Free and Discounted Kids Apps for iPhone and iPad

Check out App Friday today!  A lot of free and discounted kids apps for iPhone and iPad including my very own Kids Christmas Pattern Game.  Download it today! :)

Kids Christmas Pattern Game

Now on the App Store, Google Play, Nook Apps (TM), and Amazon Apps. 




Solve sequence and pattern puzzles to help practice foundational math skills in this educational math game.

WHO: For kids ages 4 and up. Some of the harder patterns may even stump some adults.

WHAT: 30 beginner ABAB patterns (ages 4 - 7), 30 intermediate level sequence and pattern puzzles including counting puzzles (ages 5 - 8), 30 advanced sequences and patterns (10+)

WHERE: Santa is traveling all over the world--England, France, Italy, Egypt, India, Antartica, Russia, Mexico, USA and the North Pole. This app provides some exposure to world geography with flags and famous landmarks.

WHY: Recognizing, analyzing and solving pattern and sequence puzzles promotes foundational skills for math, literacy and science.

This app provides practice for children in:
-Recognizing patterns and sequences.
-Recognizing differences in color.
-Recognizing differences in size.
-Practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's.
-Exposure to world geography with country flags and landmarks.

Parental Disclosure:
- This app does not collect any personal identifiable information.
- There are links to the Corvid Apps website and to Corvid Apps products.
- There are no third party ads.
- There are no in-app purchases, the app is fully functional upon purchase.
- View our privacy policy at http://www.corvidapps.com/p/support.html for more information.

Other Apps in This Series:

Kids Pattern Recongition - Beginner (Preschool and Kindergarten) : Kids math game with ABAB and ABCABC patterns

Kids Sequences, Counting and Patterns (Kindergarten and First Grade): Kids math game to help practice 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's.  

Kids Sequences, Patterns and Counting Math App is Available

Observing, comparing and categorizing are foundational skills for math, science and literacy.  In this game kids practice counting by 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's as well as puzzling the solution to various patterns and sequences that change in size and shape.

On App Store (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch),  Google Play, Nook Apps (TM),  Amazon Apps and coming soon to Nabi.

Kids Sequences, Counting and Patterns - A Math App For Kids

On App Store (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch), Google Play, Nook Apps (TM),  Amazon and coming soon to Nabi.



This is a kid's math game. Complete the sequence puzzles to work through the levels to free the good monster aliens that were kidnapped by the bad monster aliens.

WHO: For kids ages 5-8.

WHAT:  Help the hero complete the sequences or patterns to save the monsters that were kidnapped.  This game has 126 puzzles.  The game includes ACABC patterns, patterns for counting by 1's 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's and puzzles puzzles to figure out which one is missing in a range of pictures that increase or decrease in size.

WHERE: In outer space.

WHY: Recognizing and analyzing patterns and sequences is a foundational skill for math, literacy and science.

This app provides practice for children in:
-Recognizing patterns and sequences.
-Recognizing differences in color.
-Recognizing differences in size.
-Practice in counting by 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's.

Other Apps in This Series:
Kids Pattern Recongition - Beginner (Preschool and Kindergarten) : Kids math game with ABAB and ABCABC patterns

Watch the demo video

Kids Educational Game Design

Behind the Scenes and Thoughts on Game Play for Kids Pattern Recognition

Kids Pattern Recognition is a math game for kids where the objective is to find the missing element in a pattern.  There are 120 ABAB and ABCABC patterns.  The difficulty level is about right for most four and five year old children.

I decided on doing a pattern app because I believe that strong math skills later in life come from a really good foundation of practical number sense and logic.  Recognizing, identifying and creating patterns are the basis of practically all learning, not just math. Human brains are always categorizing, and looking for similarities and differences in all we see and do.  Recognizing patterns in unusual places is a large part of what drives innovation and creativity.

A book I read called The Talent Code, talks about how deliberate practice strengthens the connections in the brain.  Mastery of a skill is developed by doing something over and over and over.  In doing so your body creates a substance called myelin that line the pathways for the skill in your brain and makes the skill easier, faster, and remembered. 

Drilling is a common teaching technique to obtain mastery, yet two aspects of repetitive practice are hard to overcome.  The first being attention span, the second being efficiency.  While drilling might be the best way to develop a skill it can become boring.  It is easier to spend a little bit of time to get good enough, then a lot of time to master a skill.   A computer game is ideal for drilling because you can provide the psychological challenge and reward system of a game to avoid boredom, along with a lot of problems in a short amount of time. 

Every good game has a narrative.  The story for Kids Pattern Recognition is that three bad aliens, a leader and two minions, kidnap a bunch of cute alien monsters.  The hero takes his rocket ship into space to rescue the cute aliens and lock up the bad aliens.  He travels to three galaxies that have approximately thirteen planets each.  There are only kidnapped aliens on a few of the planets.  Many educational games use an excessive amount of praise for rewards (ie “good job”, “you are smart”, etc).  While it seems innocuous, many psychologists and educational experts say excessive praise can back fire and make the child feel less interested and less accomplished.  In Kids Pattern Recognition the reward is moving to the next planet and getting closer to rescuing a cute alien.  The kidnapped aliens are placed intermittently to avoid diluting the accomplishment of a rescue.  At the end of each galaxy is where a bad guy is confronted. First you have to capture the minions, and in the final galaxy you get the leader.  The game play changes slightly in these levels to add a twist to the challenge. 

