Learn about 5 of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids

Today’s guest post comes to us from James Barret of ApplePit.com, and he shares 5 of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids. James writes about some games you may have heard of, like Pokémon Go and some you might not have heard of like Sago Mini Road Trip. Overall, James covers a wide breadth of iOS apps for children of all abilities and ages.

After you’re done reading James’ article, please take a look at some of the iPhone apps we have reviewed, here at Windy Pinwheel.

Thanks for the great article, James!

Enjoy.
– Will

5 best iPhone 8 apps for kids

Kids love to play games and some of the most entertaining apps out there for iPhone users. And, when it comes to your iPhone 8 apps arsenal for your kids, it’s not just the games that can entertain your kids. In fact, there are many game-like apps out there that are also learning apps that your kid can spend good time with. So, without wasting any time, lets dive straight into exploring some of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids that you can download on your new iPhone 8 to help your toddler grow and develop both hand-eye coordination skills as well as getting educated by the app at the same time.

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a simple idea that still feels brilliant and has taken the gaming world by storm. Even after an entire year since its launch, the app still retains around 65 million users from all over the world. Catching extra Pokémon combined with some special events are what that keep the children spell bound and they never seem to leave their iPhone when searching for the next Pokéstop. It’s quite an encouragement for them to get up off the couch and walk around to different locations in the real-world and catch Pokémon while collecting things from the Pokéstops and battling in the gyms.

Even though there are certain safety concerns, like watching where someone is going, especially near busy streets and intersections, but Pokémon Go really deserves to be accredited for bringing people outdoors. Though it is power-draining, it is also quite addictive. Just remember not to download it if you’re not ready to take the kids to some local park or just about everywhere for catching those pocket monsters. "Gotta catch ’em all," right?

Toca Life: Vacation

Coming from Toca Life family of games, the app is another digital playset which allows your kids to pretend that they are going on a vacation. They can use main screen as their navigation tool and allows your kids to tap the place they’d like playing on like the beach, the hotel, the airport, etc.

Everything that appears on the screen is interactive. You can open the suitcases to rearrange the contents inside, dress up different characters using the clothes from the shops, and can also accessorize them as well.

YouTube Kids

Next in our list of best iPhone 8 apps for kids is YouTube Kids. As we all might have seen, kids really love watching videos – from cartoons to everything else – on YouTube. And, when they start watching something on YouTube, it’s really hard to get them to do something else as they keep playing videos one after the other and to keep entertaining themselves. However, everything available on YouTube today isn’t suitable for many kids to watch. Therefore, Google has now come up with a child-friendly YouTube version that comes with a simple interface and filters out everything not worthwhile for your kids to watch.

You’ll find that you won’t need to ask your child every 5 minutes what they are watching, knowing they are watching videos that are suitable for them and other children.

Sago Mini Road Trip

Sago Mini Road Trip is a specifically designed app for your toddler or kids between ages 2 to 5. It mimics the exciting road trip experience for your kids and lets them have all the fun. Within the app, your kids can enjoy packing their suitcases, select a car for the trip, and stop en route to have their car washed and getting their gas tank filled. A total of six destinations are there, but only three of them appear at a time. No driving rules are in place and your kids can enjoy their app simply by picking up their car and heading to the destination.

Forestry

Our final iPhone 8 app in our best iPhone 8 apps for kids list is Forestry. Forestry is an iOS-only app that allows your kids to play some educational and funny mini-games. Within the app, kids have to help out people living in the forest in building their house, gathering food, enjoying swimming, picking up those sweet berries and preparing for sleep. It’s one of the games that can help your kid have a learning experience as it serves as their attention and memory trainer as well.

So, if you are having a hard time picking up some of the best iOS games and apps for your kids, just cut the hassle and pick a couple from the above mentioned list of best iPhone 8 apps for kids. Believe it, your kid will have some amazing time playing these wonderful games.

