Step Into an Augmented Reality and Enter a Smurftastic Giveaway

Imagination is a powerful tool that we should encourage our children to use and with the release of Smurfs: The Lost Village we want you guys to step away from reality and make use of your imaginations by spotting some Smurfs in your own back garden. 

My girls were keen to join in with this activity. We were kindly sent a Smurf house, a set of instructions, some summoning tools to make and a guide on just how to spot those sneaky Smurfs, just where would they be hiding?

Sofia the First Interactive Storybook Review

One of the items that I was lucky enough to be able to review last year was the LeapPad 3. This has fast become one of my girls favourite toys, my youngest calls it her iPad. The experience of using it has been made better by the games/apps that we've been able to download. One of the latest apps to appear on our LeapPad is the brand new Sofia the First Interactive Storybook.

This is what is typically known as an ebook but you will soon learn that this storybook is so much more.

Available as a download or in cartridge form, it is suitable for all LeapPads so no Sofia fans have to miss out.

Reading With Biff, Chip and Kipper

Learning to read is a big part of all our lives. Whether you are the child learning or the parent/adult doing the teaching, it can sometimes prove to be a difficult task. I think what we all need to keep in mind is that reading is just an extension of our inaginations and it should be an activity that remains fun and engaging.

My 4 year old, Gracie, started primary school in September and like her sister's before her, she is learning to read using the Biff, Chip and Kipper books from Oxford Reading Tree. I have been reading these books with the kids for so many years now that many of them I know off by heart.

Hoopa City App Review

My girls are very in to their technology, they love playing on apps on our iPad but I don't let them play on just any games, I like ones that are not only fun but have them learning too.

I was recently approached to review the latest app from developers TribePlay. TribePlay believe in making games that educate and teach kids about life and the world that surrounds them which sounds just perfect to me!!

This development team are the brains behind the games under the Dr Panda title. The latest game to be introduced is Hoopa City.

Jack Hunter Book and App Review

I was recently sent Jack Hunter, The French Connection book for my daughter to read and review.

However this isn't just any old book, oh no,  it is the world's first interactive augmented reality book, bought to life with the use of the app which can accompany the book.

The book itself takes you on adventures with Jack and his friends, you are taken back in time, entering ancient mysterious worlds, finding treasures and uncovering secrets.

The story is good by itself, Elise said it had a bit of real life goings on within it as well as added suspense to keep you reading.

However there is a twist to this book. The clever thing is that when used in combination with a smartphone or tablet, it allows your child to join in the adventure. The app uses augmented reality technology to make the pictures come alive in 3D, putting you right in the middle of all the action!!!

This is a brilliant concept, especially for kids that are more reluctant to read books, I think it is a creative idea that encourages them to keep reading the story. The game allows the person playing to find clues,  unlock secrets, discover treasure and solve mysteries the same way as Jack Hunter would.

Rockford's Rock Opera Review

Rockford's Rock Opera is the creation of sweetapple, it is an ecological musical story aimed at children between the ages of 6 -12 which is not self produced but self financed too.

It was first launched in the web in 2009 as an enhanced audiobook and has since gone on to captivate millions of children and parents across the world. In 2012 Sweetapple worked alongside Steve Punt (respected BBC writer and performer) to launch the story as an app which can be be bought on iTunes or android.

Over 50,000 schools actually use the story in class as an educational tool.

The girls and I were sent codes to download the 4 chapters on to our iPad and we were also sent a DVD of these same chapters to view on our TV.

The story is about a boy from Battersea called Moog and his dog, Rockford.

Far away from Battersea is the Island of Infinity, it is the home to the last one of every extinct species, they have a secret to tell the world but the only person able to deliver this message is Moog. When Moog and Rockford travel to the Island of Infinity, they are drawn into and exciting adventure.

My Geometric Universe App Review

I previously reviewed a set of apps from the lovely people at Chocolapps. Recently they very kindly allowed me to review one of their newest apps, 'My Geometric Universe'. This app allows your child to draw many different shapes in both 2D and 3D.

