m Boy? Girl? Neitherchildrenstech.com/files/2014/09/CTRoct14-175.pdf · Funky Bots - Dancing Space...

m Boy? m Girl? m Neither?

Children’s Technology ReviewOctober 2014Volume 22, No. 10, Issue 1755 Fingers Paint*, p. 6Beyond Cats! Grade 2 MathPractice*, 6 BILD + Animate Kit, 7 Bubl ABC*, 7BubuFood, 7Collider*, 8Drive About: NumberNeighborhood*, 8Fiona & the Fog, 9

Fire HD Kids Edition, 9 Funky Bots - Dancing SpaceRobots*, 10Hexbug VEX Robotics,Construction Set - 4 in 1 Kit, 10Kid Awesome KindergartenMath*, 10Match & Play - Jobs, 11 Microsoft Office 13 with OfficeMix, 11 Montessori Math City*, 12 Napoleon Bone Apart, 12Nosy Crow Jigsaws*, 13Preschool Megagame, 13

Star Walk Kids - Astronomy forChildren*, 13Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo3DS*, 14Tap Harp, 14Theatrhythm Final FantasyCurtain Call, 14 Toca Robot Lab (2014 Edition)*,15Would You Rather Be aPollywog*, 15

Expert Guidance on Children’s Interactive Media, Since 1993

Our 11,654th Review • $60/year • http://childrenstech.com • #childtech

* Denotes “Editor’sChoice.”

On the cover: Toca Robot Lab v 1.2

Apple’s New AppBundles andFamily Setup

Toca Boca Takes on Gender Neutrality

Tablets in the Library

LittleClickers:Chocolate

Amazon’s $150Fire HD Kids

Children’s Technology ReviewOctober 2014Volume 22, No. 10, Issue 175

Editor Warren Buckleitner, Ph.D.,([email protected]) [WB]Editorial Coordinator & CirculationLisa DellaFave ([email protected]) [LD]Office Manager & LittleClickers Editor MeganBillitti ([email protected])Director of Publishing Matthew DiMatteo [MD]Interns Mr. Zig [Z]ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS are $59, for 12monthly issues, 52 weekly issues plus onlinedatabase access. Weekly issues are sent at 8:30AM on Wednesdays EST. Site subscriptions areavailable. Contact Children’s Technology

Review™, 120 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822or call 800-993-9499. Visitwww.childrenstech.com to learn more.PRODUCT SUBMISSIONS. Send one product withrelease information to Lisa DellaFave,

Editorial Coordinator, 120 Main Street,Flemington, NJ 08822 (Phone: 908-284-0404). Send app codes by email [email protected].

OUR RULES. No ads, gimmicks or politics; we workfor the benefit of children. CTR follows editorialguidelines at(http://childrenstech.com/editorial-guidelines/). Highlights include:• We don’t sell or profit from the products wereview. • We don’t distribute, sell or leverage sub-scriber information.• Contributors are required to disclose bias.• There is no sponsored or advertising contentof any variety.• Complete transparancy; making every effortto disclose review criteria and sources ofpotential bias. • We don’t skim from other reviewers. PUBLISHER INFORMATION Children’s TechnologyReview™ (ISSN 1555-242X) is pub lished monthly(12 issues) by Active Learning As so ci ates, Inc.Send address chang es or new subscriptions toChildren’s Technology Review™, 120 Main Street,Flemington, NJ 08822. Use of this publicationfor any commercial publishing activity withoutprior written permission is strictly prohibited.Readers are subject to the TERMS OF USE found athttp://childrenstech.com/disclaimer

Contents © 2014 by Active Learning Associates,Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2Children’s Technology Review, October 2014Your Subscription is Your Key to 11,654 Archived ReviewsYour paid $59 subscription to CTR includes exclusive password access to the CTREX database — a collection of reviews goingback to 1985. If you’ve lost or forgotten your password, please call 800-993-9499 between 9-3 PM EST.

Oct ‘14 News and Trendsin Children’s Tech

A Primer on App BundlesAre apps cheaper by the dozen? Perhaps. With the release of iOS 8, app devel-opers can now bundle their apps in groups of up to ten at a reduced price. Wethink this is good news for everyone -- publishers, parents, librarians andteachers. But it helps to understand how bundles work from two points ofview-- the publisher and the consumer. If you’re a publisher with two or more apps, you can create bundles of up toten apps, as long as you’re prepared to offer a discount. Customers can buy allthe apps in one transaction.But there are some thingsto note: • The same app canappear in different bun-dles. But if you’ve alreadypurchased an app (even aspart of a bundle), iTuneswill calculate your newprice, taking into considera-tion that you already ownthe app. • A “Complete My Bundle” feature credits you for any apps you alreadyown. You only pay for what you don’t own. • You own the apps forever as long as you own your iTunes account. Learn more, at https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-bundles/A primer on Apple’s “Family Setup” Feature Here’s another new feature that is part of iOS 8. As many as six people (youplus five others) can share each other’s iTunes content, including books, songs,movies and apps. Even if you each have different iTunes accounts. This couldbe very useful for those who want to define a family as, say, a group of 4thgrade teachers who want to share the same apps. Apple doesn’t currently offermany details on how they define a “family.” Here’s what we know. As the family organizer, you can invite up to five otherpeople to begin purchasing content. Once anyone in the family buys content(that allows family sharing), everyone else in the group will see it, appearingas if by magic in the “Purchased” tab in iTunes. What if you have a teenagerwho has content not appropriate for a preschooler? You can choose to hide orunhide any purchase purchases. But you’ll need to use iTunes installed on aMac or PC in order to do this. Other bits: • One person calls the shots. If you set up the plan, an “Ask to Buy” featuresends you an alert when a child initiates a purchase. You can approve ordecline the request. • Photos and calendars can be shared. You can choose to link everyone’sdevice to the same iCloud photo album or calendar, to keep everyone on thesame page. Any member can use the reminders feature to get an alert whensomething changes.

