Learning Games for Preschoolers

Learning Apps for Preschoolers

There's an amazing array of great, educational tools in the app store. Apps for any topic deemed appropriate for your preschooler. Kids are totally excited as they master new skills, and this lively and interactive way of introducing them covers all areas.

In my searching and app reviewing process I have seen so many wonderful options.

For the basics there are ABC apps such as Alpha Tots. It is a very lively can colorful way to learn or practice ABC's. Kids have a great time watching their chosen letter fly in to them and interacting with the tasks for each letter. There are rewards of praise for every accomplishment and an ABC song to open or close with.

For reinforcement on ABC's the Flashcard Apps are great. I found a variety of forms to choose from.

Handy Manny's Flashcard Fiesta combines a variety of games with flashcards in two languages! Colorful characters that our kids love. Manny's "tools" are very helpful and love to sing and dance.

Another Flashcard app iTot cards covers several categories and all in four languages. The perfect way to introduce any age to another, or multiple, languages. The choices are animals, food, things, shapes, colors, alphabet and numbers - All in one app!

Splash Math 1st Grade Level covers so many aspects and math concepts I could never list them all. It is well worth checking out. Kids are rewarded with bright and colorful tropical fish for their aquarium upon mastering a task. They will even email a weekly report to you.

Another great math app is Monkey Preschool Lunchbox. This one covers shapes and fruits (to feed the monkey) while reinforcing basic counting and shapes and differences.

iWrite Words is a perfect introduction to handwriting skills. Mr. crabby leads the way in this colorful educational app. It covers upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and includes an ABC song!

With the Simon Says Musical Instrument app you can introduce your kids to more instruments than they may ever see in school! The app is beautifully constructed with realistic images and musical sounds. It's setting is a memory game - Like Simon Says.

You can round out that preschoolers education with Super Stretch, a fantastic kids yoga app and My PlayHome, a great social skill app. For more social skills be sure to check out the reviews for book apps. They are all interactive, well done, and contain special social messages that our kids will benefit from for life.

Dr. Suess's ABC's App for Kids on iPad Choice

After reviewing this app for my site and enjoying watching the videos we created, It was a great choice for another kid's app purchase. Well known Dr. Suess makes it even easier for adults to decide.

Our website is devoted to reviewing and publishing only the best educational apps for kids. Each review contains three to four videos so that parents and caregivers can see and hear what we do. This makes it much easier for them to make a buying decision.

This app is brought to us by Oceanhouse Media and I certainly enjoy it. So do our kids!

Dr. Seuss teaches our kids the ABC's through hilarious words and pictures, and will certainly keep your kids smiling.

Kids love swiping the pages but there is so much more to this app. The audio is very well done and the apps is colorful. Each page will show you the words and say them with the tap of a finger on any object or word.

Put it on "Read to Me" and your child can flip the pages, touch an object on the page and see and hear the word, and press any letter on all pages to hear it pronounced.
There is also a "Read it Myself" and "auto play" button making it very easy for your young kids to go over and over the ABC's with Suess's colorful characters.
Word recognition is reinforced in a flash card sort of way when the kids tap the item, the word pops up and is read to them.

Reviewing for all the pitfalls in the world of app purchasing is quite a task. At the same time, when we hit on a great app it is so much fun to put the review and the videos together.

Choosing the Best Apps for Kids - Zoo Train by Mary Buchanan

Two of the things kids love the most are animals and trains. So thank you to the developers of Zoo Train! I recently reviewed this app for my website and decided to publish it. My site only publishes the best educational, enticing apps for kids. A great deal of time goes into confirming that the chosen apps are the best and also not containing anything we don't want for our kids.

This app is presented to us by Busy Bee Studios. An app that is truly enticing and educational for iPad kids. This is also universal, and will work with your other Apple products, so you can buy it once and install on several products. Five exciting and rewarding games are included. Each has the feature of rewarding kids with stickers and lots of praise.

Kids can work with letters to form words that send the train down the track. Another game is puzzling three things together so you can win another sticker. Each time an achievement is accomplished the train whistles and cheers our kids on. The third game is a train whistle song game. Touch an object and hear the song whistled out by colorful, happy train whistles.

Another game is to design your own train. Kids the get to decide what the background for the train will be. Building the train tracks is yet another puzzle game that is ever so enticing. I got so into it that I had to redo and shorten the video for that segment. It is so much fun. Once you build the tracks you will see your train making it's way around the bends. This, as with all included games, is rewarding by train whistles and picking new stickers.

This app is loaded with positive reinforcement and skills that are critical to our preschoolers. Our school kids will have a blast with it as well, those train tracks are addictive!

In this fast moving world it is essential that we, as parents and caregivers, provide our kids with the best tool for their toolbox. Tools that teach skills that will last throughout their lives and enhance the lives of all around them.

Our goal is to make that easy for you. Reviewing only the best apps and watching for the pitfalls that can occur. We have a parent tips page with a video showing how to safeguard the iPad experience so that it is educational and fun, versus having a great shopping experience or seeing inappropriate content. We screen for many things to be sure that doesn't happen.

