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Children’s Technology ReviewFebruary 2015Volume 23, No. 2, Issue 1793Doodler 2.0, page 7Baby Animals: Cute and Cuddly AnimalBabies, 8Blaze and the Monster Machines, 8 Bruno, Code Studio, 8Collins Bird Guide App, 9Dentist Bird: A West African Folktale, 9Doc McStuffins: Mobile Clinic Rescue*, 9Doc McStuffins: Moving with Doc, 10Dr. Panda's Mailman*, 10Dr. Panda's Swimming Pool*, 10Earth’s Rocks and the Rock Cycle, 11Edwin the Duck, 11Electric Energy Prop Racer Kit, 11

Fiete - A Day at the Farm*, 12Fuel Tanker Truck, 12Grammar Hammer 7-10, 12IdentiToy Interactive Brick Baseplate, 13Legend of Zelda, The: Majora's Mask 3D, 13LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham*, 13Looney Tunes Dash, 14Loose Strands*, 14Mathseeds Kindergarten*, 15Mia – The Happy Helper, 15My First Music Pad Christmas, 15My Little Pony: Cutie Pox, 16myBlee Math, 16New Nintendo 3DS XL, 16Nick Code-It, 17Nico & Draco: Bath time, 17Ollie, 17Ozobot, 18Peek-a-Word, 18Pony Style Box, 18

Risk Ranch, 19SeaWorld Kids Network, 19SleepIQ Kids Bed, 20Snap Circuits Deluxe Light and SoundCombo*, 20Speakaboos, 21Storest*, 21Tales2Go, 22Tiggly Counts, 22Too Many Teddy Bears*, 22Up Box, 23UP Mini (3D Printer), 23UP Plus 2 (3D Printer), 23Vinekids, 24

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* Denotes “Editor’sChoice.”

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On the cover: Fiete - A Day at the Farm; a German app that is one of the entries in the 2015 BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize, 2

LittleClickers: Alligatorspage 3

What (exactly) is an app? page 4

Children’s Technology ReviewFebruary 2015Volume 23, No. 2, Issue 179

Editor Warren Buckleitner, Ph.D.,([email protected]) [WB]Editorial Coordinator & CirculationLisa DellaFave ([email protected]) [LD]LittleClickers Editor Megan Billitti([email protected])Director of Publishing Matthew DiMatteo [MD]Interns Mr. Zig [Z]ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS are $59, for 12monthly issues, 52 weekly issues plus onlinedatabase access. Weekly issues are sent at 8:30AM on Wednesdays EST. Site subscriptions areavailable. Contact Children’s Technology

Review™, 120 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822or call 800-993-9499. Visitwww.childrenstech.com to learn more.PRODUCT SUBMISSIONS. Send one product withrelease information to Lisa DellaFave,Editorial Coordinator, 120 Main Street,Flemington, NJ 08822 (Phone: 908-284-0404). Send app codes by email [email protected].

OUR RULES. No ads, gimmicks or politics; we workfor the benefit of children. CTR follows editorialguidelines at(http://childrenstech.com/editorial-guidelines/). Highlights include:• We don’t sell or profit from the products wereview. • We don’t distribute, sell or leverage sub-scriber information.• Contributors are required to disclose bias.• There is no sponsored or advertising contentof any variety.• Complete transparency We make every effortto disclose review criteria and sources ofpotential bias. • We don’t skim from other reviewers. PUBLISHER INFORMATION Children’s TechnologyReview™ (ISSN 1555-242X) is pub lished monthly(12 issues) by Active Learning As so ci ates, Inc.Send address chang es or new subscriptions toChildren’s Technology Review™, 120 Main Street,Flemington, NJ 08822. Use of this publicationfor any commercial publishing activity withoutprior written permission is strictly prohibited.Readers are subject to the TERMS OF USE found athttp://childrenstech.com/disclaimer

Contents © 2015 by Active Learning Associates,Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2Children’s Technology Review, February 2015Your Subscription is Your Key to 11,828 Archived ReviewsYour paid $59 subscription to CTR includes exclusive password access to the CTREX database — a collection of reviews goingback to 1985. If you’ve lost or forgotten your password, please call 800-993-9499 between 9-3 PM EST.

Feb ‘15 News and Trendsin Children’s Tech

WHAT (EXACTLY) IS AN APP?It took a rogue pediatrician in Utah to inspire this month’s lead article.According to my Google News alerts, Dr. Marty Nygaard was quoted inthe St. George Daily Spectrum http://bitly.com/1EAmzRD saying “everyexposure a child has to screens, there is a risk of them developing ADD.” For Dr. Nygaard, apparently an app is like a toxin. This might be true, butthere are other less careless points of view. Others might see that sameapp as a tutor, a link to a grandparent or a programming experience. So, Idecided to look at screen content from an inside-out point of view, whichis important to do if you’re in the business of rating, making or usingscreen-based content with children. What (exactly) is an app? It’s compli-cated. See page 4. COMING IN YOUR MARCH CTR:THE BEST IN DIGITAL STORY-TELLING. As you read this, we’rejudging the entries in the 2015BolognaRagazzi prize. One of thecontenders is on this month’scover, but also because of theresponsive, original design. SeeFiete A Day at the Farm on page12 and Loose Strands on page14. Stay tuned for more. THE QUANTIFIED KIDTwo products in this issue give new meaning to the concept of “the quan-tified kid.” Edwin the Duck can measure the temperature of your child’sbathwater, and the Smart IQ Kids mattress can send you an email alertthat tells you if your child stayed in bed all night. Is this a good thing?Share your thoughts online athttp://childrenstech.com/blog/archives/16336LITTLECLICKERS: ALLIGATORSWhat’s the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? Find out onpage 3, or by visiting http://littleclickers.com/alligators/.Quotes“Sometimes it is the people who no one imaginesanything of who do the things that no one canimagine.” Attributed in the movie “The ImitationGame” to Joan Clarke, Alan Turings long timefriend and Enigma co-worker.http://childrenstech.com/blog/archives/16328

3 Children’s Technology Review, February 2015

Megan’s videos about AlligatorsHere’s a set of hand picked videos from Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcBVHzUUEKwmpSenIfokXzsyDE6Cd5a1o

LittleClickers is brought to you by

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Note that CTR and COMPUTER EXPLOR-

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contact the editor, Warren Buckleitner

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editor, Megan Billitti [MB] megan@chil-

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3 PM, EST).

is made possible by

5 sites & ten videos about

AlligatorsAlligatorsIt's the biggest reptile in North America and can live 50 years. Let’s learn more about Alligators!1. What’s the difference between a crocodile andan alligator? At the Crocodilian websitehttp://bitly.com/1LAP6sc you learn that they maylook similar, but they are actually two completelydifferent types of reptiles. The Alligator has a short-er, stronger snout that can crack open a turtle shell.The crocodile’s snout can catch fish in salt water.

2. Where do alligators live? Discover magazinehttp://bitly.com/1KiEgUk shows where in the USAyou’re most likely to find an alligator. They say thereare about 5 million living in warm swamps in thesouthern USA. 3. Can I keep a small alligator as a pet?According to this article, http://bit.ly/1xS3iCy,some people try to keep small alligators, like thedwarf caiman female as pets. But it never endsup with a happy ending. Find out whyhttp://bit.ly/1yGpSF8.4. What do alligators eat? With 74 teeth and skin especially adept at sensingvibration, alligators are fierce predators known as lurkers who quietly stalktheir prey, and then lunge attack with amazing speed. Find out what they liketo eat, and see how they hunt http://bit.ly/1DYTJds

5. How large was the biggest alligator ever?This past August, a family in Alabama capturedan 1000 pound alligator as part of a population control program. Read how they captured this giant in their local newspaperhttp://bit.ly/1p5ycbg.

