When I was in grade school, I was a tomboy. (Heck, sometimes I still feel like a tomboy!)

One of my favorite toys was a little green metal sports car.  (This was in the pre-Matchbox cars days.)

It was a one-seater sports car. I thought it was the neatest thing ever. I loved playing in the dirt with it. (We didn’t have a sandbox.  I grew up on a farm and the whole yard was far better than a sandbox any old day.)

When I was recently asked if I would review the iPhone app Cars in Sandbox, I just had to say yes. The app spoke to the tomboy side of me.

This app has eight different types of construction vehicles. The object of the game is to select a vehicle and ‘play’ with it in the sandbox by having the vehicle ‘pick up’ or ‘move’ other toys and items in the sandbox.

For instance, load the dump truck with a beach ball or a rocket and dump it into a box. The road grader scoots a tennis ball, soccer ball, and basketball and into a tube. With the claw of the crane, you pick up blocks out of one box, drive to another box, and drop the blocks in the second box.

When you successfully accomplish a task for the vehicle, you get a star. If you want to ‘play’ with another vehicle, you can easily switch to a different one.

There are many things about this app that delight me. When you press on a vehicle, a realistic sounding motor starts. I love this! The motor sounds different when you ‘drive’ the vehicle forward from when you drive backwards. It idles when the vehicle isn’t moving.

You can open and shut the vehicle’s door. turn on the headlights, and lower the stabilizer jacks. I especially love honking the horn. (I honked it so much my husband got rather annoyed . . .)

Here are some screenshots.

Here are a few of the things I like about this application:

• I love the bright colors.
• I am extremely impressed with the graphics. The vehicles are very realistic and well-drawn.
• I think it’s funny that you bump into another toy when you get to the end of the sandbox.
• This app kept my attention for a long time! I absolutely love it. I can’t wait to show it to my grandchildren.

While the game creators state that this game is for children over 1-2, I think that isn’t quite right. Yes, while children that young can move the vehicles back and forth, they won’t have the dexterity to manipulate the vehicle and the other items in the game. I think that this app would be better for children over 4 years old.

The app costs only $1.99. Check it out. I think this is definitely worth buying! It’s fun. It’s challenging. It’s colorful. And, I think children will really enjoy this app.  I sure did.

Giveaway

I would like to give away 2 copies of this app.  Woot!  Woot! All you have to do to enter is post a comment here about your memories of playing in the sandbox or a favorite toy that you had as a child.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this application. However, that did not influence my opinion of the product.

A while back, I wrote about the series of books My Grandma Could Do Anything.

The author, Ric Dilz, contacted me with a special offer that I can share with you, Dear Readers.  You can get a FREE ePub or PDF copy of the book. Woo hoo!

All you have to do is ‘like’ their Facebook page.  It’s that simple.

If that link won’t work for you, go to their website, Jibber Jabbers Books. Click on their Facebook link on the right-hand side of their page. After you like their page, you will see a link at the top where you can download your free ePub or PDF copy of the book. Sweet.

(While you are on the Jibber Jabbers page, check out their toddler t-shirts. Way fun.  I love the one that says “Don’t make me call grandma” and “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”)

This is a wonderful gift from Ric!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

If you get the ePub version, you can read it on a Nook, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, the Sony Reader, Android, and Blackberry phones. If you select the PDF file, you can read it on those devices in addition to computers.

Well, pardon me.  I’m off to download the ePub version and install it on our iPad.

Toot-a-loo!

Stick with me for a moment while I discuss a study done by a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that measured mathematical abilities and gender inequalities. In countries, such as India, where gender equality is low, there is a low percentage of females scoring high in the International Mathematical Olympiad (an international math competition).

In the United States where gender equality is relatively high, girls score equally as well as boys on standardized math tests. However, more boys are identified as mathematically gifted than girls.  The professor that did the study said that there is a gender stereotype where parents and teachers believe boys are smarter than girls when it comes to math.

Come on folks!  That was the attitude back in the day when I was in school.  Why hasn’t it changed over the last half of a century, huh?

I think it behooves parents — and especially mothers and grandmothers — to nurture their daughters into believing they are just as mathematically capable as boys.  We should do everything in our power to make sure our daughters and granddaughters don’t grow up thinking they can’t do math.

So with that, I would like to introduce you to Grow Your Garden, an app for the iPhone and iPad, that helps children develop their math and their critical thinking skills

Grow Your Garden, by the folks at Learning Yard, is a delightful game.  The player gets watering cans to water various types of gardens – a regular home garden, a desert garden, a tropical jungle garden, and a snow garden.