About the Author

Mary Buchanan is long term Florida resident and a mother and grandmother and all around Apple believer.

http://www.bestappsforkids.org/genre/alphabet-numbers-colors-shapes/zoo-train/

The Tally Tot App for iPad Choice by Mary Buchanan

Choosing iPad apps that are appropriate for kids is a very important task. In this, a great deal of time and research for our little one led me to developing a site dedicated to just that. Finding the best educational apps for kids on iPad and featuring them in reviews with videos.

Tally Tots, produced by Spinlight, was a very good choice! Our little guy loved it at 2 years old - granted he scrolled and found a red plane....Once he tapped it he never stopped. The colors, sounds and intuitiveness of the app make counting a joy. The number run from 1 to 20 and are banner in by a red plane.

At 3 years old our little guy still loves it. We come home from preschool and he finds his iPad. You can read about The iPad Decision in another article I wrote as well as all the names he has dubbed it in a year - LOL

When he got to the number 17 the first time, he yelled "Nana! Won't work!" I showed him to gently touch, hold and slide and all was well. He simply was trying too hard in his excitement to fill the piggy with 17 pennies. Now when I miss a beat he say's "No Nana! Touch, hold and slide like this!" Ya gotta love kids - they remember everything!

The app has an exercise for each letter and all are colorful and fun. Each includes positive reinforcement which is critical. They have done a great job with that in their voice choice.

Another favorite is the number 4. The exercise is to properly place 4 batteries in a radio. Now who doesn't need to know that? Our 2 year old did after doing the number 4.

There are other great number apps and more that have been reviewed on my site complete with videos for each. This was our first choice and his too! Seems we all have good taste as do the Spinlight people.

My next article will feature another iPad app to give you more of a first hand opinion. I am sure that I am enjoying reviewing these apps as our little ones enjoy using them!

It is my belief that the more tools in a toolbox, the more productive kids can be. Letters, numbers, puzzles, matching, social skills, arts, multilingual apps & more will help your kid have an edge in this rapidly changing world. All while enjoying the process.
About the Author

Mary Buchanan is a website developer, long term Florida resident and a mother and grandmother.
Mary Buchanan PA is the president of

http://www.bestappsforkids.org/education/numbers/ Tally-tots/

Choosing iPad apps for kids - Handy Manny's Workshop by Mary Buchanan

Another great app brought to us by Disney.
I really enjoyed reviewing Handy Manny's Workshop for my website which reviews iPad educational apps for kids. My reviews contain up to four short videos so that parents and caretakers can see and hear what I do, as well as our feedback.

I know several kids that know the names of all the tool characters. They are bright, colorful and enticing.

Handy Manny Workshop bundles five fun activities into a single app for parents and kids who are fans of the popular show on Disney Channel. In the opening Manny explains all the facets of the app.

Find It! - Explore Manny's workshop in search of the missing tools. This one is such fun for kids. They search for and tap on the eyes if these lively characters to get them back into their toolbox. There is a help button at the top if they need a pointer, just tap it and a directional arrow pops up to show the way.

Match It! - Use your memory to match the character pairs. All of the tool characters team up to form the match it board. Tap and flip a card to find a match. A very nice skill for your kids to command prior to going to school.

Puzzle It! - Piece together puzzles showcasing scenes from the show! There are dozens of puzzles to choose from to provide hours of fun for kids. If you make a mistake the puzzle piece will slide back so you can try it again. When each piece is placed kids get cheered on. Finish the puzzle for a surprise animation! These reinforcements really tickle kids!

Color It! - Pick a scene from the show and create your own custom coloring page. When you're done, save it or start a new one! There are many scenes to pick from and color all with no mess or broken crayons. You can erase with your fingertip and the switch back to the color you want your finger to use.

Sing It! - Sing the Hop Up, Jump In song with Manny and the tools from the workshop! This is probably my favorite part. It is lively, upbeat and positive.
It mixes Spanish and English as it does with it's other facets and shows the words at the bottom of the screen. From what I've seen, kids really do hop up, jump in, and sing.

Cheers and song and dance reinforce every skill you get through. This is a great way to keep kids going.

Personally, I find it a great buy! My grandson will use the different features of the app on a regular basis for over a year now - not bad.
About the Author

Mary Buchanan is a website developer, long term Florida resident and a mother and grandmother.

http://www.bestappsforkids.org/genre/handy-mannys-workshop/

An amazing app to teach babies sounds. Babies love to tap and this app is so easy for them! 360 authentic sounds with fantastic images when they tap an item!

This app is a great way to stimulate imagination and creativity! Kids are behind stage wardrobing the bears for their performance. Many wardrobe choices will reinforce decision making skills and self confidence. During the performance the bears will dance to a timer set up like an old red-light green-light game. It's really hard to resist dancing along with these adorable bears!

http://www.bestappsforkids.org/creative/best-fun-apps-3d-bears

This app should be in every preschool as well as at home! Every type of game you can imaging in 8 categories with numerous games per category. Some games are dot to dot, puzzling, spot the difference, memory, matching, and so many more. This app covers every skill a preschooler could need and will prepare them for school very well. If you have Kids Fun show it to a teacher, they love great apps too.

http://www.bestappsforkids.org/education/learning-games