In the regular levels you must solve three patterns without making more than four mistakes.  In the final level of each galaxy you have to solve an unknown number of patterns before the time runs out.  By imposing limits in the game play, the child has to focus on the patterns and not just touch the screen randomly to get the correct answer. 

I am new at game making, and was unsure if the techniques I was using were executed well enough.  My daughter loved the game, but it was hard to tell if she liked it because I made it, or because she is just enthusiastic about everything.  Beta testing also seemed favorable and now that the app is live feedback has been really positive.  Kids in the target age group are engaged in the game and enjoy playing it repeatedly. Hopefully they are gaining good foundational experience in comparing, contrasting, and observing, as well.

What's Next:
There will be two or three more games of increasing difficulty added to this story line.

Purchase Kids Pattern Recognition from the following app markets:

Five free copies will be given away for iPhone/iPad in a giveaway contest for App Friday at 7:30am PST

Discover Educational Android Apps For Kids

Sometimes finding a wide variety of kids apps for Android devices can be hard.  Many apps do not offer a whole lot, or are buggy and do not work well.  Searching for them can be challenging when you have to wade through all the irrelevant choices.  I've compiled some links here that can help parents find those hidden gems.  Remember to rate any apps you like.  Positive ratings are what drive sales, which keep the developers developing.  :)

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Pinterest App List

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Kids love stories and there are a lot of story book apps for Android.  A good list of reviewed story books for Android can be found at Digital Storytime, and good app reviews can be found at Smart Apps for Android.

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Amazon has nice designated sections of kids apps organized into various categories.  Developers choose the categories and amazon reviews those designations, so you can be fairly confident there aren't spam apps.

Kids

• Reading
• Writing
• Alphabet
• Math
• Science

• History
• Language
• Animals
• Popular Characters
• Games

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Barnes & Noble recently redid their children's section and have good categorization as well.  You can only access the Barnes & Noble app store from a Nook Color or Tablet, but it is likely that many of the apps can be found on Google Play as well.  Searching for the developers name versus the app name will usually result in better results.  

All Children

• Developmental Skills
• Arts & Crafts
• Crosswords
• Drawing
• Memory
• Motor Skills
• Penmanship
• Puzzles & Mazes
• Tracing
• Foreign Languages
• Language Arts
• Basic Skills
• Grammar
• Phonics
• Punctuation
• Reading & Comprehension
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Writing
• Math
• Algebra
• Basic Concepts
• Counting
• Decimals
• Fractions
• Geometry
• Time & Money

• Music
• Preschool
• Science
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Earth Science
• Physics
• Social Studies
• Culture and the Modern World
• Geography
• Maps
• U.S. History
• World History
• Special Needs

Kids Pattern Recognition - Beginner

On App Store (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch), Nook Apps (TM),  Amazon, Google Play and Nabi.




This is a kid's math game. Complete the pattern recognition puzzles to work through the levels to free the good monster aliens that were kidnapped by the bad monster aliens.

WHO: For kids ages 4-7.

WHAT:  Help the hero complete the patterns and save the monsters that were kidnapped.  This game has 120 ABAB and ABCABC patterns to solve in order to beat the game.  Some patterns are picture based and some are number based.  Patterns may alternate in color, size, shape, or value.

WHERE: In outer space.

WHY: Recognizing and analyzing patterns and sequences is a foundational skill for both math and literacy.

This app provides practice for children in:
-Recognizing patterns and sequences.
-Recognizing differences in color.
-Recognizing differences in size.
-Recognizing numbers.

Read about some of the thoughts that went into designing the game.

Watch the demo video

What Happens When I Get to the End?

My five year old daughter was giving the new game I'm working on a test run, but the game isn't done yet.  I've got the puzzles working, but I haven't implemented the rewards.   There are very few bells, whistles and animations to encourage and motivate her to advance through the levels.  She was losing steam, but she was determined to get to the end.

"What will happen when I finish it?" she asks.

I answered, "Well, nothing.  I haven't created that part yet."

Poor kid.  I guess that's what happens when you play a game before it is done.

Coming to iOS

I bought a used iMac on craigslist so I could publish apps for iOS.  I haven't turned it on yet. :S  I don't really know much about Macs.  My priority right now isn't to port Learn To Read,, but the apps I am working on at the moment will be for both Android and iOS.  Right now I'm shooting for release in July.  But working on the app while two kids use me as a jungle gym makes for slow progress. ;)

Learn To Read Featured on the Jellybean Tunes App Report

If you haven't checked out the Moms With Apps blog or site you should.  It is a community made up of parents who either develop, review, or illustrate mobile apps for kids.

Yesterday Learn To Read was featured in the Jellybean Tunes App Report that is regularly released on the site.  Please check out the apps listed and review the ones you like.

Android Apps for Kids on Pinterest

I've created a pinterest pin board for android apps that my kids like.  It is kind of hard to find good android apps so I thought it would be nice to get a good list going.

Learn To Read Has New Content

Learn To Read and Learn To Read Lite are updated on Google Play with new content!  Updated versions will be available soon in the Amazon Appstore and Nook Apps(TM).  If you enjoy these apps I would appreciate positive ratings.  Thank you!

Learn To Read is Available on Nook Apps (TM)

Learn To Read is available on Nook Apps (TM).  The lite version will be available soon.