Continued on next page

3 Children’s Technology Review, October 2014

• Location tracking. Using the Find My iPhone technology, youcan see where each device is on a map. • Children under 13 can now have an Apple ID. As a parent orlegal guardian with a credit card, you can create an Apple ID foryour young child. The “Ask to Buy” feature is turned on by default To turn off or on “Ask to Buy,” go to Settings > iCloud > Family,and tap the child's name. If you turn off “Ask to Buy,” the child willbe able to initiate purchases that will be billed to your paymentmethod without prior notification.• A child (or their account) must remain part of your familygroup until they turn 13. You can then transfer a child to a differ-ent family group. It’s like a new digital rite of passage.Publishers can decide if their content is eligible for FamilySharing. Content may be hidden by family members; hidden con-tent is not available for download. • Content downloaded from family members or acquired viaredemption codes is not subject to Ask to Buy.Additional easy-to-overlook fine print information includes thefact that you need a personal Apple ID signed in to iCloud andiTunes. Music, movies, TV shows, and books can be downloadedon up to 10 devices per account (five of which can be computers)and iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are required to set up or join aFamily Sharing group. iCloud requires iOS 5 or later on iPhone3GS or later Some features require iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite,require a Wi-Fi connection and are not available in all countries. More at https://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/family-sharing/Can an App (or a Toy) be Gender Neutral? Toca BocaThinks SoWe were surprised to receive download codes to a new version ofToca Robot Lab. Why change an app that is already great? Butaccording to Toca Boca there were some issues we glossed over.Some first generation robots looked more like boys than girls. According to the press materials, Version 1.2 has been createdwith new robot parts that “intentionally don't steer a child's playtoward any predetermined directions” with regard to gender orethnicity. In addition, the new robots can be created fromreusable materials. We admire Toca Boca’s willingness to call attention to this issue,however, the main thing is that the new version of the app isequally as engaging as the first. If you’re interested in this issue,have a look at a talk given by Proffessor KlasHalmgren (who is actually Jens Peter de Pedro)at Dust or Magic AppCamp 14http://youtu.be/KgAw16TzQV0, and a talk givenby Keli Winters: Thinking Beyond the Pink andBlue in Children's App Designhttp://youtu.be/nW-TZhiWtzk. Amazon’s New Fire HD Kids EditionTablet Looks PromisingAll these new iTunes improvements are greatnews for parents, but Amazon has somethingthat they think is just as good. Coming nextmonth in time for holiday shopping, the Fire HDKids Edition ($150 and $190, depending onscreen size) is a welcome move in the kid'stablet space. It offers a different way to con-sumer apps -- by way of a subscription-based,all-you-can eat content and parental manage-ment system.

It could also spell some dire news for Leapfrog, VTech, Samsung,Nabi and the many other children's tablet makers. Can it competehead on with the iPad mini? We don’t think so. Yes, the iPad mightcost twice as much, but it still runs 20 times the content, but thegap is narrowing, and this device has out-innovated the iPadwhen it comes to helping busy parents sort out the app issues, fora fair price. We especially like how you can set up different pro-files for each child. The onboard parental controls include timersand app selection tools, and limits on the type of content yourchild can access. You might want them to have access to books,but put a limit on games, for example. FreeTime can be setup toblock access to stores and in-app payments. Learn more atwww.amazon.com/kids-edition-tablet. It will start shipping inOctober. Sources: Amazon.com PR. Tablet Buffet: An Experiment in Mediatech We’ve been trying an experiment at Mediatech with tablets. Wecall it “operation Tablet Buffet.” We’re curious to see whichtablets hold up the best to public consumption. Which won’tbreak? We put all the tablets out for public consumption; here’swhat we’ve learned: • Tablets should be easier to turn on/off. That initial 10 secondsof use is critical.• Theft has not been a problem because of the combined sign-in,check-out system. Once a person enters Mediatech, they must signin. If they want to use a tablet, they check it out, leaving their sig-nature in the tablet’s place. So it is easy to tell, at glance, who hasthe device. It is possible to use the tablets anywhere in the room. • Devices are charged in the locked closet each evening. • Specialization is good. Stocking each tablet with different appsgives them different capabilities which are soon discovered by thepatrons. If one won’t work, another will. • Each device is setup so that it can be used to browse onlineresources, YouTube, Facebook and so on. However, individualattention is paid to each situation. Children are reminded to checkout of social media, and browsers are checked each evening. • The iPads and the Nintendo DS are not included in the mixbecause they are already available, tethered down near a chair.So which tablet is used the most? So far the winner is LittleScholar by School Zone. Why? You can pick it up and turn it on...and it works.

4Children’s Technology Review, October 2014Interact with this page online, at hhttp://littleclickers.com/chocolate

What is chocolate made out of? How big is the world’s largest chocolatebar? What’s the difference between white chocolate and dark chocolate?Let’s explore this sweet, wonderful substance. 1. What is chocolate’s magic ingredient? At the National ConfectionersAssociation http://bit.ly/1qOiLA4 you learn that chocolate typically con-tains sugar and milk. But the stuff that makes it special is cocoa, whichcomes from a seed that grows inside a fruit, on a delicate, flower-coveredtree. These beans are ground up to make cocoa power.

2. Where are cocoa beans grown? Only in the tropics. Atthis fancy chocolate store, http://bit.ly/1oq9uP5 you canfind a list of countries where it is warm enough to growchocolate beans. 3. How big is the world’s largest chocolate bar. Howabout one that’s 13 feet long, and wide? Here’s a news arti-cle about the world’s largest bar of chocolatehttp://bit.ly/1gWzfWbr. It was made in an English chocolate factory.

