In the High Tech Kids segment series we will share our favorite apps and child-friendly technology. Today, we review the JumpStart® Blast-Off Early Reading app for iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle devices.

[pinwheel_dark_organge position=’left’ title=’Dark Orange Pinwheel’]We focus a lot on early reading in our house. Our children do not really have a choice since their mom is a literacy specialist. We have Bob Books, we have early reading books, and we have alphabets and all kinds of other things around our house to help our children learn to read. I am always on the hunt for new early reading apps for the kids to work on their skills. We know the hard work is paying off because our Kindergartner recently got her second quarter report card and she is flying high with her reading scores. She surprises us every day as she gets better and better. She is even starting to read the words all around us, the guide on the TV, billboards, street signs. I guess our days of spelling things out as parents are officially over. But hey, we get to look forward to the next step, right? Let’s review the JumpStart® Early Reading App

When the folks at JumpStart® contacted us again (we reviewed their Madagascar App here) to look at two apps for kids in Math and Early Reading we jumped at the chance.

Upon first starting this app, you are asked to log in. This is to be able to “save” the data from your child’s activity. That being said you can play as a guest. Once you get to the menu screen you do need to help your child the first few times playing, as the menu is a list of options. You choose which skill you want the child to work on, what curriculum level (each level would be equivalent to a grade level, 1 is late Kindergarten and early first grade and so on) and then you have to choose if you want easy, medium or hard game play. When all those options are chosen, you can also choose if you want to play left handed or right and it shows you how to deal with the joystick or tilt.

Once in the game, you begin to navigate your spaceship, make sure your volume is on here as the narrator tells you what letters/words, etc. you are looking for. Working the spaceship through the game is pretty exciting for a five year-old. Our daughter was really into it and the sound effects started pretty quickly for her. She cracks me up how looking at how into the apps she got.

The app did require a lot of parental help for us because she is only five years-old. That being said, I can easily see her being able to quickly pick it up and an older child would do very well with the app. Similar to video games, you have to really use both hands to manage the controls, which is another reason it can be tough at first for younger children and may require parental participation.

We will continue to use this app in the future to practice her early reading skills and improve her confidence with those skills. Overall, I am mostly happy with this app, but would love to see the introduction menu be a little more kid-friendly perhaps, with pictures and less options on one screen.

From the developers:

Help your child learn key early reading skills! Perfect for your 6-8 year old!
Explore a mysterious cavern packed with reading skills and fun with your child in JumpStart® Blast Off: Early Reading! Armed with their brains, jetpack and blaster, your child will blast through correct answers and zap away the incorrect ones as they race for top score. Beware of the pesky punk punks that are out to stop your child.

With 19 lessons designed to teach key early reading skills, this educational game will help children master the skills to excel in school.

Equip your child with a strong reading foundation. Your child will develop key educational skills such as word recognition and sounds, early grammar classification, and more. Through listening and interacting with words, elementary school learners will enjoy a comprehensive reading and learning experience found only through JumpStart® Blast-off: Early Reading!

Game Features:

• 19 lessons focusing on beginning phonics and early reading so your young learner can get ahead!
• Key educational skills your child will learn:
  • Word recognition and sounds
  • Early phonics with key emphasis on word pronunciation
  • Grammar classification and usage
• Many progressive levels of game play for your young learner to master!
• Amazing 3D graphics and catchy music that your child will love!
• Choose Tilt or Joystick controls so your child can pick up and play immediately!

JumpStart®, a key children’s educational publisher, has created learning games such as JumpStart® Blast-off: Math, Madagascar Math Ops, Math Blaster, JumpStart® Pet Rescue and more!

Where: iTunes App Store Google Play, and Amazon.

What: JumpStart® Blast-Off Early Reading

Need to know: This app is designed for children as young as Kindergarten. However, it may require some parental guidance in getting to the game play.

Extra Extra: Check out JumpStart Moms for parenting tips and ideas to printable worksheets and fun activities for kids.

Website/Contact Information: www.jumpstart.com.

But wait… There’s more.

In celebration of the Blast-Off Series of apps, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjuction with JumpStart®, are giving away a download code for both Blast-Off Math and Blast-Off Early Reading apps for your children to enjoy. Just enter the giveaway below and be sure to come back every day before 8:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time Friday, March 7, 2013 to enter.