APPLICATION1. Where can I spot analligator in the wild? Ifyou are headed to Floridaanytime soon, visit one ofthese nature preserves.http://bit.ly/11o5Tw82. Create you own toothyalligator cardhttp://bit.ly/1wokRJW3. Play some silly onlinegames, with an alligatorthemehttp://bit.ly/15sx3n0

4Children’s Technology Review, February 2015

What (exactly) is an App? By Warren Buckleitner“The studies are pretty impressive that show in every exposure achild has to screens, there is a risk of them developing ADD,”Marty Nygaard, Pediatrician, Red Rock Pediatrics in St. George,Utah, in the St. George Daily Spectrum, Sunday Feb. 1, 2015http://bitly.com/1EAmzRDAs you can see by Dr. Nygaard’s comment, confusion and fear of things like ADD(Attention Deficit Disorder) tend to be the default condition when it comes to dis-cussions of childrens apps and screens. This is easy to understand as it’s only natu-ral to treat something new and unknown with caution. Like the inkblots used in aRorschach test, what is a “screen” or an “app” depends on what you expect to see.To this particular pediatrician, a screen is like a toxin that can cause irreversibledamage. It’s bad, scary stuff. Another appropriate metaphor for an app is the classic “blind men meet an elephant” fable. The elephant, in this case, is the app. Inorder to make headway in discussions around children’s interactive media, we must rethink how we define the modern children’s app. FIRST, SOME HISTORY. Back in 1980, when the field as young, researchers understood that a microcomputer was a chameleon. ForDustin Heuston, who worked on tutorial systems like WICAT it was CAI (computer aided instruction) and for others, like SeymourPapert, it was something for children to program. One solution was to define three roles: tool, tutor and tutee (see Taylor 1980, for anearly mention of these categories). Microcomputers have since morphed into connected phones or tablets with multi-touch screens.Putting all the apps into three buckets isn’t so easy anymore.

TV

Book

Toy

Video Game

Below, a Google image search on “blind men elephant” brings up hundreds of illustrations ideal for the app definition problem.

War Horse

Angry BirdsYouTube

5 Children’s Technology Review, February 2015

One way to deal with the ambiguity is to admitdefeat. There is no way to simply define or catego-rize an app. Apps consists of pictures, sounds, ideasand video that swim in an interactive soup createdby a designer who has distinct ideas about howmuch control a child should have. The solution Ipropose is to take an anthropological point of viewof the app. In other words, start the exercise byviewing each app as a human artifact, sort of like aclay pot, a hammer or the foundation of a building. Next, we can explore the culture behind the app,and think about how the designer fits in this cul-ture. What was the intention of the designer orteam of designers? How much do they know aboutteaching and learning? How do they define thingslike “story,” “play,” “teaching,” and “learning?” Whatwords (or jargon) do they use to define theseideas? What conferences do they attend, and whatbooks or blogs do they read? When you take this approach, you can create aVenn diagram with overlapping circles that repre-sent each cultural cluster. This, or a cross taggingmechanism such as what we use for CTREX, canmake it possible for an app to fit inside multiplecategories. By viewing the app store through the Venn diagramlens, you can account for all the messy and interest-ing overlaps between the categories and their asso-ciated cultures. It helps you begin to compare simi-lar products, and it helps us understand attributesassociated with higher or lower ratings. Here’s a look at some of the most common circlesthat influence children’s app design. What followscontains one person’s point of view, along withsome stereotyping, so let me appologize in advance. EDUCATORS gather each year at conferences likeMACUL, NECC and FETC to discuss apps and appdesign, especially to support the Common Core sothat “no child will be left behind” in the “race to thetop.” Some concern themselves with mastery ofobjectives and individualized learning. Educatorscan be very vocal about the use and misuse of digi-tal pedagogy. Some use technology for open-endedchild empowerment (see Code.org); others see aniPad as the ultimate Skinner box, where they cantrain a child to understand anything. To any sea-soned teacher, “gamification” is old hat. They’vebeen doing it for years by turning spelling practiceinto a spelling bee, for example. The ideal appexample is something like Slice Fractions, whichwas made by a design team with a background inboth video game design and Math Pedagogy. TOYculture will be very visible at next week’s ToyFair. They will turn smart phones and tablets intoremote controls or augmented reality tools to sup-plement (and market) toys. Apps are great exten-sions of IP (intellectional property) that can helpyou reach new markets. Hasbro’s Furby Boom usesaudio codes to interact with a nearby tablet or

6Children’s Technology Review, February 2015

smart phone, so that Furby can have babies. Direct income fromapps is merely pocket change. But it can give you a new reason tobuy another Furby. Toy giant LEGO has spawned dozens of well-designed video games and apps as well as a movie. The games,created for LEGO by TT Games are stellar examples of how a toybrand can be turned into a video game with strong educationalobjectives (in this case, collaborative problem solving). Toca Bocabrings a fresh new voice to the app/toy relationship, because itthinks of it’s apps as toys, with no wrong answers. CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHORS like to migrate to places likethe Bologna Children’s Book Fair where quality illustration andstorytelling is celebrated (disclosure, CTR is a business partnerwith the fair). An app may be something with a blend of good nar-rative that could be fiction or non-fiction. When this work comesto a touch screen, it can assume many names: “ebooks,” “livingbooks,” “digital story books,” or even “app books.” Children’s bookdevelopers respect the original paper books. They includeOceanhouse Media, who specializes in turning printed books intoapps. Children’s book publishers like Kate Wilson of Nosy Crowhave demonstrated that a solid story like Jack and the Beanstalkcan work well on a touch screen. War Horse, the Touch Press appthat won the BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize last year contains thefull text of the original book, as well as a movie of the author read-ing the story and real-time links to Google Earth. War Horse is anapp with multiple personalities, each with a different dot on theVenn Diagram. VIDEO GAME designers like to meet with other gamers at con-ferences like GDG and E3 to gossip about Zelda and discuss gamemechanics. A video is called a “cut scene” and illustrations arecalled “graphics.” The video game culture is much newer than theothers, but it’s extremely influential in part because it’s all aboutthe interactivity. Video Game controllers are always extremelyresponsive and foster feelings of empowerment. Video gamedesigners think a lot more about leveling and inter-personal prob-lem solving that have a lot to say about IAP (in app purchases).Noteworthy contributions include Farmville, Angry Birds andMojang’s Minecraft; all have deep roots in the gaming culture.

Video game publishers are generally angry these days, because $2apps are eating into their ability to sell $50 games that run onhardware they control. But when it comes to apps, they’ll helpyou figure out how to turn a crossword puzzle into Words WithFriends, serving up ads on a “freemium” version. Or they can takea tried-and-true game mechanic and turn it into something likeAngry Birds. TV (and film) culture members read KidScreen and go to Cinekid,if they’re lucky. When they get involved with learning, they searchfor a cute star like Elmo, Blue or Curious George; and they can pullout a Fred Rogers quote at the drop of hat. They know how tomake things look great on a screen with camera angles and pro-fessional voice talent. The episodes they produce have a start,middle and an end, and they stick to the script. If the child leavesthe room, it doesn’t matter... their production will continue toenlighten an empty room. It is easy to find examples of “dust”when it comes to porting TV characters into interactive apps. Inthe post-YouTube years, however, linear media producers havelearned to convert a tablet into a touch screen remote, to serve upbite-sized episodes on mobile screens. Learn more about the sci-ence behind Dreamworks TV at http://youtu.be/ZEMxiMf0sH0,the Nick Jr. app athttp://reviews.childrenstech.com/ctr/review.php?id=18315 orVinekids (on page 24). There are more loops that could go into the Venn diagram. Eachcan help answer the question, “what is an app?” We have to settle with the idea that there is no clean answer, andthe app store categories like “game” and “education” will never beaccurate. But you can get closer to understanding the topic if you look at alot of different types of apps, and think about the culture that hasinformed their design process.———————Thanks to David Hilgen, David Kleeman, Robin Raskin, Scott Traylorand Sarah Buckleitner for their feedback on this article.

Education culture

Video game cultureSlice Fractions by Ululab was shaped by two different cultural groups that don’t often shareideas: Video Games and Education.

Feature Reviews and New ReleasesFEBRUARY, 2015Here's an alphabetical listing of both the feature reviews (with ratings) and the new andfuture releases. "Entry Date" refers to the date we first learned of the product.

The second generation 3Doodler is smaller, cheaper, and more reliable that lastyear's first edition. Shaped like a very fat pen, the device is like a free-form 3D printerthat lets you build things using streams of melted plastic. It's a lot like a hot glue gun,only with PLA plastic.

