Two Great Alphabet Writing Apps for Toddlers and Preschoolers: iWriteWords and Little Sky Writers

We have an Apple iPad and we are incorporating it into our home-preschooling one game at a time. Two games I have found to be great is iWriteWords and Little SkyWriters We bought the Handwriting edition of iWriteWords ($2.99) and the iPad app Sky ($1.99) and I love them because it fills a gap in what I've been teaching him at home

Elijah has this great wipe-clean book called Learn to Write your Letters ABC (it's in the Amazon list to the right) and we write the alphabet upper- and lower-case everyday. However, I'm afraid of over-correcting, creating frustration, and taking his enthusiasm for it down to nil. With both of these apps, he must follow the letter correctly, lifting his finger where he should and finishing the letter correctly. And they're still fun.

Little Sky Writers is a simpler app. Once I showed Elijah how to do it, he liked guiding the airplane. I liked that he had a point to reach, and a check to know he'd done it correctly. By pressing the alphabet icon, I was able to see how many he'd gotten correct after he was done, upper- and lower-case. And he loved the voice and the sound effects. My only wish was that there was some kind of "Great job!" at the end of each letter, but that's just me.

iWriteWords is a fantastic app for the price. I like how you can make the letters bigger for little fingers. Elijah understood this one right away and I was able to tell him "Touch the four" if he didn't finish the letter correctly, and he understands that better than "Go to the end." And you can re-play their handiwork - watch it and enjoy. But they made it a little too fun to mess up the letter, so I know when to take it away because I hear the squeaky noise and giggles repeatedly.

These apps were good for my Elijah with the speech delay because I was able to have him repeat words that the man in Sky Writers said or the words the lady said in iWriteWords. He also must tell me which one he wants by saying "I want -" to first get the app, and again for the features in the game. And if he does a good job, I encourage him to say "yay!" and pretty soon, he's engaging in spontaneous speech.

There's another review with a video for Little Sky Writers here by Best iPad Hacks. The iPhone Mom wrote a great review of iWriteWords here and if you search for it on youtube, you can watch kids play it. Both are well worth it in alphabet toddler game world.

Love,
Amanda & Cubs

Blogging from My New iPhone

I got an iPhone!!

My husband spoils me but that's how it works around here. Whenever I get money, I buy stuff for my babies. Whenever my husband gets money, he makes sure to get me the stuff I need or would never buy myself or say that I want (aloud). 

Just sending a post while I hold my wittle one:

Ah, sometimes technology is sweet when it's not being a pain in my butt. 

We'll be moving soon and this will be handy to keep posting while being in the chaos that moving so often entails. Then I can go in later and correct and make changes. Not to mention stay on top of my email and calls. Smart phones...keeping us looking smart!

Are we too addicted to all these technologies? Maybe I should've napped but I love it!

Love, Amanda & Cubs

iPhone Apps for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Elijah loves Jeremy's iPhone, as you can see. It's so bad but he doesn't use it that much. Well, that, and we cannot resist his cute face when he signs for it.

We bought a few games for him to play, and I thought I'd share after reading an article on Babble.com called iPhone Apps for Distracting Young Children the ones we thought were worth the money, because some games we have bought have been disapppointing.

1. Giraffe's Preschool Playground - Tomato Interactive - 99¢ - Elijah loves listening to the music and identifying the letters, numbers and animals. I love that there is more than one game and that there are Junior Explorer and Ace Adventurer levels of difficulty, so I  know this game will grow with him.  I don't think this will stay 99¢ for long!

2. Monkey Preschool Lunchbox - THUP - 99¢ - Elijah likes this one for its monkey character. He is challenged by few different kinds of puzzles and indentification games. I love that it rewards him with a sticker - keeps him going.

3. Preschool Connect the Dots - Touch Screen Preschool Games - 99¢ - Elijah knows his numbers but this makes him practice tapping them in order to solve the puzzle. I like that the pictures are of things he really likes, like trains and animals.

Elijah's iPhone

No, Elijah doesn't have an iPhone. We're not THOSE parents - haha.

There are some pretty awesome iPhone apps for kids. Elijah was pretty engrossed. Actually, he was so engrossed that he didn't notice how badly he needed to use the restroom, and he peed a little in his pants. So, iPhone apps - they'll make you so happy, you'll pee!


I thought Elijah knew his shapes and one of these apps confirmed it as he would choose the correct shape most of the time. It was neat to watch and really fun for him because he was rewarded with a "sticker" from the app.