This giveaway contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only. You must be 18 years-old to enter or have your parent’s permission. Void where prohibited.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

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By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

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In the High Tech Kids series we will share our favorite apps and kid friendly technology.

Our Kindergartener recently got her second quarter report card and along with her report card came a “Math Award” we were so incredibly proud of our little girl, she is testing beyond where she is expected to be in math. When the folks at JumpStart® contacted us again (we reviewed their Madagascar App here) to look at two apps for kids in Math and Early Reading we jumped at the chance, because as an educator myself, who spends most of my work hours on the Common Core State Standards implementation and a parent of a young child who is currently learning these early skills, we love any chance to help her improve her them and to share great apps with our friends who have young children as well.

Upon first starting this app, you are asked to log in. The reason for logging in is to “save” the data from your child’s activity in the app. That being said, you can play as a guest as well. Once you get to the menu screen you do need to help your child the first few times playing, as the menu has a list of options. You choose which skill you want the child to work on, what curriculum level (each level would be equivalent to a grade level, 1 is late Kindergarten and early first grade and so on), then you have to choose if you want easy, medium or hard game play. When all those options are chosen, you can also choose if you want to play left handed and it shows you how to deal with the joystick or tilt.

Once in the game, you begin to navigate your spaceship, make sure your volume is on here as the narrator tells you what numbers/shapes, etc. you are looking for.

Working the spaceship through the game is pretty exciting for a five year-old. Our daughter was really into it and the sound effects started pretty quickly for her. She was cracking me up just watching how into the app she got.

The app did require a lot of parental guidance for us because she is only five years-old. That being said, I can easily see her being able to quickly pick it up and an older child would do very well with this app. Similar to video games, you have to really use both hands to manage the controls, which is another reason it can be tough, at first, for younger children and may require parental participation.

We will continue to use this app to practice her mathematics skills and improve her confidence with those skills. Overall, I am mostly happy with this app, but would love to see the introduction menu to be a little more child-friendly perhaps, with pictures and less options on one screen.

From the creators:

Help your child learn key elementary math skills! Perfect for your 6-8 year old!

Explore a mysterious cavern packed with math skills and fun for your child in JumpStart® Blast-Off: Math! ! Armed with their brains, jetpack and blaster, you child must find the correct answers to help them race for the top score! Beware of the pesky punk punks that are out to stop your child.

With 28 lessons designed to teach key elementary math skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, this game is the perfect way to help your child master and in a fun, cool way.

Equip your child with a strong math foundation JumpStart® Blast-Off: Math. Your child will develop key educational skills such as math operations, shape and number recognition. Elementary school learners will enjoy a comprehensive math learning experience found only through JumpStart® Blast-Off: Math

Game Features:

• 28 lessons of fun math skills for your young learner to get ahead in elementary school!
• Key educational skills your child will learn:
  • Math operations: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division
  • Shape and number recognition
• Many progressive of math game play for your young learner to master!
• Amazing 3D graphics and catchy music that your child will love!
• Choose child-friendly tilt or joystick controls so your child can pick up and play immediately!

JumpStart®, a key children’s educational publisher, has created learning games such as JumpStart® Blast-off: Early Reading, Madagascar Math Ops, Math Blaster, JumpStart® Pet Rescue and more!

Where: iTunes App Store Google Play, and Amazon.

What: JumpStart® Blast-Off Math

Need to know: This app is designed for children as young as Kindergarten. However, it may require some parental help in getting to the game play.

Extra Extra: Check out JumpStart Moms for parenting tips and ideas to printable worksheets and fun activities for kids.

Website/Contact Information: www.jumpstart.com.

But wait… There’s more.

In celebration of the Blast-Off Series of apps, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjuction with JumpStart®, are giving away a download code for both Blast-Off Math and Blast-Off Early Reading apps for your family to enjoy. Simply enter the giveaway below and be sure to come back every day before 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time Friday, March 7, 2013 to enter.

This giveaway contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only. You must be 18 years-old to enter or have your parent’s permission. Void where prohibited.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

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Madagascar Preschool Surf N’ Slide and learn at the same time.