New features include a "JetPack" battery accessory that gives you portable powerfor up to 3 hours; a two speed control with a double-click function for continuous flow(so you don't have to hold the button down); and manual temperature control, for fine-tuning the plastic. Created by Maxwell Bogue and Daniel Cowen, Co-Founders, whostarted the concept on Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/794945037?token=cc6fd8ffDetails: WobbleWorks, http://the3doodler.com. Price: $100. Ages: 10-up.

Platform: a creativity tool. Teaches/Purpose: creativity, geometry. Entry date:1/10/2015.

3Doodler 2.0

One of a series of five apps released last month by SeaWorld Kids (the othersdealing with Big Cats, Polar Bears, Penguins and a general app called "Kids Network"),this app features newborn animals in videos, jigsaw puzzles, concentration and match-3 games.

There are 18 bits of content in this app. Children will meet Cupid the newborngiraffe in a clip from The Wildlife Docs, say “baaaahhh” with newborn baby lambsborn at Busch Gardens, and see a dramatic Sea Rescue episode where an orphan killerwhale is reunited with his pod. The app features: high definition videos of babyanimals and their adoring parents; e-books that highlight words as they are read toyou; puzzles with four difficulty levels; image galleries filled with pictures of newbornanimals; memory/matching games; and infinite runner games in which kids read andlearn about turtles while jumping from platform to platform.

Need to know: If you don't have an Internet connection, you only see a blackscreen. All the apps follow a similar formula, mixing high interest video content withfail-safe jigsaw puzzles and bejeweled-matching games. If the app is free, what's thecatch? Children are promoted to register every few screens. The app was created forSeaWorld by Playrific.

Details: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc., http://seaworldkids.com/. Price:$free. Ages: 3-8. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. Requires Internet. .Teaches/Purpose: science, animals, memory. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date:12/16/2014. [WB]

Baby Animals: Cute and Cuddly Animal Babies

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84%Ease of UseEducationalEntertaining

Design FeaturesGood Value

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FEATURE REVIEWS, FEBRUARY, 2015

A good idea meets clunky design, with this build-your-own-racetrack racing gamefeaturing talking Nick Monster trucks. There are two modes, Race and Build, and fourgame save slots making it possible to save tracks.

In Race mode, you help monster truck Blaze and his driver AJ compete against twoother monster trucks to overcome obstacles. This is good in theory, but the steeringfeels clumsy.

In Build mode, you construct a race track and help Blaze advance with speedboosts or slow his opponents down with objects like sticky bubble gum. This again isgood in theory, but it's only possible to make very short tracks.

Content includes 15 track items (items like magnets and acceleration boost pads),two driving controls (tilt and swipe), and 15 levels that end with a medal. There arethree locations, The Badlands, The Snowy Slopes, and The Monster Dome, plusenvironmental obstacles like an ice patch in The Snowy Slopes and Crusher-basedcontraptions like a pineapple blaster. There are power ups like tire chains to avoidslippery spots, soapy tires to fly through sticky patches, and hubcaps to fill the “Let’sBlaze” acceleration meter. Created for Nick by Chewy Software.

Details: Nickelodeon, www.nick.com. Price: $6.99. Ages: 3-7. Platform: iPad,iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: problem solving, science, creativity, fine motor skills. Rating(1 to 5 stars): 3 stars. Entry date: 1/16/2015. [WB]

Blaze and the Monster Machines

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Available in UK English or USA English, this is an ebook with little or nointeractive features, about a little boy named Bruno, and his grandpa who is a thepainter.

When Grandpa loses inspiration and refuses to paint, Bruno looks for a new color.The illustrations are nice; but the unconventional font is small with no highlighting orscaffolding and the unique butterfly page transitions make navigation tricky. Weenjoyed the original illustrations by Ingrid Baadnes. $6.61 on Google play.

Details: ablemagic as, www.ablemagic.no. Price: $4.99 ($6.61 for Android). Ages: 4-up. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android. Teaches/Purpose: reading. Entrydate: 1/30/2015.

Bruno

Launched September 2014, Code Studio is a browser-based (online) learningplatform to teach the basics of programming. It is a key part of the code.org initiative,launched a year earlier to try to get computer programming into every school.

Free content (no registration required) includes six self-guided, online tutorialswith video lectures by tech role models such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg plusgame-based activities designed around popular games like Angry Birds, Plants vs.Zombies, and Flappy Bird. Features include a Play Lab that lets you send programs toa cell phone via a text message.

The actual coding resembles MIT's Scratch -- you drag blocks that representcommands into place to see what they do. Each block snaps into place. The activitiesare well designed and guide you through each part of the process, step-by-step (untilyou've reached your "hour of code.")

Code Studio works in Flash on most mainstream browsers. A good Internetconnection is required. If you want to save your work you need to create an account;but it is possible to work though your "hour of code" without signing in.

Details: Code.org, www.code.org. Price: $free. Ages: 5-14. Platform: Windows,Mac OSX, Chrome, Internet Site. Teaches/Purpose: coding, programming. Entry date:9/11/2014.

Code Studio

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This tablet-based bird book is designed for passionate birders and casual birdwatchers. According to the publisher, it provides everything you need to identify aspecies quickly and learn about it thoroughly.

Features include 700+ species of birds; 3500 illustrations by Killian Mullarney andDan Zetterström; text covering habitat, range, and identification; voice by LarsSvensson; search filter; curated lists of confusable species; more than 750 songs andcalls – many by Lars Svensson; and select species names from 18 languages.

In-app purchases include Video Library Volume 1 (Common Birds of NW Europe)for $5.99, Video Library Volume 2 (Less Common Birds & Local Species) for $8.99, andthe BTO Atlas Maps Pack (British Trust for Ornithology/BirdWatch Ireland/ScottishOrnithologists' Club Bird Atlas 2007–11 mapping data) for $2.99. Available in English,Swedish and Norwegian with more languages to follow.

Details: Touch Press, www.touchpress.com. Price: $17.99. Ages: 12-up. Platform:iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.1 or later). Teaches/Purpose: science, biology, birds.Entry date: 9/11/2014.

Collins Bird Guide App

Great content (especially the illustrations) meets rudimentary interactive design, inthis beautifully illustrated Liberian folk tale. Games include a modified version ofFlappy Bird that is frustratingly tricky. Also, the main menu could be simplified.

Despite these shortcomings, the story is solid -- about a clever bird who makesspecial medicine for Crocodile's toothache.

Content includes authentic text and illustrations, with some interactivity (touch thecrocodiles eyes to make them light up). We didn't like how the design forces you tofind the interactive features before you can turn the page.

The West African-inspired soundtrack is by Dora the Explorer composer, SteveSandberg. The content is based on the book "How Plover Bird Came to CleanCrocodile’s Teeth: A West African Folktale," retold by Michael Richards and illustratedby David Wolobah.

Details: Literary Safari Inc., www.literarysafari.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 4-up.Platform: iPad, iPhone, Android. Teaches/Purpose: reading, timing, logic, Africa,Liberia. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4 stars. Entry date: 12/12/2014. [WB]

Dentist Bird: A West African Folktale

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Like "Temple Run" for preschoolers, this fun starter game lets you swipe your waythrough a set of hurdles as you collect coins. Too many crashes will send you back tothe start of the course. Because the challenges start very easy and grow harder, the appgives children a nice fine motor/timing experience. In addition, there are no gender orethnic stereotypes in this app -- Doc is played by a female.

If you make it to end you get to fix a toy. There are 27 toys to heal and threemissions (Doc to the Rescue, Snow Place for Toys, and Birthday Rescue). Additionalmissions are sold as In-App Purchases for $2.99 each. As you move through the levels,you earn power-ups and badges.

The In-App Purchases are shown in the main menu (which we think is badpractice) but there are not times in the app where a child's work is held hostage to anadditional purchase, as it is in many apps like Looney Tunes Dash (Zynga).