4. Can chocolate can make youhappy? Yes. Athttp://cnn.it/1sKPjCv you can readabout how it releases brain chemicalscalled endorphins, which may helpyou feel happy. 5. Can you name the three maintypes of chocolate? Athttp://bit.ly/YCvzmZ you’ll learn to tell the different between dark, milkand white chocolate. But there are more varieties. Learning them all willrequire plenty of sampling, of course.

Megan’s videos about chocolateWant to see a rock shaped like a giant wave? Here’s a set of hand picked videos from Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcBVHzUUEKwkKnv2CRWYfKIld7RtfB6NM

5 sites & ten videos about

ChocolateChocolateLittleClickers is brought to you by

Computer Explorers, who is offering

camps on programming. Visit

www.computerexplorers.com to learn

more. The web-based (html) version of

this page is at

http://www.littleclickers.com with live

links, plus a place to report any errors.

Note that CTR and COMPUTER

EXPLORERS do not have commercial

interests in the sites listed on this

page. Librarians and teachers are

permitted to copy this page for non-

profit use. To suggest a future topic or

to report a bad link, please contact

the editor, Warren Buckleitner [WB]

[email protected], or the

web editor, Megan Billitti [MB]

[email protected]; or call

908-284-0404 (9 - 3 PM, EST).

is made possible by

APPLICATION1. Make some ofyour own milkchocolate.Find a grown-up that likeschocolate and follow thisstep-by-step tutorial on howto make chocolate in yourown kitchen-http://bit.ly/1ywR6O4

1. Visit HersheyPark, PAYou can celebrate chocolateat http://bit.ly/1vr39I9, whichincludes a chocolate factory,and ride chocolate-themedroller coasters.

5 Children’s Technology Review, October 2014

How do you protect yourchild from seeing extreme violence?You can’tby Warren Buckleitner You've seen it hundreds of times, and it sickens you. Two men; one in orange, the other in black. A knife. The words, in 4 inch helveticablared "another beheading video posted." Welcome to the Country Griddle, our popular town diner inFlemington NJ, where you’re never more than 20 feet from a 55-inch screen playing 24-hour news. These are the kinds of num-bers that work against any parent with a curious child and asmart phone.As my wife and I enjoyed our morning coffee, we were watching agroup of four children huddled around their father's iPhone. Oneof the children, a young boy about 8, suddenly looked up, study-ing the the big screen, as the commentators rehashed the detailsof the latest beheading.The way the boy was staring at the screen was chilling. As adevelopmental psychologist, I knew he was in the most vulnera-ble age to be seeing such images -- about 8 or 9 years of age. Thisis the natural age when big questions outnumber the logicalanswers. His busy dad was completely oblivious to the fact that the seedsof a nightmare may have just been planted; a fact aided by thefact that the boy was holding a device that could actually *play*the video that CNN was advertising, either on the spot under thetable, alone in his room, or on a device being passed around theschool bus. What can we, as parents and grandparents do? First, we must all face reality. Extremely graphic content hasbecome as common as pancake syrup these days. There is no fil-ter, unless you choose not to visit family restaurants. Then there'sYouTube, which is not supposed to be used by children under 13.The reality is that it is extremely popular with children, and thatit has become a repository for no less than 148,000 beheading-related videos. Yes I searched, and no, I couldn't watch. Second, this parental concern is not new. Past generations of chil-dren have lived through 9-11, World Wars, famines and genocide,and previous generations of experts have already studied and dis-cussed the topic. Here are some useful bits that have spun out ofthe merry-go-round debate. WHAT YOU CAN DO• Be careful what you call attention to. The best way to raise achild's interest in something is to tell them not to watch some-thing. • If you are running a family friendly restaurant, you might thinktwice about having 24 hour news stations playing with upsetting

images. As a paying customer, it's perfectly OK to pass the waitera note asking to change the channel. • Listen. Tune into what your child is saying; or more importantlynot saying. Ask an open-ended question: "is there anything youwant to talk about," without calling attention to anything particu-lar. If they are upset, make sure they feel safe and protected. "Wewon’t let anything like that happen to you: your mother, sister,and I will make sure you’re always safe."• Check your browser's cache. It's OK to snoop; and to let yourchildren know that you know how to snoop. On an iPad, go toSETTINGS, GENERAL, ADVANCED, WEB SITE DATA. You can see alist of sites your child has visited. • Give yourself a YouTube crash course. On an iPad, start theYouTube App and find the control sidebar. Check the HISTORYand then touch the SETTINGS (the little gear icon). Use the SAFESEARCH FILTURING option (there are two settings -- don't filtureand strict.) • Set up your restrictions, in case you want to block browser orYouTube access altogether behind a four digit PIN code. On aniPad, go to GENERAL, RESTRICTIONS, enter your code and toggleon/off access to such things as YouTube. • Be prepared with factual, honest answers. There is no "fill in theblank" way to handle these questions; but you should approach itwith honest feelings. It might be "There's a lot of political unrestright now, and some people are going to extreme lengths, doinghorrible things." You might admit that you feel bad about thoseimages, too, and that you have chosen not to watch the videos. Above all, don't make the mistake of trying to sugar coat reality.Children are continually watching and learning, and they need toconstruct their own meaning of reality. Maurice Sendak* once said, “grown-ups desperately need to feelsafe, and then they project onto the kids. But what none of usseem to realize is how smart kids are. They don’t like what wewrite for them, what we dish up for them, because it’s vapid, sothey’ll go for the hard words, they’ll go for the hard concepts,they’ll go for the stuff where they can learn something. Not didac-tic things, but passionate things.” * Sendak quote posted by Jens Peter de Pedro on the Dust or MagicFacebook page.