The latest in our High Tech Kids segment series comes to us from JumpStart and Dreamworks Animation. Today, we review the Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide iOS and Android app.

A representative from JumpStart games approached us, here at Windy Pinwheel, recently and asked that we take a look at another fun and exciting game called, Madagascar: Preschool Surf n’ Slide available on iOS, Android, Kindle and Nook devices. Of course, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to share an app with our children that would help them to learn and grow, so we happily said yes to check out the app the only way anyone should, through the eyes of a child.

Once you have paired your selections you get to surf down several scenes; from a half pipe of a storm drain/sewer (as a city landscape would appropriately have as a part of the scenery) to an antarctic frozen half pipe (perfect for the Madagasgar penguins). Along the sides/half pipes, various characters are there to cheer you on along the way. My favorite is the lemur. That character cracks me up. The goal of the half pipe is to collect as many stars as possible to earn stickers. Once you have collected several stars, you come to a character holding balloons who presents a challenge in the form of a quick quiz.

The quiz is verbal and asks the kid to identify a part of a pattern, like a zoo animal amongst farm animals or the other way around or maybe a letter that is in lower case, a colored shape or even a number. This is where the learning side of the app comes into play. My daughter just whizzed right through these questions as she likes to think she’s a smart cookie, but where she really enjoyed the app were the stickers.

After each round of quiz questions in the Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide app the player gets to select from one of three options of the stickers they want to keep for their collection. Then the app flips over to the sticker side. The kid can then place stickers on one of four different backgrounds and just released, a new update to this game allows players to take their own pictures and use them as backgrounds in their sticker book. How cool is that? “This feature really takes learning to the next level – customization and ownership is such a growing trend with children, and JumpStart wanted to bring that to every preschooler’s learning experience with this new update to Madagascar Preschool Surf N’ Slide,” says Stephanie Song, Public Relations for JumpStart.

Overall, the Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide app is very useful in educating children while letting them have fun in shredding it up in the half pipe. The replay potential is high on the Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide app because children love stickers and the quiz keeps my children engaged. I would recommend this for preschool-aged kids up to about age 6 or 7 years-old. Beyond that, boredom could set in quickly for anyone older who can quickly pass the quiz and the repetitive nature of the half pipe area.

Currently at $2.99 in the iTunes App Store, this is a sweet deal to keep your preschool-aged kids entertained while they learn and grow.

Where: The iTunes App Store, Google Play, Kindle and Nook marketplaces.

What: Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide.

Need to know: This app is focused on preschool-aged children.

Extra Extra: Check out the “Parent” customization tab in the lower left-hand corner from the launch screen to select what types of “lesson” quizzes your child will interact with and register to get up-to-date news about JumpStart right inside the Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide app.

Website/Contact Information: www.jumpstart.com

Check out there blog at www.jumpstart.com/Blog.aspx

Here’s a game play of the Madagascar Preschool Surf n’ Slide app courtesy of Stela Appes:

As an added bonus to this review, we, at Windy Pinwheel, in conjuction with JumpStart would like to give away a download code for a copy of the app for your family. Simply enter the giveaway below and be sure to come back every day before 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time Friday, September 13, 2013 to enter.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

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By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

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“Only you can prevent forest fires wildfires.”

Right now, the Reno and Sparks area in Northern Nevada is besieged by an influx of smoke and hazy skies. It’s enough to make a grown man cough and wheeze. The American, Rim, and the fire out in Red Rock are converging to make both our outdoor air quality and indoor air quality less than ideal. These conditions got me thinking about PSAs from yesteryear and what we did to pitch in to help prevent wildfires and forest fires.

The first image that popped into mind was good old Smokey the Bear. Did you know that Smokey the Bear has his own app on the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace? Smokey Bear mobile has a lot to offer; from campfire safety tips to Smokey the Bear wallpapers for your mobile phone.

