Feed Me! – PencilBot Preschool
By Edutainment Resources, Inc.

Rated: 4+

Developers’ description:
“Ranked 100 essential iPhone apps of 2009 (out of 100,000 apps) – The iLounge.com 2010 iPod + iPhone Buyer’s Guide

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Received “BEST” award by iPhoneAppsPlus.com that tracks ratings and reviews of all 70+ iTunes Stores globally

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Ranked top 10 best apps 4 kids by Apps4kids.net

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Highly recommended by theikidsblog.com

“…an endless buffet of educational fun…fantastic animations…provides ongoing motivation to play – and learn…perfect for kids learning their first, second, or third language…opens up possibilities for all early language learners.”

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PencilBot Preschool Feed Me! is a series developed by teachers and parents who love to make learning fun!

This simple, easy-to-use game can be enjoyed by children and their parents as they play along.

•Feed the little monster the correct “food” he is thinking of and unlock trophies for your trophy case! Go to www.pencilbot.com for more details.

•Feed the monster the wrong item and he might get sick. But don’t worry; you’ll have the chance to try the question again later in the game.

•Poke the monster for fun!

This app includes 100 fun questions on basic numbers, colors, shapes and much more.

Also available for In-App-Purchase:

•175 language art questions on letters and sounds, simple spelling and basic vocabulary words.

•100 additional questions on numbers, colors, shapes, basic math concepts and pattern recognition.

(Flip between the different games to choose – see picture below.)

Expose your child to other languages and take advantage of their natural ability to learn multiple languages. Check out additional PencilBot Preschool apps in the following languages:

•Feed Me! (English) – PencilBot Preschool
•Feed Me! (Spanish) – PencilBot Preschool
•Feed Me! (Japanese) – PencilBot Preschool
•Feed Me! (French) – PencilBot Preschool
•Feed Me! (German) – PencilBot Preschool
•Feed Me! (Italian) – PencilBot Preschool
•Feed Me! (Korean) – PencilBot Preschool”

Why we think it is great?
“This cute app exercises logic, math, colors and a series of other educational challenges through a game of feeding the little monster. Feed the monster with the write answer and he will be happy. Give him the wrong stuff and well… check it out! After completing a series of tasks, there is the treasures room. My kid just loves it.

Now, also available on the Mac!

Confetti is an incredible drawing app with which you can’t actually draw, but you get loads of fun with the sensorial experience. Adjust the settings to change the touch feedback and see how the app reacts when you play with it, mixing and shaking beautiful patters out of your interaction. Something that will enchant from grown ups like us to the very little ones like Ellie, developer’s Alex Wiltschko niece. Watch her playing in the video bellow and you will get a great sense of the app.

Confetti, by Alex Wiltschk0. 99¢ (iPhone / iPad version)

Right after Pixar/Disney’s Toy Story 3 was out on theaters the read-along book app for the iPad was available at Apple’s AppStore.

Following the same quality of production and completeness of features of other Disney’s read-along apps, Toy Story 3 Read-Along for the iPad has a nicely edited short version of the feature movie with loads of activities, like puzzles, coloring boards, sing-along songs and games. This is a must full-featured companion for kids who saw and enjoyed the movie that enable them to keep on re-living the story and playing with Woody and his friends.

The app isn’t ‘cheap’ when compared to others, but the amount of work put on it and all the fun you get in exchange are certainly worth the price.

The only feature my son missed was the videos that Toy Story 2 Read-Along had and this one doesn’t.

Toy Story 3 Read-Along, by Disney Publishing Worldwide. $8.99 (iPad version)

Colortoons
By Axeva

Rated: 4+

Price: $0.99

Colortoons is a cute coloring / drawing app that will work perfectly for toddlers with its very easy-to-use interface. Choose from the 22 cartoon-styled animals to paint or draw freely using the combination of 32 available colors over a blank canvas or over the preset drawings available.

OLIVIA Paints
By Soma Creates

Rated: 4+

If for nothing else, Olivia would already be a great app just based on its beautiful graphic style, animations and music. It would be another really well produced coloring app. But there is more to it, and this is one of a kind. Olivia is the first coloring app I came across that actually teaches how to mix colors.