About the Guest Post Author

James Barrett is a passionate writer who writes mostly about tech with a focus on Apple’s products, news and reviews. Currently, he’s a contributing author at ApplePit.com.

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Do you like Disney movies? Do you have Disney Movie Rewards? This Disney Movies Anywhere app review and how to stream Disney movies to your TV using Chromecast is for you.

View in iTunes
View on Google Play

Have you heard… Disney took a huge step in the world of digital movies this past month when they released a new app on iTunes. Disney Movies Anywhere actually syncs with iTunes, so if you purchased a Disney movie digitally through iTunes or you registered a digital copy with your Disney Movie Rewards account, you now have access to them through the app and/or iTunes. You even get a free movie (The Incredibles**) for signing up! How cool is that?

To take this exciting app further, a couple weekends ago we tried it out using our Chromecast system to watch Frozen and Mary Poppins on our TV through our Disney Movies Anywhere account using my laptop to “cast” through my Chrome browser. The days of even buying a DVD and/or Blu-Ray are soon going to be a distant memory.

Check it out, definitely a simple and easy way to get more use from your digital Disney movies.

Disney Movies Anywhere

I have but one question about this move to digital for Disney. When movies come out or move back into the Disney vault, how will Disney capitalize on the next wave of digital advancement if movies are already in high definition? Just like we have to get the latest version of Bambi or Pete’s Dragon on Blu-Ray, even though we may have it on DVD or, if you’re really holding on to your copy, VHS, what will be the next wave to replace this new digital version we will own? Time will tell, but for me, I love this new digital era and you can consider me an early adopter when it comes to less discs in house which equals less clutter in our lives while still sharing the magic of Disney with our own kids.

*You must have a Disney Movie Rewards account to make this work, but it’s a free account and you can earn points to enter vacation sweepstakes, use points to purchase Disney memorabilia and/or Disney experiences.

**The Incredibles movie offer is listed on the Disney Movie Anywhere website as for a limited time and the free movie can change at anytime to another movie or end altogether, so act quickly if you hope to “cash in” on this deal with a free movie.

“Disney is in talks with other platforms – such as Android – about carrying Disney Movies Anywhere,” reports the Los Angeles Times, but for now, it is only available through iTunes or through the Disney Movies Anywhere website.

What: Disney Movie Anywhere app

Where: iTunes and Disney Movies Anywhere website.

When: Act now or any time. Act now and receive a free copy of Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles.

Need to know: Can synchronize with iTunes purchases and Disney Movie Rewards digital copies.

Extra Extra: Log into the Disney Movies Anywhere website with the Google Chrome browser on a laptop or WiFi accessible connection and you can Chromecast the movie to your television.

Website/Contact Information: www.DisneyMoviesAnywhere.com.

Get your own Google Chromecast today!

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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 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.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

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.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

Welcome to outerspace… Zorbit and his friends are going to take you on a math adventure on their planet.

The iPhone/iPad app, Zorbit’s Math Adventure Preschool – Learning. Reimagined. hereafter known as Zorbit’s Math Adventure is a great game for preschool-aged children. The game begins by helping Zorbit’s mom wake him up. Zorbit is a sound sleeper and you have to complete several math related tasks (early math skills). One task is to pop balloons to be “loud enough” to wake him up. What little kid doesn’t like popping balloons? After you have woken Zorbit up you head to the next part of the app where Zorbit asks the child to help him count gum balls, which Zorbit then proceeds to eat. Our daughter loved watching the bubbles pop on his face. Eventually, you wind up with a friend of Zorbit’s who needs help feeding her pet, this also consists of the child who is playing Zorbit’s Math Adventure to count and choose certain shapes to help feed the pet that looks like an alien dinosaur. The game goes on to a few other areas and along the way the child collects stickers that they can place on several images of the game. Also, once the player completes a level, they receive a star. Stickers and stars are all very exciting prizes for the 3-6 year-old set.

