Halloween Treats: It's not spooky, but its smart!

In an attempt to get in the Halloween Holiday spririt i did a search on the iPhone app store for Halloween. I was suprised that i did not find much appropriate, and while i was tempted by Halloween Hotties i settled for a safer seasonal matching game. A later check on the PC dug up a lot more seasonal options in the App Store that I wanted to check out but I was already committed to a free app titled the Halloween Match Memory Game

I had tried one of the higher ranked memory games with Wormie to no avail a few months ago. I don't know if it was the game play or the graphics but the Halloween Memory Match was much more effective. The game is a good at keeping Wormies interest for a few plays at a time.

The game is simple... open the game and it loads asap, which is perfect for my toddler. Wormie is not big on waiting and i find it a hassel when I have to get involved with the set up of the next game. The premise is a straigh forward card matching game. Each turn you flip two cards with Halloween themed artwork. You go through the cards and match the different pairs like most of the other matching games in the App store. After the game is completed you get a count of how many bad pairs you rang up, which Wormie doesn't care about, but is easy to get by. Some ghostes and halloween characters float through the screen and you are onto your next game.

I think it was a cool little app, and the memory component made me think that I was contriburing to her later success in life. Lord knows, she's going to have to do some matching at Harvard.

Age Range: 3.5-5
Difficulty: 5/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel :3/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 4/5 (5 being helpful)

iPhone Moms on the Rise!

TechCrunch reports that iPhone mom's downloading apps for their kids!

"The report shows several interesting patterns. For example, over 59% of iPhone moms surveyed say they let their children use their iPhone. And 41% of moms who own iPhons download apps specifically for their children to use.

Five Little Monkeys: Are going to follow me to my grave!

I am not particularly sophisticated when it comes to how I pick applications for Wormie and me to tes t. Five Little Monkeys belongs in the bucket of Apps i call "Songs Wormies Loves." It's above the "Apps i think will make Wormie smarter," bucket and below the "Cute Disney Like Apps."

Like the category says Wormie loves the Five Little Monkeys song. We sign it over and over and over. I don't mind the repetition, my wife however...well it drives her crazy. So, I'm thinking maybe i get the app and Wormie sings it to herself with the headphones on. Genius right? I know..i know, I'm a genius.

The app turned out to be a winner a "time waster" tool. The premise is easy... you pick the background music (Rock, Pop, and Country.) This was the only piece that Wormie had trouble with since the action wasn't completely obvious. On that note the music selections sound like the categories in a Gorbechev era Soviet Uniion music store. Who buys a "Rock" album...its all about Classic rock! Zepplin, AC/DC, and Wormies favorite...QUEEN!

Once you are in the game its a chinch. There are a few easter eggs you can click on and get an action like a ball, a baloon, etc and they are easy to spot. You touch a monkey, he falls off the bed, he breaks his head etc etc. The doctor pops up and says... you got it.. "NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED." Then you go back and there are four little monkeys on the bed. Repeat, repeat, repeat, and done! Wormie got the action required straight out of the gate and even though its a little boring from a parents POV it seemed to be a winner.

Frankly, the art is mediocre, the music is best described as "elevator like" but the package works well and can keep the girl occupied for a little stretch of time in a moment of high need.

Age Range: 3-4
Difficulty: 4.5/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel :2/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 4.5/5 (5 being helpful)

Preschool Adventure: Simple Pleasures

This is a great starter application for your 3-4 year old. Even better, its a good way to figure out what kind of applications your kids might like. One challenge I have had is spending money on applications that Wormie will play for all of two seconds before getting bored. And thus GabbaPhone was born, where i strive to deliver the unmitigated truth of how an application meets the needs of my child's finely honed technological pallet. Or...how much time i can get or to play it while we are at a restuarant.

Preschool Adnventure is a collection of six games that have no discernible tie to one another other than that they are simple and easy to use. The "games" are labeled Colors, Numbers, Shapes, Body, Matching, and Sounds - while not winning any awards for creativity they work for Wormie. The coolest part about giving the app to Wormie is that she intuitively started jumping between the games. The buttons were big and inviting and she was able to quickly figure out what to do with each game once she hit the button. Watching her explore the application and figure it out each little bit on her own was cool from a parent's angle. I've rated each game below with the number of "Wormie plays" before she would jump to another game.

• Colors - Hit little ink spots and sea animals pop up with a little sound. (4 plays)
• Numbers - Connect the dots (numbers) in order and draw an animal (6 plays)
• Shapes - Hit the shape and it pops out of a crater in a planet (1 play)
• Body - Touch body parts of a monkey and they reattach, kinda weird (2 plays)
• Matching - Match animal body parts and animal does something cute, like yodle (3 plays)
• Sounds - Touch cute animals on the farm and they make farm sounds (no recollection)

I was surprised, and excited. that she liked the numbers game the best. Overall she will spend a good 10-15 minutes sorting through the different options on Preschool Adventure jumping from one game to another. I wouldn't recommend this for an older kid (5+) or "genius" child but it was a great fit for Wormie, who likes her independence and the freedom to use the device all on her own.

Age Range: 3-4
Difficulty: 4.0/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel :2.5/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 4.5/5 (5 being helpful)

Price $.99

Wheels on the Bus: The "Titanic" of toddler apps

I had great expectations of "Wheels on the Bus." It is continuously one of iPhones best sellers making it a Hollywood style hit in iPhone land. Legend goes this was created by three friends looking to entertain their kids (GENIUS!) who must be ka-jillionaires by now. I even liked the name of the publisher "duck, duck, moose," its cute, creative and nails the spirit of fun and humor i want to have in front of my children. To cap it off "Wheels on the Bus" is one of Wormies favorite song requests... which comes complete with dance steps, hand gestures, and made up verses not found in the official lyrics book.

The first run through of the application with Wormie was pretty successful. She got the actions down p quickly, and figured out how to get through each screen on her own. I figured it was game on and walked away assuming she would be at it for a while. About two minutes later she was back... "I want a new game," she demanded, sounding much, too much like Arnie in "The Terminator." I was bummed - this was not the James Cameron blockbuster i was expecting!

The game play is simple and straight forward making it ideal for the toddler set... swipe the buss to move it forward, swipe the doors to open them, push the teddy bear to make him jump. For what ever reason though the song and iPhone app did not click for her. In a nutshell i think it was too tame, and not as good as the real life version for Wormie. Maybe she was too much of a fan, and maybe hollywood has upper her expectations but this app was a miss for us.

One of the parent hooks for this is that you can make the song play in several different languages. While i think this is awesome for you overly competitive, want your child to rule the world types, my kid had no interest when she realized that all the verses we have made up in our family were not in the application. When she heard the song in French is was all the more reason for her to "Move on Back" to one of her more engaging apps.

I have not completely given up though I will try it with Deadly when he gets a little older, since my gut tells me thisit is better suited to a slightly younger toddler who can handle a device. Given my childs disinterest, and my desire to like the app I would be interested in hearing other folks experiences.

Age Range: 2-4
Difficulty: 4.0/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel :4/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 2.0/5 (5 being helpful)

Price $.99