App Happy

Whew! What a long day... I spent the majority of my day restoring all 15 of my class' iTouches. I have been extremely frustrated with the mess of apps on each device not to mention the fact that the apps were in different locations on each of the devices as well. So... after spending about 5 hours the other night rearranging, organizing, and creating folders one of the iTouches, I created a new backup copy and then restored all of the touches to that backup. It was quite a job as each one took about 45 minutes! I'm happy now though that they all have a consistent look. I now have over 100 apps on my devices and would like to spend some time organizing a master list for future reference. Hmmm.. maybe over Christmas break.

In the meantime, here are a few of the apps that I have right now that we use fairly regularly.

Teach Me 1st:  A comprehensive app that reviews spelling, sight words, addition and subtraction facts with your child. It allows your child to earn "coins" to spend at the store as they master content areas. The price is usually $1.99, but currently it is 50% off. You can have up to 4 players registered for this app. This developer also offers Teach Me Kindergarten and Teach Me Toddler for your younger children. I have used both with my younger son and have found all of these to be great!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teachme-1st-grade/id355940964?mt=8

Math Bingo by ABCya is a fantastic app that combines math skills with a good old-fashioned game of bingo. You begin by choosing the math skill you want to focus on and the level of difficultys another of our favorites that we use to practice our addition and subtraction facts. This app is currently is 99cents in the iTunes store and is available for iPod and iPad.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-bingo/id371338715?mt=8

Yet another app for addition and subtraction fact practice,Pop Math Lite . We are going to begin using this one this week. It is free in the app store and is available for iPod and iPad.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pop-math-lite/id303258911?mt=8

iDiary for Kids is an ideal platform for children ages 5-13 to plunge into journaling. Keeping a journal helps them improve their writing skills, develop their creativity and boost their self-confidence.

My kiddos are loving this. Unfortunately, it is for iPad only. Kiddos are able to customize the look of their journal and can write, draw and add stickers. Great for work on writing time during Daily 5 time.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idiary-for-kids-journaling/id424283623?mt=8

Just for fun.... and some problem solving... This is an awesome and very addicting game, so beware. There is a light version but it became apparent quite quickly that my family I was going to need the full version of this app. Needless to say, I downloaded the full version 3 hours later. My 4 year old and 7 year old as well as my husband are all enjoying this one. There is a holiday version as well. 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cut-the-rope/id380293530?mt=8

Hopefully you will find some of these apps worth of trying for yourserlf!