Category Archives: iPad

Sale: Oceanhouse Media’s Back to School Sale Kicks Off with Ten Dr. Seuss omBooks for $1.99 Each

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Dr. Seuss digital book sale
Our kids LOVE Dr. Seuss books.  What child doesn’t?  My 5 year old daughter’s favorite is “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket” and my son’s favorite when he was younger was “Ten Apples Up on Top”.  Now, the kids enjoy ‘reading’ Dr. Seuss on my iPad and iPhone.
Oceanhouse Media is kicking off its Back to School Sale with ten Dr. Seuss omBooks (Oceanhouse Media digital books) reduced to $1.99 each now through September 4th.
For a five week period, from August 29 through October 2, a new selection of omBooks will be on sale each week from popular series such as The Berenstain Bears, Little Critter, Five Little Monkeys and Smithsonian Collection.
Visit the Oceanhouse Media Facebook page each Monday in September to find out which omBooks will be on sale for that week.
This week’s sale includes the following Dr. Seuss classics:
  • Oh Say Can You Say? (released today)
  • Dr. Seuss’s ABC
  • Green Eggs and Ham
  • The Cat in the Hat
  • The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
  • I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
  • One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
  • Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
  • There’s A Wocket in My Pocket!
  • Fox in Socks
Oceanhouse Media’s corporate focus is to uplift, educate and inspire through technology. For more information, visit http://www.oceanhousemedia.com. Follow Oceanhouse Media’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/OceanhouseMedia and  on Twitter here http://twitter.com/OceanhouseMedia.
Alicia Hagan, Editor

Meet my Cube Dog Interactive Pets, Penelopi and Alfie
#CleverCubeDog

iPad, iphone,

Thank you to Cube Dog for sponsoring this review. For more information about Cube Dog please visit the Facebook page or download it on iTunes.

My 11 year old has been asking for a puppy for a couple of years now.  He promises a clean room, he’ll put deodorant on every day, and hell get all A’s and B’s.  While he’s been great about putting deodorant on and got all A’s and B’s this year, he kept his room clean for about three consecutive days.  What does that mean? I’m off the hook! Besides the fact that he didn’t keep up his end of the bargain, I am a bit opposed to getting a puppy as I know I’ll be the one taking care of it 90% of the time and I just don’t have the time or mental capabilities (I’m a super stressed mommy) to comitt to a puppy.

However, I am not opposed to interactive pet apps. Cube Dog is a free app where you can create a customizable virtual dog from start to finish right on your iPhone. Once you’ve created your dog, you’re ready to play with it!  The app includes cool features like the ability to photograph your dog on-location using your iPhone camera. If that’s not enough for you, Cube Dogs can do everything from fetch a bone to play baseball!  Create your own unique Cube Dog in minutes by selecting various parts and colors.

Imagine an adorable, playful, odor-free dog that is small enough to fit in your purse and never does anything that requires you to use a plastic bag to ahem “clean up”.

My female Cube Dog’s name is Penelopi and she’s silly, tough (she throws ninja stars), and sweet.  My male Cube Dog’s name is Alfie and he’s just plain mischievous.

Cube Dog interactive pet app review

My favorite feature of the Cube Dog app is being able to take a photograph of my Cube Dogs with any background, right from my iPhone camera. I caught Alfie in the act of sipping my husband’s soda and eating cookies, while I captured Penelopi enjoying my daughter’s train set, watching a little TV, and relaxing on some books in the living room.

The Cube Dog app provides endless entertainment for kids while waiting at the doctor’s office, eating at a restaurant, or while you catch up on laundry and it’s free to download!  Cube Dog is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3rd generation, and iPod Touch 4th generation, and they all require iOS 4.0 or higher.

More about Cube Dog

‘Like’ Cube Dog on Facebook and watch for a fun contest running June 13-17.

Disclosure: While Cube Dog provided me with the app to review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Cube Dog, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity. Alicia Hagan, Editor

Road Trip Entertainment: Podcasts for Children

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Summer road trips are quickly approaching and I’m desperately searching for entertainment for the kids, but not of the DVD variety.. the whole time anyway.  Listening to podcasts is a great way to entertain the kids without having to play a movie, car bingo, or I spy for the millionth time.  What I love about audio podcasts is that just like when reading a book, they require a bit of imagination.   After the podcast is over I’ll ask them what they think the characters look like, what they are wearing, how old they are.. etc.. That gets them engaged in conversation and usually makes for some pretty good laughs.

The links below will open the podcast page in iTunes.

Kid's podcasts for road tripsHere are a few Kids Podcasts that are fun for road trips:

Land of Nod Nodcast Podcasts – Free.  Videos and Audio.  Length varies.
Notable: Podcast by Bare Naked Ladies

Nick Jr. Podcasts – These are free video podcasts each about 2 minutes in length.
Characters: Dora the Explorer. Diego. Blue Clues.

Sesame Street Podcast – Free video podcasts about 6 minutes long.
Characters: Cookie Monster.. and you know the rest. 🙂

StoryNory Podcasts – Free audio podcasts.  These vary in length with some being about 20 minutes long.This is one of my kid’s favorite podcasts.