The concept is really good. The app allows your child to use different tools to draw including pencil, ruler, compass and set square. This gets them used to what they will have to do at school if they aren't using these already.

The app itself is again available in 11 different languages : English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish and Russian.

Overall there are 6 2D shapes to create and more than 30 3D shapes to create. With each shape that you successfully draw more objects are unlocked and once fully complete, there are 3 different universes to place these objects in, The Kid's Room, Ancient Egypt and The Middle Ages.

As well as drawing shapes, there is also the opportunity to cut them out and and watch the 3D shapes being created. You can see in the above picture that one of the objects that my daughter unlocked was a doll and you are free to place this object wherever you want in the scene above. All you need to do is press your finger on the picture of the doll and move her around.

As I said the concept is great. Your kids get to learn about shapes, when you click the question mark on the side it tells you a little bit about the shape, for example for the square above it tells you that it has four equal sides.

The instructions to draw the shapes are very clear and easy to follow however actually drawing the shapes proved a little tricky sometimes. When 'drawing' the line, it sometimes took a few attempts for it to actually draw the full line. The other difficulty came when trying to turn the tools around to draw the lines that were going up the page, my daughter and I were both trying but on many occasions the set square for example didn't respond to being twisted around.

Overall I would recommend looking at the app from Chocolapps. Although not quite as simple as it could be, it definitely teaches the kids alot, you just need a bit of patience with it at times.

xxxx

Disclaimer : I was sent a code to download the app however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Santa Sprint App Review

I don't know about you but I am so excited that Christmas is coming, almost time to start counting down!! So if you hadn't guessed already, I am a huge fan of all things Christmas so when I was given the opportunity to review a new Christmas game, I couldn't say no. The Santa Sprint app is a new game made by the people behind PNP (portable North pole).

The idea of the game is fairly simple. You are an elf that is helping Santa by going around and collecting stars and hot chocolates, each floor is completed when you have collected all of the stars.

I think the best way to describe the Santa Sprint app is by comparing it Pac Man. As you are going around collecting your stars, there are enemies to avoid, little ice men and evil penguins, if you touch them you begin to lose your life levels.

There are 3 levels to complete : the workshop, the library and the stables. Each level is split into 15 floors. After every floor that you complete you have the chance to upgrade certain things about yourself making it harder for you to lose your life.

Each new floor on the Santa Sprint app gets increasingly harder, more stars to collect and more enemies to contend with. Both my 7 and 5 year old daughters had fun attempting the game but they did need my help on some of the harder levels.

As an added bonus when you complete a whole level, the lovely Santa reads a short story too you.

I would say the Santa Sprint app is fairly simple but the harder levels would be more suited to older children but overall a lovely game that can be played by all the family, a lovely way to increase the festive spirit.

xxxx

Disclaimer : I was given a code to download this app for free however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Stylfile Nipper Clipper + App Review

Stylfile is a range of innovative curved nailcare range created by Tom Pellereau. The idea of this range is to make nail clipping and filing a lot simpler. The range includes the S-File, the S-Clipper and the S-Buffer.

Tom has recently added a new product to his range, The Nipper Clipper complete with Baby S-File. He very cleverly noticed a gap in the market, fnding that a lot parents struggle on a daily basis to trim their baby/young child's nails. I have definitely had these problems in the past, little ones tend to not sit still and I have always been worried that I may hurt them whilst trying to shorten the nails. The Nipper Clipper is set to solve these problems.

Myself and four other Mumsnet bloggers were chosen to review the Nipper Clipper as well as the brand new app, Timmy Tickle Baby, which works alongside the Nipper Clipper.

The Nail Clipper itself is the smaller version of the S-Clipper with an added safety spy hole at the top, allowing you to see exactly what you are doing. With curved scissor like blades, the way it cuts is very clever too as the clipper overlaps at the from rather than the top and bottom pushing together, a lot safer in my opinion.

I really like the orange handle as this makes it a lot simpler to grip on to whilst you are holding your little one at the same time.

