New children’s edutainment apps no comments
There are several new children’s reading apps that have been announced recently:
Scout’s ABC Garden from Leapfrog
Designed to help young children learn letter names and sounds. 
Scout’s ABC Garden personalizes the experience for each child based on his or her name, favorite food, favorite color and favorite animal.
With the ‘Scout’s ABC Garden’ app kids can explore Scout’s garden by touching and triggering fun and delightful sounds and animations like interactive clouds, bubbles, ticklish gophers, and Scout and Violet’s virtual radio that plays traditional kid-favorite songs. Kids can even rub Scout’s or Violet’s belly to hear a song with their name, or grow their own letter garden.
Other key aspects of the app include:
- A is for Achievement. The app is customized to each child’s level of learning, helping every child learn about letters and sounds at his or her own pace.
- B is for Bragging. Alerted when learning happens, proud parents can also share in their child’s learning achievements. With each accomplished goal, not only does the child receive a badge or trophy, but parents are alerted to their child’s achievement which they can then celebrate and share via social channels, including Facebook.
- C is for Customization. A main ingredient of the app’s appeal is its deep level of personalization. With the capacity to hold up to three profiles, a parent can customize the app for different children, including their favorite foods, colors and animals, so each can experience unique gameplay.
Available at the Apple App Store for $3.99.
GoodieWords
GoodieWords focuses on teaching preschoolers about important words that can
be difficult to define and describe in a kid-friendly way while engaging them with interactive activities and characters.
GoodieWords was one of the Top 10 Educational Apps on iTunes while in beta. The app was developed with input from leading educational experts from Stanford University and New York City’s The Dalton School. Available at iTunes for $4.99. There is also a free lite version.
Kids ABC Phonics
Kids ABC Phonics is a new children’s Android app from the makers of Kids ABC Letters — one of the most popular apps in the Education section of the Android Market.
Kids ABC Phonics has four child-friendly sections.
- Learn Letter Sounds. Kids hold and turn a picture-filled letter block and hear the ABC phonics being pronounced.
- Build Letter Blocks. Children have fun building phonics recognition skills by making their own ABC blocks.
- Pop Letter Bubbles. Kids love to pop bubbles. But don’t be fooled. By the time children are done with this game, they will know what letter goes with which sound by heart.
- Make words. While putting puzzles together, kids learn the basics of phonics blending.
Each section is designed so that children enjoy success time after time and receive positive reinforcement from the likable teacher.
Available for $3.99 at the Android Market.
Super Why Paint!
PBS Kids has announced the new Super Why Paint! app for iPad, iPhone and
iPod touch. This is a digital coloring book featuring characters from the hit preschool TV series.
Super Why Paint! offers young artists a painting palette of 20 colors and a set of 19 virtual Super Why-themed stickers. The app features 48 coloring pages that, when colored in, can be saved, emailed or uploaded to Facebook.
Available for $2.99 at iTunes.
Update (4/29/2011): The Super Why! children’s reading app is currently free (for a limited time) for Android devices at the Amazon Appstore for Android.
Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Apps
Zaner-Bloser has introduced a set of apps to help children aged 3 and over to learn handwriting. The apps are priced at $1.99 each at iTunes and are available in English or Spanish versions.
The Boxcar Children Mysteries
Amazon has a boxed set of the first 12 books in the Boxcar Children Mysteries
for $9.99. This is a Kindle book enhanced with audio visual content and is meant to be used on an iDevice, computer or Android device.
The multimedia content includes an illustrated biography of the author, Gertrude Chandler Warner, and four videos about her and her works.
The regular unenhanced Kindle version of this set is $28.99, so this is a good deal.