Image -- taken with my phone on 9/13/2014 at the Country Griddle in FlemingtonNJ. CNN is in the background.

Feature Reviews and New ReleasesOCTOBER 2014Here's an alphabetical listing of both the feature reviews (with ratings) and the new andfuture releases. "Entry Date" refers to the date we first learned of the product.

Looking for a simple multi-touch finger painting app? This app lets children"finger paint" using the iPad's multi-touch screen.

Children can choose from 25 color jars, although only five are shown at once (swipeup to see the entire palette). There are some nice, satisfying effects. For example, thecolors blend slightly into one another, and faster motions result in faded lines. So youget the feeling that you are using real paint. Younger children may find the cleverscreen clear mechanism tricky to use, and getting out of the app isn't straightforward.It is easy to share your work on Twitter or Facebook, although these options are age-gated (swipe left with two fingers). A more straightforward main menu -- or the optionto turn one on, would be appreciated. The multi-touch effects make this appnoteworthy.

Important: make sure you have your "Multitasking Gestures" turned off, in under"General" in your iPad's settings.

Details: Blue Peak Mobile, . Price: $0.99. Ages: 2-9. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPodTouch (iOS 7.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: creativity. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.4 stars.Entry date: 8/22/2014. [WB]

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88%Ease of UseEducationalEntertaining

Design FeaturesGood Value

This creative twist on math practice contains an innovative hand-drawn design thatuses such things as slide-over opaque clues, up to 50 player accounts, and a grid-basedmultiple-choice answer entry system that makes it easy to check your answers. Wehave no idea how the cats come into the mix. But we do know that this format isresponsive, and can work.

Parent/teacher options include a tracking system for up to 50 children plus theability to pre-select which problems he or she will be presented with.

The more problems you answer, the more parts of a hidden picture you discoverfrom around the world. The simple yet clever reinforcement scheme keeps youexploring as you discover more types of math problems. You control the pacing, soyou can move through the levels as fast or as slow as you like, and there's a help screenif you need it.

There is no sound, even though there is a sound icon. Available in English, Dutch,French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish. See also the Kindergarten and FirstGrade versions of this app.

Details: MaypopDesigns, www.maypopdesigns.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 6-8.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later), Android. Teaches/Purpose: mathfacts, spatial relations, matching, patterns. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.7 stars. Entry date:9/25/2014. [WB]

Beyond Cats! Grade 2 Math Practice

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FEATURE REVIEWS, OCTOBER 2014

Designed in the UK but sold in the USA, this is a set of snap-together toyscombined with a camera and Mac/Windows software that is designed to help childrencreate stop motion projects.

The kit contains Animate It! Express software, which was developed with theAardman Animations studio (the creators of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run) anda book that introduces the basics of stop motion animation. The box for the $70 kit wereviewed included 103 OgoBILD construction parts, a printed instruction book, a USBwebcam for Mac and Windows PCs and a software download certificate for theAnimate It! Express software.

The kit can can be purchased without the webcam for $35; additional OgoBILD kitscost $17. Important to consider: there are many stop motion apps that cost less, and usea tablet's built in camera.

Details: OgoSport, LLC, www.ogosport.com. Price: $70. Ages: 6-up. Platform:Windows, Mac OSX. Teaches/Purpose: animation, stop motion . Entry date:9/29/2014.

BILD + Animate Kit

Ready to freely scribble with a musical chorus of alphabet letters?Twenty-six musical, moving letters come to life in your choice of seven languages,

and each letter has it's own voice, beat and rhythm. You quickly learn that you canplay with letter combinations to create rhythms. Too bad you can't record your ownvoice and attach it to a letter. Perhaps in version 2.0.

The result is that the letters become a melodic percussion instrument that you cancontrol with your taps. You can swipe letters on or off the screen as you pull and swipeyour way through the alphabet. There are no wrong answers but there are some nicehidden features. Whenever a word shows up on the screen, either accidentally or onpurpose, the word is highlighted with a visual effect. Simple words like "cat" or "hat"work best, although some words don't work at all. Teachers may want to note thatcertain combinations of letters, especially the letter "X" can cause the app to say "sex"and that some of the letters are unconventional. The capital J has a strange hat, and theC is squared, for example. Also, there are no upper/lower case options. For a playful,musical, informal exposure to unconventional print in a fail-safe format, this is a goodapp to consider. See also Bubl Gelato, Bubl Draw and Bubl Tap. Bubl studio was justacquired by Fox & Sheep.

Details: Bubl, www.bublbubl.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 1-5. Platform: iPad, iPhone,iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: language, causality, letter recognition;English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese. Rating (1to 5 stars): 4.5 stars. Entry date: 9/17/2014. [WB]

Bubl ABC

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In this timed, sorting game, you must touch moving food items as quickly aspossible to feed a hungry spoon or fork. Non-food items, like hats or toys don't count.

The challenge is self leveling -- the faster you catch the objects, the faster you get tothe next level. If you miss items, things slow down.

It is easy to change levels (enter your birth date) but you can't adjust the sound andsome of the items are confusing (the mushroom looks like a shovel). In addition,there's not much variety in the items to sort.

Languages include English and Russian. There are no in-app purchases oradvertising.

Details: Bubukids, http://Bubukids.com. Price: $0.99. Ages: 3-9. Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: classification, sorting,

fine motor. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.8 stars. Entry date: 9/16/2014. [WB]

BubuFood

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This 70 level puzzle game is easy to learn, in part thanks to a good tutorial, andhard to stop playing. Your goal is to cancel out the positive and negative balls, bymaking them collide. OK, if you want to call them "particles" you can look at this appfrom an electron/proton point of view. But it's more fun to just call them bouncingballs.