This app features characters and narration from the Disney Junior television show.Need to know: Children may quickly outgrow the challenge level of this app.Details: Disney Publishing Worldwide, http://disneystories.com/. Price: $4.99

plus IAP. Ages: 2-5. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0 or later).Teaches/Purpose: timing, temporal relations, fine motor skills, logic. Rating (1 to 5stars): 4.4 stars. Entry date: 1/8/2015. [WB]

Doc McStuffins: Mobile Clinic Rescue

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Designed to introduce healthy habits and the importance of exercise, this appfeatures the Disney Junior cast in a clinic full of games like catch the "go" foods andavoid the "slow" foods, use the in-app camera to stretch along with Doc, and hone theirskills in the Bubble Obstacle Course, Jump Rope, and Swinging Rings activities.

After some practice, children can compete in the Backyard Games, a timed event inwhich they try to beat their best score by getting through all three activities. Childrencan also keep a record of healthy activities completed outside of the app using theHealthy Me Chart, which can be decorated with stickers earn for completing eachactivity.

See also Doc McStuffins: Mobile Clinic Rescue.Details: Disney Publishing Worldwide, http://disneystories.com/. Price: $2.99.

Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose:health, exercise. Entry date: 12/30/2013.

Doc McStuffins: Moving with Doc

Here's a another playful, fun Dr. Panda app that is well worth the download. Thistime Dr. Panda is a mailman (note the gender bias). Your job is to make a postcard, puton the stamp, and decide who gets your card, from ten possible animal characters. Thebest part is the driving. Dr. Panda's mail bike follows your finger around a map as yousearch for your customer.

Testers found the driving to be a bit clumsy, and the top-down view of the signs ishard to see. But these are minor points. It's fun to drive over ramps to do tricks, andyou can wander off the road with no penalty. You soon discover that there's a guidesquirrel who will help you find your customer; which is an important feature becauseit's easy to get lost.

We liked the variety of places to explore -- getting to the ten homes requiresdriving up mountains, crossing rivers, moving through forests and driving alongsnowy roads.

There are no rules or end-points or language prerequisites. Works with an iPad 2 ornewer, iPhone 4S or newer, or iPod Touch 5th Generation.

Need to know: explore the parent options to turn off the promotion screen. You canalso adjust the music and sound.

Details: TribePlay, www.tribeplay.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad,iPhone, iPod Touch. Teaches/Purpose: spatial relations, creativity, maps, memory,logic. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date: 11/12/2014. [WB]

Dr. Panda's Mailman

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Here's another well designed Dr. Panda app; with oversized, playful animals andno-fail playful activities. Tribeplay calls this app a successor to Dr. Panda's Daycare,because it offers a similar play pattern -- a free-play game where kids can role play andmake their own stories while taking care of baby animals, but themed aroundswimming, and in 3D.

Content includes three pools that players to explore with baby animal dress indifferent swimsuits. Parents come to pick up the child animals at the end of the day,for closure.

Details: TribePlay, www.tribeplay.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad.Teaches/Purpose: spatial relations, logic, memory. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.3 stars. Entrydate: 1/12/2015. [WB]

Dr. Panda's Swimming Pool

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Turn your iPad into a geology lecture, complete with the ability to zoom in on rocksamples, a set of animated movies (e.g., to illustrate a process like lithification) and aset of quizzes. The app is designed to introduce students to the three rock types foundon Earth, and the geologic processes behind them.

The design of this app is as dry as the title. Content is presented in school-reportformat, one narrated slide at a time, with the ability to zoom in on different rocksamples... but the narration is not timed with what you are examining. The navigationcould be better.

A Rock Builder activity lets you test your knowledge of the rock cycle to build newrocks from existing ones. This sounds good, but there's no formative feedback in caseyou get lost. Other features include a glossary, optional narration and a quiz that canbe shared.

Topics include: The Rocks - Igneous Rocks, Sedimentary Rocks, and MetamorphicRocks; The Processes - Cooling and Crystallization, Weathering, Lithification,Metamorphism, and Melting; and The Rock Cycle. Note that this is a big download(Size: 694 MB).

See also Focus on Earthquakes, CTR Editor's Choice Award April 2012.Details: Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc. , www.tasagraphicarts.com. Price: $7.99. Ages: 12-

up. Platform: iPad (iOS 7.1 or later). Teaches/Purpose: earth science, rocks, the crust,geology. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.1 stars. Entry date: 1/20/2015. [WB]

Earth’s Rocks and the Rock Cycle

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Billed as "the world's first Interactive rubber duck" this bathtub toy is equippedwith a waterproof rechargeable lithium ion battery, speaker, LED night light,Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) connectivity to your tablet or smart phone.

Sensors include a thermometer, so the LED can change colors according to thetemperature of the bath water. The toy recharges from a "nest" during bedtime, when itdoubles as a night light and white noise generator.

The battery lasts "up to 8 hours." The app is for iOS, Android and Windowsdevices, and is required to bring Edwin to life. There are four play modes: Story Time,Sleepy Time, Play Time and Bath Time.

The story time includes an animated adventure story "emphasizing self-confidence,good decision‐making, health, and so on." Coming Spring 2015.

Details: Pi Lab, www.thepilab.com. Price: $99. Ages: 2-8. Platform: Smart Toy.Teaches/Purpose: a smart toy. Entry date: 1/21/2015.

Edwin the Duck

Designed to introduce students to alternative energy vehicles, this kit lets childrenassemble their own racer. It is part plane and part car; it moves on wheels, is batterypowered and is mobilized by a plane propeller. Kits are $12.95 for one, or $10 each fora 25 pack ($250).

The kit includes CDs for wheels, CD hubs, balsa wood material for the body, abattery holder, and a propeller. Requires two AA batteries, hobby knife, straightedge,soldering iron and solder, drill, glue, double-sided tape, small screwdriver, andtransparent tape, sold separately.

Details: Pitsco Education, www.pitsco.com. Price: $12.95. Ages: 9-up. Platform:Smart Toy. Teaches/Purpose: STEM, science, engineering. Entry date: 1/5/2015.

Electric Energy Prop Racer Kit

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Beautiful illustrations and sounds cleverly engage children in 12 easy to playgames, in this farm themed app. Children help a farmer named Feite and his twofriends Hinnerk and Hein in their daily work on the farm. The app uses a unique side-scrolling navigation mechanic to let children move through the day's tasks. You start inthe morning (collecting eggs) and swipe from right to left to move to a later point inthe day. Each task is easy to spot; and when you've done all your work, there's apleasant good-night scene and the farm goes to sleep. Content includes: Morning -wake up Fiete, Hein and Hinnerk, collect eggs, harvest carrots; Noon - clean the pigs,pick apples, shear the sheep; Evening - milk the cow, feed the pigs, have the merchantspick up wool, milk, eggs, grain, fruits and vegetables; and After the work is done -enjoy the end of the work day at the campfire.

Need to know: It takes less than 30 minutes for a busy child to complete all thetasks. If you like this app, you'll also like Fiete Match.

Details: Ahoiii Entertainment UG, www.fiete-app.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 2-8.Platform: iPad, Android. Teaches/Purpose: classification, time of the day, logic,memory. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.8 stars. Entry date: 1/27/2015. [WB]

Fiete - A Day at the Farm

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Billed as "a moving story book", this is one of many solid vehicle-themed apps frompublisher Good Glue.

While the design is limited, with way too many instructions from a fast-talkingnarrator, and an inability to go back in the story, the theme is a direct hit with youngvehicle aficionados.

Your job is to ride along on a Fuel Tanker Truck as it stops to deliver fuel. You firstrefill your truck at the loading racks, and then visit cargo ports to refuel ships,submarines, airplanes and helicopters. To connect the hose to the truck, you have tomatch shapes.

As you drive, you can honk the horn, and clouds turn into faces. Good Glue makes23 (as of January 2015) vehicle themed apps, including Garbage Truck, Police Truck,Ice Cream Truck, Log Truck, Cement Truck, Fire Truck, Snow Plow Truck and StreetSweeper.

Details: Good Glue, www.goodglue.com. Price: $.99. Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad,iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: language, matching, logic, transportation. Rating (1 to 5stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date: 1/20/2015. [WB]

Fuel Tanker Truck

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Good content meets a clunky but bearable interface, in this set of grammarquestions designed to give second and third grade children a proofreading exercise.

Children are presented with a set of sentences about the Roo family. The sentenceshave errors that must be spotted and fixed, by way of a set of multiple-choicequestions. Content contains nine stories, each between 10 and 20 screens.

