Ipad App Reviews for Home, Mainstream and Special Needs Education: Bugs and Buttons and Miss Spider's Tea Party

I came across Bugs and Buttons by Little Bit Studio, via another review, which I can't remember where from, sorry, I should write my sources down so I can pass on the credit where its due. Anyway, many people know about this app and I am very happy to have paid $2.99USD. This is such a gorgeous app and the pictures are life like and the music is entertaining. If you have a child who is keen on bugs and/or buttons (or likes craft and making things) this will be a great app to add to your collection. For the teacher, this is a great addition to your Mini Beasts unit of work and can coincide with other ares of your program.

The app covers many facets of the curriculum for young children, however, you can get addicted even as an adult! My kids often complain, " Its my turn mum" or " its for kids not mums"! Bugs and buttons provides the following activities. I have put an explanation for some of the activities.

Bees-Eye - a sling shot game where you have to aim the bee at the flower to score points (a good starter for Angry Birds!!)

Patterns - matching buttons to follow a pattern

Counting- count how many bees there are by choosing the right number

Tic-Tac-Toe

Catch'em - touch as many ants as you can

Button Sorting

Factory sorting

Apple Picking - put the apples in the basket as they appear/grow on the tree, watch out for the bees!

Connect dots

Button Truck

Bug-Mazing

Firefly Sky - this is a cute game. You have to get the right coloured glowing fireflies and put them in the jar. The jar says the colour, but there is also a verbal prompt

Roach Racing

Pinch and Grab - you have to use your fingers to pinch the insect and put it in the right jar. You are also given garbage and recycled items to put in the appropriate bins/containers.

Butterfly Valley

Find - it!

Matching

That is a complete list of all 18 activities available. So when you consider the $2.99USD price tag, it really is a good deal. My boys love this app, especially the younger two. Although my 11 year old daughter has been know to spend some time sorting buttons and catching colourful fireflies!

I love apps that are not only educational but also entertaining. I love the apps that my kids will find mystifying and will sit for an good hour or two enjoying themselves without knowing or thinking they are learning something as well.  The next two apps I want to share that are on my Ipad are two Miss Spider books.

I have Bedtime Story and Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk. 

Callaway Digital Arts have done a magnificent job with these digital books.  You can choose to read the book, have it read to you or you can watch it like a video. My kids almost always choose to watch it and its usually requested for bedtime.  The video option or the read to option is good for children with vision impairments. You also have three fun activities to choose from. You can play match, paint, or do a puzzle.  I can't recommend these books enough! The pictures, the music, the voices, are all so warm and inviting and you will want to watch it at least two times!  The apps are FREE ( I have just checked now to confirm that they are currently still free) and they are available in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.

Ipad App Reviews for Home, Special and Mainstream Education: Play School Art Maker and Injini

Most of my regular readers know that as well as being a mum to 4 kiddies and a lover of good food, I am also a Primary School teacher of 10 years. I am currently working in Special Education but I am a mainstream trained teacher. Working in Special Education has been one of the most rewarding experiences of not just my professional career, but also my life. Its an amazing experience to be part of the development of a child who has either mental or phsycial challenges, and in many cases both.

There are many forms of technology which hels us as educators and the students learn more effectively and one in particular I can't praise enough is the IPad. I love the IPad. I have seen many students who have not cared for class involvment come alive when the Ipad has been introduced to them. I have seen students understand concepts and learn word meanings and pictures more readily because of the use of the Ipad. I have also seen students become engaged, move their limbs and move their eyes because they enjoyed and learned something on the Ipad. Its amazing and I highly recommend any parent, caregiver, or educator to consider the use of the Ipad in their child's educational and social development.   For children in mainstream education, I can't say if the Ipad makes an appearance as much as it might in Special Education, but I truly hope it does. Computers have their place and I don't think can be replaced, but I think every classroom should be using an Ipad or tablet to reinforce learning concepts that may normally baffle some students.  I can tell you from experience that when you make learning fun, the children will respond!

So if you have an Ipad or tablet, what apps should you be considering? Well, there are truly thousands out there to consider. One of my best resouces that I always go to is TheImums, they are always reviewing and recommending something new. I also have some other resources that are on another post which you might find interesting and helpful, especially if you have a child with special needs.

