I'm a full-time mummy

I received an email from Charisse of ChildUp Team few weeks ago asking whether I'm interested in reviewing their products and I'm glad I replied with my interest to review their "iCount-to-10 ChildUp Early Learning App". Here goes my review after spending sometime on it with Ben (will definitely continue on to see his progress)...

* Title: iCount-to-10 – Teach Your Child to Count to 10 – Early Learning Method
* Price: $1.99
* Category: Games
* Released: Jul 26, 2011
* Current Version: 1.1.1 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
* Size: 10.1 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: ChildUp Ltd
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Description from the product page:

" The iCount-to-10 app was created to help parents and caregivers teach children from 1 to 5 years old to count to 10. By playing this game with your children, they will learn the first steps in addition, as well as the names and real sounds of 40 popular animals. 

PURPOSE: iCount-to-10 was specifically designed as an educational tool for parents and caregivers to interact with their children from 1 to 5 years old. By playing with iCount-to-10, your children will not only learn numbers as quantities and symbols, and the first steps in arithmetic, but they will also develop a lot of important skills: math and logic skills, learning and cognitive skills, listening and memory skills, attention and concentration skills, and language and social skills. To be efficient, however, iCount-to-10 should not be used by children alone. The true power of the application lies with the caring and intensive guidance of an adult. 

EARLY MATH LEARNING: In teaching to count with iCount-to-10, you can test your children through 7 levels of difficulty in 4 series of 10 different animals. The goal is for your children to learn the 10 single digit numbers and to count up to 10, in counting progressively up to 3, then up to 5, and so on. Then you can also train your children to count in a random or incremental order, and choose when to add zero, the ‘special’ number, as part of the counting series. 

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT: In addition to teaching how to count to 10, iCount-to-10 will let you share with your children a lot of interesting discussions about the 40 animals represented in the game (each of them being the object of a short description in the app). While playing with you, your children will - almost automatically and probably with great pleasure - discover and learn a lot of new vocabulary, and be able to recognize the real sounds of each animal. 

THE EXHAUSTIVE iCount-to-10 ANIMAL LIST: 1. Domestic Animals: Horse, Cow, Pig, Sheep, Dog, Cat, Duck, Rabbit, Chicken, Mouse. 2. African Mammals: Camel, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Gorilla, Zebra, Chimpanzee, Lion, Hyena. 3. Birds: Ostrich, Toucan, Penguin, Eagle, Owl, Flamingo, Sparrow, Parrot, Pelican, Vulture. 4. Aquatic Animals: Whale, Crab, Shark, Walrus, Octopus, Goldfish, Sea lion, Lobster, Dolphin, Hippocampus.

CHILDUP EARLY LEARNING METHOD: iCount-to-10 includes the first part of the ChildUp Early Learning Method. The method was invented, developed, and practiced by John and Alan Debonneville, father and son, who dearly love mathematics and logic. John began to apply the principles and techniques described in the method with his son when the boy was still a baby, up until the time he was a teenager. The outcome was so positive that Alan and John thought it would be helpful for other parents to know about this successful early learning and teaching experience. The ChildUp Early Learning Method provides practical information from real-life situations and families, backed up by leading scientific research from the past 10 years. It presents some new concepts related to early childhood education where parents can play a critical role as both mentor and teacher to their children’s greatest benefit."

This game app is broken down into 4 different sections:

A - Getting to Know Animals

In this section, you get to know different types of animals such as domestic, African mammals, birds, marine animals and so on. On each screen showing the animal, you can press the speaker button on the bottom left to hear the sound that the respective animals make.

B - Learning Digits

In this section, you can learn about incremental or random numbers. For incremental numbers, you go through number 0 to 10 in a flash card type of method while the number 0 to 10 will be randomly shown if you choose the random numbers option.

C - Start Counting!

In this section, the game incorporates both animals and counting methods. You will choose the series of animals to work with (example domestic animals) and then set the difficulty level followed by the counting up to whichever number you wanted.

D - Early Learning Method

In this section, you get to read more on the Introduction of the ChildUp Early Learning Tools, Brain Development,  Parents as First Teachers and so on. Personally, I read this section first as it generally explains to you how to make use of this game as a learning app for your child.

Picture below taken of Ben while we went through the iCount-to-10 game together on my iPad...

Ben pointing to the respective number on screen...

What's good?

*  I like that I can teach Ben on counting from 1 to 10 and put in the setting of numbers to count up to in the  Start Counting section (C) 

*  I also like that I can teach my child the animals and also help him recognise the sounds each respective animals made.

 Room for improvement?

* I would love to see other varieties of illustrations which our children can see more often in their daily life, such as transportation or household items and so on.

* I would prefer it if the Learning Digits (section B) comes with a speaker button as well. It somehow felt weird when there is silence as I moved the numbers along.

You can purchase the "iCount-to-10 – Teach Your Child to Count to 10 – Early Learning Method" 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"

It has been a while since I last reviewed a music album, so when I received a press release on this new album  a month before it is due for release on August 23rd, of course I said 'Yes, count me in!'  (who wouldn't want to review a new music album?!!!) and immediately downloaded the album and listened to it!

More info from the press release I received:

"If their last record was a light-in-the-darkest-places announcement that “the end is really just the beginning,” then Downhere’s latest Centricity Music release arrives as an artfully textured but heartfelt declaration that, “True progress might mean we have to go backwards.” As students of history, Jeremy, Jason, Marc and Glenn have come to recognize and appreciate the fact that their faith is not simply their own—but that it’s part of a much larger communion of believers that stretches across cultures and thousands of years. And while we might have the privilege of bearing that torch during the short span of our own lives, they would say it’s important to recognize it’s not a torch we lit. It’s one that was passed to us by generations of faithful saints, and it’s one that we’ll soon enough be passing on to those who follow us.

At first blush that might sound like a heady concept for a pop album, but what Downhere has somehow managed to do is to translate those great truths into the most pop-friendly record they’ve engineered to date, carving out lush and hook-laden aural landscapes, complimented by a lyrical approach that feels personal and intimate. Or, to put it another way, On the Altar of Love is thoroughly passionate, but never preachy.

On the Altar of Love is really a proclamation of faith,” explains Jason. “It’s an encouragement to continue on regardless of circumstance, to continue this journey with joy and celebration, because we have a promise. We know where the journey ends. And we know that we’re not alone as we make our way. We have the companionship of Christ, and we have this vast family of brothers and sisters, and we have this great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, who are cheering us on. So we want to cast aside the distractions, return to what is essential, and spend ourselves completely in response to the love we’ve been given."

More info on Downhere's website at http://downhere.com/home

 The few songs in this album that captured my attention are:

#2 "Rest" - Very nice and catchy tune! Love it!
#5 "Living the Dream" - This is a light hearted and cheerful song, love the upbeat tune!
#10 "Turn This Around" - Love the inspiring message in the lyrics!

You can get their new album at: http://discrevolt.com/artists/centricity/#downhere

I would like to give a note of thanks to Meredith from Centricity Music for this wonderful opportunity to review this album prior to its release! FYI, I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the link to  download and listen to the album to assist with 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.