There are flowers trying to grow in a pot.  The flower needs watering.  You have watering cans and a well where you can fill up your watering can.  (See the picture below.)

See how the flower pot has ‘empty’ droplets of water on them? You have to count them up and determine how much water you need.  Then, you fill the appropriate bucket at the well by dragging it to the well.  Then, you drag the bucket over to the flower pot to water the flower.  When you have correctly ‘filled’ the water requirements, the flower blooms and you go to the next flower (math problem).

When you finished watering all of the flowers on a level, a flower ‘grows’ in your garden.  (See the picture below.)  And then you advance to the next level.

If you make a mistake, a frowny cloud floats over the flower pot and zaps a couple bolts of lightening.  Then you can try once again with the math problem.

Of course as you progress, the math problems get harder. And, you have to think more about how to solve it. The snow garden, which is the last level, requires some hefty thinking skills.

Children who know how to add and subtract can easily learn how to play the game.  But children starting in the third grade might be able to complete the higher levels of the game better than younger children.

I highly recommend this game — especially if you have granddaughters.  It only costs $0.99 and it is money well spent.  Since Christmas is just around the corner, buy it for a grandchild for Christmas — assuming your grandchild’s family has an iPhone or an iPad.  Buy it for your own iPhone or iPad so that when your grandchildren come for a visit, you can share it with them and help them develop their math skills.

I give this app 5 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this application. However, it did not influence my opinion of the product.

The other day, I was thinking about just how far we have come with technology. Back in September, I saw a video that demonstrated what Corning is doing. I wonder how soon those technologies will be commonplace in our homes.

I have seen computers start as room-sized behemoths. Now, their are itsy bitsy hold-in-your-hand size.

For the last twenty years, children started learning keyboarding skills in grade school.  (I didn’t learn how to type until I was in the 9th grade.) Now, with the advent of the iPad (and other technologies that are copying Apple), children learn touch and swipe skills.  Much easier than typing for wee fingers to learn, don’t you think?

And in today’s world, there are educational apps galore.  When my children were growing up, books, flashcards, and Sesame Street were the options.

These apps make learning way fun for children, parents, and grandparents.  For instance, take the app Pre-K Letters and Numbers by BrightStart.

With this app, pre-kindergarten children learn their upper case and lower case letters.  They learn common phonemes (letter combinations such as ‘ch’ and ‘sh’) and numbers.

As you can see by the picture to the left, the app displays numbers that give direction as to the correct way to ‘write’ it. Your grandchild simply follows the number and traces the letter with her finger.

When she successfully completes it, a corresponding picture is shown.  With the uppercase letters, the pictures are of fruit. Lower case letters show pictures of animals.

The app displays an assortment of items when your grandchild works on numbers and phonemes.

Here are two of my favorite pictures in the program. (That’s because I love elephants and I love cherries.)

This app teaches and reinforces visual recognition of letters and numbers. It helps children develop their fine motor skill. Their counting skill is reinforced.

I like the soft pastel colors of this app and the pictures for the numbers and the letters.

I do have a small concern. Some of the examples used are not common. How many children are familiar with xiguas or narwhales or wildebeests? (How many parents and grandparents are??)

Parents and grandparents are probably familiar with newts and huckleberries but these items are not common for children in the pre-k age group. I know how hard it is to find example of words for letters like q, x, and z. However, I would suggest that the developers see if they could replace their uncommon examples with something a little more familiar.

Another suggestion I have is that it would be nice to be able to choose different melodies. The same one over and over and over gets a tad annoying. (I wonder if children would get tired of hearing the same tune all of the time . . .)

You can have up to 5 users for this game. You can register (for free) and then see a report card for them. The report card tracks total plays and time spent on the game. It shows the rate that a child successfully ‘writes’ the letters or numbers. It identifies spots where children have struggled. (I have a problem keeping my fat fingers within the lines when going around curves…) It even shows how many tries it took to complete the letter/number.

I really like the report card. Parents and grandparents can see where a child is struggling and then have the child practice more on the problem spot.

There is a free version of this app but it only has a few numbers and letters.  For only $0.99, you can get the complete application.

I would give this app 4 stars out of 5.

This app works on an iPhone or an iPad. It would be a great little Christmas gift to give to your grandchild’s family.  Or put it on your own iPhone/iPad for your grandchildren to play when they come for a visit.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this application for reviewing purposes. However, that did not influence my opinion.