Today one of the apps I will be reviewing is actually free and I came across by accident. I was searching for apps for the Ipad I use at work and discovered, ABC's Play School Art Maker. This is for Ipad only and so much fun. Its a little like digital scrapbooking, but with all the characters of Play School, like Big and Little Ted, Gemima, Diddle, Humpty etc. You start be choosing a background scene:

Then you can go about adding pictures from the selection at the top of the screen. Some of the actors from Play School make encouraging comments as you choose pictures and place them on the scene.  The other reason why I love this app is because other than the familar toys, the items you can choose are pictures that are made up of recycled materials and look handmade, just like in the show. So your little one, will feel like they are part of it all. The best part of the app is saved to last. You then get to either take a picture of your scene, or you can make a 30 second video and move the pictures around and speak or sing a song, which then can be played back.  All my kids, including the older ones love this part best of all. My 11 year old daughter can easily spend an hour making different scenes with different dramatic voices and mini songs! Its lots of fun! Scenes can also be saved in an album for later use

This is great fun for home, but it can also be incorporated at school. This could be used in a drama lesson for early stage 1 - 2 depending on how you make it work for your class. This is also good for turn taking in special education and also speech development.  There is a whole range of options with this app.

The other app I want to review is Injini. I came across this app via Theimums. There was a special education app giveaway happening and Injini was highlighted. So I gave it a go and I have to admitt, this is truly one of my favourites. I downloaded the lite version, which is very generous with what you recieve. The full version I think is around $30 and I will be upgrading sometime in the near future. I downloaded it mainly for school, but my son who is 3 loves this app.

As you can see from the picture, you have a range of activities to choose from( this I think is from the full verson, not all pictured is in the lite version). Each activity starts in its easiest form and then increases in difficulty. One of the main things that I liked about this app is that before each activity begins, you are prompted to wait and then a count down begins, 3, 2,1. Then you can proceed. I liked this because I found it helped students with autism to learn how to wait and when they saw the counting down paddle it let them know, " I have to wait". You can also use this counting down as a learning experience for the child as well. It really is a great app that I highly recommend for students with special needs, and children ages 2+. My son loves the matching game which is bottom left on the picture above. Each activity focuses on different learning experiences and developments for children.

I have many more apps on my Ipad which I would love to share with you all. I will post reviews as I can, but please do leave a comment if you would like to pass on an app that you like and think others would like to. I also have a Meandering Monday Blop Hop and if you also post about the apps you like, please link up on the blog hop too, this would be invaluable information for parents and educators alike. The Blog Hop stays open for almost 14 days, so there is plenty of time to add a post.

Spotify is so cool!

My husband came home last night and told me about Spotify. To be honest I wasn't really tuned in at first because I was tired. He then played some songs that we both grew up listening to and my curiosity was ignited.  We the proceeded to play the game, who sings this song? It was lots of fun so I asked him where he got all these songs from and he replied, Spotify.

 How cool is this app? When you first download it you get 48 hours to download as many songs as you want for free. You log in using your Facebook account and it can use your details to make song suggestions, which aren't always correct but some are amazingly correct. That being said, you can download almost any song of choice to your account and listen to it offline - once you download it. If you add it to a list you have to make sure you download it to make sure you can listen to it offline. Otherwise its in your collection, but not accessible offline. Spotify can also be downloaded on other platforms, if you go to the website, you can see more informaiton about his.
So what's the catch? Well the free period only lasts for 48 hours. After this trial period if you wish to continue with the premium account it will cost you $12AUD/month.  When you think about it though, $12/month for all the music you want, is really a good deal. If you choose not to pay the $12/month your music is interrupted with advertising. I have been using Itunes to download my favourite music and I have easily spent $144 and I have less than 200 songs. I also hold off from paying for some of the songs I would like to because I know how easily the cost of these singles or albums can add up.

So check it out on your app store, give it a go! I have been hearing non-stop music all morning on all our i-devices in our house! My kids love it, but please be sure to be around them when they are listening or downloading as there are no filters for explicit lyrics or song titles. I have already had to delete some of the choices made, or if a song has started I have pounced on my 11 year old and told her an absolute no-way for that song!

The stats for this app are growing but when we checked it was around 13 million downloaded/users. Can you imagine what this company would be making? Even if only 1 million users paid for premium membership! My hat goes off to those or the one who came up with this idea. I don't think I will be downloading from Itunes for a long time, they will have to think of something to compete. It shall be interesting to see what becomes of this.  Now all I have to do is get my software engineering hubby to come up with something like this....no pressure hun!!!

BUY AUS MADE IPOD IPHONE IPAD APP

If you are passionate about purchasing Australian made groccery products at the supermarket then this app will be your best friend. Its free and available in AppStore on your Ipod, Iphone, Ipad. The only supermarkets it covers is Coles, Woolworths, and IGA. However, once you get used to seeing the products on the app, you can purchase them wherever you see them. 

Personally, I found it easy to use and insightful. I don't always look at the labels to see where things are made, I am often driven by how much it costs. Now, when and where I can, I will do my best to choose an Australian product. Unfortunately, for a lot of us, we need to stick to a budget and if you can get tin tomatoes for cheaper than the Australian made Ardoma tin tomatos, then you have to go with the cheapers ones, I get it because I do that too. But its nice to know what is australian and when you can purchase something that helps our economy and aussie jobs. This is app is FREE.