Tag: Night & Day Studios »

Now that the new iPad has been released, there may be readers new to downloading apps for their young children.

The app store can be an intimidating place, and the last thing any parent wants to avoid is spending money on an application that will not be enjoyed by their children. I remember when I got my first iPhone and began downloading apps, my son was 22 months old and I asked other mothers I knew to recommend applications that their toddlers loved.

The title that came up in conversation over and over again was Peekaboo Barn, a wonderful first app for children and an application that parents are still drawn to today as they look through my phone, abundant with educational apps a perennial favorite of my son who still enjoys this app from time to time. Versions for both iPhone as well as iPad are available.

This lovely, simple application opens up to a barn that bounces as one can hear something - presumably an animal - knocking from the inside. Babies and toddlers as well as older children delight in tapping the barn, opening it up to meet this creature. Once the barn is open, this animal makes its sound and its name is displayed using narration as well as text. The barn then closes, more knocking is heard and this game repeats itself.

Thirteen animals are included, and when one has met every animal, the last barn to be opened contains all these animals with their various sounds heard at once and the narrator proclaims “It's everyone.” It is quite charming how the next screen includes nightfall and now the barn is filled with sleeping animals with narration proclaiming with a whisper, “shhh, they're sleeping,” making this app a great title for bedtime, as seeing these animals asleep really relaxed my boy, helping him fall asleep himself.

Please note that both “Normal" as well as “Looped” modes are included. Make sure to use “Normal” mode to reach the restful ending to this app, as the “Looped” mode includes an un-ending supply of animals within barns to interact with.

The look of this app is great, with a sense of style adults will appreciate as well as their children, and it is especially nice that these animal noises sound very good, teaching about these creatures as one plays.

An American English-speaking child, adult English and Spanish-speaking narrations are included. Other language translations can be purchased separately as an add-on purchase, focusing on Asian or European languages. Recording one’s own voiceover is also an option.

There is not a lot I would change about this enjoyable app, but it would be nice if a basic home button were included as there is no mechanism to change narration or modes mid-game - just something to think about for the future.

If interested, do check out the other peekaboo apps within this series by Night & Day Studio such as Peekaboo Safari and Peekaboo Forest. We greatly enjoy these other, similar applications as well.

Richard Scarry’s Busytown Hd is a new app for iPad that brings the classic and beloved BusyTown series to devices, as a version also exists for iPhone as well. Here various scenes found among the pages of the BusyTown books have been turned into a eye-spy game, allowing the player to search these scenes, all of which will be familiar places, like a playground, grocery or kitchen for specific objects, such as a sea-saw, plums, or tea kettle.

I fondly remember these books, more so the basic style of illustrations created by Richard Scarry, as his anthropomorphic animals dressed in human clothing and partaking in the daily life of people delighted me greatly as a child.

I am happy to see the same illustrations presented here within this app, as this app begins with one choosing an animal character, as one scrolls horozontally back and forth among four animal choices, with the selection at hand being the large image in center screen. Tap here to select, or tap the arrow at the bottom right hand corner. After the basic animal is selected, choose a name, the bottom half of this character's wardrobe (including both skirt and pants choices), and then the top half of the outfit, be it a blouse, jacket, or raincoat. Shoes and accessories are also available, all with the same method of selection.

Once complete, this character is found bottom left of the next page that allows for scene selection with the same horizontal scrolling introduced earlier. Once a scene is chosen, another animal asks for help looking for a certain object in this specific space, but it is unfortunate that the original character created is not involved within the actual eye-spy game of looking for the specific item.

Having said this, my son does enjoy looking for the object in question. It is nice that the images used for these motifs include familiar areas of one’s house such as bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, as well as a grocery, playground, or firehouse, and it is nice that one can tap around the page having various objects labeled with both words and text. However, I do not care for how after one finds a single item, such as plums from the grocery, one can’t stay in this area to explore further in order to look for more related items. Instead, one is brought back to make another scene selection, and constantly making these choices seems to really slow down gameplay for me. My son did not seem to mind this as much, oftentimes changing locations after each eye-spy mini-game is complete.

I appreciate how these scenes are borrowed from the pages of Richard Scarry’s Best WORD BOOK Ever as well as Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town, an aspect that will make adult fans smile, but my son was disappointed that in the bedroom one only is asked to find Goldbug, a character made popular in the book Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, as he can be found hiding among these pages of this book as well as every location within this app. Although this is a beloved detail from a classic book and fun to spot in the other areas of this application, my son wanted more variation in this bedroom as he enjoys the more detailed locations of the grocery and kitchen the best, as do I. I understand that the bedroom pictured here is heavily styled after the bedroom in "Best WORD BOOK Ever" which is not as detailed as other rooms or locations, but as I look at this page, there are items that could be taken advantage of instead of only looking for Goldbug - a classic element that does not translate to the bedroom well because here, finding Goldbug is too easy and redundant for our taste, and I wonder if this being the only eye-spy object for the bedroom is a glitch or an intentional choice.

Having said this, the classic images used are nice to look at. My son has enjoyed moments within this app, and it may be of interest, especially to fans of this prolific children’s writer.