The Story Home – Free audio podcasts.  Stories include The Velveteen Rabbit, The Little Red Hen, and Pinocchio.

I hope you enjoy these podcasts and if your kids have a favorite podcast tell me what it is in the comments below!

Alicia Hagan, Editor

Educational Preschool iPad Apps – great for road trips!

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My 4 and 11 year old’s are always asking to borrow my iPad and I don’t blame them.  So, when we’re on road trips and as long as they’ll share the iPad, I’m all for it.  I know that as long as they’re playing with the iPad, they will be occupied, quiet, and maybe even learning something.  I am very selective about the games/apps I put on my iPad because I want to know that if the kids are playing with it, at least there is some educational value and it’s not just another handheld gaming toy.

Here are a few of my (and my kids) favorite iPad apps these days: 

Number Sense HD iPad App
Number Sense HD iPad App

Kandy Fish – My 4 year old loves this iPad app.  It’s education but she doesn’t think of it that way.

Dive undersea to play and learn about shapes, colors, and directions with the colorful Kandy Fish.
Watch a lively video and enjoy 4 fun learning activities in this adorable 3D animated picture book from Punflay.

Kandy Fish has been specially designed to teach your child, simple preschool concepts. With developmental milestones in mind, the app has been carefully crafted to introduce age-appropriate concepts in a fun and engaging interface.

Your preschooler will love watching the whimsical Kandy Fish teach them simple concepts. Play the video and watch the vibrant fish come alive on your iPad. Voiceover and text highlighting allow kids to follow the story easily. There’s even a lilting tune that little ones will want to listen many times over. Kids will have fun seeing the fish form a straight line, triangle, square, and a circle. Upward and downward arrows demonstrate the concept of up and down while the fish swim to the left and right teaching your child the concept of left and right. Not to miss how your child will love seeing the fish form a beautiful rainbow. What a fantastic way for kids to learn their colors!

Also included in the app are the following 4 exciting activities that stimulate learning.

Kolor Pots – This is a color match activity that lets kids drag and drop fish in their respective colored buckets.

Kandy Fun – Kandy Fun is a simple pattern recognition activity where little ones will have to figure out which fish comes next to complete the pattern.

Kandy Time – This is a great activity to develop eye-hand coordination. Kids can get a lot of practice tracing a straight line, triangle, square, circle and even directions.

Kandy Kolor- Little fingers can paint beautiful pictures using a color palette with many color choices.

What my 4 year old loves: She loves how easy these games are to play.  Like most 4 year olds she can get frustrated when something doesn’t move or act just as you would expect, but Punflay’s children’s apps are a big hit with her because there’s no doubt she can make them work.

app website

Number Sense HD

Another iPad app that fools the kids into learning is Number Sense

Number Sense is a popular app for kindergarteners. This first of the Mathomatix series for tiny tots comes with five fun games rolled into one app.

What my 4 year old loves:
Every game has a unique reward that your kid can add to their ‘My Stuff’ shelf and show off proudly to everyone! So grab Number Sense HD and watch your kindergartener learn-on-the-go! Oh, and watch out for the squeals of delight too!!

app website

Connect with Punflay:

These Punflay iPad apps can be purchased through the app store or iTunes.

Enjoy!

Alicia Hagan, Mom Blog editor

iPad app review: What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?

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If you’re child’s bedtime routine is anything like ours, you might enjoy switching it up a little by adding an iPad app/story to your routine.   While I enjoy reading Madelyn’s favorite stories every night it’s important to me to have some variety.  We recently added Auryn’s ‘What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night’ app to my four year old’s bedtime routine and it’s definitely a favorite.

There is interaction on every page/screen of  this iPad app.  Activities include stacking blocks and a memory matching game.  Madelyn found some of the activities on the pages before I did.  She clicks everywhere on the screen and finds everything possible that moves or makes a sound and runs with it.  ‘What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night’ is narrated by a young girl who does a wonderful job.

What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night? iPad app

Madelyn’s favorite page of ‘What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?’ is the memory matching game page.  I’m pretty sure that memory matching game is different every time she completes it so she can’t play by memory which is great!

‘What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?’ is a great iPad app for bedtime as well as for occupying your active toddler or preschooler at a restaurant or while on road trips.

A hybrid experience that is part book, part interactive animation and includes age appropriate games, the Teddy releases are part of a new breed of storytelling experience eponymously dubbed an “Auryn” by the producer.

The “Teddy’s Night” Auryn is an enchanting story about a little girl’s curiosity regarding what her beloved teddy does when she goes to sleep. Created with proprietary animation technology by a team of feature film animation veterans, both “Teddy’s Day” and “Teddy’s Night” Auryns offer a world of wonder and imagination, where characters come to animated life and respond to playful taps and tickles. Special features for “Teddy’s Night” include: Interactive animation on every page, a customizable wall drawing, a block stacking game, a memory matching game, and more.

Auryn is a leading developer of groundbreaking and engaging storybook apps for the iPad.

Learn more about the ‘What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?’ iPad app and Auryn’s other iPad apps here.

View the “Teddy’s Night” promo video here

Disclosure: I received a copy of ‘What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?’ for review purposes. All opinions and thoughts are my own and were not influenced in any way.

Alicia Hagan, Mom Blog editor