Peekaboo Barn & Counting With the Very Hungry Caterpillar Phone App Reviews

I LOVE Phone Apps and lately I've really fallen hook line and sinker for kids phone apps. They are brilliant for situations where I'm doing something with the baby and Isla needs entertaining. Because my phone is with me 24/ 7 it means these games are always with me and she LOVES them too. She asks to play them regularly (usually when I'm in the middle of texting someone or fiddling about with it myself!) and it really impresses me that kids know how to work all this new technology. 

We were asked if we wanted to review 2 phone apps by Night & Day Studios: Peekaboo Barn and Counting with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

When we first had a go of Peekaboo Barn I wasn't really sure about it, it's so simplistic. All the animals are in the barn, you tap the door and every time you do a new animal appears, it makes the relevant animal noise before the animal appears so you can get your child to name the animal before they see it and a child's voice says, "cow", "sheep" or "goats" (Isla's favourite!) when the animal is revealed. However what do I know? Isla really likes it. She will do it over and over. Also just for Christmas the app has updated and it's all snowy and all the animals are very festive with either santa hats or Rudolph noses on etc. It's a very sweet game and I would recommend it. Another thing that we haven't done as yet is record Isla's voice to go on it which I think will make her love it even more!

The next game is Counting with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I loved this immediately because I just adore the illustrations for The Very Hungry Caterpillar and we have always loved the book. Isla can count to 10 already and likes any counting opportunity so this game was a goodun. It has 5 different difficulty levels and has all the snacks that feature in the book. For some reason Isla has formed an attachment to the 'pickles' and loves it when she has to count them! It's not all about counting either - it's also about being able to recognise different foods and also knowing which ones to select. The final level is against the clock, we've not done this yet as we spend too much time talking about the different foods "I like lollipops" etc etc you get the picture.

All in all these are both good games, the Hungry Caterpillar one being slightly more educational than Peekaboo Barn. My only negative observation is that I feel that Peekaboo Barn is slightly over priced for what it is.

Peekaboo Barn costs £1.49
Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar costs £1.99

Both available from the iTunes App Store

I ♥ Cathy Thorne Cartoons!

I discovered these cartoons through the BabyCentre Pregnancy iPhone app. I love them, they are so funny and I'm finding I can identify with most of the mummy/ pregnancy ones! Check out all her cartoons at:

http://www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com/index.php

Peppa Pig iPhone App - Review

In the last few weeks Isla's fixation with Balamory has transferred to Peppa Pig - I breathed a sigh of relief - there was only so much of Miss Hooley I could take! Because the episodes are so short when the credits go up she gets all disappointed and then suddenly happy again when she sees Peppa has come back on. I enjoy Peppa Pig too, mostly laughing at Daddy Pig. When the opportunity came up to review a new Peppa Pig iPhone app I jumped at the chance as I could see that it would be a good distraction for Isla.

There are 3 Polly Parrot games where you can win stickers depicting the characters and then for the last part of the app there are lots of different backgrounds where you can use your stickers to make up pictures.

The games are:'Feed Parrot', which is Isla's favourite, where Polly Parrot is hungry and you have to feed  the amount of crackers she asks for - it really helps with counting, which at 19 months I thought Isla would be too young for but she is already saying some numbers in order which I find amazing!

There is also 'Find Polly', where Polly Parrot flies around the house and you have to find her behind furniture, in the trees etc and then 'Talking Parrot', where you can make Polly say silly things. The more you play the games the more stickers you can build up to use in the sticker part of the app and this is also a favourite of Isla's, she likes dragging the characters all around the screen.

I've found this app particularly useful when Peppa Pig isn't on the TV as Isla hasn't yet grasped the concept that it's not always on and I can't magic up Peppa at anytime, at least with this app she can get a Peppa fix at the drop of a hat! I'm also hoping it will prove useful on an upcoming flight to France at Easter, I shall keep you posted....

Peppa Pig Polly Parrot is available to download for £1.79 on iTunes or through the iPhone app store. http://itunes.com/appstore

This is a sponsored post, we received the Polly Parrot app at no cost in order to review it.