Like the Incredible Machine, you first arrange the items on the screen, and thenpress "play" to turn on gravity. In some levels, you must navigate a maze of pipes.Others involve sensors that activate doors, gears that must be synced... or there arespringboards, pendulums and seesaws. It is easy to rewind or fast-forward through thelevels, but you must unlock the levels, one at a time.

There's enough variety in the puzzle themes to keep things interesting.The concept of seeking equivalency has some nice mathematical roots that anyone

who has ever balanced an algebraic equation will recognize. We especially liked therewind feature, which resets your puzzle just the way you had it. A double tap on thefast-forward speeds the puzzle along, which encourages experimentation. Progress issaved automatically.

Details: Dan Russell-Pinson, http://dan-russell-pinson.com/. Price: $0.99. Ages: 6-up. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch . Teaches/Purpose: logic, math, equivalency,timing. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.9 stars. Entry date: 9/8/2014. [WB]

Collider

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Children can drive, fly and sail around Number Neighborhood as they discovernine mini-games that effectively reinforce school readiness skills, making this anexcellent "back to school" app for child headed for Kindergarten.

We liked how children are free to explore in a variety of vehicles, including arocket, submarine and boat, tapping a no-fail play pattern that uses a board-game-likemap to navigate.

The nine mini games are responsive, easy to use, and playfully provide skillspractice. Wrong answers are simply ignored, correct answers get instant feedback.Activities include Catch-a-Sea Pickle - tap the sea pickles displaying the target number;Whale Feeding - use a slingshot to feed the whale the correct number of cabbages;Cloud Writing - trace the numbers in the sky; Construction Blocks - stack the blocks inorder, to turn on the lights; See-Saw - balance the animals on the see-saw with equalsums; Space Vacuum - clean up and count shoes, donuts, marbles and more; NumberPainting - color by numbers to paint a masterpiece; Cookie Bakery - play chef anddecorate your cookies with matching toppings; and Snowboard Slalom - guide asnowboarding yak to touch the flags in order. The games each do an excellent job withworkbook-style content, and it's easy to tell that the designers are former softwarecreators for Sunburst and Houghton Mifflin. In other words, you get a lot of varietyand content for your $3.

Need to know: There is no ending to the journey, which might frustrate children.After they complete all the games, children are merely looped back to the beginning todo them again. Parents will also want to know that it is possible to control backgroundmusic in the parents menu (from the main menu). This is an excellent, no-faildownload.

Details: Artgig Studio, www.artgigapps.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-5. Platform: iPad,iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 5.1.1 or later). Teaches/Purpose: counting, ordering,matching, numbers and number writing in English, Spanish, French, Russian andPortuguese. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.8 stars. Entry date: 5/14/2014. [LD]

Drive About: Number Neighborhood

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Beautiful illustrations meet limited interactivity, in this interesting app about agirl's encounter with the fog. Some of the illustrations cleverly combine animation andphotography.

In the story, it's a cool, foggy morning in the city and Fiona is bored. She doesn'tsee the Fog sneak up behind her and steal her favorite scarf. You will follow Fiona asshe chases the Fog across the city and back. The app features moving photo pages, andan original musical score. There is no read aloud option -- this experience is designedto be read by parents to their children.

Need to know: Screens must be manually turned as the story progress, which israther clumsy.

Details: William Poor, www.fogstory.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 2-up. Platform: iPad.Teaches/Purpose: reading. Entry date: 9/16/2014.

Fiona & the Fog

Coming in October 2014: Amazon's Fire HD Kids Edition, a welcome move in thekid's tablet space with a subscription-based, all-you-can eat content and parentalmanagement system. It could also spell some dire news for Leapfrog, VTech, Samsung,Nabi and the many other children's tablet makers.

Can it compete head on with the iPad mini? Not yet. The iPad might cost twice asmuch, but it runs 20 times the content. But the gap is certainly narrowing, and thisdevice has out-innovated the iPad when it comes to helping busy parents sort out theapp issues, for a fair price. We especially like how you can set up different profiles foreach child.

Note that we have yet to actually test one of these tablets. We have, however, beenusing a standard Kindle Fire HD with Amazon FreeTime, and can vouch for thequality of this platform. We've had testers mix up the iPad Mini and the Kindle Fire,when both were running the same app. It's a reminder that kids don't really care aboutthe hardware. They do care a great deal about the content on the screen, however.

Building on the 2014 Fire tablet infrastructure, this tablet is housed in a protectivecase and has a quad core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras, a headphone jack,and Dolby audio. But the biggest news is the non-hassle, one year of "all you can eat"style content distribution, that only a store like Amazon could offer. According to PRmaterials, children will have their choice of "5,000 books, movies, TV shows,educational apps, and games" that come with the one year of included access toAmazon FreeTime Unlimited.

At the end of the year, you will need to pay up to $120/year for continued content($10/month for four children, $5/month for one child).

Fire HD Kids Edition is $150 for the 6” screen size, and $190 for the larger 7” size.www.amazon.com/kids-edition-tablet. Peter Larsen is the Vice President of AmazonDevices.

Parental controls include timers and app selection tools, and limits on the type ofcontent your child can access. You might want them to have access to books, but put alimit on games, for example. FreeTime blocks stores and in-app payments, so youdon’t have to worry about additional expenses. Learn more at www.amazon.com/kids-edition-tablet. It will start shipping in October. Sources: Amazon.com PR.

Details: Amazon.com, www.amazon.com. Price: $150 and $190. Ages: 2-14.Platform: Kindle. Teaches/Purpose: a Kindle tablet . Entry date: 9/18/2014.

