ABC Farm Review

I am delighted to inform readers that a new app in the ABC series by Peapod Labs has been released - ABC Farm.

This series has a long list of titles, from ABC Music to ABC Food, that each teach children about different themed objects with the use of photos, videos, interactions and narrated fun facts, also incorporating the use of the alphabet to organize these words into a menu for easy access to favorite words.

This new app, ABC Farm, includes a wonderful new element, as this app is now bi-lingual as Spanish can be heard with the tap of a button - not only the word of focus spoken in either Spanish or English, but the narrated information section as well, which includes the text one can also read along with.

I think this is a wonderful inclusion, as this app can now be enjoyed by both English and Spanish speaking children, but also children new to learning either of these languages.

ABC Farm like the others in this series, opens up with a menu page of each of the 26 letters and their corresponding words. To use, simply tap on a word of interest to be brought to a section that includes a terrific use of multi media and interactivity.

The top left of the screen includes a window that when tapped will bring children to the interactive section of this app, as they swipe a finger across the screen to see related changes, such as helping out at an orchard removing apples from trees, building a well or opening a beehive. Excellent before and after pictures are used as part of this interaction which have a lot of fun with.

More photos are seen as the main image of these pages. Do scroll between these page to see all the related images - always professional in terms of quality, bright, colorful and rich with details.

If one has internet access while exploring this app, also note the windows found amoung these other pages that contain educational videos as well, which themselves contain a great wealth of information. I really appreciate how each of these pages also contains thoughtfully written facts delivered as narrated text, exploring these topics in a way that is sophisticated yet accessible by children.

Users will also note the word of focus is spelled out at the bottom of the screen with letters, each helped by a “little explorer” which can also be tapped to explore other words that start with the same corresponding letter.

As parents know, there are a multitude of apps in iTunes that relate to farms, oftentimes relating the same basic information. Because of this, I am especially happy to announce the unique words included within ABC Farm, such as “udder,” “incubator,” “ irrigation,” or “silo.”

Although I expected as much from PeaPod Labs as I know the creative words used in other apps, I was greatly impressed with the use of Spanish in this app, as I thought it would be a nice idea to include a few Spanish words. I was not expecting the additional facts, narrative prompts and menu to be fully integrated with Spanish as well.

It is obvious how much work has gone into this app, and although I have always thought adults and older children would get a great deal from these apps, this Spanish addition makes this a great app for English or Spanish learners of any age.

I have been familiar with this series of apps for some time now, and I am greatly impressed by how this series has expanded its content to include narration with the included facts as well as interactions - options not available for their first apps. I also admire Peapod Labs for having great updates that add more content sometimes greatly, not just “mild bug fixes” common among other apps.

I am eager to see if there will be other apps within this series, as they are uniformly educational, thorough and fun.