All of us will win - crowd funding Friendy app!

If you have followed us for a while you already know that there is something big happening. We have teamed up with the company Mental Picture which is focused on helping kids to cope with their emotions. Currently they do it with the help of a specially designed toy Friendy. And very soon it will become an app. Or should we say “THE app”.

First things first

To start with, what is it all about? We have mentioned it a few times and will shortly do it here. The dolls that you have just seen deal with 6 basic feelings – anger, sadness, fear, discontent, happiness and calmness. Psychologists say that these feelings are the most common in our lives and many other emotions that we experience build on their top. Thus understanding these basic feelings may help us and our children tremendously in the everyday live.

Each feeling may be discussed with kids separately. You just take the doll and talk. Why does it happen? How to cope with it? When did you have it last time? What did you do? What should you do next time? Children can draw different feelings and situations, act themselves mimicking particular feeling, learn to accept and not be afraid of these emotions, learn to express and talk about them.

And now – you will be able to pick up the app and do the same! It is in the state of active development and will be released in early December. Kids will be able to do everything they could with real dolls and even more. It will be interactive, interesting and engaging. Check out some of the animations that we have created:

What are the positive effects? Children get to know themselves better – they build the self-esteem, manage to cope with negative emotions and stress, learn what they could do in the case they feel a particular emotion. As a result, they also become more empathic, able to communicate and build the relationship better and to be much more efficient in resolving the problems and conflicts in the future. Hopefully changing that future to the better.

Can you help?

We strongly believe in this idea. It is based on a psychological research and a great feedback from thousands of kids and parents using the dolls. But we need YOU to believe in it too. For the sake of your kids and other kids around the globe – to make them feel better, safer, happier.

There are many ways that you can help – spread the word, give suggestions and ask questions (info@appsandkids.com or just comments below), and finally – support our crowd-funding campaign on AppBackr.

It works like this – you give us a certain sum of money via this special platform. In turn we promise and AppBackr helps to ensure that when we start selling the apps we return you 50% more than you initially “borrowed”. It is an amazing win-win situation – we get more funds for marketing of the apps and you contribute to the idea, help spreading it and finally get your money back and even more!

If it sounds like a plan please visit our page on AppBackr, learn more about the platform and the project and give us some push! Thank you!

 

Animal Tiles for Kids iPhone App - Free Just Today

We would like to welcome you with a gift today. We have set our iPhone app Animal Tiles for Kids to be free for just one day. And you can download it from the iTunes right now!

WHAT’S ANIMAL TILES FOR KIDS?

It is a great app for little children. Just let them take first steps in solving puzzles, developing logical thinking and having fun with different animals. Just drag pieces of a puzzle into the right places and animals will give you a little performance! Easy and fun for the ages of 3 to 5.

But wait, it will become even better soon! We have drastically improved the animations used in the game. And we are also releasing an iPad version of the app.

Again, it is free today for the App Friday - a special Facebook party organized by momswithapps.com. Every week you can get great deals on iPhone and iPad apps for kids. And this weak Animal Tiles is one of those deals.

GOING IPAD

We are also excited with an upcoming iPad app. It will be called Animal Tiles for Kids HD and will be released in the nearest future. It is still in review at Apple at the moment of writing, though we hoped it to be out by today. We will tell you as soon as it is out – just be sure to follow us on Facebook. 

What’s new in that app? We have changed the animals and animations completely. Also added a small section for parents to read more about the app and improved the game flow. The same features are coming into the iPhone app soon, so stay tuned!

ABOUT APPSANDKIDS.COM

We are a creative studio developing and discussing the best iPhone, WP7 and iPad apps for kids. Visit our website on apps for kids and learn more!

Animal Tiles for Kids iPhone App - Free Today

We would like to welcome you with a gift today. We have set our iPhone app Animal Tiles for Kids to be free for just one day. And you can download it from the iTunes right now!

What’s Animal Tiles for Kids?

It is a great app for little children. Just let them take first steps in solving puzzles, developing logical thinking and having fun with different animals. Just drag pieces of a puzzle into the right places and animals will give you a little performance! Easy and fun for the ages of 3 to 5.

But wait, it will become even better soon! We have drastically improved the animations used in the game. And we are also releasing an iPad version of the app.

