Magic Town

Magic Town is a recent discovery for us. It's a website and app containing a virtual world of stories.

Reuben really likes the independence of reading virtual books, so this website is really nice for him. We only use the free version but you can upgrade to a paid subscription and get more stories. The free version has around 15 books and a new story each day. There is also a download section with free activity worksheets.

When you arrive in Magic Town, you’ll meet the guides Izzy and Max. They’re there to show you around. You’ll see lots of houses that hold the stories and games. And if you click on the big tree at the top of the landscape, you meet Louis the Storyteller. Louis is a wise old lion who has travelled the world, collecting stories that he’s brought to Magic Town. Click on Louis to get the free story of the day.

Some of the free books include: Elmer the elephant, Winnie the Witch, The little princess, and classics like Little red riding hood and The boy who cried wolf.

Dr Frankenstein's body lab

As Halloween excitement mounts even the ipad is seeing more ghoulish and weird applications.
Our new acquisition is this body lab app from DK publishers.

You have to put all the body parts together (in under 20 seconds for each category, so the boys like to do it slowly, again and again! And I did the quick bit to unlock the next category), when you have enough body parts to make a living creature, you have to put these together and give it a jolt, see what happens!

Aside from the huge enjoyment both boys are getting out of this app, the big plus is that they are familiarising themselves with the human body and how everything fits together (you can pause the game and find out more about what the body parts are), and of course its fun to see if your monster will live! IT'S ALIIIIIIIVEEEEEE!!!

Earth School App

Another great ipad app!
How did the universe begin? How was life born on earth? Where did water on earth come from? Welcome to earth school, Earth School is an educational kids app containing 18 different mini games. It shows the big bang to earth generation, from life beginning to dinosaur extinction.

It is aimed at 2 to 6 year olds but I found that Reuben (nearly 5) went through it very quickly and remembered it all at the end (comets, black holes and the division of cells amongst other things), Isaac though (nearly 3) loves it loves it loves it, and squeals with delight every time he helps to feed the dinosaur!

Subjects covered (that a 3 year old will understand) are:
- The big bang
- Black hole
- Planet generation
- Birth of the Galaxy
- Evolution of species
- Saturn's Ring
- Fossil Hunting

More info here

Apps for toddlers

This, I take it, is a bit of a controversial issue and to be honest, if Reuben had not been using the ipad already I don't think it would have occurred to me to give it to Isaac (who is two and a half). But as ipads feature prominently in this household, as well as computers, cameras, smartphones and similar, and I don't like to limit my children's experiences (we are autonomous/child led educators), they are used quite a lot and I never have had reason to worry as my children use them as just one of the tools at their disposal and are not obsessive with them.

So this is a list of apps (in no particular order) that Isaac in particular really enjoys (all available from the app store on your iphone or ipad, and android often has a twin version).

• Anything with Dora the explorer or the spin off Diego. These are interactive stories with puzzles to solve to allow the story to continue.

• Disney digital books, interactive stories, we have Toy Story, Nemo, Mickey's spooky night puzzle book, Pooh's birthday surprise, Winnie the Pooh puzzle book
• It's a small world. From Disney this is a really lovely trip round the world on a balloon app to charming images and music
• From Ladybird, Happy babies and Peekaboo. For very young children, touch and discover where the animals and their babies are, very sweet, Isaac still likes it!

• Dr Seuss books and games. We have a lot of the books, Isaac's favourite is Oh say can you say dinosaur. Isaac also likes the music app Dr Seuss band and the colouring one

• Monkey preschool lunch box. A collection of matching games involving numbers and colours, this was really popular with my boys and my stepchildren
• Boowa and Kwala. A spin off from the website which is a bit too difficult for Isaac but the apps are nice. We have the circus and the farm one. It's a little journey with games and songs through a farm and a circus, French and English options, Isaac seems to like both!

• In the night garden. Very sweet app from the Cbeebies programme
• Peppa Pig. I must confess we have all of them and Isaac likes them all...
• iWriteWords. Handwriting app that Isaac very stubbornly tries to do!

• ClikyStickyTrains. He LOVES this one. Make your own train and watch it go. There are more in the series, we also have the cars and Christmas ones

I'm sure there's more as Reuben has flooded the ipad with apps and Isaac gives them all a try but I think these are the ones he uses more often. Ok, now off to play in the sand pit!

Britannica Kids apps

We use the iPad a lot and the boys came across a Dinosaur app by Britannica Kids. It's a bit advanced for them (nearly 3 and 5, it's aimed at ages 8 to 10) but they still enjoy looking at the pictures of dinosaurs and doing the puzzles.

It's divided into different categories: The World of Dinosaurs - Dinosaur Characteristics - Death of the Dinosaurs - Discovering the Dinosaurs - Dinosaurs A-Z (featuring 36 different dinosaurs) and there is a good games and quiz section. The pictures are great too, scary but the boys like that!!

So this led me to find out if there were any more apps from Britannica and of course there are! They can be used with both smartphones/tablets and the pc/laptop, and tie in with the Britannica Kids website http://kids.britannica.com (note: the encyclopedia is subscription only but there are a lot of other resources on the website).
A list of the apps can be found here http://www.britannica.co.uk/ebproducts/Apps.asp# and this includes The solar system, Knights and castles, Egypt, Ancient Rome, Rainforests, Volcanoes, Snakes and the Aztecs

Project Noah

This is a very worthwhile, educational and fun project to get involved in. Share pictures of wildlife and plants to help document our planet's biodiversity.

It works through a smartphone app with linking website and facebook page.
Website http://www.projectnoah.org
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/projectnoah

You can take pictures on your phone then post them to compare with similar ones, to add to the database or for others to help you identify the animal/plant. You can help identify organisms yourself, join missions and help build up a worldwide map.

Whyzz website, children's why questions

This website is really useful, I get why questions daily (and what/when/who/where/how...) so on my many google searches I came across this website http://www.whyzz.com/index/home
Rather simply, you type the question and it gives you a simple answer plus some activity/further research ideas on the subject. If you join the site you can contribute, comment and share. There is also a phone app that goes with it and I must confess I have used it a few times!

Learning is Fun iPad Apps

We really are big fans of the iPad, the Learning is fun website http://www.ar-entertainment.net/learning/ipad.html has a ton of educational apps and you can try most of them out for free.
I like the graphics and the fact that the boys don't need me at all when using them, Isaac loves the dinosaur puzzle and Reuben the writing/spelling ones and the mazes. My boys play with them (2 and a half and a very advanced 4 and a half) but older children who visit also like them.

Dr Seuss ipad apps

The boys' love for the ipad is unlimited, in the last month or so I have found myself getting quite a lot of the Dr Seuss interactive books for them, and after seeing The Lorax at the cinema we are even more enthusiastic about them. The boys like the fact that they can control the story (not so easy to stop me in mid flow when reading) and that if they tap on a word, they can hear it again. Good for learning to read independently.
These are the people who develop them http://www.oceanhousemedia.com/products/drseuss our favourites are Green Eggs and Ham, the Cat in the Hat (of course) and the Dr Seuss Band game.