I can say, from watching my five year-old play with this app that it’s engaging and exciting. On the day we started playing it, she needed just a little bit of help to get it started when waking Zobit, this was because the mother character was trying to give her hints on what to do and she had her volume turned down. Had it not been for that, she would have been able to completely navigate this app on her own. So fair warning, you do need the sound on for this app.

In the words of our five year “Zorbit is cool, I like it and it was fun to make a rocket ship”. I guess that’s really all the review we needed.

We enjoyed Zorbit’s Math Adventure and it was fairly simple for our five year-old to complete the tasks. However, the math level was a bit below what the State of Nevada expects for Kindergarten Math Standards, but it was a great reinforcement for her and a confidence booster for her math skills. This is definitely a preschool app and a wonderful addition to good math apps for preschoolers, especially boys who will enjoy the alien characters. They also have a “light” version that you can try out to see if you like it.

Next year the company does plan to add Kindergarten and First Grade levels.

Overall, we really enjoyed this app, we are working with our two year old on the app as well to help him begin developing those early math skills. This app has the Windy Pinwheel Stamp of Approval!

Where: The iTunes App Store.

What: Zorbit’s Math Adventure

Need to know: Zorbit’s Math Adventure is rated for preschool-aged children.

Extra Extra: Sign up for the Zorbit’s Math Adventure mailing list and get access to a free activity.

Zorbit’s Math Adventure covers all the skills a preschooler needs to be prepared for first-year school math, including the following:

Counting and Number Awareness

• Counting objects up to 20
• Ordering numbers (ascending)
• Ordering numbers (descending)

Identifying Shapes

• Recognizing circles, squares, and triangles
• Distinguishing between squares and rectangles

Sizing Shapes and Objects

• Long and short
• Tall and short
• Wide and narrow

Subitizing

• The precursor of estimating (for more)

Characterizing Colors

• Red, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple, brown, and black

Comparing Amounts

• Identifying more and less

Recognizing Positions

• Inside and outside
• Left, middle, and right
• Above and below
• Top and bottom

Classifying Objects and Groups

• Same
• Different
• Same and different
• Classify by colour

Separating and Matching

• Recognizing group commonalities and differences
• Pairing similar objects

Website/Contact Information: www.zorbitsmath.com. Be sure to sign up for the Zorbit’s Fan Club and get access to a free activity

Here is a video about Zorbit’s Math Adventure:

Bonus Giveaway

As an added bonus to this review, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjunction with Best Boy Entertainment, the creators of the app, are holding a giveaway. We want you to share in the fun and excitement that this app has to offer. That’s why, when Best Boy Entertainment reached out to us we suggested a giveaway for our Windy Pinwheel community.

Here’s what we’re giving away:

• Prize: 1 Zorbit’s Math Adventure app download.

*Please note that the Zorbit’s Math Adventure app is available only on the iPhone/iPad. You must should have access to an iTunes account if you are selected as the winner. Also, this giveaway is available only to United States residents, 18 years or older or with a parent’s permission and void where prohibited. Winner must supply email address associated with your iTunes account to receive the app download code.

Giveaway deadline is 11:59PM Pacific Daylight Time on October 18, 2013. Enter today and come back every day for a chance at daily entries.

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.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

In the High Tech Kids series we will share our favorite apps and kid friendly technology. Today we review Moose Math by Duck Duck Moose

“Mommy, I am leaning math!” – A., 5 years-old

In our first High Tech Kids review we looked at several of the Duck Duck Moose (DDM) Apps, check it out here, we also followed up when we reviewed DDM’s “More Trucks”

In early August, DDM came out with a new Kindergarten mathematics app. This could not have been better timing since our daughter was about to embark on her own Kindergarten journey in less than two weeks. I was actually overwhelmingly excited because I have it in my mind that I need to really ensure that, as a girl, she knows mathematics can be fun and she can be successful in mathematics. As an educator, I know all too well that by the time you move on beyond grade school, girls tend to shy away from upper division mathematics courses. We spend a lot of time on grade level mathematics skills together. We downloaded Moose Math shortly after it came out. Then, unprompted, we got an email from our friends at Duck Duck Moose asking us to review their new app. We, of course, agreed because we love their products and had not had a chance to play with it yet since the start of school had kept us fairly busy.

