These are a few of my (kids) favorite apps

Though this is unrelated to the purpose of the post, I have to share this story because it's too good not to...

Last night I took the girls to my neighbors to play for a bit and the adults hung out by a fire outside and enjoyed the crazily (but enjoyable) moderate temps in NH in January. Hooray for global warming I guess, right?! I went in to check on the little kids every so often and to be sure that the neighbors teenagers weren't feeling disgruntled being inside with the little ones.

Gracie who's 6 came and asked me if I'd bring over the Nabi's for she and her sister and I obliged. About 10 minutes later I went back in to check on everyone and found both of my girls surroundedby not just their 6 and 3 year old neighbor counterparts, but also by the neighbors' three teenagers. Our neighbors have an iPad and up until Christmas both my girls were asking daily if they could have an iPad like their pals next door (getting their Nabi's took care of the request for an iPad by the way). Fast forward to last night and the iPad was sitting unused (normally it's being fought over or someone is sitting off to the side looking anxious and awaiting their turn) on the coffee table and instead, EVERY single one of the under 18 set next door was eyeing the Nabi's! The girls were pleased as punch with themselves and were proudly showing the features of the Nabi and the games installed etc... They were great about sharing I'm proud to say and their friends were amazed at what was preinstalled in addition to what I've added since.

The Nabi outshone the iPad! Can't help but brag a little!

Now, back to the meat and potatoes of my post. I just thought I'd post about what apps my kids are particularly enjoying and my take on some of them too... This is by no means a comprehensive list. It's reflective mostly of what the girlshave been focussed on and playing/learning with/engaged with today and that's what prompted me to post...

From the Nabi store itself, some of the fan favorite apps in our house are:

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

My daughter Clara who is 3 just discovered this app today. Her sister was playing the Moron Test (love the concept, not so much the name-- as a mom who is encouraging her kids not to find words like moron entertaining, it kind of makes it hard to argue that!) and Clara wanted something similar. Enter Monkey Preschool Lunchbox. It's great for this age group because the instructions are read aloud to them as well as printed on the screen. The tasks are simple and there is instant reward in the form of the monkey jumping up and down, or kids getting brought to "choose a sticker" page where they amass stickers for their accomplishments. The tasks range from matching letters with fruit names, matching items in a memory type game, assembling puzzles etc... Each screen introduces a new challenge which is perfect for this age group since they tend to have a shortattention span. It's fun and educational all in one and runs very smoothly on the Nabi!

Color & Draw - Super Artist Edition- this is the paid version of the pre-installed coloring app that comes on the Nabi. My girls love that there are more coloring page options in the paid version, and that there are a variety of background screens to color their own canvas on. Also of note, drawings can be saved to the Gallery and accessed through there to use as screen savers (on the home screen), they can be emailed (though I haven't done this yet I see that there is option do so) and the girls just like scrolling through their galleries and showing off their artwork! My 3 year old likes this app more so than the Drawing Pad (which I prefer) because it is simpler. So, if you are in search of an artistic app for the younger set of Nabi users, this is a great choice. That said, my 6 year old, who loves and can navigate the Drawing pad app like a whiz, also loves this one. So it really is a great app for kids and parents of all ages!

Bord- This isanother art app (my girls are both art fanatics and biased as I am, I think pretty talented- at least for ages 4 and 6!). It allows you to choose from two backgrounds- a black chalkboard or old school green (whichI happen to like because itbrings me back to elementary school day memories!). Kids can choose from a variety of widths to make their "chalk" and a variety of colors. There's a sponge icon to erase and it's very intuitive and easy to use. Bord also offers the option to save drawings to photos or to share the drawings that have been done. Under share you are given the option to share via messaging or bluetooth. Both look like neat features but I have not actually tried either one out yet because I can't get the Nabi's from the girls for any extended period of time when they are up and wanting to use them themselves!

Mee Genius- Full disclosure: when I firstlooked at the MeeGenius books as I played with the girls Nabi's before Christmas, I worried momentarily that they wouldn't be enthused with the graphics because the books are relatively simple. As a parent who grew up without technology in the dark ages of the 1970's and 1980's (try mentioning these dates to a teenager as I do with those I teach and try not to laugh when they gasp and reference the 1970's as "a wicked long time ago") I love the simplicity of the books on Mee Genius. Words and sweet pictures and great story telling. Perfect. But I worried that my kids who've grown up with Pixar and ever more complex technology might whine about the pure simplicity of the books. Silly Mom that I am, I shouldn't have worried. My girls both love the books in Mee Genuis and we've boughta handful more of books from the Mee Genius store. It just goes to show that kids are really content with simplicity if it captures their attention well enough. Kudos to Nabi and Mee Genuius for knowing that long before me!

