Tag Archives: educational

Auryn, Inc. Supports National Reading Month by Offering a Free iPad Storybook App Every Day in March!

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Auryn, Inc iPad Storybook appsMy 5 year old loves Auryn’s storybook apps for the iPad.  Her favorite is Teddy’s Night (<< my review link). Auryn, Inc., the most award-winning digital publisher and creator of unprecedented children storybook apps for iPad and tablet devices, announced today that several of the notable and award-winning apps from the company’s popular collection will be offered free, throughout the month of March. In recognition of National Reading Month, Auryn is giving away one free storybook app each day of the month to promote reading among children on digital devices. Among the titles available for free download during March will include:

March is recognized throughout the U.S. as National Reading Month; designated as such by the National Education Association. The organization will celebrate its 15th Annual Read Across America Day this year, a nationwide program that helps children discover the joy of reading and is expected to draw more than 45 million participants on Friday, March 2. “Supporting National Reading Month with free storybook apps to inspire kids to read in a decade of all things video is a natural extension of our overall mission to encourage reading in the new age of technology,” said Umesh Shukla, Founder and CEO of Auryn. “We are thrilled to bring a renewed enthusiasm for reading to our youth by bringing illustrations to life through animation and interactivity.” About Auryn, Inc. Founded by Academy award-winning visual effects experts from Hollywood’s top movie studios, Auryn Inc. is the most award-winning digital publisher of storybook and creative apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android and other tablet devices. Recognized by the Producers Guild of America and Variety magazine as the Digital 25 top innovator in Emerging Media and winner of more app awards than any other digital publisher, Auryn is paving the way in digital publishing and fast-becoming the leader in children’s storybook apps. For more on Auryn, visit www.auryn.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest at: www.facebook.com/appsbyauryn and www.twitter.com/ AurynApps and http://pinterest.com/appsbyauryn/

Educational Preschool iPad Apps – great for road trips!

iPad,

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

Coupon code: Letter Learning Educational Greeting Cards for Kids – 10% off

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Educational greeting cards for young children, designed to help with spelling, handwriting and letter formation.

Discount offer: Save 10% on your entire order – just for MommyInsiders!  Just copy and paste MOMMYINSIDER10 in the “promo code” area of the shopping cart.

Use code: MOMMYINSIDER10

Offer expires: 08/31/2010

Website: Letter Learning educational greeting cards for kids

ItzaBitza Educational Reading Game for kids + giveaway – this game is so much fun!

Computers & Software, Educational Toys, Gadgets, New posts, , , , ,

This is one of the most entertaining games I’ve played in a long time.  Yes, I admit I played ItzaBitza.  My kids weren’t even around.  The concept of ItzaBitza is awesome..I’ve never seen anything like it.

ItzaBitza promotes reading comprehension, artisitic and imaginative creativity and provides an exciting gaming experience for kids ages four and older.  I was amazed time and time again by how the game responded to my drawings and made them come to life.

Here are just a few things you can do in the first ItzaBitza scene:

  • Draw a tree, apples grow on it.
  • Draw a moon and stars light up the sky and your Sketchie goes inside the house you drew, goes upstairs and goes to sleep.
  • Draw an envelope and your Sketchie takes it to the mailbox.
  • Draw a cup and watch your Sketchie drink out of it.

The Sketchie your child chooses at the beginning of the game (a boy or a girl) asks your child to draw things, including a house and a tree, then the drawings become part of the animation and story.  An example would be when I drew a tree with leaves, the game added apples to the tree.  You can see my award winning drawing (ha!) below.  Click on the image to view the larger version.  I didn’t draw the flowers.  When I drew the sun, the flowers grew! How cool is that?

Through out the game, the Sketchie gives you ideas and little games to play via a little word bubble that pops up when you click on him or her.  If your child has trouble reading a word in the bubble, all she has to do is move the mouse over the word and it is sounded out for her.  Great reading practice!

Itzabitza1

There are several scenes that can be unlocked as your child progresses in the game including a camping scene and a naunted house.  You’ll have to buy the game to find out what happens in each of the scenes!

Buy a copy of ItzaBitza at Amazon.com for $17.99 (current price) OR buy and download the game here.

Giveaway details are coming soon but until then you can subscribe to our updates and you will be notified with giveaway details as soon as we get them up!