Maisarah's Favourite iPad Applications

Shah and I are constantly looking out for educational games and applications for Maisarah. A week or so after I bought the iPad, Shah decided to get an iPod Touch. So now Maisarah has the choice of using both our gadgets for her play time. Anyway, we limit the playing time to a maximum of one hour per usage and usually she will play once every day on weekdays and two to three times a day on weekends. Below are her favourite applications.

1. iWriteWords

I tried to teach Maisarah to write using a Kumon book once but 10 mniutes later Maisarah got bored and started making mistakes deliberately. This then got me frustrated and her being even more rebellious and making more mistakes So, I gave up on teaching her the old-fahioned way. With iWriteWords, she can sit down for more than half an hour writing the alphabets and numbers. This app teaches kids to write using a small crab and numbers. Kids will have to take the crab according to the numbered sequence to write each alphabet or number. I see Maisarah making progress with writing. She used to make many mistakes writing the letter 'S' and the number '8' but now she can do those effortlessly. She loves to play this game which she calls 'Mr Crab'.

2. FirstWords: Deluxe

I was introduced to this app by Ira. This app teaches children to recognise letters and to spell the words for most households items, animals, vehicles, shapes, colours. If the child doesn't know what word they are spelling, they can look at the picture or press on the picture to hear the word. But, Maisarah gets frustrated on some pictures. For example, to spell the word 'bed' there is a picture of a bed with a pillow on top. When she presses the picture at the pillow, the guy says 'bed' and then she will ask me 'Why is he saying 'bed' when I press the pillow in the picture?' Then I get dumfounded as to how to answer her question. Maisarah calls this her 'Scrabble' game because she needs to arrange the lettered tiles like she sees Shah and I do when we play Scrabble.

3. 5-in-1 Kids Pack

This is actually the first application I got for Maisarah. There are several games in the app. 'Match' fortifies the memory as the child is required to find two matching pictures from a collection of tiles. 'Mystery' is the same as 'Match' but requires two players to compete and see who manages to uncover the hidden picture first. 'Tap' is where the child is asked to identify the picture of the mentioned word from a collection of pictures. 'Timed' is the same games above but the child is required to complete the game within a certain time. Maisarah loves the 'Match' game.

4. Color & Draw

This app is actually a colouring book on the iPad. There are manyh pictures to choose from for your child to fill with colours. There are also a small collection of stickers which can be placed on the pages. Maisarah started off having difficulty colouring within the lines but I see that she is improving. I started to teach her to colour within the lines using this app and now she can do also do so when she does colouring on paper. You can also upload your own picture onto this app for your kids to colour on.
5. Drawing Pad

Another drawing application but this time drawing free hand. Maisarah loves this app becaue you can choose to use crayons, colour pencil, paintbrush or magic marker. There is even an option to draw using the roller pen which has preset shapes like hearts, bubbles and stars in different colours. There is also a large selection of stickers which Maisarah loves.

We are still looking out for more applications for Maisarah. So if you know of any good apps do let me know ok?