Again, it is free today for the App Friday - a special Facebook party organized by momswithapps.com. Every week you can get great deals on iPhone and iPad apps for kids. And this weak Animal Tiles is one of those deals.

Going iPad

We are also excited with an upcoming iPad app. It will be called Animal Tiles for Kids HD and will be released in the nearest future. It is still in review at Apple at the moment of writing, though we hoped it to be out by today. We will tell you as soon as it is out – just be sure to follow us on Facebook. 

What’s new in that app? We have changed the animals and animations completely. Also added a small section for parents to read more about the app and improved the game flow. The same features are coming into the iPhone app soon, so stay tuned!

About AppsAndKids.com

We are a creative studio developing and discussing the best iPhone, WP7 and iPad apps for kids. Visit our website on apps for kids and learn more!

New WP7 app for kids - Animal Tiles for Kids

Did you ever want your kids to learn more about nature and animals? Now they can do that. Today we are happy to release Animal Tiles for Kids - a new WP7 app for kids - which was available only for the iPhone before. For those who are new to our site I would like to tell more about it.

Animal Tiles for Kids

The game starts off by showing your kids an image of an animal scattered into pieces. A child has to put the tiles into correct places. When he or she does it, the animal will congratulate a child with a funny melody.

Playing this game is a great way to develop the logical thinking, learn to recognize patterns and take first little steps learning to solve problems. In addition, kids will have lots of fun and learn the sounds the animals make.

By letting your child to play the app you will ensure that the time spent playing will also teach your kids something new and useful. Therefore you can bravely take a break during the play time or just play and enjoy together with your little one.

Since picture is worth more than a thousand words, here are a few of them:

How to get it

To get the app, simply follow this link - Animal Tiles for Kids on WP7. It will get you directly to the Windows Marketplace. Alternatively, you can get it for your iPhone via this link - Animal Tiles for Kids on iPhone.

We hope that you like our new game. Let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestions in the comments! You can also read more on apps for kids website or on a blog about apps for children.

Talking about children friendly apps?

Today I stumbled upon a question about what makes the apps for kids really children-friendly. Probably it is not enough to just throw in some funny characters and sounds. One has to carefully think it through, consider possible issues and positive moments. Let's discuss some aspects that can impact the ultimate decision of buying the app or not.

Navigation of the app

The first thing that comes into mind is the navigation of the app. Of course, most children learn to use iPhones very fast. However easy and intuitive navigation makes the game to stand out for me. Having hundreds of different options may sound nice, but unless it is easy to set them and unless the default settings are just right to start playing, it can make the app a mood-killer.

Is it showing ads?

Another question that comes into mind when talking kids-friendly apps, are monetization options the game is using. For my kids I prefer to have payed apps rather than the ones that are loaded with ads and pop-ups offering to buy something. The only way I find it possible to be used is a “Lite” or free version of the game allowing to check the app out before buying (like this app for kids for example). However it is silently expected not to have them in the purchased version of the game.

The rules of the iTunes do not prevent from putting ads and promotional pop-ups into the payed apps however. Therefore many developers still employ these tactics even in the payed apps. If you take the developer's standpoint, he or she wants to make more money or at least let you know about other great apps he has. And that is also not necessarily bad. The problem is to not make it intrusive and prevent accidental purchases as much as possible. In order for ads and pop-ups to be children-friendly it is important to check out when do they actually pop-up. Unfortunately, it is often just in the middle of the game – inevitably leading to the kids pressing on them.

My advice is to password-protect any purchases on iTunes. This way you can at least avoid unwanted stress of accidental purchases.

Content of the app

And the third thing I think about in this discussion is the content of the app or game. Funny images or sounds making the child laugh but not really teaching him or her anything – is it children-friendly? Probably yes. We need time-killers sometimes.

What about the game where you have to “kill” something else than time? That is already a different story. In general I would argue that it is not a children-friendly game. Although it is possible that kids like it, and it is possible that after some age parents can consider such games acceptable. All in all, even Angry Birds is such type of the game. Is it children-friendly? It is up to parents to decide!

Give us your thoughts - e.g. on our website about iphone apps for kids! What do you consider to be or not to be a children-friendly app?