I'm a full-time mummy

Here is another fun and educational app which was recently released that I get to review with my 3 year old Benjamin:

* Title: The Adventures of Slibby the Snail: The stolen food HD
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Jun 28, 2012
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 141 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Ivan Kules © CoolAsh Studio 2012
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Introducing The Adventures of Slibby the Snail storybook, a story about funny snail named Slibby. Slibby lives in Porchlandia and he is helping his friends the Ants to find some stolen food. Along the way, Slibby needs to solve a lot of quests to find that stolen food. For example, he needs to solve a puzzle,  connect the dots to find a leaf, find some differences on two images, and a lot lot more. On his journey, Slibby will meet various Ants, an Old Tree and a Grasshopper. When he finds that stolen food, he will also find himself in trouble, and he will need assistance from his new friends and from you – the reader!"

What's good?

* I love the beautiful illustrations and the storyline about a snail helping out his friends (the ants) to find their stolen food and how we have to help him solve puzzles and games in order to complete his quest!

* I am very excited to see some of the puzzles and games in this appbook such as the maze (help Slibby the Snail to find its way home) and the jigsaw puzzle (help repair Slibby's shell) These are some of the activities I do with my 3 year old boy on daily basis as part of our relax learning method and I am glad to see my boy able to grasp this puzzles and games faster.

* I am also happy to see my boy being able to complete the game where he has to connect the dots to find a leaf. This type of exercise are currently not started in our learning lessons yet as I am still teaching him to count from 1 to 10 (verbally)

Room for Improvement?

* I would prefer that the animals names are easier to pronounce or better if they could rhyme together, such as Sally the Snail or Annie the Ant or Hopper the Grasshopper.

* I find that the game where we have to find the differences on two images a bit difficult for my 3 year old boy to comprehend and I would prefer it if the 2 images are shown vertically instead of horizontally (reflection in the water against the image above water) but perhaps children of older age group will be able to grasp and solve this game.

* I would recommend that the flowers matching game be revised a little bit. Currently when you touch a flower, it will change color and glows making it difficult to remember the original color of the flower. Perhaps the flower could be outlined with a blinking line so that we know we selected the flower and also know the color we selected?

You can purchase the "The Adventures of Slibby the Snail: The stolen food HD" app from the iTunes App Store.

The iphone/ipod touch version and details can be found here.

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"

* Title: I Wonder - Kids' Book
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Updated: May 02, 2012
* Version: 1.3
* Size: 31.9 MB
* Language: English, Italian
* Seller: Ware's me srl
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"A book published by Kite Editions becomes an extraordinary application for iPad! A captivating and simple story, written by Marinella Barigazzi with Ursula Bucher's wonderful illustrations, original music, entertaining animations and sounds.

Marco gets on the train, and page after page he discovers a world behind the window. As the pages of the app turn and the landscape passes by, Marco thinks and daydreams on the nature and the animals that live beyond the pane, and you too can discover and think along with him, and play with the objects of its reflections and the landscape that slides in front of Marco, in front of your eyes and under your fingers."

What's good?

* This is an easy to read book app that also comes with 4 puzzle games as well. I was excited to see my 3 year old happily playing one of the puzzle game with his daddy!

* The illustrations are amazing and pleasing to the eyes as well, captivating enough even I caught myself gazing dreamily in some of the beautiful pages!

* I like the sounds and animations that comes along as we read through the pages, especially the thunderstorm (I am a fan of dark sky, rainy sky, thunderstorm etc etc).

* There are some pages which got Ben's attention and reactions such as the page where Marco wonders about the lights of the night. Ben enjoyed this page very much and kept on playing and sliding the train to and fro! (Yes, he is a fan of trains too!)

Room for Improvement?

* Maybe it's just my weird preferance but I would prefer if the book app ended with the "The End" words shown so that we can know that the story ended... instead of leaving us wondering is this the end? Or perhaps this is a tactic of this book based on it's title? Hmmm...

You can purchase the "I Wonder - Kids' Book" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code 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 read the press release of these new books with great interest especially when it mentioned "...the books illustrate everyday scenarios that can challenge parents and young children: getting ready in the morning, sharing toys, and going to bed at night. Along with simple dialogue and full-color illustrations, the books include color-coded text to cue parents about positive language to use with their children. The ParentSmart/KidHappy series teaches four positive parenting techniques: (1) how to validate a child’s feelings, (2) how to offer choices, (3) how to promote problem-solving skills, and (4) how to encourage alternative behavior." 

So I immediately wrote in asking whether there is any possibilities of me reviewing the printed copies of these awesome books and a month later, these books arrived safely into our hands! Yes!!!

Without further ado, here goes my first review for the "ParentSmart/KidHappy™ Series" book entitled "Ready to Play! A Tale of Toys and Friends, and Barely Any Bickering":

Title: ParentSmart/KidHappy™ Series (Ready to Play! A Tale of Toys and Friends, and Barely Any Bickering)
Author: Stacey R. Kaye, MMR  Illustrated: Elizabeth O. Dulemba
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
ISBN-13/-10:  978-1-57542-318-0
Paperback:  32 pages
Dimension: 8 1/4" x 8 1/4"

Description from the product page:
"Trouble sharing. Haggles over what to play. Jealousy, hurt feelings—and of course tears when playtime ends. For kids just learning to get along, playtime can be riddled with conflict. Ready to Play! offers healthy, lasting ways to help kids cooperate, develop social skills, and have fun.

When good friends Emma and Ryan get together to play, there's lots of fun to be had—and also plenty of playtime problems to be solved. Children will love the full-color pictures and whimsical story, and parents and caregivers will learn the language of positive parenting.

This book, and others in the series, provides a BONUS for parents and caregivers. With honesty and gentle humor, Ready to Play! shows how to handle typical playtime struggles by modeling three parenting techniques using color-coded text to teach the language of positive parenting:
* Giving encouragement
* Validating feelings
* Inviting kids to brainstorm solutions and imagine outcomes

These techniques are explained in detail in a section at the end of the book that is just for adults. The result: you get through everyday challenges with less stress while building your child's emotional intelligence and your own parenting skills.

Ready to Play! features:
* An engaging, realistic story that will ring true for parents and kids alike
* Easy-to-use techniques and positive language highlighted in color-coded text
* A section just for adults that explains the language of positive parenting
* An easy, fun way to improve parenting skills—by reading with your child"

This is my favorite book among the series! Ben is on the same page with me as this was the first book he chose for us to go through together, in fact he said 'Mummy read this first!'

Now, just want to clarify, I didn't follow the storyline in this book exactly. Instead of using the characters names (Ryan and Emma), I substituted them with Benjamin and Alyson, my children's names so that my 3 year old can relate himself with his baby sister in the story.

As I go through the book with him, I gently stressed to him that it is important for us to share things and take turns as well.

I also love the beautiful and realistic illustrations which clearly depicts the expressions on the child's face! I explained while pointing to my 3 years old why the child's face is in such way, for example on a page where the little girl is angry because she doesn't get things done her way and I gently explained to Ben that we have to mind our manners and must not be bossy and we cannot expect everyone to adhere to our wishes.

In addition, I also deviated a bit with the book as I saw the first page on the book is a background of toy horses in sandy brown color and one unique dark brown colored horse. I used this opportunity to teach Benjamin to identify the different horse from the rest (this is part of my activities with my 3 years old boy - which is to identify the same and/or different object)

My verdict? Definitely a must have book!

You can get this book from Amazon and Free Spirit Publishing website.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book 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 book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"