I still have not purchased an iPad. I’m working myself up to buying one, I really am. I mean, I can only drool over everyone else’s for so long before I finally break down. In any case, I have an official iPad app tester: My mom!
She makes the perfect iPad app tester for me because not only does she have an iPad (yes, my mom is cooler than me) but she is also a retired teacher and continues to be a “teacher’s teacher” today. (yes, my mom is a workaholic like me)
So it’s great when I have an educational app to have her test out because not only does she review it from the standpoint of how much fun an app is – but also how well it teaches concepts. To make things even better, she has many grandchildren which happily offer their services as test subjects.
Here is her review of Number Sense HD:
The creators of PunFlay’s Mathomatix Number Sense for the iPad, outdid themselves from a technical and educational standpoint. As a child works her way through the 5 different games included in the application, she is having fun while gaining number skills and concepts that build on each other in a natural and pedagogically appropriate way. I wonder how many other apps have been checked against the National and California Standards for teaching mathematics to kindergarteners. Very impressive!
Booster Balls focuses on counting from 1 to 30. The child collects 10 balls at a time and then feeds them to a cute little monster. A child’s voice gives clear and easy to follow instructions and provides a model for the child to count along with. The game is simple and fun. My six year old granddaughter, Kayla, liked catching the balls and feeding them to the monster even though the game was clearly no challenge. Five year old Joey and 3 year old Leah really enjoyed counting along, and with each repetition of the game became more confident.
Do the Dotty is a “connect the dots” game with sets of 10 numbers up to 30. Now we are upping the ante. Not only do you have to be able to count, you have to recognize what the number looks like and follow the instructions, connecting the numbers in sequence to create a picture. Kayla, of course, breezed through, repeating the game many times, changing the colors of the completed pictures. Joey declared the game really fun, but required some assistance as the numbers increased. After a few tries, he began to recognize the numbers on his own. I could tell that playing the game over a period of time would improve his skills. Leah loved creating the pictures, but needed a lot of help following the directions and recognizing the numbers.
Recognizing the numbers in sequence is one thing, but finding them in random groups is another challenge. Numberella provides this challenge. The players are asked to pick out a specific number floating in a cloud to create a rain shower. Easy for Kayla, not so easy for Joey and Leah, but entertaining enough not to discourage repetition which leads to learning.
Now we come to the really conceptual challenge, using an understanding of what the numbers stand for to manipulate objects. Fishoonka and Toot Toot Train accomplish that brilliantly. Fishoonka emphasizes the concepts of ‘more and less’ by having kids move fish back and forth to create the requested pattern. Toot Toot Train takes it to the next level by requiring the addition or subtraction of cars to create the desired train length. Joey needed guidance to achieve this but began to get the hang of it. Even Leah began to get the idea and was very pleased with herself.
All in all, I give this app 5 stars. As an educator, I appreciate the careful crafting of the games from the concrete to the conceptual. This is a real learning tool as well as an attractive and entertaining game, a bargain at $1.99. Bravo, PunFlay!
Number Sense HD: $1.99*
(Screenshots are coming…)
*Price at time of this writing
Disclosure: We received a free copy of this app for review purposes

Just got an email this morning about a cute memory game app that’s currently free for a limited time on the app store. Here’s the description from the developer:

Seems like everyone is doing okay except me. I’m really not over it. If you ask me anything about him I will spontaneously burst into tears. Sometimes you don’t even need to ask. I was listening to a song and the lyrics were “I forgot to tell you I loved you” – I burst into tears. I told him I was sorry, but I forgot to tell him I loved him. I keep remembering to do things that I don’t need to do anymore. I get up in the morning, and my first thought is “I have to walk the dog”. I go to bed, and I look at the empty spot where his bed used to be. I miss hanging out with him on the couch, and the way he’d curl up by my feet and keep them warm while I worked.





Seriously, 10 years?? Who put life on Fast Forward mode?
Took this photo a few weeks ago at the annual Hot Air Balloon festival they have here. For some reason, the weekend they schedule this event has consistently seen bad weather – either high winds, rain, lightning. And it’s the one week of the summer that’s consistently bad like that. Makes me wonder why they don’t move the date. You’d think they’d see the pattern there…?
We received a copy of Lola’s Alphabet Train a few days ago and it has quickly become one of Zach’s favorite games to play on my phone. The game has a few different modes depending on which level you are playing: Easy, Medium, Hard. In easy mode, you pick the letter spoken and shown (capital letters only), the next phase you pick the matching lower case letter as it falls from the sky. Then lastly, you move letters into the correct order to spell a word (you just need to move the letter on top of the hint). In the medium level, when it comes to the spelling mode, only a few letter hints are shown. You also play an additional mode where you are given a letter and you need to pick a picture of an thing that begins with that letter. The pictures are cartoonish, so for some, it’s obvious what the item is meant to be, and others could have a few names. (ie. is it a hamster, mouse, rat…?) In hard mode, you start a new mode where you select the word for the picture shown. (Multiple choices are offered). Then for the spelling mode, no letter hints are given. Again, I do wish in this mode it would at least speak the name of the picture shown. For example, in one instance, it showed a picture of a sheep – but all we could think of for the name was lamb but obviously the jumbled letters given to construct the word weren’t right. LOL! As you go along throughout the game, you collect coins that you can then buy prizes with. These prizes don’t appear to be saved anywhere. It would be nice if you could check in and see all your prizes. Hopefully this is something that will be added in the future. Additionally, I hope they make it so that you can turn the carnival music off and maybe turn off the sound effects, but leave the voice on. (The carnival music really needs to have an option most of all!) You can also customize it show your name, but this is also something that doesn’t seem to be saved.




