Michael Robin | APPS | 09.28.2012 @ 3:00 pm
(Anden is six years old and growing up in a world where mobile apps are omnipresent. In this column, we explore apps that are up his alley.)
Last time, we talked about three of the games from the PEEP and the Big Wide World Series. This week ,we’re giving our two cents on the additional three games in the package: House Hunt, Paint Splat and Apples.
House Hunt: House Hunt is a simple matching game that teaches kids memory and by having them pair animals with their homes. This is a fun and simple game that doesn’t extend beyond one or two levels. After matching the animals to their homes a few times, it becomes redundant. It’s great for kids 3-4, but a little young for Anden.
Apples: In the Quack’s Apples game, you are given several attempts to perfect a route for getting Quack’s apples to roll into the pond. This game encourages you to keep testing and tweaking their designs until you get that apple in the pond. It helps teach the engineering design process integral to scientific thinking. Each time you get the apple into the pond successfully, the next level has new obstacles- watch out for rabbits and rabbit holes!
Paint Splat This was by far the favorite out all all six apps we’ve tried from this series. Anden had a blast experimenting with mixing and matching colors and trying to match what Chirp holds up on a card. Our favorite feature? Tapping on the hose to wash the paint off the fence allowing for a reset in the game. Like Apples, the levels get harder only if you’re successful matching the colors.