With a painters ink palette and a brush, you actually get to mix different colors and see what happens when you do it. Mix green and yellow to get green, add a little black to make it darker. Clean the brush in the water and start over. Such a great way to learn how to use colors!

The only thing missing in our opinion is an option to export the images to the photo library and/or send via email. Maybe a nice add-up to future updates?

With more screen space to exercise creativity new great apps are coming out. A nice trend is the use of ‘objects’ and shapes to make compositions. And here are three great apps that fit perfectly in this category.

Geo Color Pad, by David Barns, uses geometric shapes and colors for compositions. You can choose from different shape grids and palettes, start with pre-coloured boards or blanks to create your drawings. The result are beautiful mosaics that you can save and share. Available at the AppStore for $ 1.99 (iPad version).

Draw with Stars, by L’Escapadou, gives a more sensorial experience as you get beautiful sound feedback while drawing with stars in different sizes and colors against a nightly sky. You can also choose to put stars agains a picture background from you photo library. Available at the AppStore for 99¢ (iPad and iPhone version).

iBeads, by Apostrophe Stockholm, gives you a photographic ambient for you to make your creations with colored beads on a board. You have a limited amount of beads that you can use to come of with your ideas. Very well done with nice background music and perfect user interaction. It as a great alternative for small children that will not be able to play with the actual beads for a while. Available at the AppStore for $ 1.99 (iPad version).

From Duck Duck Moose, creators of ‘Wheels on the Bus‘, one of the all-time best apps for toddlers, here comes Fish School. A complete interactive learning game with 8 educational activities covering letter, numbers, shapes, colors, differences and matching.

With two versions, one for the iPhone/iPod Touch and one design specially for the iPad this is very thoughtful production with beautiful professional graphics, great animation and sound.

Duck Duck Moose currently carries 4 interactive apps for the Apple platform and for me is already established as a quality stamp for great products.

Fish School HD for the iPad, from Duck Duck Moose. $1.99
Fish School for the iPhone/iPod Touch, from Duck Duck Moose. 99¢

But wait! We’ve got promocodes! First TWO commenters on this post get to download the iPad version for FREE!

Watch the demo video:

One of our favorites, TOP 10 APP, coloring applications is out with a new version. ColorMe 1.5 has two times more images to coloring with sets of Dinosaurs, Girls World and of Cars.

And guess what? They got us promocodes! The first three to comment on this post get the codes.

Color Me, by Sid On. 99¢

Color Me !!! HD for iPad
By SID On

Rated: 4+

Developers’ description:
“A coloring booklet for children at the age of 2-6 years. Diverse pictures and color palette will trigger the development of your child’s imagination and shape his/her senses.

A very friendly and intuitive application enables your child to easily create extraordinary pictures.

Only a touch of a finger and the selected element of the coloring will be filled with colors.

Shaking the iPhone will cause the cleansing of the picture and therefore provides endless possibilities for coloring of the pictures.

It is also possible to save the masterpieces of your child in the image gallery. Then the child will be able to place them on the desktop of your device..

Allow your child to discover the world of colors by means of ‘Color Me!’”

Why we think it is great:
There are several coloring apps already out there and some of the are very good. But making a great coloring app is not an easy task and I believe that the guys who made Color Me actually got it.

What makes an app great are the little details. From the quality of the drawings, the quick response when you touch a part to color it, the interaction with the tools, the choice of colors. Color Me is got it all! My 3 yo said out of his head he loved it (believe, having seen a lot of apps, he is very picky)!

As more and more apps get developed and offered to the market, some companies start to get noticed for the quality of what they manage to create. That is certainly the case of Tickle Tap Apps, and they have a new great app called ‘Color Collector’. This is certainly one of a kind.

‘Color Collector’ challenges kids to find colors on the physical world using the iPhone camera. As they find a color and click, the app matches the color against a color wheel and gives a corresponding star for the color that was found. More than a color learning game, this one actually exercises motor coordination, the use of the camera and the exploration of the world in a great learning experience! No doubts, a TOP 10 APP!

For what the app requires in terms of skills, it is recommended for kids from 3 to 5 by the developer. My 3 yo. is having a great time with it!

Color Collector, from Tickle Tap Apps. $ 1.99