Each story is scored and points are given as a reward. Children lose points fortrying to fix something that is already correct (to keep them from randomly clickingaround to find the correct answers).

As children progress through the nine stories, new grammar content is graduallyintroduced, and once introduced, these grammar issues are presented again and againin each subsequent story. With each story, the level of complexity of the grammarissues increases. In the final stories, children must look out for many different types ofgrammar issues all at once, making a good application.

Need to know -- we didn't spot any hammer.Details: You University Apps, www.youuapps.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 7-10.

Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: reading, writing, capitalization, sentence structure,parts of speech, grammar, proofreading. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4 stars. Entry date:11/7/2014. [WB]

Grammar Hammer 7-10

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This is a $10 clear plastic base that sits on top of your tablet, to use with "yourfavorite building toys", like LEGOs (with 8 mm studs).

Images generated on the tablet screen shine through the baseplate and form abackground landscape. You can then augment the image with sounds. The app allowscustom landscapes to be built with one stud (8mm) spacing or two stud (16mm)spacing tile images.

For example, to create a beach scene, you can place toy brick palm trees, beach hutsand toy brick figures in beach apparel on the baseplate. The background scene iscreated with the app using images such as water or sand and foreground images suchas fish. You can then add the sound of waves crashing on the beach. See alsoIdentiBricks that use small RFID “Pills” (about the size of a grain of rice) to allow theposition and orientation of any object placed on the screen to be tracked. Theseinexpensive Pills are similar to those used currently for pet identification.

For an interesting overview of the technology, see http://www.identitoy.com/technology.html.

Details: IdentiToy, www.identitoy.com. Price: $10. Ages: 7-up. Platform: iPad,Android (note: will not work on the iPad Mini or irregular size screens).Teaches/Purpose: creativity, logic, building. Entry date: 1/22/2015.

IdentiToy Interactive Brick Baseplate

In this remastered and 3D enhanced version of the Nintendo classic, a maskedSkull Kid drags Link into the world of Termina, where the moon is falling from thesky.

Link can reverse time and relive his last 72 hours, and each time he'll put on any ofhis 20 masks, help different citizens, battle different bosses, and ultimately change thefate of a world. The land of Termina and its citizens form one massive puzzle for Linkto solve. Testers: "we loved it."

Details: Nintendo of America, www.nintendo.com. Price: $40. Ages: 10-up.Platform: Nintendo 3DS. Teaches/Purpose: logic, spatial relations. Entry date:1/20/2015.

Legend of Zelda, The: Majora's Mask 3D

Does the world need another well designed two player LEGO Batman adventure?You bet. This time the evil Brainiac is out to destroy the Earth. You must venture intospace to stop him.

Brainiac is using the power of the Lantern Rings to shrink worlds to add to hiscollection of miniature cities from across the universe. The greatest super heroes andvillains from the DC Comics universe must unite and journey to different LanternWorlds to collect the Lantern Rings and stop him before it's too late.

You can play and unlock 150 characters, including for the first time, flying LEGOBig Figures such as Martian Manhunter and Arkillo. The handheld versions of thegame features 45 missions and more than 100 characters.

Developed by TT Games for Warner Bros. Prices are $60 for the Xbox One and PS4versions, $50 for the PS3 and Wii U versions, and $30 for the Nintendo 3DS,PlayStation Vita, and PC versions.

Details: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, www.warnerbros.com. Price:$60. Ages: 6-up. Platform: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U,Nintendo 3DS, Vita, Windows. Teaches/Purpose: logic, co-op play. Rating (1 to 5stars): 4.7 stars. Entry date: 11/13/2014. [WB]

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

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Fast, fun and addicting, this concoction of applied behaviorism and adorablecartoon characters is specifically designed to usher your child toward a state of joyfulfrustration, with a fairly high probability that he or she will want to make an in-apppurchase ... for as much as $100 (in real money).

That's right folks. The game is extremely well crafted, starting with a short moviefeaturing Bugs Bunny, being chased by the hunter Elmer Fudd. To jump, dive orchange lanes you swipe up, down, left or right, collecting stars and other goodies alongthe way. But here's the catch ... by the time you reach level 14, the challenge becomesimpossibly hard unless you purchase a super stomp, laser blaster or turbo blast.

Failure is built into the DNA of this game... you die hundreds of times by runninginto a tree or falling into a ravine, and unless you buy additional lives you lose all theitems you've selected so far. You also might encounter an advertisement from acompany that will buy you more lives.

Need to know. This app collects information from your device that might includewhich apps are running, your browsing history and bookmarks, profile data, Wi-Finetworking, such as whether Wi-Fi is enabled and names of connected Wi-Fi devices.If you install on your phone, it can give the publisher your phone number, callinformation, whether a call is active, and the remote number connected by a call. So,while the app might be free and fun, it also might give away your identity.

Also noteworthy is how this app blends child-friendly graphics and characters(Looney Tunes) with a "not for children" legal strategy.

The terms of service state that "you may not use this app if you are under 13 yearsof age" and "if you are between 13 and 17, you agree that a legal guardian hasreviewed and agreed to these terms." And then, in all caps "ALL SALES ARE FINAL"just in case your child does accidentally purchase the $100 king-sized case of LooneyBucks. So, while the game is fun, we question whether it's worth all the behavioralmanipulation, that includes holding current progress hostage unless you pay up. Andif you do accidentally spend $100, that's all folks.

Details: Zynga, Inc., www.zynga.com. Price: $free with IAP, up to $99. Ages: 7-up.Platform: . Teaches/Purpose: timing. logic, memory, spatial relations. Rating (1 to 5stars): 3.7 stars. Entry date: 1/5/2015. [WB]

Looney Tunes Dash

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Featuring an innovative "choose-your-own path" branching navigation system, thisis a 70,000 word fantasy novel about a young boy's quest outside his family'sbarbershop in search of a birthday celebration.

The pages are organized in two or three paragraph chunks (one per screen) thatyou control by swiping up, down, left or right. At various points in the story, you helpthe boy make a decision, such as follow a friend, or go with an old man. Each choicehas irreversible consequences, although it is possible to back through the story to thelast decision point. Illustrations are meager, but well done, and the pages look like realparchment. There is no sound.

Progress is auto-saved. Content includes illustrations, and dozens of decisionpoints (we only made it to Chapter 4). Learn more at http://darnedsock.com/2014/05/27/game-elements-in-loose-strands-developer-diary-2/

Details: Darned Sock Productions, http://darnedsock.com/. Price: $4.99. Ages: 9-up. Platform: iPad, Android. Teaches/Purpose: reading, reading comprehension.Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date: 1/17/2015. [WB]

Loose Strands

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Featuring solid design and your choice of three English accents, this is part of aseries of apps that serves up hundreds of multiple-choice style math problems withinstant feedback and a token reinforcement system. The best part -- a multi-playermode for 2, 3 or 4 children to play at once.

The app is designed to allow students to practice and master essential math skillsand was written for the Common Core Standards.

The Kindergarten version includes: Training - 36 question sets that cover Number,Addition and Subtraction, Fractions, Grouping and Sharing, Patterns and Shapes,Measurement, Money and Data, as well as a scratch board for working out problems,along with the added feature of audio for all questions, including word problems;Multiplayer – up to 4 players can play against each other; Timed – designed to increaseyour speed in essential addition, subtraction, word and mixed mathematics; Badges –more than 170 badges to earn; and Games - tokens can be spent on games in the Circusarea. The app lets you create multiple accounts, and track and record each child'sindividual progress. There is also a free, lite version - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathseeds-kindergarten-free/id910769890?mt=8

Details: Pascal Press, www.pascalpress.com.au. Price: $7.99. Ages: 4-6. Platform:iPad. Teaches/Purpose: math, counting. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.4 stars. Entry date:9/25/2014. [WB]

Mathseeds Kindergarten

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Beautifully illustrated but limited by too much narration that can't be skipped, thisapp represents the debut of Mia the Mouse on a multi-touch screen. We reviewed thefirst Mia app nearly 15 years ago, on a CD-ROM. We reviewed all the content in thethe free version.

The app is free to download, but you are prompted to purchase the full version inorder to get additional content (five additional scenes and four sets of content).

