I'm a full-time mummy

I received an email asking whether I would be interested in reviewing an app with a rhyming story about a hopeful young hare who enters an animal's sports contest and ends up winning the decathlon. After reading about the app info on iTunes Store, I was intrigued and decided to review it. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: The Champion Hare
* Price: $3.99
* Category: Books
* Updated: Apr 11, 2012
* Version: 1.1
* Size: 90.6 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: InteractBooks LLC
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Description from the product page:

"When a young hare enters the Animal Sports Competition he soon finds himself racing a cheetah and competing in the long jump against a kangaroo! It's not easy becoming a champion, but with help from a clever parrot and cheered on by a family of meerkats he eventually discovers that nothing beats a bit of perseverance. Join our hopeful young hare as he runs, throws and jumps his way through this delightful rhyming interactive story."

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the cute animations popping out that surprises us!

* I like the storyline where it tells how the hare won a competition with its perseverance and support from friends.

* I love that this story also introduces some of the Olympic sports to young children and it reminded me of the sports activities I took during my school time!

Room for Improvement?

* I'd love to be able to just slide with my fingers in order to move through the pages rather than currently needing to tap the top right corner on each pages.

You can purchase the "The Champion Hare" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, 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. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

The moment I saw this app about ladybug in the latest Oceanhouse Media's press release in my email inbox, I immediately request for the promo code to redeem this app. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Ladybug at Orchard Avenue
* Price: $1.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Jul 11, 2012
* Version: 1.09
* Size: 14.5 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Ladybug at Orchard Avenue gives a bug's eye view of the exciting world just outside a child's window. Follow this enchanting journey through a ladybug's miniature world and learn about the predators she faces, the aphids she hunts and what secret place she will call her home for the winter.

Reviewed by the Smithsonian Institution for accuracy, Smithsonian's Backyard series features entertaining stories that answer many questions children have about the habits and habitats of the animals in our own backyards."

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* I like the storyline where it tells how the life of a ladybug in hunting for food and also defending itself from predators.

* I used the opportunity in this book to teach my 3 year old son about the body parts of a ladybug, how it hunts for food and also defends itself from predators.

* The illustration is beautiful and quite life-like!

Room for Improvement?

* I would prefer if the word that pops out when we touched it comes with the audio sound as currently only the text word pops out.

* I would to see a diagram of the life cycle of a ladybug!

You can purchase the "Ladybug at Orchard Avenue" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, 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. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

I stumbled upon a Tweet message by the awesome people who made "Olly the Little White Van" looking for bloggers to review their latest series. My 3 years old boy enjoys watching shows like Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Postman Pat and after checking out "Olly the Little White Van", I replied them asking whether they are OK with international bloggers, and my oh my, they are happy to provide a copy of their latest DVD season 3 for my review!

Via our private messages, I honestly told them that we've never watched any of the episodes before and hope that they will not mind us reviewing their series and wow, they even sent me the first 2 seasons DVDs for us together! WoohOoOoOo!

Description from the product page:
"Olly the Little White Van is a 52-part series of 5-minute episodes aimed at preschoolers around the world.

Season 1 launched on ITV and CITV  in June 2011, with Season 2 (Another 13 episodes) first airing in January 2012.  Season 3 launched a further 13 in May 2012, and Season4 is due to break after the summer. Award-winning writers, animators and composers are working together in top-end, privately-funded UK facilities to create the series, which was conceived and is being driven by Henry Becket."

More clips and info can be found at: http://www.ollythelittlewhitevan.co.uk/

It's not often I get to see my 3 years old boy getting all excited and engrossed watching something! I love that there are other vehicles in this series, Ben loves watching Royston the fire engine! So there is no surprise that Ben keep on watching some of the episodes with Royston in it, such as the 'Bird Watching' in season 1 and 'Olly the Little Red Fire-van' in season 3. 

Of course, my boy loves watching Olly as well and from time to time, I caught my boy singing the theme song of this series! Cute! And yes, I will end up singing along with him as well!

I love that each episodes is just 5 minutes long, enough to keep the attention span of an active child like mine and I also enjoy the music and song in each episodes.

I also use the opportunity when watching the series to explain to my 3 years old boy the lessons to be learned such as to be helpful, neat and polite among many of the good habits to cultivate.

Look at the picture below! Both my 3 years old boy and 10 months old girl enjoy watching "Olly the Little White Van"! Wonderful!

You can get this DVD and many more products at http://www.corgi.co.uk/shop/corgi-toys/olly-the-little-white-van/

Yes! There is an app for "Olly the Little White Van" and it is free! I do want to share my feedback that the app sometimes hangs and I'm not sure why, the app just does not seem to detect our touch responses on the screen.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the DVDs 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.