Fire HD Kids Edition

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Complex dance moves meet simple controls, in this strange rhythm/creativity app.After you pick your robot and choose your tune, you swipe the screen(up/down/left/right) to trigger a specific dance moves.

You can program the moves using a powerful set of slider controls. You can pickthe speed of the head, and the angle that the arms rotate, for examples. There's avariety of planet-themed dance settings.

Content includes eight funk-style soundtracks. We would've liked more controlover the music, and a greater set of moves.

Details: Funky Bots LLC, www.funkybots.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 5-up. Platform:iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: rhythm, beat, time andspeed variables. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.3 stars. Entry date: 9/16/2014. [WB]

Funky Bots - Dancing Space Robots

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Now you can snap together your own cat-sized Hexbug, providing you have a lotof patience, some batteries and plenty of time. The largest of several kits, this 4 in 1 Kitis also the most expensive. It contains sealed bags of gears, clear plastic parts, wires,motors, sensors and remotes designed to let you build four different robots: the Ant -150+ pieces and five electronic elements; Spider - 350+ pieces and five electronicelements; Scarab - 250+ pieces and five electronic elements; and Strandbeast - 400+pieces and seven electronic elements.

There are over 650 Vex Robotics Pieces in all. The giant bugs are powered by onecentralized computer block called the Brain. Our testers found the Scarab to befrustratingly difficult to build and to keep together (the parts kept falling off) and mostof the time was used following the detailed instructions, step-by-step. Because thebrain block does all the computing, there's not a lot left for the builder to do other thanassemble, using the detailed instructions. In other words, there's fewer opportunitiesfor higher order problem solving with this type of kit, and the parts are not designed tobe used in any type of free form building, hence the lower rating. The finishedproducts are fragile, but can be carefully driven. They look impressive, if nothing else.

Details: Innovation First, Inc., www.hexbug.com. Price: $150. Ages: 8-up. Platform:Smart Toy. Teaches/Purpose: robotics, gears, circuits. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.4 stars.Entry date: 9/9/2014. [WB]

Hexbug VEX Robotics Construction Set - 4 in 1 Kit

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Mix together an action packed cartoon with a math workbook and you get the ideaof this well designed app. While there's a few quirks, you get a lot of play value foryour $1.99; with some effective, responsive math practice along the way.

You start by creating your own main character using menus with adequate genderand ethnic options. Next you're off to the boost machine for a dose of fast-paced mathfacts problems, with narrated questions like "what number matches the number oforanges" (when shown sets of two types of objects). Content is all multiple choice, andit lines up with a typical Kindergarten math workbook; from counting to shapes.Correct answers earn coins for time with an arcade-style running game where youchange lanes to collect more coins.

The playful tone is the perfect "sugar" for a dose of math facts. There's not muchconceptual value to the math activities... this app doesn't go much further than mathfacts, and some of the graphics are cluttered. Also, when you reach the end of a level,you don't know if your progress is saved (it is) and we noticed that children arepromoted to rate this app. We can guess that they'll give it a good rating, with noprompting required.

Details: Kid Awesome, www.kidawesomeness.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 4-5.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: math facts,counting, addition, shapes. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.5 stars. Entry date: 9/18/2014. [WB]

Kid Awesome Kindergarten Math

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This matching and classification app lets children discover 20 different types ofcommon jobs (e.g. firefighter, police officer, teacher and so on) through four matchingactivities. There are four modes: odd ones out; whose is this?; pairs; and the missingobject.

Each level starts with a collection of items that might include tools, parts of auniform, and so on; along with an animated character. Your job it to touch the itemsthat meet the given criteria. Correct answers unlock the next level. Some reading isrequired. Content includes 120 items.

The illustration style is hand drawn; so some of the items are more or less familiarto some children. This app could be useful to accompany a community helper theme.

Details: Chocolapps, www.chocolapps.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 3-up. Platform:iPad, Android. Teaches/Purpose: visual discrimination, matching, classification, jobs,community helpers, social studies. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date:6/24/2014. [WB]

Match & Play - Jobs

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If you are 13 years-old of age or older, live in the USA and have a valid school-provided email address from a school that has purchased the Office organizationvolume licensing program -- good news. It is possible for you to download the latestversions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access andPublisher for no cost. Before you go through the pain of downloading, check with yourschool to make sure they have a license.

You can install this software on PCs or Macs, and Office apps on other mobiledevices including Windows tablets and iPad. The deal includes 1 Terabyte of MicrosoftOneDrive cloud storage; providing you create a Microsoft account.

The new self-service model attempts to "remove upgrade pain" by allowing eligiblestudents to sign up for the service themselves. Teachers -- if your school ororganization purchases the correct Microsoft license, they can also get an Office 365ProPlus subscription. More info at http://blogs.office.com/2014/09/22/students-teachers-may-eligible-get-office-free/

A new feature called "Mix" lets you export PowerPoint presentations as "rich"narrated videos that have interactive features, like the ability to draw on the screen,add narration, give multiple choice quizzes and so on. We found this collection ofprojects done in Mix: https://mix.office.com/Gallery.

You can mixes on most major browsers on most main (Internet Explorer, Chrome,Firefox and Safari) on desktops, laptops, Windows tablets and Apple Macintoshcomputers.

Details: Microsoft Corporation, www.microsoft.com. Price: $call. Ages: 13-up.Platform: iPad, Android, Windows, Mac OSX, Chrome, Internet Site.Teaches/Purpose: A utility for Microsoft office, creativity, presentations. Entry date:9/24/2014.