In the story, Mia is asked to do errands for the General Store. You help by countingberries, shooting pollen spores, sorting, reproducing a melody on a small piano, andfinding hidden objects in a scene. Features include two levels of difficulty, and theability to toggle background music off. Playing the free version doesn’t mean yourchild won’t be able to see the end of the game. The additional content offered with thein-app purchase is located in the middle of the app, which provides four groups ofquestions, five additional scenes, a phonics activity (sound/letter, letter/image), anactivity to help children understand how to decode symbols and counting games.

The bottom line? While the characters are well designed and the illustrations topnotch, the interactive design is overly scripted, which limits what children can do (it'slike a teacher that talks too much, and can't be interrupted). We'd love to see thiscontent used in a way that fosters child exploration.

Update 1/21/2015 the instructions are only presented the first time.Details: Kutoka Interactive, www.kutoka.com. Price: $free, $2.99. Ages: 4-6.

Platform: iPad, Android. Teaches/Purpose: logic, matching, counting. Rating (1 to 5stars): 3.7 stars. Entry date: 12/31/2014. [WB]

Mia – The Happy Helper

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Turn your iPad into a simple xylophone with 8 notes, each represented by apresent. Multi-touch is enabled so you can play chords although it is advised that youdisable multitasking gesture mode.

Details: Emmalu Apps, http://emmaluapps.blogspot.it/2014/08/cerrato-enrico-emmalu-joines-moms-with.html. Price: $free. Ages: 1-up. Platform: iPad.Teaches/Purpose: music, Christmas. Entry date: 12/16/2014.

My First Music Pad Christmas

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This eighth app in the "My Little Pony" series features a limited storyline and evenmore limited interactive design features.

Children can tap a pony to see an animated routine, but other items in the scene donothing. The narrated sentence is read outloud, but only some of the words arehighlighted. A rather pointless "word roundup" at the end of the app provides areview. But there's not much fun in this app.

From a reading point of view, a child who likes My Little Pony might like the story.There are three modes of play: Read to Me, Read Along, and AutoPlay. Parents havethe ability to toggle the music on/off and can see which words a child has beenviewing. Created for Hasbro by PlayDate Digital.

Details: Hasbro, . Price: $2.99. Ages: 4-8. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose:reading. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.6 stars. Entry date: 1/22/2015. [WB]

My Little Pony: Cutie Pox

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Aligned with the Common Core State Standards for elementary school math, thisapp is designed to let children "learn, practice, and review elementary school math".The activities are mostly multiple choice, and speech synthesis is used to introducenew concepts. Most of this app is well constructed, but the "Let's look at this together"mode is deadly because you can't skip out of the tutorial. In three languages: English,Spanish, and French, covering 1,000 math topics organized around 15 categories.

Details: myBlee, www.myblee.info. Price: $free. Ages: 5-11. Platform: iPad, iPhone,iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later, 362 MB). Teaches/Purpose: math facts, curriculum, wholelanguage. Entry date: 4/17/2014.

myBlee Math

On the surface, the "new" 3DS XL" looks just like the "old" 3DS XL." But inside arethree noteworthy features:

1) Face-tracking 3D (see the demo at http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/new-nintendo-3ds/) that uses the system's inner cameras to adjust images based on yourviewing angle.

2) New controls including a rubber knob on the front (called the C stick) to be usedfor camera controls, and two new shoulder buttons (ZL and ZR).

3) amiibo support. Now you can tap an amiibo figure to the near-fieldcommunication (NFC) reader on the lower screen to play amiibo enabled games.

Less obvious internal features include a faster CPU, better Wi-Fi and higherresolution cameras.

This new system is backward compatible with all Nintendo DS cartridges(including the Nintendo DS and DSi), but some future titles will be exclusivelyplayable on the New Nintendo 3DS XL.

Other features include data sharing features so you can transfer photos or savedgames from other Nintendo DS units, and microSDHC card reading, although you'llneed a wireless network connection and a Windows computer. The browser andInternet connection has also been improved. The New Nintendo 3DS XL will be sold inseveral types of software-themed bundles.

Note: Sadly an AC Adapter is not included in the box. You can use any Nintendo3DS, 2DS, 3DS XL, or DSi charger with the New Nintendo 3DS XL.

Details: Nintendo of America, www.nintendo.com. Price: $200. Ages: 6-up.Platform: Nintendo 3DS. Teaches/Purpose: a handheld game system. Entry date:1/20/2015.

New Nintendo 3DS XL (coming February 13, 2015)

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Designed to be used in the UK, this free, browser-based creativity activity isplagued by a bad case of screen clutter; in part because it uses every opportunity topromote Nick-related content through pop-ups. It also lets you create something, butrefuses to let you see it work unless you register; in essence holding your workhostage. Want to see Sponge Bob laugh? Fork over your parent's info first.

It's a noble attempt -- to pair popular characters with "real" code, to control thingslike how they move. But the actual coding opportunities are limited, and the actualcode is cryptic and not well designed, and the entire experience is technicallychallenging because it works within the constraints of your browser.

Code-It is open to all ages, but users under the age of 18 must obtain theirparent/guardian's permission to use the application in accordance with the Terms andConditions. This requires giving Viacom your parent's email information.

All animations created and submitted using Code-It become the sole property ofNickelodeon and may be used at Nickelodeon’s sole discretion.

Details: Nickelodeon, www.nick.com. Price: $free. Ages: 10-up. Platform:Windows, Mac OSX, Chrome, Internet Site. Teaches/Purpose: coding, creativity,programming. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 2 stars. Entry date: 1/16/2015. [WB]

Nick Code-It

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This is is a crudely designed interactive chapter book written by Victoria PérezEscrivà. In the story, Nico (a child) and Draco (a baby dragon) are exploring in theforest. But Draco gets dirty and needs a bath.

The app features eight scenes that let children interact with objects and move thestory forward by playing the seven minigames, where they can join figures, crush flies,and make soap-bubbles. The app is designed to teach children the importance ofhygiene and being responsible for a pet, while practicing reading and learningSpanish. The app is designed so that children encounter in-app purchases that arecrudely inserted directly into the child's play.

Details: G4M3 Studios, www.g4m3studios.com. Price: $free with IAP. Ages: 3-6.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. Teaches/Purpose: counting, fine motor skills.Rating (1 to 5 stars): .9 stars. Entry date: 12/30/2014. [WB]

Nico & Draco: Bath time

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Ollie (formerly called 2B) is an app-controlled light up tubular driving toy thatworks with a free Android or iOS app (required). It can reach speeds up to 14 mpg,and can be customized with custom tires and hubcaps.

Ollie is engineered for speed, programmed for tricks, and customized by you. Ollierolls at speeds of up to 14 mph and connects instantly to your device via Bluetooth LEwith a range of up to 100 feet. Turn on a dime with the included Nubby Tires or takethem off to drift like a street racer. Powered by USB charging, Ollie glows with LEDs.

In the box: one Ollie, 2 Nubby Tires, 2 Prime Hubs, a USB charging cable and aquick start tutorial. The app is on iOS and Google Play. Orbotix promises a 30 meterrange and 1 hour battery life.

Details: Orbotix, Inc., www.orbotix.com. Price: $100. Ages: 9-up. Platform: iPad,iPhone, Android. Teaches/Purpose: driving, stunts. Entry date: 10/23/2014.

Ollie

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Ozobot is a small rolling robot that can be programmed with colored lines. You useblack, red, green and blue lines to get the small robots to move forward, backward,fast, slow, right and left. The fist sized robots are powered by rechargeable lithium ionbatteries, and can work with either paper and pens, or apps that deliver different mazechallenges. Obviously you'll need the robot in order to use the app.

Ozobot can either follow your instructions or move autonomously, it can memorize& play back up to 500 moves. Apps include OzoLuck, OzoPath and OzoDraw (for bothiOS and Android)

The robots can operate continuously for about 60 minutes on a physical surface andup to 2x longer on an iPad screen.

Details: Evollve Inc., www.ozobot.com. Price: $50 and $100. Ages: 6-up. Platform:iPad, Android. Teaches/Purpose: STEM, robotics, programming. Entry date:12/11/2014.

