to produce the consonant speech sounds in isolation, in words and in sentences. 
Thankfully, I found this one on sale as the cost now is $24.99.


Rainbow sentences is going to be my next purchase ($7.99) as soon as I get to town to pick up a new iTunes card.  From their description:

Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues. The who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure.
Students will learn how to recognize the parts of sentences such as nouns, verbs, and prepositions, improve their understanding of how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure. Students have the opportunity to record their sentences in their own voice to improve their receptive and expressive language skills.

Sounds pretty cool right?


Simply Smarter Kids - Memory - Memory is one of the apps that was fairly recently released by NACD. This is a great app for working on  sequential processing, short-term and working memory & really follows the neurodevelopmental approach to developing memory. The app is a pretty good price at $1.99. K loves animals though so to keep her interested I ended up adding on the animals package which cost another 99 cents.


Mem Magic is another memory game. In this game there is a circus theme.  3 performers are shown for several seconds, then one disappears & the child must remember which one is missing. Its not either of our favorite but K likes it & I like that it approaches memory in a different way than most. Free!


Fun with Directions & More Fun with Directions are two grat apps for auditory processing. You can set it to easy intermediate or advanced.  I loved this app but I wish it had a couple of higher levels as K is outgrowing it. I like that  you can set this app to voice or written commands so it can be used to practice reading comprehension as well.  The downside is the price.  I've had it for a couple of years & must have either gotten it when it was cheaper or when it was on sale as I know I'd have been too cheap to pay the $15.99 price tag :)


Splingo's Language Universe is my favorite auditory processing app -  K loves it too.  Help an alien get home to his planet by following directions.  Correct answers help him build his spaceship. There are four difficulty levels:
•Level 1 -contains instructions of 1 main word and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 18 months onwards, e.g. “find the apple”
•Level 2 - contains instructions of 2 main words and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 2-3 years, e.g. “find the red apple”
•Level 3 - contains instructions of 3 main words and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 3- 4 years and upwards, e.g. “find the big red apple”
•Level 4 - contains instructions of 4 main words and is suitable for children at a developmental level of about 4 years and upwards, e.g. “give the big red apple to the boy”

In my opinion, Splingo's Language Universe is well worth the price at $2.99.


Letter School is our favorite printing app - Each letter on this app starts out with a little song. That says the letter followed by an object that starts with that letter. There are three levels of difficulty when writing each letter.  The first level guides you right through whereas the 3rd level requires the child to write quite independently although it does start to give hints if the child is having trouble. Numbers are also included & the quantity for each number is sthown before the printing begins. The special effects include fireworks, songs, trains with the whistle blowing, flowers growing, neon lights & lots more- very exciting stuff to motivate kids.  Well worth the $2.99.
 

Another handwriting favorite of ours is Write My Name by Injini.  This app allows kids to practice writing letters, sight words & most importantly lets you program in words such as your child's name. This app costs $3.99


Daily Art  - We use this app for encyclopedic knowledge. It is great for people like me teach my kids about art when I don't have a lot of knowledge in that area.

 
K really enjoyed Monkey Preschool Lunchbox when she was younger. It has games that teach concepts such as shapes, letters, colours, & matching. This app costs 99 cents.


Bugsy Kindergarten Math is an entertaining math game in which the child guides the hamster as it tries to fill it's fridge with food. K enjoys this & plays it often. This $2.99 app teaches math concepts such as:

- Numbers — 0-30
- Counting — count by 1, 2, 3 & 5
- Comparisons — quantities & numbers
- Writing Numbers — 0 - 9
- Pattern Recognition — simple & complex
- Number Bonds — number relationships
- Basic Arithmetic — addition & subtraction up to 20


Park Math was K's favorite math app for a long time.  While it's not an absolute favorite now she still enjoys it a lot. There are quite a few activities for th e $3.99 price tag. The child wanders through all the playground activities with various animals such as hippos, ducks & dogs while doing various math activities.


There are 3 Levels for Preschool, Kindergarten and First Grade
- Level 1: Count up to 20; addition/subtraction with numbers up to 5
- Level 2: Count up to 50; addition/subtraction with numbers up to 10
- Level 3: Count up to 100; addition/subtraction with numbers up to 20



We used the I Like Books app quite a bit when Kas was about 4 years old.  This app has 37 stories to choose from with nice photographs on each page. She still uses this app from time to time. Free!


Lakeshore Learning has an app called Beginning Sounds Sorting Game in which the player sorts each object depending on the initial sound. 99 cents.


Find them all is a game that requires the child to search for various animals on the farm. An in app purchase opens up a number of other habitats but we have only used the free farm habitat.