Microsoft Office 13 with Office Mix

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Ideal for helping an older preschooler or kindergarten-age child better understandbase-ten numbers, this tenth app by French-based Les Trois Elles Interactive continuesthe tradition of giving children the tools they need to build their understanding of theway numbers work.

There are two modes of play, both inspired directly by traditional Montessorimaterials, although any teacher that has worked with unit blocks, Cuisenaire rods or acurriculum like "Math Their Way" (Pearson) will recognize the approach. What'sdifferent with this app is a tutor is built into the materials, giving children instantfeedback, and automatically adjusting the challenge.

Google Golden Beads lets children first complete a units board, one bead at a time,up to 1000. Number Blocks gives children a challenge to build a target number, bydragging the correct ones, tens, hundreds or thousands blocks into place. Correctanswers are rewarded with more buildings that you can drag and drop onto your city.Progress is bookmarked automatically, so you can come back to this later, and profilescan be saved for multiple children, increasing the usefulness for classrooms.

Need to know... there's not much of a game element to this app, other thancollecting elements for your city, and the intrinsic challenge of seeing the larger blocks.Note that this app won't be in the appstore until September 25th 2014. Children shouldhave the prerequisite ability to count to ten before using this app. Features let you turnthe music and the timer on or off. Available in 15 languages: English, Spanish, French,Dutch, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese(traditional and simplified), Turkish & Russian.

Details: Les Trois Elles Interactive, http://lestroiselles.com/en. Price: $call. Ages: 5-8. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: early math, counting, base 10, unitblocks. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.7 stars. Entry date: 9/20/2014. [WB]

Montessori Math City

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Need to memorize the 200 or so bones in the human body? This app is designed tohelp children build vocabulary and knowledge of the major bones of the humanskeleton. It also highlights the size and shape of each bone by creating a jigsaw stylepuzzle type of game. Your challenge is to follow the highlighted cues and then put"Napoleon" (the friendly skeleton) back together from a pile of bones.

The bones click into place as the scientific name is pronounced and displayed.When Napoleon is complete, he'll dance a jig and you get to do it all over again. Keyfeatures of the app include: light-up positioning cues; display of scientific names ofbones; and animation.

Need to know: you can't control the pacing, so if you want to speed through theapp, you can get bogged down. Also, the clues are so obvious that they remove thechallenge. It would be nice to have a "challenge mode" where you get to build theentire skeleton. These are minor issues -- this is a potentially useful app for an olderelementary age child.

Details: School Zone Publishing, www.schoolzone.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 5-up.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: humanskeleton, vocabulary, visual perception, fine motor skills. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.1 stars.Entry date: 7/18/2014. [WB]

Napoleon Bone Apart

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Free jigsaw puzzle apps abound, but this is the first we've seen to combine in-apppurchases (IAP) model with a menu system that lets you pick which puzzles you wantto unlock.

After you download the 215 MB app for no cost, you are given five tokens. Eachcan unlock a puzzle, from 100 selections. So you can see what you'd get if youpurchased the entire app for $10.

Each puzzle has been derived from an existing Nosy Crow app or book. There arescenes from The Three Little Pigs, Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Safari, Jack and theBeanstalk and so on; in all cases they are well done.

As a jigsaw puzzle experience, this one is well designed, with good controls andthe ability to toggle between difficulty levels, from 4 to 300 pieces. At the easiest level,you might have four pieces, all upright. At the hardest level, 300 pieces, some rotated.

The puzzles can be reset at any time, or saved in case your project takes a while.Once you finish your puzzle, a set of “what can you see” questions ask you to paycloser attention to detail in the artwork. You can either purchase another ten tokens(one puzzle each) for $0.99 or you can pay $9.99 to unlock all the puzzles. You backupyour jigsaws using your iCloud account.

Details: Nosy Crow, www.nosycrow.com. Price: $free ($10 for all content). Ages: 3-up. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: spatial relations. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6stars. Entry date: 9/20/2014. [WB]

Nosy Crow Jigsaws

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Nineteen structured, direct-instruction activities cover counting, letter recognition,addition, memory, spelling, subtraction, shapes and colors.

As you play, you collect reward stickers. The activities automatically adjustdifficulty as you play. There is a Silent Mode that lets you turn off all sound; and aParent Zone to track progress and adjust difficulty. The free version includes 13 of the19 games, the other six games are available as an in-app purchase for $1.99.

Details: Crinkle Apps, www.crinkleapps.com. Price: $free. Ages: 3-5. Platform:iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android. Teaches/Purpose: early learning, school readiness,basic skills. Entry date: 9/16/2014.

Preschool Megagame

One of our favorite astronomy apps, Star Walk, now has a nicely designed kids'version, with hand drawn illustrations. The best news is that you can still point yourdevice at the sky to identify a star, constellation or planet, thanks to the app's ability touse your iPad's gyro and compass information.

The Star Walk (CTR Jan 11) app was first released in 2008 for iPhone. As you holdyour phone up and point it towards the sky, Star Walk Kids follows your motionsusing the built-in gyroscope to match the map on your screen to the stars seen fromyour location. An animated, cartoon-like interface with professional narration makesthe entire feel of this app extremely non-threatening. Content is limited -- with just sixmovies, 10 planets, 17 stars, 43 constellations and two satellites (Hubble and ISS). Theshort movies are extremely well done.

The stars move in real time, so you find out if ISS is within sight, and you learnhow to find North using the constellations. The file is big -- 231 MB

The app comes in English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese,Russian, and Spanish, although we couldn't find the parents' menu.

Details: Vito Technology, www.vitotechnology.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 6-12.Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0 or later) 231 MB. Teaches/Purpose:Science, stars, astronomy. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date: 9/8/2014. [WB]

Star Walk Kids - Astronomy for Children

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This first ever portable edition of Super Smash Bros. is both fun and extremelyresponsive. It even impressed our seasoned Game Cube Super Smash Bros. players,although it is no substitution for the big-screen social experience.

