We keep hearing about summer brain drain for kids who are on summer vacation. But for those ambitious parents out there who are already eying the Ivy Leagues for their toddlers (oh not you, of course), it’s never too early to start making pathways between those neurons and sparking new brain synapses.
A cute new app can get kids on the right track for years ahead of learning adventures. Whether or not you hope kid ends up with a full academic scholarship to Stanford.
Pre-K Letters and Numbers (with Real-Time Reporting), despite the decidedly not-fun name, actually is a fun way for young kids to learn how to master numbers and letters on the iPhone or iPad. The child tracing the letters and numbers has to be pretty precise, otherwise the app responds with, “uh oh,” so it’s probably more appropriate for preschoolers and up who have better hand-control mastery.
What’s different about this app is that there’s a complementary reporting function which should get some parents really excited. When you unlock this in-app function for $1.99, you can track your kid’s progress with the letters and get “report cards” on their success. It tells you everything from how many attempts were made before a letter was perfected, how long the child spent on the app, and percentile for success within the age range.That said, we kind of hope you’re actually sitting with your preschooler to use this app with them, and not just handing it off for two hours while you go research G+T programs. -Jeana
Pre-K Letters and Numbers for the iPhone or iPad is available for free from iTunes. The in-app reporting feature can be purchased for $1.99.
I would love this app, EXCEPT, when I downloaded the free version, the message to upgrade to pay for reporting is relentless. While my kid is using it, it keeps popping up and we have to keep hitting cancel. It’s as if they have designed it like that so that someone can accidentally “purchase” it.
Thanks for the comment Grace. Jeana responds:
I didn’t experience this when I played with it, but wrote the developer and this is what he said:
“Version 1.2 is in with Apple right now to resolve this issue. We went through the process multiple times and it seems that sometimes when the user clicks BUY multiple times then the message appears that same number of times. We believe it will be fixed with version 1.2 and should be cleared by Apple in the next couple of days.”
I would recommend you update the app in several days when you see it listed as having the next version available.