5 Little Monkeys App Review

It is no secret that I love to sing. Noah loves to listen to music and sing along too.  When you are a parent there will come a time when your child is crying uncontrollably.  You might not be able to pick them up and comfort them if it happens in the car.  Just ask me, once I had to sing the Car-X theme song. You know Rattle rattle thunder clatter boom boom don’t worry call the Car-X man over and over again while driving through Virginia.  I am not sure why that particular song worked when no other did, I was just thankful it worked.  His toy had stopped working and I guess he was not happy about it so I improvised.  I sang anything I could think of. I didn’t have a Smartphone back then; I had a flip phone so apps were unheard of for me. Now this uncontrollable crying incident or being bored or just wanting to listen to music can happen anywhere.  I can’t carry a TV, a CD player or a DVD player everywhere but I always have my phone. Now you can share apps with your children to teach them, and to entertain them.

 One of Noah’s favorite songs now has its own app, 5 Little Monkeys.  This app is adorable. I love when mama calls the doctor. It is funny and entertaining too.  The graphics are great, the monkeys are too cute.  It is something your child can spend a lot of time doing without driving you crazy. I know that some apps are very annoying, 5 Little Monkeys is a great educational app that will help your child learn important vital skills.  Some of the skills are cognitive skills, memorization and counting.  It can even teach your child pitch if you dream of having a future rock star. 

Here is more information from the developer:

5 Little Monkeys is available as a universal iOS app (iPhone, iPad, iPod). The app aims to help parents teach counting and language skills to kids while sharing the beloved nursery rhyme with beautiful graphics and sounds.



Featuring adorable animals, 5 Little Monkeys turns counting and language development into a fun-filled sing-a-long for young children. The repetitious quality of the nursery rhyme helps kids develop vital cognitive skills including: memorization, reasoning and comprehension. Additionally, nursery rhyme singing helps kids to learn pitch control, volume, and voice inflection.

Features

- Interact with characters and objects in the background

- Professional audio narration

- Original music designed specifically for this app

- High-resolution artwork for each scene

5 Little Monkeys is  available in the App Store for $2.99 for iPod, iPad and iPhone.

For more information, please visit the Kid's Academy Website

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A Better World Facebook App Review

Everyone is on Facebook. One of the coolest features besides being able to find old friends and keep in touch with family is the apps. There are so many of them, there is all kinds of games, horoscopes, television apps. I spend quite a bit of time on Facebook talking to my friends and playing some games. I have found some really cool games and some really boring ones that I only played once. I had the opportunity to try out a game on Facebook called A Better World. I really like A Better World because it is a game about doing good deeds. There are so many games online about shooting and fighting, so I love that A Better World is one of those positive games. I think that it could inspire people to do good deeds in real life.



Here is the official press release about A Better World:

A Better World, a Facebook game that rewards players not just for in-game activities but also for real world acts of kindness and expressions of gratitude, has soared to more than 120,000 players.

Popular with women, A Better World, adds a new layer of social activity to casual gaming. Gameplay activities are designed to help everyone who participates feel better about themselves, be supportive of others and make positive choices in their everyday lives. Players also can play mini games with inspirational themes; personalize their own characters and spaces in the game and play with and care for virtual pets.

The game offers more than 15 locations for community members to explore, including the:

• Department of Do Good – A place you can share real world good deeds you’ve performed and see what other members of the community have done

• Gratitude Grotto – A charming area where you can reveal what you are thankful for and express your support for messages left by others

• Sanctuary of Hope – A building where you can communicate your hopes and dreams and send encouragement to other players

• Arcade – A play area with uplifting mini-games to enjoy alone or with friends

• A new feature is the Better Pets Pet Shop, filled with adorable puppies, cute kittens or even a magical unicorn

A Better World was created by ToonUps, a digital entertainment company that has focused on developing digital content that encourages a positive outlook and altruistic behavior for more than a decade.

ToonUps hopes A Better World’s original approach could usher in a new genre of “do good gaming.” Research shows that being encouraged to think about things they are thankful for and doing activities that provide encouragement to others improves their mental, emotional and spiritual well being.

I enjoyed playing A Better World. It was really cool to see my friends houses were in my neighborhood. We are so far away in real life it is pretty neat that we are so close together in the game. I don’t have to hunt for them, they are all there. I had fun designing my character. I normally make characters to look like me. So, no crazy hair or outfits for me, I found an outfit that was similar to something I own. I even named my character Sheila. I have spent some time looking around the game and I really like the message and how much fun it is. It did take me a little bit to figure out the game. I must have hit invite friends a half a dozen times, when I didn’t want to invite anyone at that time. I hope you check it out and let me know what you think.

Play A Better World at http://www.facebook.com/ABetterWorld

I was given the opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions on A Better World. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Planet Fassa: A New Children's Interactive Site

As a mom, I am always looking for fun and educational things for Noah to do. He has a love for learning and playing so, he is open to new ideas and games. He also likes to use my computer and play games, type, and listen to stories with me. I have noticed that there are a lot of great sites out there for him to use but, once we go to a site for a while he starts to get bored. Some of the sites are fun but are not too educational and all of the interaction is on the computer. Noah is a child that is extremely active and likes to do things where he is moving around and learning at the same time.

I came across a site that I instantly fell in love with called Planet Fassa. F-A-S-S-A stands for Fun, Activities, Stories, Service, Awards. Planet Fassa is an interactive website. I don’t mean that it is interactive because your child interacts with the just the website. Planet Fassa has a wide range of characters that go on different adventures within a series of books called “Fassa Tails”. Kids are challenged to get outside and participate in activities alongside the books’ characters. It encourages you and your child to turn off the computer and TV and do activities or nuggets as they are called on Planet Fassa. There are things to do pretty much everywhere. Inside or outside your home, the doctor’s office and even on an airplane, both the doctor’s office and the airplane are places where I wish I had ideas on what to do with Noah. I think a great place to use these activities on long car trips, which can be long and boring. A couple of the Nuggets that caught my eye are The 5 minute Quiet Game and The Last Year’s Smelly Underwear Game. The Village Members can make up their own challenges too. Each Nugget has a different number of points. There are heart points, brain points and body points. Some of the Nuggets only use two point categories but there are many that use all three. Your children will not be bored anymore. There are so many nuggets for your children to do. They also have story books that read to your children.

If you are a working parent, you can also log on during the day and see the type of activities your child did with Planet Fassa. When returning home, you can encourage your child to discuss these activities, giving families a wider range of conversation topics and helping them move beyond the usual “how was school today?” Parents can find a new way of communicating with their children and feel a part of their everyday activities.

I am sure you are wondering what does your child do with the points? I know I was wondering that. Your child can use it as a virtual allowance. They can use the points to do special things like go out to eat, go to the movies, and have a sleep over with a village member. Your child can also create wishes where their parent sets the amount of points on their account for the wish. It can be anything from going to the mall or getting a special item, which your child has been begging for. We all know most children have something they really want. I think that is a great way to play, learn and earn.

You can also invite your family members to join in the fun. They are Village Members. You could have your child’s grandma, aunt and uncle in the Village. They can also use the ideas and give rewards to your child. Your child can use their nuggets to do something special with another family member. I am sure Noah would love to make a wish of going fishing with his uncle Mike. I really think this website is really cool and I think that it will bring hours of fun for our family.

I hope you check out Planet Fassa with your kids and let me know what you think.