Different modes and good AI make it fun to play alone, or against another player,either online or locally. Features include a new "Smash Run" mode, where up to fourplayers get five minutes to fight solo through a battlefield, while fighting againstfamous enemies from Nintendo and 3rd party games. Novice testers had some troublewith the first menus; but this was only the first time through. There's an excellentselection of fighters -- each with different attributes, and fighting arenas. The 3Dgraphics are used well; we discovered some fun effects that can emerge during a battle.

There are both classic and new characters that include Pac Man, Mega Man, LittleMac, Link, Samus, Pikachu, and the Mii Fighters (fighters made up of your customizedMii avatar). Rated E10+ for the obvious cartoon violence. There is no worrisomecontent -- just good clean smashing.

Details: Nintendo of America, www.nintendo.com. Price: $40. Ages: 10-up.Platform: Nintendo 3DS. Teaches/Purpose: logic, creativity, timing, cooperative andcompetitive play, Nintendo trivia. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date:9/29/2014. [WB]

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

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Turn your iPad into a harp with this simple app that comes with six free songs (likeRow, Row, Row Your Boat); and additional song tutorials as in-app sales. You canstrum the strings, or pluck one at a time. The harp has 15 strings that play in one voice,tuned in the key of G. An "Auto Play" mode plays the song for you, or you can changethe speed. Seven additional music packs (12 songs each) are available through in apppurchase. The full version costs $3.99.

Details: Cyber Park Studios, www.cyberparkstudios.com. Price: $free. Ages: 4-up.Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: music, the harp. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.5 stars. Entrydate: 9/5/2014. [WB]

Tap Harp

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The sequel to the first Final Fantasy rhythm action game (released in 2012)this storyexpands on the original with new game modes, 221 songs and 60 playable characters.

You can tap along to the beats and harmonies as the stylized characters battle theirway through worlds. Content includes 26 years of Final Fantasy music, along withsongs and characters from recent and upcoming releases.

The modes include Versus Mode where players can go head-to-head, and QuestMedley where you can customize a party of characters to engage in music-basedbattles against series bosses.

Zig says: If you don't currently care for music and rhythm games, you probablywont like this game. However if you are a serious fan of the Final Fantasy series, you'llprobably like the music, from all four editions: Final Fantasy I, II, III and IV. In terms ofwhat you do, there's not much that sets this game apart from any other music/rhythmgame. You have to hit a button or move the stylus on the screen to get a note to line upwith a specific point on the screen.

Details: Square Enix, Inc., www.square-enix.com/na/. Price: $40. Ages: 10-up.Platform: Nintendo 3DS. Teaches/Purpose: music, rhythm. Entry date: 8/28/2014.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call

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Ideal as a starter app for preschoolers, Version 1.2 of this popular sandbox app hasbeen created with new robot parts that intentionally don't steer a child's play towardany predetermined directions, e.g., with regard to gender or ethnicity.

You start making a robot by selecting legs, a body, a head and arms using multiple-choice style menus. Because the part and the mazes appear at random, this app seemsto always have a surprise. We counted 12 types of arms (presented three at a time), butour testers noticed that the function of the arm doesn't seem to affect what the robotdoes. For example, putting wings on as arms doesn't improve your robot's ability tofly. After your robot has been assembled, you go to a testing maze where you "fly"your robot around (it follows your finger) to try to collect hidden stars and reach amagnet. In the first version, the longer you pressed the screen, the greater the power.Not this time. Your robot follows your finger -- so the flying is easier, and there aremore things to discover. If you can't find all the stars -- no worries -- there's no way tofail in this robot lab. You get a fake test "report" but it doesn't tell you much.

Also worth noting -- the robots can be created from reusable materials such ascandy, beads, coffee cups, electronics, straws, Ping-Pong paddles, and pencils. Thisapp proves that it is possible to create a quality play environment where a child drivesideas about things like gender or ethnicity; rather than the publisher.

Details: Toca Boca, http://tocaboca.com/. Price: $.99. Ages: 3-up. Platform: iPad,iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: logic, some creativity, spatial relations, fine motor. Rating (1to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date: 9/27/2014. [WB]

Toca Robot Lab (2014 Edition)

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A duck's bill has grooves. Do you know what they are called? (Answer: Lamellae.)That's just one of the dozens of touch-and hear (and see) facts found in this solidaddition to Oceanhouse Media's library of iOS-exclusive storybook apps. The idea is togently introduce facts about different plants and animals found in ponds (algae, snails,turtles, ducks, etc), the metamorphosis of frogs, and more. This app provides a niceoverview of a variety of common life forms that you'll see around a pond -- insects,fish, frogs, bottom feeders and birds. As with other Learning Library apps, you cantouch any item to see a label pop out of the text

There's plenty of content. We counted 22 pages (screens), although each unfoldsinto as many as four information panels to highlight specific creatures. In addition,there are popup, narrated fact boxes. Noteworthy features include the ability to recordyour own narration, a well designed contents feature that makes it easy to jump to anypage, and the ability to toggle on/off the read to me mode. Other features includesound effects, the ability to tap on pictures, and read alert icons. These features makethis more classroom friendly. The random giggles in the background seem a little outof place and we could deal with a bit more subtly with the animations -- but this is anextremely minor criticism.

Details: Oceanhouse Media, www.oceanhousemedia.com. Price: $3.99. Ages: 5-9.Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: science, biology, insects, frogs, fish, birds,reading. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.7 stars. Entry date: 9/25/2014. [WB]

Would You Rather Be a Pollywog

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