Recently, I’ve been contacted by lots of  iPhone and iPad app developers.  They are almost as thick as a shiver of sharks. (Remember in the grammar book giveaway that I recently had, I listed what groups of animals are called? I loved the one referring to sharks. I used ‘shiver of sharks’ here because I liked the onomatopoeia of the phrase and because I always shiver when I think of sharks.  Especially when I know that my husband is scuba diving amongst those man-eating critters.)

Back to the apps.

A lovely Swiss mother has produced an app for the iPhone and iPad based on the classic story of Heidi by Johanna Spyri. She (the Swiss miss mom and not the author who passed away in 1901) is allowing me to give away apps to two giveaway winners.

I applaud this mother for her programming prowess! Kudos go to her for doing such a fine job with her apps Heidi I, Heidi II, and Heidi III. I want to be an app developer like her when I grow up.

But first, do you remember that story?  Heidi’s parents die and she goes to live with her gruff grandfather up the mountain. Heidi becomes friends with Peter, the goat-herd, and starts enjoying her life with Grandfather. Then, Heidi is sent to live in Frankfurt to be a companion to Klara, who is an invalid. Heidi misses her life with Grandfather and goes back to live with him. Klara visits Heidi and grandfather.  Peter is jealous of Heidi’s attention to Klara and shoves Klara’s wheelchair off the mountain. Klara eventually learns to walk and everybody lives happily ever after.

As an interesting side note, 20 film or television versions of this story have been produced.  Now, thanks to one smart woman, it is reaching into the new media of this new millennium– mobile technology.

These apps, Heidi I, Heidi II, and Heidi II, are a delightful rendition of the story about Heidi.  The story is divided into three parts to make it more accessible to young children.

The artwork is reminiscent of the era in which the story was originally written (1880). Here are three screen shots to give you an idea of what the artwork is like. (Do be sure to click on the pictures to see a larger version. Then, you’ll really be able to appreciate the artwork.)

The apps give you the option to have the story read to you (which is good for young children) in English or German. Or, you can read the story yourself.

The reading level for these apps is for third or fourth graders and older. If your grandchild would have the application read the story to her, she should be at least three years old.  This is mainly because they would need to have the attention span to sit long enough to hear the story.  (I guess younger children could listen to the story, but they might not sit still long enough to listen to the whole story during one sitting.)

The artwork in these applications is delightful. It makes me want to visit the Alps and meander the streets of a Swiss village. (And drink hot chocolate and sleep under a down comforter.)

I love the sounds that are included in the story — bleating of goats, tinkling of bells, tolling of church bells, cracking fire, wind blowing in the trees, and swooshing down the mountain on a sled.

I do have one small concern. In the first story, it talks about Grandmother. I was confused as to whether or not this grandmother was married to Heidi’s grandfather of it it was Peter’s grandmother. FYI, I looked it up on Wikipedia and it is Peter’s grandmother. (What in the world would we ever do without good ol’ Wikipedia?!)

Enter the Giveaway

All you have to do is leave a comment and mention whether or not you have read this story.  Also, in your comment, mention if you would prefer an iPhone app or an iPad app.

Using random.org, I will select three lucky people to receive promotional codes for free copies — one iPhone winner and two iPad winners.

The contest will be open from now until midnight September 8. I will announce the winner on September 9.

Hurry now and leave a comment!

Grandmothers are concerned about helping their grandchildren develop into well-rounded, well-balanced individuals.  So I had great interest in reviewing the app (which is a book) called The Adventures of 7 Wonderlicious Girls.

You can choose to have it read out loud in American/ Canadian English or in UK/Australian English. (I liked listening to the UK/Australian English.  It is such a fun accent!) Or, you can turn off the sound so your granddaughter can read it out loud to you. The drawings are sweet and delightful which make it enjoyable to read.

This book discusses qualities and skills that are important for girls to develop:

•    leadership
•    learning
•    community service
•    public speaking
•    problem solving
•    having a healthy body
•    staying calm when experiencing problems
•    exercising to keep your body healthy
•    eating healthy foods
•    protecting the environment
•    learning about science
•    creativity
•    curiosity
•    learning math
•    teamwork
•    courage to try new things
•    courage to stand up for what is right
•    trying new things even though it is scary
•    sharing, doing chores at home

The 7 Wonderlicious girls come in different sizes, shapes, and colors.  They each have their own special hobbies.  They accept their friends for who they are and their own unique characteristics.  They appreciate and support their differences.

I like what the website says:

“We believe that every child is placed on this earth to accomplish something remarkable, something that only he or she can do.

“Our tribe was created with one single purpose: to help reduce all threats to girlhood that crush our girls’ true nature and potential.

“We focus on overturning the gender stereotypes that make girls obsess with body image, keep girls from taking leadership roles, that limit girls’ interest in sciences and math, and cause them to feel self-aware when playing sports.”

Their goal is to empower girls with confidence and self-belief. That is an extremely important goal – one that grandparents should support with each of their granddaughters.

I highly recommend that grandmothers, who have iPads, get this app and share it with their granddaughters. It will help the granddaughter develop a healthy self-esteem – and grandmothers can strengthen their relationship with their granddaughters by discussing the topics presented in this app.