While playing with the app, we mainly focused our five year old Kindergartner on the app. I do think our nearly three year-old would be able to play the app with a lot of assistance. This app is better suited for the five year-old.

“Teachers take note: App number 17 from Duck Duck Moose is designed specifically to cover early elementary (Kindergarten and First Grade) math by way of some solid counting, sorting and classifying games. Each game lets children playfully master skills that will provide an excellent foundation for later math learning, and the games are paired with an individualized record keeping system, that stores progress and profiles for each child. Math educators will appreciate the fact that this app is 100% flashcard free, yet still manages a good deal of leveled practice.” – Children’s Technology Review The app takes you to a world completely new to DDM apps. The land of the “Dust Funnies” is a place that is entirely made up of found items. As you go further along in the levels of each area you get to “build” onto your store fronts making your city bigger. What child doesn’t like building things and exploring?

There are five areas of activities to practice and enhance your little one’s mathematics skills.

• Moose Juice: Makes smoothies while practicing counting, addition and subtraction;
• Paint Pet: Match the pets by counting the number of dots;
• Pet Bingo: Solve addition, subtraction and counting problems to get BINGO;
• Lost & Found: Learn and sort through shapes and colors; and
• Dot to Dot: Help the Dust Funny find his way home by joining the dots

We spent a lot of time with the Moose Juice area. The increasing difficulty and various mixtures were really fun and engaging for our daughter. She also very much loved the Pet Bingo area and felt very empowered by being able to do addition and subtraction.

The Paint Pet area was not her favorite as the early stages seemed a little boring. When given a variety of colors to “paint,” she wanted to paint more than just dots. Lost & Found and Dot to Dot were the last two areas we explored.

The Lost & Found area kept her guessing because each problem was different, one screen would ask her to identify three circles and the next asked her to identify the longest pencil. I really appreciated this area from DDM because it kept her wondering what was next and she never tired of it. The Dot to Dot area is actually something we have been practicing outside of this app. Making sure she can recognize the order of numbers is incredibly important. She liked it because she got to “make” something. A win-win in my book!

Overall, at first this was not my favorite app from DDM until we really got into it. Then we started to have a lot of fun and couldn’t put it down. I think our initial hesitation was the new “Dust Funnies” group and the app looking very different from all the previous DDM apps. In the long run, I highly recommend this app for children in Pre-K through 1^st grade. It is very clear that DDM consulted with an educator who has an expertise in early childhood education as well as employed the mathematics practices and skills described in the Common Core State Standards.

Where: The App Store and on Google Play.

What: Moose Math by Duck Duck Moose

Need to know: Moose Math is rated for 3-9 year olds, but a three year old would need quite a lot of help and a nine year old might be beyond this skill set.

Extra Extra: Duck Duck Moose has a great mailing list and consistently sends out information about new apps, coloring book pages, notifications when of apps go on sale, etc. all the time.

Moose Math features:

• 5 activities that teach counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, geometry and more; all of the activities are aligned with the Common Core State Standards
• An adaptive “helper” character; YaYa the bird, acts like a child’s personal tutor offering helpful hints and encouragement
• A Report Card section allowing parents and teachers to follow progress; the Report Card can track an unlimited number of users per device, making Moose Math a great app for teachers to use with their class
• A new Learning Portal with free downloadable worksheets for additional skill-building – great for teachers looking for fun, engaging offline activities

Website/Contact Information: www.DuckDuckMoose.com. Be sure to sign up and get on their email list to ensure you are in the know about app sales, etc.

Here are two Moose Math videos, a trailer/overview of Moose Math and one featuring the new set of characters in the app — the Dust Funnies!

