1 Little Boy is not just good. It’s wonderful. The story is basic, but the twist that the entire trip has occured in a child’s imagination is a great way to encourage your kids to dream. The apps enhances the story with gorgeous artwork and a bare-bones approach to letting the story unfold. It’s one of the few apps that allows parents to record their own voice to narrate the story, which makes it more personal for young readers. The price is a little higher than we’d like, but it’s by no means excessive. This is a wonderful addition to your app collection if you have young children.

Read more at Common Sense Media

Knowledge Adventure has a strong reputation as a kid’s software creator for a reason. Through the JumpStart brand, the company has honed learning exercises into fun games – and the JumpStart Preschool Magic of Learning 1 proudly continues that tradition. The games are challenging, but not too difficult and are full of educational opportunities for young children. While geared toward younger users, a few of the games — especially Bug Catcher — might even appeal to slightly older children.

Read more at Common Sense Media

My Very First App is good at what it does, but unfortunately, it doesn’t do an awful lot. The color identification games it offers are useful and have varying degrees of difficulty, making the app useful for a range of age groups. And Eric Carle’s distinctive artwork is, as always, wonderful to look at, but you’re paying a premium for it here. From a strictly educational standpoint, you can get a more complete set of learning tools for the same amount somewhere else. But if you’re a fan of Carle and willing to pay a bit extra for it, this app will easily satisfy you.

Read more at Common Sense Media

Learning how to string together letters to form words is tricky — and ABC Maze is a good tool to help kids learn to do so. The biggest challenge for some players will be having the motor skills to use the internal gyroscope to make the ball go where they want it to. While none of the mazes is punishing, some are harder than others. The game offers visual and audible rewards when a puzzle is solved, which encourages kids to keep playing. $1.99 is a bit steep for the app, though. It’s definitely wise to download the lite version and see if your child will enjoy it first.

Read more at Common Sense Media