I love fun apps for my iPhone that can keep my kids busy in a pinch. Although, I have this growing fear that they will somehow destroy my phone like the last time i wrote about reviewing a kids app. But today was a huge step for me. I handed one of my 6 year old daughters my iPhone and I actually let her LEAVE THE ROOM with it. :O. Ok, maybe that doesn’t sound so big to you, but it is!
Anyway, her mission was to listen to and read 2 stories from Decode Entertainment. The first is King Midas. The other The Princess and the Pea. I really love the concept of these stories. The voice reading is a very pleasant child’s voice that was loud and clear. And the pictures and words on the screen are bright and colorful.
I tested on my 3 year old boys as well who in their hyped up state (it was almost bed time!) did enjoy listening to the stories. They settled down a bit and looked over their sisters shoulder to watch and listen.
These are really great for small children that cannot yet read, but may be just learning. It is very easy to follow along on the screen word for word.
We also tried testing the “Record Your Own Story” portion, but that seems just a little difficult for a young kid to do smoothly. You have to hit record to start and stop on every page. One improvement may be for that to just keep recording to the end, then allow us to listen to the whole thing. But it is a great concept and allows them to hear their own voice read portions of the story.
But despite that, overall I LOVED the stories myself as did my children. I am looking forward to possibly getting a few more. They also currently have the Tortoise and the Hare. Hopefully they keep it up and add more great stories soon. They kids actually wanted to know if I had more stories for them.
You can purchase both apps in the App store for only $1.99.
Disclosure: I was provided a promo code for the App store to download each story.
Our little one is only 1, but she loves the iPhone. I either fire up “Jack's Big Music Show” in the iPod, or turn on the app “Talking Carl”. It is simple, and fun for her. I just have to keep a watchful eye on her, as she usually ends up trying to eat the phone. 🙂