Ozobot

Madrid-based Dada Media has created “Peek-a-Word," an iPad app designed to toprovide vocabulary practice about animals in 12 languages.

Using a peek-a-boo play pattern, the app targets young readers, letting them playwith animal-related vocabulary words in their choice of Spanish, English, French,German, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, Korean, Dutch, Italian and Russian.

You discover which animal’s name is being hidden, and touch the correct animalthat corresponds. Touching the animals will indicate whether the choice is right orwrong in a funny way.

While playing, the child will become familiar with the names and settings of eachanimal: farm, sea, jungle, Savannah and so on. Designed to provide initial contact withnew languages, fostering family participation and parent-child relationships.

Details: DADA Company, www.dadacompany.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-1.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. Teaches/Purpose: language experience, animals;Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, Korean,Dutch, Italian and Russian. Entry date: 1/11/2015.

Peek-a-Word

Think "Toca Hair Salon with horses" and you get the idea of this playful app withfive ponies in need of washing and styling.

After you choose a pony, you enter a washing stall where you can give him/her abath. There's also a trimmer, hair growing gel, various color dies, a comb, a hair drier,a curling iron and so on. When you finish your horse, you can take a picture that issaved to your photo gallery. Any child who has already used Toca Hair will instantlyrecognize the tools and the menu.

While this is a playful idea, there's not enough variety between the horses, andsome of the tools aren't responsive and the graphics are cluttered. You're shown itemsthat don't respond when touched, like the piles of hay, a fun looking feather collectionand so on. Too bad. This app was designed in Germany and made in China for Foxand Sheep by RedRabbit Animation using art from Perrine Marais.

Details: Fox and Sheep GmbH, www.foxandsheep.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-9.Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: creativity, horses, hair. Rating (1 to 5 stars):4 stars. Entry date: 1/26/2015. [WB]

Pony Style Box

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How do you "gamify" a concept like investing in agriculture futures? This free app,sponsored by CME group tries, although we found the actual game play to beunrelated to the concepts being proposed. In other words, as a learning tool, theexperience doesn't really meet it's objectives, but the game is harmless, free fun.

Developed by a contract game studio (Arsenal Media) with funding by CMEGroup and National 4-H, the app tires to "teach youth the importance of agriculturaleconomics and risk management" by way of a plinko style board where a "cow" iconfalls through a grid of pegs.

You tilt (or swipe) to avoid pegs that represent sickness, a bad market, gas prices,food prices, harsh weather and so on.

As you progress through the game, you can experience all four seasons whilelearning about risks that affect the overall profit of the steer. Players must makestrategic decisions in order to win the blue ribbon at the end. The game is free,sponsored by CME Group Inc., an American futures company that owns and operatesderivatives and futures exchanges in Chicago and New York City.

Details: Arsenal Media, Inc., www.arsenal-media.com. Price: $free. Ages: 7-up.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: agriculturefutures, farming, business. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.1 stars. Entry date: 12/11/2014. [WB]

Risk Ranch

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Eighteen animal related videos, jigsaw puzzles and memory games are bundled inone free app.

As long as your tablet is connected to a good Wi-Fi network, children can watchthe videos or play one of the puzzles. It's always easy to get out of an activity, or watcha different video although the content is limited (videos are short, and the games arehardly innovative).

Content is updated, with segments coming from The Wildlife Docs, Sea Rescue andThe Jungle Bunch! Note that the full title is : SeaWorld Kids Network, Video Channeland Digital Activity Center Featuring Animals from Around the World. The app wascreated for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment by Playrific. It is one of five SeaWorldapps, all designed the same way. Other titles cover big cats, dolphins, sharks & turtles,baby animals, polar bears and penguins.

Need to know: If it's free, what's the catch? Not much. The app does prompt youfrequently to register with an annoying dialog box that requires reading. In addition, ifyour wi-fi slows down or if you're using the app where there is no wi-fi, this app stopsdelivering content. The video boxes appear as black spaces. For the price of $free, it'shard to go wrong with this app.

Details: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc., http://seaworldkids.com/. Price:$free. Ages: 5-10. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0 or later).Teaches/Purpose: animals, memory. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4 stars. Entry date:12/16/2014. [WB]

SeaWorld Kids Network

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What has Wi-Fi, costs $1000 and comes with it's own free app? With the exceptionof the $1000 part, you'd hardly guess a mattress.

At CES 2015, Minnessota USA based Sleep Number released the SleepIQ Kids bed,an app-controlled mattress that can "adjust with children as they grow."

The bed uses air pressure sensors to capture presence in bed by way of movement,breathing and heart rates. It uses a "full-body algorithm" to assess the quality of sleepand assign a 1-100 SleepIQ score for each night’s sleep. The information is sent to asmartphone (not included) that has the associated app installed. You must sync themattress with your phone over your home Wi-Fi network, or you can use the lowfrequency bluetooth, making it possible to check your child's sleep patterns from aremote location. This could be bad news for baby sitters. For families with multiplechildren, the scores can be compared.

Features include the ability to adjust the firmness of the mattress, the angle (forreading), underbed lighting that turns on automatically when you get out of the bed,automatic alerts if a child jumps out of bed or is restless and a built in reward system,to give good sleepers points.

The app has a "monster detector" that uses your smart phone's camera to show ifthere are any monsters under the bed.

Sleep Number says that the bed will help parents better understand routines thataffect sleep, such as exercise, caffeine and screen time to help themdevelop healthysleep routines.

SleepIQ technology was developed by Sleep Number and its partner BAM Labs.Details: Sleep Number, www.sleepnumber.com. Price: $1000 and up. Ages: 2-15.

Platform: Smart Toy, iPhone, Android. Teaches/Purpose: health; an app controlledmattress with sensors for heart rate to monitor sleep patterns. Entry date: 1/11/2015.

SleepIQ Kids Bed

Looking for a terrific way to let children experiment with wires, circuits, motorsand lights? Snap Circuits has been putting kits together for many years, the quality ofthe parts in their kits are evidence.

Note that there are several Snap Circuits kits, ranging in complexity and price.This "Light and Sound Combo" is one of several kits in the "Snap Circuits" line, and allthe parts are compatible.

Written instructions are included.The Snap Circuits Motion kit, for example, contains 50 parts and over 165 projects

to complete, motion and physics focused. You can experiment with gears ratios usingvarious gears and pulleys. Experiments include: Color changing lighted fan, Air"fountain", Motion Detector and more. With its easy-to-follow instructions, SnapCircuits gives your child a hands-on education in how electrical circuits work to runthe everyday devices that they're familiar with. They'll also gain valuable lessons inbuilding and in following instructions. The project manual includes large colorillustrations and simple directions for each project. - See more at: http://www.elenco.com/product/newdetails/snap_circuits_motion=MTAxMQ==#sthash.ImOLDXzu.dpuf

Requires AA batteries.Details: Elenco Electronics, Inc., www.elenco.com. Price: $150. Ages: 8-up.

Platform: Smart Toy. Teaches/Purpose: circuits, electricity, science, STEM. Rating (1 to5 stars): 4.8 stars. Entry date: 4/18/2013. [WB]

Snap Circuits Deluxe Light and Sound Combo

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Speakaboos is subscription-based service designed to bring children's stories todigital devices.

Content comes from well known sources including The Jim Henson Company, HITEntertainment, and Scholastic Media/Weston Woods.

As of October 2014 the library contains 150 titles including stories, songs, nurseryrhymes, fables, and fairytales.

The app is free to download and it includes three free stories. An unlimitedsubscription service costs $5/month, $27 for 6 months and $50 for a year. Subscriptionsare automatically renewed but may be canceled at any time by going to AccountSettings after purchase.

Details: Speakaboos, www.speakaboos.com. Price: $free. Ages: 2-6. Platform: iPad,iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: reading. Entry date:9/9/2014.

Speakaboos

Turn your iPad into a food market scanner, with this innovative shoppingsimulator. There are two modes of play; one with the camera, the other without.

First you visit the store, where you drag and drop items into your shopping cart.The interface is simplified, but it doesn't tell you that you have to swipe to move yourcart. Some arrows or some other hint would be helpful. After you fill your cart withsome fairly strange items (there are lots of meat and fish items) you can drag and dropthe items onto a checkout counter to have them automatically scanned.