K has several Stella & Sam apps. While she's never watched this program on TV, she loves all of the apps.


K enjoys the Miss Spider apps such as Miss Spider's Tea Party.  $2.99.


 Toca Doctor was one of K's favorite games last year. The list price is $2.99 but I've seen it come up for free. The crunchy mama in me sometimes cringes at some of the "medical" types games but for a kid who occasionally has to go for blood work & see specialists etc. I think it's good to have some playing doctor fun.

What are some of  your kids favorite apps?

31 for 21 - Moms With Apps

As you probably know, we love our iPad! Here is a link to a great site that has a "free app Friday". They list apps which are either free or on sale:  Moms With Apps

Our iPad Case

When we bought our kids an iPad for Christmas, we were concerned about keeping it safe. K is quite good with it most of the time, but she is still a 3 year old and occasionally forgets. I had bought an otterbox case for my iPhone, and have been very happy with how durable it is. My phone has survived numerous bumps, including being thrown from the upper balcony down to our hardwood living room floor. When I went looking for an iPad case I was relieved to find that they also sold iPad cases. I feel a lot more secure with it in this case.



If you are interested, here is a link to my post about our favorite apps:

http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/04/apps-k-loves.html

Apps K loves - Updated May 25

I got an iPhone back in December and we quickly became entranced by it's educational possibilities. We were hooked and soon bought an iPad. K's fine motor skills have always been right where they should be for her age, however, I've been very pleased to notice an improvement in the short time that we have had an iPad. This list will be a work in progress and I'll try to add to it as we discover new ones.

SUPER WHY- literacy game based on the TV show.

Timmy's Preschool Adventure - I love that this app involves thinking and reasoning skills as well as basic math skills such as counting and patterns.

HW deluxe - this game involves spelling a word by moving letters into the correct place.  You can use hints so the child matches letters or leave them off so the child has to figure out the letter order themselves. We started with the lite version, but K enjoyed it so much that we quickly purchased the deluxe version.

Park Math HD - math games of varying levels - K loves this one!

Monkey preschool lunchbox - Various games - some letter stuff, etc., but mostly math.

Kindergarten.com - there are a wide range of flashcards apps. They have wonderful clear, concise pictures and a written word that is also spoken aloud.  These are free!

iTouchiLearn - this game has 3 different degrees of difficulty, from a simple touch the picture to see a short movie clip which includes a written and spoken word, to a match the word game.

BB magic lite - Bob books on the iPad - this app has imple phonics games to go along with the Bob's books. We have the lite version and it is a favorite.

Dress-up - just how it sounds - when K plays everyone is dressed in multiple layers!

Talking Rex - K loves this dinosaur! This app is great for getting kids talking. It is quite hilarious to hear this T Rex giggling, calling out to family members, making animal sounds and the many other silly things K says to it.  You can also play fetch, feed it, etc.

The above apps are K's Favorite educational apps. Much to my surprise, along with the rest of the family(except me), she loves Angry Birds. She also shares a couple of favorites with my 8 year old such as LPS ( littlest pet shop) and snowboard.

Many of these apps have lite versions that can be tried out first and several of them are free. We have actually only paid for a handful of the apps on our iPad.



UPDATE - May 25/11 - Here are a few new favorites:

ilanguage - Language Builder - This is a great app for language skills.  The app displays various scenes with people, pets, etc.  The child is encouraged to say a sentence about the picture which is recorded & can be played back.  This is one of K's recommended speech activities, so it is a perfect activity for her right now.  You could also have your child use only one or two words or for a nonverbal child I still think it would be great to do with someone else recording the sentences for them to listen to.

Peekaboo - this is a simple but cute app that would be great even for babies.  An animal can be heard behind the barn doors.  Tap the screen & the animal is revealed - it is a very cute guess the animal game.  K doesn't play it anymore, but I thought I'd add it because younger kids will really enjoy it.

Tangrams - fun puzzles

Brain-Go - This app has five pictures.  The child must put the one that doesn't match in the trash can.

NLC Autism - this app is the opposite of Brain -Go.  An item is displayed & the child must decide which category it fits in.

Word Magic - This is another spelling game.  A word is displayed with one letter missing.  There is a picture & the word is spoken.The child must choose from several letters at the bottom to fill in the missing letter.

Sequencing - 3 pictures are shown & the child must place them in the order of first, next, & last.

Nature Appy - This app has high quality animal pictures, and includes animal sounds & the word.

Magic Piano - Even babies will have fun with this one!

PaintSparkles - I just downloaded this one tonight - K hasn't even played it yet, but I think it's really cool :)! I like that a voice announces each new color that the child choices.  This would be great for kids who don't yet know their colors.  There are sparkles & music each time the child draws.