The Baby S-File that comes with the Nipper Clipper is a lovely addition to the package, no sharp ends and it allows you to easily get rid of any sharp edges left after trimming your child's nails. The shape of it makes it comfortable to hold whilst using it.

Now the app, Timmy Tickle Baby, which works alongside the Nipper Clipper can be found on iTunes and is available to download for free. It is designed to distract your child as you trim their nails, taking their attention away from the task at hand. Timmy Tickle is a bright and fun animated octopus that talks to your child as he changes what he is and with added music, it really is entertaining. Just take a look at the pictures below :

You can pick from three different modes : Auto control - aimed at newborn babies, Sound control - more suited to 6 months+, Timmy responds to the sounds your baby makes and Voice control - aimed at older children who can say what they can see on the screen.

I found the Autoplay and the Sound modes worked well with my 15 month old, she thought they were very funny. I used the voice control with my 3 year old and I have to say it seemed a bit tempremental, it didn't always pick up the words she was saying, even when she was shouting them loudly, although my daughter still enjoyed trying to get Timmy's attention. 

Overall I love the Nipper Clipper and Timmy Tickle app. I can't fault the clipper, it has made cutting nails a less daunting task, the spy hole is a great feature that takes the worry out of the task and it cuts the time it takes to do in half.

The Timmy Tickle app is a great idea in itself but I found that for my 15 month old although yes it distracted her from the idea of me cutting her nails, she also wanted to reach out and touch the iPad which in turn made it difficult for me to cut her nails. However not all children will be like Layla so this isn't a huge negative. It has actually turned out to be fun for all my girls, even when not cutting nails they have happily sat down and played on it together.

The Nipper Clipper and Baby S-File come in a package priced at £9.99, a great price for a product that will be used many many times and can be found in Sainsbury's, Amazon, Mothercare, Boots and local pharmacies, I think it will soon become a must have baby item.

* I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network Research Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend the event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity* 

Zappie App Review

As technology becomes a thing that even my younger children use, I am always looking for new games for them to play on the iPad, I do prefer them to be educational but also something fun that I can do with them.

I was asked to review a new childrens app by Zappie. This app is a new interactive application which is aimed at pre-school children and has a fun way of bring pictures to life on things such as bedroom walls, furniture and clothing. Zappie sell all sorts of products that can be bought to life using the app such as greetings cards, heat transfers for clothing and many stickers. We were sent a set of wheels on the bus wall stickers and a set of smaller stickers to test out.

The stickers themselves are easy to apply and can be reused although they do become less sticky with each use. Being able to reapply them means that you can create a different picture each time you want to use them. My 3 year old had great fun deciding where each sticker should go. The prices of the wall stickers start from £21.99, as they can be used more than once, I think that is a fair price especially as there are over 25 stickers in a pack.

You can download the app itself from either iTunes or Google Play. The way to use it is  by clicking a certain song on the app, there are eight different nursery rhyme songs to choose from.

Five little monkeys jumping on a bed

I'm a little teapot

Five little ducks

Wheels on the bus

Row row row your boat

Old macdonald had a farm

Twinkle twinkle little star

Once I caught a fish alive

You click on the song that you want and then aim the device you are using at the picture shown next to the song, so in this instance we had to aim it at the bus which Gracie had stuck on her wardrobe.

I had to help Gracie hold the iPad in place so that we could "zap" the image but I would say it is still fairly simple to do. The picture was picked up easily and you could see the bus come to life on the screen and start moving, Gracie was more than impressed and was excited to do it again.

The good thing is, is that you don't have to buy the products, you can just watch the normal videos on your device. Even my seven and five year olds wanted to give it a go. An added bonus that I liked was that there were the words of the song on the screen too, I will admit to merrily singing along to them.

I wouldn't hesistate in recommending this app to parents with younger children, it was a unique way of bringing those classic nursery rhymes to life and provided hours of entertainment for my children. 

xxxx

Disclaimer : We were sent the stickers free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thougts and opinions are my own.