Kindermusik Radio App is an interesting music application from Night and Day Studios, much like Pandora radio, here created with children in mind. With the use of an internet connection, over one hundred songs are arranged into specific stations including “Bounces and Rhymes,” “Animals, Animals,” “Get Up and Move,” and “Mostly Lullabies” as well as a station of stories.

I like the idea of this app; the songs are of a very high quality that one would expect from Kindermusic, and I like that the lyrics are included to these songs as are activities that one can do along with your child while listening to the music, much like the activities one may participate in at a Kindermusic class - a lovely way to get kids up and moving.

It is really nice that you can choose "play along" with the songs if you wish, choosing an instrument like a castanet or egg shaker and then tap in time to the music. My son and I took a few music classes together, but he had a hard time waiting until the moment at the end when the kids were allowed to explore a big box of musical instruments, so being able to play along with any song is right up his alley.

I did notice however, that many times by its nature you are brought to a song already in progress, most notably when you choose a story and have no idea what it is going on. This never bothered me before when using the radio as background music, but when choosing an app as an activity, it is nice to have the choice of starting a song or story from the beginning. Maybe I should have more patience and simply wait for a song or story to end and another one begin, but this is an app geared towards young children who are not known for their attention spans. I appreciate that information about each song or story is given as are options to buy it or its album from iTunes, but I do worry that my son may make purchases by mistake. The option of emailing the song information to oneself or a friend is a nice option to have, but it would be great if one could simply add it to a “favorites” list to keep track of songs or stories to be investigate later without leaving the song's page to do so.

The song and story choices are unquestionably excellent here, as is the fact that activities and the song's lyrics are included and the ability to play along is wonderful as well. If one is looking for kid-friendly radio-style app with a large variety to choose from, this is a very good choice. Another interesting app from Night and Day Studios - definitely developers to keep an eye on.

Peekaboo Forest is a universal app as well as being the third in a lovely series of apps by Night and Day Studios - which teaches children about animals, the sounds they make, as well as their habitats.

This new app is different from the first two apps in which animals are hiding behind a barn door or in tall grass, these objects grabbing the child's attention with the movement and the tapping of the barn or rustling of the grass. They are wonderful prompts to see what animals are playing peek-a-boo and making their animal sounds. These apps are perfect first apps for babies and toddlers and may be among the first apps downloaded for young family members.

Here, Peekaboo Forest has incorporated drawings from famed mid-century artist Charley Harper, whose style of illustration is known as “minimal realism.” This best describes the look of this application as well. This app is very sophisticated-looking, using muted earth tones that one would find in a forest, but these drawings are not without whimsy. All the animals are simply beautiful and in a style that is sure to please adults, and I am happy to say that my son loves these images as well.

Different from the first two apps, these animals hide behind trees or other objects, peeking out just slightly to be found by the player with a very nice realistic scale used, making for a very interesting visual effect when one comes across a particularly large or small animal. Unlike the first two apps which have one animal per page and no question of where to find each animal, Peekaboo Forest has many animals hiding in and around various things found in nature and you need to keep your eyes peeled looking for their movements, hearing the animal's noises once they are found instead of hearing the sounds first to guess who the animal is like in the first two apps. Peekaboo Forest is more of a true peek-a-boo game to the viewer and more challenging than its predecessors, but nonetheless still captivating to my three year old son.

I also like how the different seasons are shown here, with their own introductory screen and musical theme. This app, however, opens up directly into “winter,” but it would be nice if “winter” too had its own introduction as well, as I think splitting this app up into seasons makes a lot of sense.

My son really enjoys this app and I am glad. The musical theme is wonderful as is the amazing art work. This app may appeal more to a older toddler or preschooler and I think that it is nice that this series has grown with the kids who were babies when Peekaboo Barn was first introduced and now may be ready for a more sophisticated app. I can’t wait to see what Night and Day Studios comes out with next; they have an excellent track record!

My Very First App is an interactive application based on the popular book, My First Book Of Colors, best known for the colorful artwork done by artist Eric Carle. This app is a very accurate transformation from the original book which will please fans of My First Book Of Colors, as well as families new to Carle’s work. Like the book, the screen has been divided into two pieces, top and bottom, which can scroll independently. The top half is a series of color sections. The bottom half is illustrations of objects which incorporate the same colors from the section above. The object is to scroll both sections - left and right - making color pairs with all the colors and objects. There are two other difficulty levels included, "medium" and "difficult" for older children. Although not based directly on the book, they are interesting modes based on the classic “memory” style game where a series of cards are laid out for the player to flip over and make pairs from. The ”medium” level game had the player match either the colors or objects to themselves, while the “hard” level players much match the colors to the various objects which are of the same color, making this game a bit more challenging.

As one would expect, the illustrations are colorful, beautiful, and of a style for which Eric Carle is known. My son was disappointed, however, that the color orange was not included here, nor is it in the original book. I find this an odd omission to say the least. Other than that, we have a lot of fun with this app.

Other sets are available as in purchase add-ons which will be based on the other Carle books from this series (such as numbers and shapes), but I would prefer these to be sold as individual apps because screen-shots and reviews are hard to come by for add-ons, so doing research before buying is now difficult. As a single app however, it is very nicely done.