It is also possible to print the food items with QR codes, which can be "scanned" bythe iPad's camera; a mode available from the main menu.

The app is designed to teach children about money and shopping through a hands-on approach, with the option of playing in both virtual and printable modes. Testersnoted that some of the food items have unusual prices (the toys seem unusuallyexpensive, for example, and a loaf of bread costs $6). The price notation is alsounconventional (there are no $, for example).

This app could be used to set up a "real" store in a preschool house area. Childrencan print out products with scannable bar codes, along with a foldable shelf to holdtheir merchandise.

They can then fill their basket, scan the bar codes using the iPad's front camera(with the iPad laying flat), and count up the money when they complete theirpurchase.

You can print the products, currency and shelves directly from the applicationusing AirPrint or send the PDF via email; fold the printed shelves to make a free-standing holder for the products; scan product barcodes using the iPad’s front camera;and add up the bill and count change with a realistic cash register. Children can playtogether by arranging a mini store in their own home or classroom. Languagesinclude: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, SimplifiedChinese, Spanish. This app was made by the creators of Foldify (CTR March 2013).

Details: Pixle, www.pixle.pl. Price: $2.99. Ages: 6-8. Platform: iPad.Teaches/Purpose: math, shopping, scanning, units of money. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.4stars. Entry date: 11/7/2014. [WB]

Storest

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Tales2Go is an audio book service for students that streams "thousands of name-brand titles."

The Tales2Go subscription includes instant, unlimited and simultaneous access to4,300 titles including Clifford, Ivy & Bean, Magic School Bus, 39 Clues, Diary of aWimpy Kid, Boxcar Children, Junie B. Jones, The Lemonade War and The HungerGames.

According to the publisher, "listening to audio books on Tales2Go allows childrento experience written language without the burden of decoding and grant them accessto content that they may not be able to read and understand alone."

Teachers can assign an audio book to an entire class or grade and have all thestudents listen to the same title at the same time. In addition, Tales2Go providesteachers, librarians and other school staff with lesson plans, graphic organizers,classroom activities and other resources.

Details: Tales2Go LLC, www.tales2go.com. Price: $free/ $25 year. Ages: 3-up.Platform: iPhone, Android, Internet Site. Teaches/Purpose: reading, audio books.Entry date: 2/10/2010.

Tales2Go

Tiggly Counts is series of apps that combine a physical toy (sold for $30) withdigital play. The blocks were inspired by the classic cuisenaire rods used in Montessoriclassrooms, and features five rubbery, magnetic counters that can be detected by theiPad screen.

In Tiggly Adventure, Tiggly sets off to deliver the most delicious apple pie to hisgrandmother, and along the way needs you to use your counting toys to build bridges,ladders and more to help him overcome challenges. The app introduces you to numberline concepts and helps improve number sense and counting skills.

In Tiggly Cardtoons, two pieces of cardboard become a juggling owl, or ahungry shark with a taste for apples, or a rumbling truck carrying snakes. It isdesigned to teach basic math ideas such as one to one matching, counting, and equalsets.

In the third app, Tiggly Chef, there is an emergency in the kitchen and TigglyTown's "greatest, most mustachioed chef", needs help from you and your countingtoys to prepare his silly recipes. Try and beat the Chef at his own game and deviseyour own kooky concoctions in one of the Chef's three kitchens. The game is designedto teach numbers and early addition concepts,introduce you to math symbols, andencourage you to follow instructions.

Details: Tiggly, http://tiggly.com/. Price: $30. Ages: 3-up. Platform: iPad (Tigglycounting blocks are recommended) . Teaches/Purpose: math, counting, numbers,addition, subtraction. Entry date: 10/6/2014.

Tiggly Counts

Six memory, sorting and classification games await in this well-crafted app thatrepresents a collaboration with children's television producer Sharon Lerne (Betweenthe Lions), Inception Apps and StoryToys.

Operation is straightforward... just tap a bear on the main menu to jump into anactivity. Each bear is introduced in an animated introduction. They include Chef JamesBear, the Teddy Twins, Candy Bear, Beardini the Magician, Detective Sherlock Bearand Billy Builder Bear.

The activities are leveled, although we would've liked a hint option, especially inthe "find the hidden item" activity.

The bear characters were created by Sharon Lerner, an Emmy Award-winningwriter and producer who has helped develop highly acclaimed TV series includingSesame Street and Between the Lions. Sharon was one of the first ten people hired todevelop Sesame Street, alongside Jim Henson. She served as Children’s TelevisionWorkshop VP and Creative Director for Sesame Street toys, books and records for tenyears. Lerner was also VP/Publisher of Children's Media at Random House where shecreated products for Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry and the Berenstain Bears among others.Too Many Teddy Bears is the first app from Inception Games.

Details: StoryToys, www.storytoys.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad.Teaches/Purpose: logic, memory, classification. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.4 stars. Entrydate: 1/27/2015. [WB]

Too Many Teddy Bears

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New for 2015, the UP Box 3D printer from Beijing, China.This is the fastest, highest resolution printer in the "UP" line of printers. The lower

priced model, called the UP Plus 3D Printer can make items that are 255 x 205 x 205mm (WxHxD) in size.

New features include a motorized probe for automatic platform leveling andnozzle height detection. So no human intervention is required during printercalibration. The UP BOX can print 30% faster than UP Plus 2, and at a higherresolution, as fine as 100 microns.

The printer includes a safe, enclosed case to maximize temperature stability anddecrease sound, and an ABS print surface to enhance adhesion for minimum warpingfor printing large objects. A built-in air filter absorbs fumes and minimizes odor. Thesoftware is included and is "easy enough for rookies and versatile enough for gurus."Note that you'll need a Mac or Windows computer in order use the software needed todownload or create 3D objects. See, for example http://pp3dp.com/

Details: Tiertime Technology, www.tiertime.com. Price: $1900. Ages: 12-up.Platform: Windows, Mac OSX. Teaches/Purpose: 3D Printing, creativity. Entry date:1/27/2015.

Up Box

First released in 2013, this is a starter 3D printer with a case designed to protectchildren from hot parts and smells (for school or home).

It can make objects that are 4.7" x 4.7" x 4.7" with a layer thickness of 200 microns(0.2 / 0.25 / 0.30 / 0.35mm).

It can print ABS or PLA plastic and it requires free software that you download.It is compatible with STL, UP3, UPP and connects via USB to a Windows or Mac

OS computer (required). It includes a 110-240VAC 220W power adapter.Details: Tiertime Technology, www.tiertime.com. Price: $600. Ages: 12-up.

Platform: Windows, Mac OSX. Teaches/Purpose: 3D printing. Entry date: 1/27/2015.

UP Mini (3D Printer)

Made in China by Tiertime Technology, the UP Plus 2 3D Printer supports UP PLAand UP ABS filaments.

It is a quiet, reliable printer that was designed in 2012 as a step up from the UPMini. It can make bigger objects with more details, and has an open chassis to make iteasy to use.

Features include linear bearings, automatic platform leveling and nozzle heightdetection, and the ability to make objects as big as 4.75" x 4.75" x 4.75." See also the UPBox, released in 2015.

Details: Tiertime Technology, www.tiertime.com. Price: $1300. Ages: 12-up.Platform: Windows, Mac OSX. Teaches/Purpose: A 3D Printer. Entry date: 1/27/2015.

UP Plus 2 (3D Printer)

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Don't be fooled -- this app (for iPhone or iPod Touch) will not let your child makethose famous short five second looping vine movies, as the title may imply.

Instead, this is merely a playful, easy to use movie player, designed to show child-appropriate, often funny Vine movies. The set of movies (we counted well over 20)were curated from the original Vine web site.

There are no interactive features, other than the ability to swipe through the videos.There's a nice selection, and plenty of funny things to discover.

Note you can't record or make Vine content, as you might expect. This app wouldbe good for keeping a child entertained for a long car trip.

Details: Vine Labs, www.vine.co. Price: $free. Ages: 2-5. Platform: iPhone.Teaches/Purpose: a passive video watching experience. Entry date: 1/31/2015.

Vinekids

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littleclickers: alligatorschildrenstech.com/files/2015/02/ctrfeb15-179.pdf · children’s...

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