Bonus Giveaway

As an added bonus to this review, we at Windy Pinwheel, in conjunction with Duck Duck Moose are holding a giveaway. We want you to share in the fun and excitement that this app has to offer. That’s why, when Duck Duck Moose reached out to us we suggested a giveaway for our Windy Pinwheel community.

Here’s what we’re giving away:

• Grand Prize: 1 set of Moose Math temporary tattoos and 1 Duck Duck Moose app download* of your choice.
• One Runner-up Prize: 1 set of Moose Math temporary tattoos.

*Please note that the majority of Duck Duck Moose apps are available only on the iPhone/iPad. You should have access to an iTunes account if you are selected as the winner. Also, this giveaway is available only to United States residents, 18 years or older or with a parent’s permission and void where prohibited. Winner must supply email address associated with your iTunes account to receive the app download code. Winners must supply physical mailing addresses to receive the set of Moose Math temporary tattoos by Duck Duck Moose

Giveaway deadline is 11:59PM Pacific Daylight Time on September 20, 2013. Enter today and come back every day for a chance at daily entries.

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.

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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:

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.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.

In the High Tech Kids series we will share our favorite apps and kid friendly technology. Here we review the iOS and Android app More Trucks by Duck Duck Moose.

“Yay, Trucks!” Dinosaurs stomp, monster trucks crunch, and cranes build in this great iOS app by Duck Duck Moose.

In our first High Tech Kids review we looked at several notable Duck Duck Moose Apps, check it out here. Last week, Duck Duck Moose (DDM) came out with their first sequel app, More Trucks. I saw the excitement leading up to the release via DDM’s Facebook page. I casually mentioned the app to our kids and both were very excited. Then, unprompted, DDM contacted us and asked us and asked us if we wanted to write a review for the app. Of course, we would love to because we love their apps! When I mentioned the opportunity to the kids, they were pretty excited too and our daughter simply stated, “that’s because kids know what they are talking about.” Smart girl. So I thought, instead of my usual review, first, I would give you some thoughts from a four, almost five year-old and a 2 1/2 year-old.

Needless to say, these kids have played with this app every chance we give them. The app is great for boys and girls and has several pieces for the kids to play with.

Here’s quick video of in-app game play as well as another opinion by AppySmarts.com

The first place our daughter went was the Monster Truck Race. For her, this was new because she had to use both the forward/backward buttons and the up button to get the coins and avoid items in the way. It took some hand-eye coordination skills for her to do well with this game.

The next area is a fire truck that you have to drive around town and put out several fires. This is a similar process of moving the truck forward and backward and then use the button on the display to spray the water. It comes with siren sounds which make a 2 year-old very happy.

As mentioned in the dinosaur quote from our son, the third area is a car wrecking yard where the child loads up the flatbed tow truck (all tow trucks are called “Mater” for us for many reasons that many-a-parent understands). Then, the Mater truck takes the cars to the wrecking yard. The third step is to take the cars off the Mater truck with a huge magnet and finally a dinosaur leg stomps them. This particular piece of the app caused great excitement from both of our kids.

The last area was my personal favorite. A crane picks up blocks and the child begins to build a building of some sort. Each time you see this area, the building outline is different. The reason I love this one is because of the great early math and puzzle cognitive skills required to fit all the pieces in the best places to build the building. This is one of the areas of this iOS app that will take some parent assistance at first, until the kids understand the process; but once they’ve done it a couple of times, they won’t need parental assistance to accomplish this task.

Overall I think a quote from our 2 year-old best sums up this app, “Yay trucks!”

Where: The App Store or on Google Play.

What: More Trucks.

Need to know: More Trucks is a sequel app to Trucks, but you do not need to have the first app in order to understand or play this one.

Extra Extra: Duck Duck Moose has a great mailing list and consistently sends out information about new apps, coloring book pages, notifications when of apps go on sale, etc. all the time.

Website/Contact Information: www.DuckDuckMoose.com. Be sure to sign up and get on their email list to ensure you are in the know about app sales, etc.