June 14, 2012

The Singing Alphabet- An IPAD App Review

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Reviews IPAD App Review

The Singing Alphabet is the latest IPAD App which I had tested out with the kids. This App is unlike any other apps which we have come across.

The Ministry of Letters developed this app to engage children with the world of letters. Their letters are made to look like fun and friendly characters which the children would love playing it.

Each time a letter is pressed it would sing its phonetic sound. You can press more then one letter at a time and the tune sounds like a well coordinated chorus .

We explored making our own words by pressing the pen at the bottom of the screen to show the letters that we have chosen.

My thoughts

My kids love how each alphabet starts rapping and sounding out phonetically when pressed. I like the fact that you can put any two or more alphabets together to sound out the word. Both simple and complex words /vowel sounds can be addressed using this App.

There is also potential using this app for teaching blending of sounds as a follow up to an introduction to the 26 letters of the alphabet.

Some Areas of Improvement

The App took an extremely long time to load up. It took nearly 10 minutes before it could be fully functional.It would be great if the App could be booted up in a jiffy and be up and running.

It would be great if the alphabets also came in upper case letters and not just lower case so that the child would know how the word is emphasized when it is put together.

You can purchase the “The Singing Alphabet” app from the iTunes App Store for $0.99.

Disclaimer: I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

The Book of Doing by Allison Arden

The Book of Doing: Everyday Activities to Unlock Your Creativity and Joy by Allison Arden is one book which Monkey boy loved reading and doing. This book is unlike any other book which I had reviewed. It is filled with many different activities and ideas which one can carry out.

He couldn’t put the book down when he got his hands on the book and I had to literally pry it away from him in order to get a look.

Allison Arden had never really intended on writing such a book. After her 40th birthday she decided that she needed to do something to get back the passion in her life. It can be said that she had an “aha moment in her life” and decided to start living life rather then just going through the motions.

From that day onwards she started doing activities which she did incorporating her love for arts and crafts. She experience immense joy and freedom in her new found approach to living and this let her to write the fully illustrated and designed THE BOOK OF DOING.

There are 94 fun activities such as Draw yourself as a cartoon character and filling out my wish for the year 2012 which Monkey boy really enjoyed doing. You just have to flip the pages and I’m certain that you will find activities which appeal to you.

My thoughts on the book.

Monkey boy and I really enjoy doing some of the activities listed in the book and this book certainly does help give us ideas on how to engage in interesting task throughout the summer vacations. It is a great book if you are looking for some inspiration to spark off the passion inside you. I like the idea that it makes you think outside the box and encourages curiosity and creativity.

If you are interested to own a copy of this book you can purchase this book on Amazon