Fooz Kids University- My 1st grader, Gracie hasn't loved Math since leaving her private school and entering the world of public school and Everyday Math (secretly I can't blame her but that's a whole other blog post!). I showed her Fooz Kids U. overChristmas vacation and she is hooked. She goes to Fooz Kids U. to play math games at least as often as she plays anything else (including Cut the Rope and Fruit Ninja and that's quite a testament to math I'd say!). She is so proud of herself for getting the the problems right andmethodically takes her time to check each of the possible answers to be sure she is choosing correctly. This from a 6 yr old who isn't known for a long attention span. Choosing on her own to double check her work on what she refers to as a math game makes my glow!

Learning to Draw is Fun- I bought my 6 year old a numberof "learn to draw" books for Christmas long before I discovered the Nabi and pre-ordered it. She likes one of the Princess learn to draw books Santa bought her, but by far, the learn to draw resource she sits and draws with the most is... yup, Learning to Draw is Fun from the Nabi Store. It's an app that does exactly what it says. Choose a picture and it walks you step by step how to draw it in parts. Gracie is a bit of a perfectionist (hmmm, where might that come from...) and doesn't want to "almost" get it. She wants to get it right the first time and have it be perfect. I have pointed out to her that she can go back as she draws if she thinks she missed a prior part and she can re-do it. Of course she can do this with a learn to draw book too, but somehow having it be on a computer type device makes her happier. I don't quite understand but I don't have to. Bottom line is that she loves this app and loves to draw and all I care about is that she is happy.

Drawing Pad- Confession... I love playing with this app! The graphics showing the various tools available to draw with (paint brush, marker, crayon,colored pencil etc) are so realistic that even my 6 yr old remarked that they "look so real I could take it out and use it on my paper". The sticker choices and background paper options provide a million different options to kids to allow them to create to their hearts content. It's one of my own and my girls favorite apps because it is sheer fun to use and create with! In fact maybe I'll work on this blog in a bit and go play with Drawing Pad while the Nabi's are free (the girls are napping and that leads me to the next app that I am loving just below)

These next apps come from the Amazon App Store...

SoundSleep Deluxe Edition (Music Therapy) app may be my new best friend (seriously). It is nap time in my house and for possibly the first time in her life, my 3 year old was not only willing but also EAGER to go to nap so she could listen to "my ocean"... This app is available in the Amazon App Store for $2.99. I lucked out when I found it for free as Amazon's paid app of the day in December, but even at full price, it's great. Here's what you get: a variety of custom sounds, instrumental music and the ability to pick and choose what sounds you want to play. For instance, my 3 yr old Clara, like her mom is obsessed with the beach. So, when she realized there was an image of the ocean and the option to choose sounds of ocean such as surf crashing, whale songs and barefoot walking in sand (really!) she was enamored!

Hangman- This is the free version from the amazon app store. My 6 year old LOVES it. She doesn't care that much about guessing letters that make sense (currently Q, Z and W are her R, S, T, L, N, E - not that I have watched Wheel of Fortune or have the letters that folks usually guess memorized or anything). She loves seeing the letters show up if and when she guesses correctly and likes sounding out the word that is the answer whether she gets it right or not. I can't pinpoint precisely what skills she is learning from this but clearly letter recognition, identifying common patterns of letter placement in words and good old plain having fun are among those!

Other favorites that are installed (that can be accessed by clicking on "other games" when in Hangman) are Free Checkers and Free Tic Tac Toe.

Lastly and for no purpose other than sheer enjoyment, my daughters, particularly Gracie just love playing...

Cupcake Yum- There isn't a lot to this other than fun (and that's perfectly fine with me to have mixed in with learning apps!). The girls have played a number of games like this on the neighbors iPad and I will begrudgingly admit that the options on the iPad version are a lot better than this one, but at ages 6 and 4, my kids quickly stopped being upset that it lacked some of the features and got right down to cupcake decorating when I showed them I'd bought this for them. I believe it was $1.99 on the Amazon App Store and I searched for a while to find a cupcake designing/decorating app and this was the best one I found. You can choose to "make" the cupcake from scratch (which involves dragging and dropping pre measured ingredients into a bowl and then stirring them together) or choose a pre-made cupcake. You can choose the cupcake wrappers, add the batter, bake them and then, the real treat is the decorating. Kids can add frosting and candy and toppings (everything from shaved chocolate to gummy worms) to their hearts content. Then they select "eat" and tapping with their finger, or in Claras case tapping with her finger and making argh argh argh noises, they "eat" the cupcake and start all over. For $1.99 this is far preferable to my kids doing this with real cupcakes and mom being left with kids with tummy aches later! It's a fun app that even moms and dads might find themselves "trying" out for the kids sake (yeah, that's my rationale and I'm sticking with it!)

Thanks again Nabi for all you've created and for all you continue to do. You rock!