Price: free (was 1.99$)
Overall Score: 70/100
version reviewed: 1.7
reviewed:
What it is/what you do with it: 3 interactive role-play scenes: a barn, vegetable garden and sheep pen.
Listen to the instructions and complete the activities (e.g. clean the pigs in the barn or harvest required number of vegetables in the garden).
What we liked: a good set of simple farm-related activities. Fun characters. Simple illustrations and animations. Narration and spoken instructions. No distracting features.
What we didn't like: we wish there was more variety in the activities (they can quickly get repetitive). Educational value could be higher. The reward badges are difficult to earn.
Appysmarts
iPhone
iPhone
iPhone
iPad
iPad
iPad
Price: free
May contain `more apps` links
Overall Score: 70/100
version reviewed: 1.2
reviewed:
What it is: an app for creating sticker scenes with the farmyard theme.
What you do with it: choose the background, drag the stickers from the menu, flip or move them to create your scene. There are over 50 stickers, 5 animated backgrounds and 6 animated foregrounds to choose from. Created scenes can be saved and shared.
What we liked: the concept, simple but very nice illustrations, good selection of stickers, lots of tiny fun details (many stickers are animated), good educational value (when you grab a sticker the name of the animal/object will be read out: 'spotty pig', 'white sheep'), sounds and sound backgrounds, ease of use.
What we didn't like: no instructions (it took us some time to figure out how to remove a sticker from our scene). We would like to see an option to resize the stickers manually (now they are resized automatically when you move them 'further' or 'closer' in the scene). Prominent links to Twitter and Facebook (on the starting screen and in the 'share' menu).
Bottom line: great app for younger kids to play and learn, we realy liked it!
Appysmarts
iPad
iPad
iPad
iPad
iPad
Price: free
Overall Score: 67/100
version reviewed: 1.3
reviewed:
What it is: a simple interactive toy to teach animal names and sounds (and occupy) the toddler.
What you do with it: listen to the animal's voice, touch the hay stack to reveal the animal.
What we liked: the concept, simple graphics and animations, simple navigation, clear sounds and narration, language options, great solution for locking 'options' button.
What we didn't like: we would like to have spoken instructions.
Please note that this app is very similar to Peekaboo barn by Night and Day Studios.
Appysmarts
iPhone
iPhone
iPhone
iPhone
iPhone
iPad
iPad
iPad
iPad
iPad
Price: free
Lite or Demo version
Overall Score: 54/100
version reviewed: 1.1
reviewed:
What it is: an interactive story about the values of family and friends (about 30 pages long) plus 2 coloring pages.
What you do with it: read the book or listen to the narration. Tap the objects for animations and sounds.
What we liked: the story, simple illustrations and animations, great narration and voice acting, the sounds, ease of use, no distracting elements, 'two endings' option (including 'write your own ending').
What we didn't like: fonts and text layout are not 'young readers friendly. No advanced reading options (text is not highlighted etc.). Menus difficult to use (because of the very small font used). The coloring activity is very basic.
Appysmarts
iPhone
iPhone
iPhone
iPhone
iPad
iPad
iPad
iPad
