High Tech Kids: Tiggly Christmas iPad App for use with Tiggly Shapes

Tiggly Shapes: Tiggly Christmas is an iPad app for children 18 months to 4 years-old. It’s learning about shapes with a holiday twist.

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Recently we, at Windy Pinwheel, posted a review about Tiggly Shapes, a spacial learning tool for the Apple iPad designed to improve motor skills, creativity and language development of toddlers between the ages of 18 months to 4 years of age. We, at Windy Pinwheel, were invited by a representative at Tiggly Shapes to try out a set of these shapes for ourselves and as luck would have it, our children are just about in the correct age range for this product so we agreed to test out the product for ourselves; 5 year-old daughter, 3 year-old son and a newborn (born December 31, 2013). “Tiggly Shapes are the first interactive iPad toys designed for toddlers. We collaborate with educators and parents to design toys and games that are developmentally appropriate for children between 18 months and 4 years old.” – Tiggly.com The shapes sell in the range of $30 – $45 at places like Amazon.com, The Apple Store, The Grommett, Grand St., and Nordstrom.

Along with providing us with a set of Tiggly Shapes, Tiggly also provided us with a code for their most recent iPad app, Tiggly Christmas.

As you can tell from the information above, my wife and I welcomed a new addition into our family on December 31, 2013 and we were preparing for her arrival. As such, we are a bit late for the 2013 Christmas season to inform you about the app prior to the holiday. However, we hope to keep you updated about this app during the 2014 holiday season when shopping for new apps to take a look at by talking about it now. For the most part, if your little ones are anything like ours, Christmas is a holiday without end. Our children will play with this app whether or not it is in December and have a great time learning with it either way.

To briefly review, there are four apps that pair with the physical Tiggly Shapes, Safari, Stamp, Draw and most recent, Christmas. Each app has vibrant colors and as you can see in the video below, a child can interact by using a specific shape to find out what animal will be revealed after matching a given shape or used to create a picture of their own creation to either save and share with friends and family (with mom and dad’s help, of course to send/save the image) or just make picture after picture using each of the four shapes.

And now about Tiggly Christmas

Tiggly Christmas is a rather enticing app taking you through a festive house duing the holidays. You are first taken over by a tree in the room and given shapes to match with your Tiggly Shapes. Each shape makes an ornament that you can move anywhere you like on the tree. Once enough ornaments are placed on the tree, you then move to a location in the room where you build a train out of your shapes. It comes together before the child’s eyes. Finally, you are able to build a shape above the fireplace mantle that ultimately becomes a picture frame. The app then gives a limited amount of time to take a picture with the iPad’s camera of your child and inputs that into the picture frame.

Finally, when the kid has taken the picture, a digital post card is created to save to your iPad Camera Roll or to share with friends and family (*with mom and dad’s help).

My first completed post card, when using the app for the first time, is below. I know, I look pretty handsome, right?

The app is great for a child in the suggested age range for using Tiggly Shapes. However, the there are some tings that could be improved with the app. First, is the forced movement throughout the app. A child always has to start at the Christmas tree and then to the train and then to the picture frame, in that order. If the child were given free reign to choose where they wanted to go first, it may make for a more dynamic in-app game play experience.

Second, letting the little one choose when the picture is taken is also something worth noting. The app counts down when the picture will happen whether or not the little one is ready for it to happen. To be able to retake the picture, the kid will have to start the app again and get through the Christmas tree, train and picture frame before they have another chance at a picture. I can see why the app developers chose to handle the picture this way, however. It is becuase young children may not know how to work the camera right away and this is there to assist them in making sure the camera takes a photo.

Overall, this app is perfect for the young developing genius in assisting them with learning about shapes. It has the potential for repeat game play for anyone 18 months-old to 4 years-old. The colors are vibrant and even though this is a holiday-specific app, I can see kids ignoring that fact and being willing to play with their Tiggly Shapes all year-round.

Other Tiggly Apps Available in the iTunes App Store

The final thing I want to note, as I did not mention it on the Tiggly Shapes review earlier is that my kids have the tendency to switch apps quickly. As such, keeping the Tiggly Shapes out may only be for a short period at a time because with so many apps, if your kids are like mine, they will tend to move on to the next app very quickly. That is not to say that they won’t return to this one or the other Tiggly Shapes apps, but make sure that you are there to clean up and store the shapes once your toddler or little one decides to move on to the another app that might not be made to interact with Tiggly Shapes.

Here is a video review about Tiggly Shapes:

Where: iTunes App Store.

What: Tiggly Shapes: Tiggly Christmas App

Need to know: Tiggly Shapes is rated for toddlers 18 months-4 year-olds. Any older and the entertainment value is “limited”. This app moves from one part of the scene to the next in a specific order. There is minimal independent game play.

Extra Extra: Tiggly has a great blog discussing a wide variety of topics related to children, the parent’s role in educating their children, and the intersection of technology and education.

Website/Contact Information: tiggly.com.

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