Tag: Little Five Games »

Wood Puzzler is a charming universal application which nicely re-creates the look and feel of playing with a traditional wood alphabet puzzle as well as including letter based jigsaw puzzles and an open-ended letter board.

There is a lot that I enjoy about this app. I love the wood grain and natural wood colors used along the backgrounds of these puzzles as well as the wooden hole these puzzle pieces need to fill, complete with a nice use of effective shading to create depth within these empty puzzle areas. I also appreciate the wonderful wood sound of these pieces when first being tossed from their rightful places as well as the easy-to-listen-to background music.

Three sections are included within this app, specifically an Alphabet Puzzle section that thoughtfully includes both upper and lower case letters that need to be placed into their correct spaces much like a chunky puzzle.

A series of 26 jigsaw-styled puzzles are also included - one per letter. Intuitive to use, simply tap on an picture icon that will take players to the next page where this icon becomes a wood jigsaw puzzle that one must put back together as well as filling in the letters of the word in question - also part of this puzzle. A very nice inclusion is the letter’s phonic sound delivered by narration as well as the reinforcement of letter awareness as the word is spelled out for children at the completion of the puzzle.

I really enjoy how these pieces can be moved around the puzzle as one looks for the correct space without too much help from this application, yet still including a nice sense of “grab,” drawing these pieces within when players drag a puzzle piece close to the correct space of these puzzles - all adding up for a satisfying experience.

Other small details exist that add to this experience, such as the piece one is currently dragging being high-lighted purple, or how a subtle yet effective use of yellow stars is used to demonstrate when players drop a puzzle piece in its correct space, as well as other fun details like the vintage rotary telephone used for letter “T” ringing when the puzzle is complete, the Robot from “R” adding some cute commentary and sound effects, or letter recognition during the completion of a colorful umbrella for “U”.

A nice level of difficulty within these picture puzzles will keep preschoolers entertained without frustration or boredom, and a puzzle for each of the 26 letters makes this puzzle app a content-rich experience. Children can either go through these letter puzzles in sequence or choose specific letters from the main page.

Another nice section included is the Spelling Board area where children and adults can spell their own words by dragging and dropping letters into this open-ended section, complete with shapes one can also add - much like stickers of the Picture Puzzles children will already be familiar with.

I think children and adults will really enjoy this bright and colorful wood puzzle app. This app reminds me of the wood sound puzzle my son really enjoyed when he was learning his letters - without the worry of missing puzzle pieces.

I don’t expect this app to take the place of a classic wood letters puzzle, but this app can be used within one’s bed with ease - a place I was never fond of bringing puzzles, especially before sleeping or when traveling near or far, as the car is another place we do not bring puzzles for fear of losing pieces.

Because of these reasons, parents who are puzzle fans, especially those who have young children, should check out Wood Puzzler.

100 Butterflies is a very nice universal application which focuses on number recognition from 1 to 100 with a lovely butterfly theme.

I enjoy the very simple premise that this app has to offer, as this app opens up to a tree filled with sleeping caterpillars who each awake with a tap, becoming a beautiful butterfly and flying away, having first been labeled with a specific number that is also narrated. The tree is arranged with five butterflies per side, and after every ten butterflies are tapped, one travels up the tree until the goal of 100 is reached.

Two modes are included here - a “Free Play” section and "Quest Mode." In free play, any cocoon can be tapped to see and hear the number being counted throughout this series of numbers, whereas in Quest Mode, each caterpillar is numbered, and one needs to find the correct sequence of these numbers from 1 to 100.

I really like this fun, simple app. I have used a lot of apps that deal with number recognition both for my son and for review purposes, and have noticed that they commonly go up to the number 10. My son can easily count to the mid 40’s on his own before he becomes distracted and moves on to something else, so I really like the recognition of higher numbers being
re-enforced within this app.

Of note about this app is how pretty it is, with soft pastels filling the page and charming caterpillars which transform into beautiful butterflies that take off and fly away. I also like how the background used throughout slowly changes as the numbers progress between daytime and night, with nice details found in the sky as well, making this a very attractive app to look
at. I appreciate how this app opens with a fun fact about butterflies - something I would love to hear more of, but I can see how additional narration could distract from the counting.

This app will be enjoyed by children up through preschool or any age where children are still learning how to count to 100, but I think that this would make an especially nice first app for the youngest players as well who are just learning how to tap a touch screen. For these players, the free play mode would be a perfect way to immerse themselves in number learning, and it is nice that children can grow into the use of “Quest Mode” as well.

I really like the fact that many developers these days are making their apps universal. It is worth pointing out that here I have noticed that the numbers on the chests of these butterflies look a little small when on the iPhone, but I have not heard any complaints from my son, who enjoyed this app.

All-in-all, a very nice counting experience from 100 Butterflies. I am glad to see an application that takes on the teaching of numbers past 10.