I know we all think our granddaughters are absolutely darling and adorable. I have 2 cutie pie granddaughters myself. But instead of focusing on the physical appearance of their body (how cute they look), it is important to verbally recognize things such as their leadership skills, their intellectual abilities – especially in mathematics and science – their curiosity, and their courage. Using this app when your granddaughters are small, and having them use it over and over will ingrain these attitudes into their thinking.  The attitudes will be an internal part of them and part of how they view themselves.

It would be nice if the Wonderlicious folks developed different apps that focused solely on one individual trait. That way, our granddaughters can learn more in-depth about one specific trait and ways to incorporate it into their lives.

This app is for children ages 3 to 7 years old.  It is available for the iPhone and the iPad is sold in the iTunes App Store for $4.99.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this application for review purposes.

Ask any grandmother (who has grandchildren that live far away) how they feel about being a long distant grandma and she’ll probably wrinkle her nose, stomp her foot and say, “It stinks!”

This ‘over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go’ is not something that we grandmothers prefer.  We want to be able to easily drop by for a visit, scoop up those grandchickabiddies, smother them with hugs and kisses, be a grandma paparazzi, and then go on our merry way.

Long distant grandparents want their grandchildren to be able to recognize their face and voice even though miles separate them. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, then maybe, just maybe, those horrific miles might not be so bad.  The application Wee Pray – Pray With Me can make your separation easier to bear.

With Wee Pray, you create a special prayer or message by simply tapping your finger on the screen and talking.  You can send a morning or evening prayer to your grandchildren.  Or encouragement for the first day of school, an upcoming piano recital, or a soccer game.  Or a simple I-love-you-and-am-thinking-about-you message.

The program is easy to use. Watch this video that demonstrates just how easy.

What I liked about this application:

• The app requires a double tab to set up and record.  That way, little fingers won’t accidentally erase messages or make changes to the settings.
• You can take a picture of yourself (or use one from your camera’s photo library) and use it for your profile.
• There are 10 different ‘frames’ that you can use to spice up your photo.
• Each profile can record up to 4 messages.  That way, you can have 4 messages and grandpa can set up 4 messages for the grandkiddos.
• You can e-mail your message straight from the application.  You don’t have to use a different program.
• You can send your prayer or message to another Wee Pray app owner.
• You can personalize the profiles to your name instead of using the generic ‘Grandma’ or ‘Grandpa.”

Here are some different ideas of ways you could use this program:

• Sing a song and send it to your grandchild.
• Record a poem or short story.
• Do a count down to the day you will visit your grandchild.
• Have Santa or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy or the Great Pumpkin (for Halloween) send a message to your grandchild.
• Send a message of love and encouragement if you know a grandchild is struggling with something.
• Tell jokes.
• If you will be visiting them soon, give them hints about the fun things they will get to do when you visit them (or when they visit you).
• Give them a ‘commercial’ about coming to your grandma camp activity.
• Send an invitation to come for a visit.
• Send a get well message to a sick grandchild.
• Share an experience with a grandchild — seeing a beautiful sunset, eating a special dessert, going fishing.

This is a great application for grandparents and parents who are iPhone/iPad owners.  It’s a great way to stay connected and to share your love.

Check out the Wee Pray — Pray With Me site.   It is also available for $1.99 (USD) from the Apple’s App Store.

Full disclosure: I received a promotional code so that I could download and review this application.

The other day I was contacted by a sweet Russian mother, Irina, who has a 7 year old son.  She shared with me how her son sometimes had nightmares from the stories she read him at bedtime. She didn’t like that so she decided to do something about it.

She co-founded AppGrade, a company that develops applications for the iPhone and iPad. Their team of writers, artists, and developers from around the world (Russia, Holland, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the U.S.) developed Clever Tales, a collection of 40 tales (with original artwork) for children.  The stories are divided into two groups — one for preschool age and one for children 7 years and older.  The stories teach good values such as cooperation, kindness, working together, and selflessness.

My favorite story was The Two Chefs.  Here is a screen shot of the story and some accompanying pictures. (I love the pointy nose on the skinny chef!)

Here is a screen shot of A Tower of Bricks.

Here’s a screen shot from a story about hedgehogs. Our youngest son was enamored at one time with hedgehogs.  He wanted one for Christmas.  Hedgehogs were not available in the local pet stores.  (What a relief!)  I think he would have enjoyed me reading this story to him!

This application also has music to accompany the tales.  You can put it on sleep mode.  After you finish reading, the gentle music will play for twenty minutes and then shut off.  I really like this feature!

You can bookmark your favorite stories for easy access.  You can personalize it: change the size of the font, set it for day mode or night mode (which has a dimmer light so the light isn’t so bright), have larger sized images, change the background color, and the theme.

I think that the stories for younger children should have a wee bit more images.  I personally think that it’s hard to hold the attention of preschoolers with lots of text and not very many pictures.

If you have an iPad or iPhone, this would be a fun application to have when your grandchildren come for a visit.  Especially if they are spending the night with you!

You can get it for $4.99 in the Apps Store in iTunes.

(Disclaimer: I was given a promo code so that I could review this application)