eBooks are wonderful types of apps to have on your iPad or iPhone to read with your child on the go or at home. Reading books with your child builds vocabulary, comprehension and fluency skills that will grow and develop even more as your child learns to read themselves.
Kids Discover is a jammed packed non-fiction learning experience for kids. Kids Discover has a variety of topics that they offer in magazine/book styled apps. Each topic contains pages with information and interactive elements. The app does contain a large amount of text, which is not read aloud. Parents read aloud the text to your child, or help define the topic specific vocabulary words your child may not be able to read themselves. The apps contain great real pictures, drawings, diagrams, and areas to learn more. At the end of each app there are activities that relate to the topic of the magazine, and multiple choice quizzes with an answer key. Check out their website for excellent parent guides. They also have a teacher area with free lesson plans to accompany each of the apps. Choose from interesting topics such as Cells, Plants, Incas, Simple Machines, Extreme Weather, Antarctica, or Washington D.C. Visit their webpage to see all of the app magazine topics. Each one is $2.99 and appropriate for children ages 6-8.
Me Books is a children’s library app. The app has a nice selection of books. In the Me Books app, when the books are read aloud, the words are not highlighted and the books are not interactive as created. However, children can create their own interactive components in the story. Children can highlight a character and make a recording to be read when tapped during the story. Me Books offers a variety of books to choose from to download into your Me Books library. Each book ranges in price from $.99 to $4.99. Me Books does offer a variety of comics as well which can be motivating for some reluctant readers through a separate app called Me Comics. Also, be sure to visit their website and sign up for their newsletter to receive a 10 offer to jumpstart your library.
Boombons is an interactive children’s magazine made for Preschoolers. Max, Lola and Oscar are the character’s that lead the learning in the interactive magazine. KinderTown loves the 60 interactive scenes that provide different learning activities that address different early learning skills such as noticing differences, sorting and matching objects, spatial awareness, numbers and colors. The change in scenes and virtual pages of the magazines keeps young learners interested in the app. Boombons comes with one free interactive magazine. An additional issue is available for purchase for $.99.
Celebrate Fall with Apps