“Get Your Smokey On. With Smokey Bear’s official iPhone app you’ll see step by step how to properly build and put out a campfire. Smokey Bear’s campfire safety guide will help keep you, and others, safe when cooking and camping outdoors. You’ll also have access to exclusive Smokey content and get easy access to all Smokey’s social media networks including his YouTube channel, Twitter account and Facebook page.” – iTunes App Store page

“Since his ‘birth’ on August 9, 1944, Smokey Bear [is] a recognized symbol of conservation and protection of America’s forests. His message about wildfire prevention [helps] to reduce the number of acres burned annually by wildfires, from about 22 million (1944) to an average of 6.5 million today. Although progress has been made, wildfire prevention remains one of the most critical environmental issues affecting our country. Many Americans believe that lightning starts most wildfires. In fact, on average, 9 out of 10 wildfires nationwide are caused by people. The principal causes are campfires left unattended, trash burning on windy days, arson, careless discarding of smoking materials or BBQ coals, and operating equipment without spark arrestors.” – PR Newswire

This app has more! Not only can you learn something by downloading this app, but you can also download classic Smokey the Bear posters to use as wallpapers on your phone and you can connect to Smokey the Bear’s various social media links and watch his world renown and often celebrated PSAs.

So, please remember, “only you can prevent wildfires.”

Where: The App Store and Android Marketplace.

What: Smokey Bear Mobile.

Need to know: This app has campfire safety tips, downloadable wallpapers and links to Smokey the Bear’s social media profiles.

Extra Extra: Get up-to-the-minute information about current wildfires throughout the country by viewing the “Current Wildfires” tab in the app.

Website/Contact Information: www.smokeybearmobile.com

Developed by Animax Entertainment in partnership with The Ad Council along with the National Association of State Foresters and the USDA Forest Service.

Here’s a trailer for the app:

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By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

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In the High Tech Kids segment series we will share our favorite apps and kid friendly technology. Today, we take a look at several Duck Duck Moose apps available on the iTunes app store, Google Play and Amazon App Marketplace.

Old MacDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Trucks, Park Math, Word Wagon, Wheels on the Bus, phonics and math. All from Duck Duck Moose? Oh my!

Duck Duck Moose Apps for iPhone, Android and Amazon Kindle

Our daughter received an iPad (the original) as a gift from my mom when they were still fairly new. My husband, Will, and I already had iPhones at the time, so we knew she loved playing with the apps and we had already discovered our first Duck Duck Moose app. We originally were told by a friend to download the “Wheels on the Bus” app. Our daughter, A, loved this song already and we used to sing it in swimming class, so I thought, why not. At the time, I was not loving the idea of paying for apps (I have since learned that sometimes, for children, to avoid ads, it’s best to pay a little bit for an app).

The Wheels on the Bus app is an interactive app that takes you page by page for each line of the song. On each page, you can touch and move the characters and they will do fun and interesting things that will entertain any young child. What started as an incredibly catchy and enjoyable app turned our daughter into very engaged toddler.

I soon discovered that Duck Duck Moose had some other apps which I promptly purchased. Duck Duck Moose apps are incredibly engaging and educational. Since our initial downloads, we signed up for their mailing list, which gives us a heads up for any new apps they introduce to the iTunes store. Recent additions to their family of apps include "Trucks” and “Princess Fairy Tale Maker“. Each were instant hits for our household.

Our children have gone through several developmental phases with the Duck Duck Moose apps. Initially, I had to manipulate them and it was just visual stimulation. We then moved into learning the songs and eventually moved to the stage where they can manipulate the entire experience themselves; all by age two.

Duck Duck Moose has also recently come out with two apps for preschool learning. One of them for math and the other for phonics. Park Math helps children work through early math skills and Word Wagon uses the theories of phonemic awareness to teach early reading skills.

With each app, Duck Duck Moose continues to impress this parent who also happens to be an educator.

Where: The App Store or Android Marketplace

What: Duck Duck Moose apps

Need to know: Duck Duck Moose apps are all available for iPhone/iTouch devices and most are available in HD for iPad; some, not all are also available on the Android Market.

Extra Extra: Duck Duck Moose is offering their award winning “Old MacDonald” for a limited time for free… Check it out now and get your first Duck Duck Moose App, if you don’t have one already. Also sign up for their email updates to get early information and discounts for new apps and special deals.

Website/Contact Information: www.DuckDuckMooseDesign.com/

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By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

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