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.

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GazziliMath App Review

When Noah was younger, I made sure that I was teaching him basic skills.  I think that education is very important and it is never too early to teach your toddler basic skills like shapes, colors, letters and numbers.  When your child is in preschool it is a great to teach your child a little more.  Most toddlers can count a little, but they have no idea what the numbers mean.  I believe it is your job to teach them what a number is and how it works.  I think that children should be able to do basic addition by the time they are in Kindergarten.  Noah definitely knew some math by the time he was in Kindergarten. He does second grade math and is in Kindergarten. I remember when I was learning math it was boring and we didn’t have cool games and apps to learn from. I remember a game that had basic graphics on the computer, nothing like today’s graphics and games. It was even in black and white.  I used to imagine the critters in different colors.  I think kids learn better when it is fun. There are definitely ways for them to learn vs. sitting at a desk and doing math problems.  

 I learned about a new app called GazziliMath. It is an awesome Math app for preschoolers and even kindergarteners in my opinion. Preschoolers have a really short attention span so it is extra important to make it fun for them.  It’s funny because you can teach a child something and sometimes they don’t even realize that they are learning.  I think with GazziliMath you get that. I really like that you are helping the animals. GazziliMath tells you what to do, so you don’t have to read to your child the directions. Just make sure you have the sound on. 

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Here is more information from the Developer:

Preschoolers and parents can enjoy hours of fun learning basic math skills through exciting arithmetic activities with the immediate launch of GazziliMath on iOS. Featuring colorful characters, vibrant animations and engaging games, GazziliMath is a unique interactive learning experience that lets children explore the countless ways that numbers and math play an important role in their lives all while discovering delightful surprises along the way. Children across the globe can now swipe, tap and flick their way through a fun, multi-sensory journey to learn challenging, age appropriate concepts right from their device.

Developed with leading educational consultants from New York City’s The Dalton School, GazziliMath is the latest addition to the renowned GazziliWorld series of edutainment apps. GazziliMath guides children through a series of math-based activities, encouraging them to complete each page to unlock the next adventure and watch the GazziliFunPage come to life. With the support of surprise features and captivating animations, children are motivated to see, hear and touch numerals all while learning to count and subtract in a creative way. Most importantly, GazziliMath helps improve children’s hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and basic math concept proficiency.

“GazziliMath helps preschoolers learn important math concepts with challenging, yet kid-friendly, activities”, said Adam Gittlin, Founder of GazziliWorld LLC. “GazziliMath is great for teaching children through a thoroughly engaging and completely educational environment. We’re excited for both parents and children to play with GazziliMath and learn the vital skills of adding, subtracting and more in a fun and engaging manner.

  GazziliMath Features

- 6 math-based activities

- Successful completion of each activity brings GazziliFunPage to life

- Hearing Impaired Mode’ includes spoken narration of written words

- Interactive animations, music, sound-effects and surprise features

- Improves hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills

I really like GazziliMath. It has really cute graphics.  I of course had Noah try it out. I didn’t say it was for 2 to 5 year olds, and he loved it. I think that just because you already have mastered a skill, you can still practice it. I really like that the gates are locked and you have to go in order. Your child can’t skip over levels and have a real understanding for what they are doing.  Some children like mine like to skip over things in order to get to a harder level in games. GazziliMath would be great to use this summer on long car rides.

You can get GazziliMath for iPad in the iTunes App Store for $1.99

Mudbuddy App Review

Noah loves to read. He also loves technology.  So when I can find books that combine both things, he really enjoys it. When I was around his age, I remember going to the library and listening to books on tape. I also had some, the kind that would beep or chime when you are supposed to turn the page.  It was always a treat when there was an opening on for the books on tape. That was also like 25 years ago.  Technology has really made many advances since then. Now children can read books on iPads.  The books interact with them too.  Noah also loves animals and the environment. We recently planted flowers at his school. He had an amazing time. He always talks about how it is bad to liter and really cares about the planet.  I wanted to share with you an app called Mudbuddy.  Mudbuddy is an outdoor adventure on your iPad.  You don’t have to worry about if you live in an apartment or if you just gave your child a bath.  I think teaching your child about the environment is so important. If the environment isn’t taken care of, everyone including people, animals and plants suffer.  We live in a beautiful area, it would be a shame for the world to lose its beauty. 

Here is some information from the developer:                                  

New to iTunes in May 2013 and the first in a series, Mudbuddy is a delightful, interactive storybook app for families who would like to learn more about the organic world around them and help their children make a positive impact on nature and our environment.  Through simple stories, humor, and touch-screen interaction, readers can help Mudbuddy, the very adorable and slightly confused glob-of-mud-main-character, and his friends learn more about each other and their special abilities.  Readers can manipulate the screens, drag and click, open up new scenes and bring the characters to life! 

Hailing from Lightborne Studios, a world-class production house and design factory in Cincinnati, Ohio,Mudbuddy author, Ben Nicholson, and illustrator, Kurt Koch, have created a new children’s book app which parents are sure to love and is sure to even have reluctant outdoor enthusiasts – and their parents – running outdoors to find their very own Mudbuddy and hopefully plant some seeds of their own.

“It can be socially disconnecting to use a wireless device.  I’m guilty myself.  But tablets such as iPads are interactive tools and should be used for engagement, and not just for escape,” says Nicholson. “We hope the Mudbuddy app encourages parents, together with their children, investigate and interact with the world around them—and make a positive impact too.”

It’s an app that reads like a book.  With charming illustrations accenting the story’s vibrant and often hilarious verse, Mudbuddy takes children of all ages to a never-seen underground world of environmental adventure where rocks talk and mud morphs. Clever situations and colorful imagery bring this new app book to life with wit and adventure.  Written in language that is fun and silly, parents, caregivers and teachers can have fun reading this book to children, or they can have the built-in narrator read the pages aloud.  There are laugh-out-loud sound effects and images too.  Mudbuddy also includes the following themes: 

The size of the globe, versus a state, city and neighborhood 
 The endless activities that occur under our feet 
What is the purpose of dirt? 
Ways to understand what is silly and why 
Discovering how fun the outdoors can be 
Uncovering your own special abilities or purpose 
 

The story lends itself to discussion and engaging your imagination!  How would you feel if you were Mudbuddy?  What purpose would you like to have, that of the seeds, the water, the mud, etc?  What colors are your favorites?  Why?  Does your belly grumble like Mudbuddy’s when you eat too much or too little? Did you know that grubs, worms, bones and moles were under the very ground you walk on?  What else is under there? 

“Backyard Environmentalism means that we can teach our kids about nature by giving them an appreciation of the things right outside their door,” adds Nicholson.  “We can’t begin to change the world unless we start at home. Mudbuddy is a vehicle for this message.” 

Noah loves Mudbuddy. He smiles and laughs the whole time he plays it.  I love educational apps, so I know that he is really learning something when he plays Mudbuddy. We even play it as a family. It sparks conversations for what we can do to help the planet in real life. He has become really interested in bugs too. We have made plans to go on a dig and see what kinds of different bugs we can find.  We love to explore together and learn. He will be so excited to see that the plant we planted last week already has already sprouted. This app is a must have for all children. It is so educational and fun. It is not like a typical educational app that is boring.  I don’t know if Noah even knows that it is actually educational.  I would love for them to have another app to come out about different sea and water creatures to expand the series.

Mudbuddy is available for iPad in the iTunes store for $1.99 You can download it HERE.

Do your children like the environment?  If so check out Mudbuddy.