NOTE: I am not in any way affiliated with the developers (I did post a nostalgic note to them on Facebook though). I just wanted to share a great educational book/game that I think others would like.
A few weeks ago, some Dr. Seuss book apps went on sale, and I went on about how I found them very expensive for what they are. I brought up how I had these really nice interactive books as a kid that were part of a series called Living Books (which was then owned by Random House/Brøderbund).
The thing I most liked about them is that everything came to life. You could click on the words that would be read, you could click on the 50 different objects and characters, and every little thing did something. The later titles had some pretty great mini games, and I was entertained for hours. A lot of the current iOS interactive books aren't that great. Like they get the vocabulary features down, but they don't do enough to keep your kid busy for more than 10 minutes. I feel this way about most educational games for mobile devices at the moment. They focus too much on the 1-3 age range, and it's all really watered down money grabs. There are not a lot of math/reading apps that won't keep my brother going back to Where's My Water? and Angry Birds. But then, pretty much all the education groups that were making software back in my day are now defunct and our iOS developers are not all educators.
In the last few years, a group of some of the original programmers from Brøderbund have been working to bring these titles under a new brand called Wanderful, along with securing the rights again. They play just like they did 20 years ago, except now they're iPod/iPhone/and iPad tailored with a few enhancements in the backend.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to advertise that their newest title, Ruff's Bone, was just posted on the App Store the other day, and is FREE for a limited time. If you're a parent/or even an older sister like me (well, the iPhone/iPad wasn't around yet, so I had the CDs to show my brother back then), and you usually buy Oceanhouse Media/Loud Crow/etc titles, check out this for a change. You won't be disappointed.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ruffs-bone-interactive-storybook/id601996502?mt=8
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And if you like this, check out the Storybook Sampler, which lets you check out the first page from all their titles.
They're also about to re-release them for OS X, Windows, and Android in the next few months.
A few weeks ago, some Dr. Seuss book apps went on sale, and I went on about how I found them very expensive for what they are. I brought up how I had these really nice interactive books as a kid that were part of a series called Living Books (which was then owned by Random House/Brøderbund).
The thing I most liked about them is that everything came to life. You could click on the words that would be read, you could click on the 50 different objects and characters, and every little thing did something. The later titles had some pretty great mini games, and I was entertained for hours. A lot of the current iOS interactive books aren't that great. Like they get the vocabulary features down, but they don't do enough to keep your kid busy for more than 10 minutes. I feel this way about most educational games for mobile devices at the moment. They focus too much on the 1-3 age range, and it's all really watered down money grabs. There are not a lot of math/reading apps that won't keep my brother going back to Where's My Water? and Angry Birds. But then, pretty much all the education groups that were making software back in my day are now defunct and our iOS developers are not all educators.
In the last few years, a group of some of the original programmers from Brøderbund have been working to bring these titles under a new brand called Wanderful, along with securing the rights again. They play just like they did 20 years ago, except now they're iPod/iPhone/and iPad tailored with a few enhancements in the backend.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to advertise that their newest title, Ruff's Bone, was just posted on the App Store the other day, and is FREE for a limited time. If you're a parent/or even an older sister like me (well, the iPhone/iPad wasn't around yet, so I had the CDs to show my brother back then), and you usually buy Oceanhouse Media/Loud Crow/etc titles, check out this for a change. You won't be disappointed.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ruffs-bone-interactive-storybook/id601996502?mt=8
And if you like this, check out the Storybook Sampler, which lets you check out the first page from all their titles.
They're also about to re-release them for OS X, Windows, and Android in the next few months.