Strange Machines

Since our first review of the Best iPhone Apps for Toddlers back in February 2009, lots of apps have been added to the iTunes store. But for educational children’s apps, some of the best are sequels. Here’s what we have on our iPod Touch now and are still playing.

1. Elephant Song

Wonderfully interactive, beautifully simple pictures, and a lovely song. When my son first played it, it was my morning anthem for a few weeks. After a while, I couldn’t get the song out of my head. It originated in YouTube but found its way to the iPhone, and for that I am grateful. The recent upgrade has made it more interactive. And to top it off, the app is free.

2. Preschool Arcade

The sequel to Preschool Adventure. Again, I woke up to the sounds of the arcade with this game which I’d been reluctant to try because I was afraid it wouldn’t be educational. But the developers very pleasantly surprised me and what followed was an educational, musical extravaganza which taught my son numbers, alphabets, and shapes in an arcade environment. Very cleverly educational and very good family fun for the children.

3. Ike’s Machine

This is also a sequel to Ike the Inventor, this time for slightly older kids. But you get to create things from blueprints that show the formulas (e.g. to make a book, you need 5 units of a blue stick, 10 units of a green stick, and 50 units of a green liquid). I thought it might have been too difficult for a 3 year old, but no, with a few weeks of help, my son soon mastered reading measurements from a blueprint and addition from this wonderful app and can now play it himself. Kudos to the brilliant inventor!

4. The Boy Who Cried Wolf

From the same people who brought you The Little Red Hen, the same delightful little girl narrates the familiar story of the boy who cried wolf, along with interactive characters and a kind end to this morality tale.

5. Dem Bones

A really fun game to teach kids about our skeleton. A skeleton is laid bare at the start with a pile of bones on the ground. The child must then put the bones back to where they belong according which bone is called. Good giggly fun for parent and child to play together.

6. Where’s Gumbo?

A classic “find someone” game turned interactive. Cute and engaging for a toddler, and switches on their seeking radar (see: The Science of Parenting).

7. First Words: At Home

From the First Words series. A child learns spelling by putting the alphabets back into the shadowed boxes. Simple, familiar, and educational.

8. ShapeBuilder

This one sparks everyone’s curiosity. A shape is presented with various jigsaw pieces to be filled. When filled, it transforms into either a gimme or an object you just could not have thought of. Very fun for both parent and child. Bear played this for hours.

9. Artsee

Similar to ShapeBuilder but this time you use your finger to splatter paint onto the shape and you’ll be asked to guess what it is out of 3 options. I say “you” in this case because I end up playing it too.

10. Old MacDonald’s Farm

Old MacDonald’s has expanded his farm with more animals than Noah could ever hold. This time, we can listen to him sing about sharks, dinosaurs, walruses, and even an octopus. It brought us lots of laughs and very loud animal sounds. No, no one called the zoo.

Part 1, written in February 2009, can be found here. Also cross-posted to my tech blog.

It’s been an interesting pregnancy to say the least. And I have not been myself. Much.

Hang upside down and I still upchuck my food, I cry at a drop of a hat, and I wilt under the hot sun. I worry unnecessarily, eat too much junk, and can’t walk round the zoo anymore. Very not me.

Still, my dear friends and family take me and Bear out and cheer me much. Today my sweet friend Carol buoyed me with a lovely story of how she rescued a turtle from being cooked in a Hong Kong restaurant.

I feel distinctly hippo-like although I have been told I look “compact” (by strangers largely). Friends and family have told me I look much bigger. I’ve gained 16kg and as of 33 weeks, my baby girl is 2.1kg. A good weight, the doctor says. She’s growing well.

After a meal I feel like throwing up. Yes, even in the third trimester. My back hurts constantly. My pelvis feels like an elephant is sitting on it. I move like one too. And that awful insomnia is back. Doesn’t help that Bear senses baby is coming and has been waking up more often at night for milk.

The thought of an epidural frightens me some still. I’d be lying if I wasn’t feeling a little eww about THAT CUT again. The prospect of a potential C-section is terrifying. The indignity of the enema is well, undignified. Thing about labour is no one can predict what it will be.

Still, I’m looking forward to the birth in 6 weeks (plus, minus). Of meeting this little girl who has been growing inside me and hoping real hard all the stress from the whole pregnancy won’t have affected her, nor the potential poisons – pollution, smoke, pesticides, etc – I have unintentionally exposed her to.

I hope she’ll have the resilience of my mother, the memory (literally – he has a memory like a computer) and reliability of my father, the different smarts of her parents, her Daddy’s charm and steadfastness, my nose, and my mother’s eyes. She has the prettiest eyes in my whole family.

And Bear? He’s growing like a weed. 1m tall already. A genius with the iTouch. He spies the new games I download for him in a flash. Last night he discovered a yoga app I downloaded for myself and proceeded to copy its moves. His Dad and I had a ball of a time watching and instructing him. He continued his yoga practice this morning. :p

He’s sweet, smart, funny, and a sheer delight to be with. He’s the reason why I decided to have a second. Ready for his sister (somewhat), he is prepared to share only one boob with her and has agreed to allow her to sit on his lap while nursing.

It is going to be an interesting 6 weeks to come.

Yes, I have been spending a LOT of time on my iTouch and really, it is a superb concept. Bear, meanwhile, has dubbed it HIS computer and much of my time is spent finding really fun apps for him to play on them.

So are the ones I think are best in no particular order:

(Note – fastest way to find these apps – open your iTunes and type the names into the Search field.)

1. Preschool Adventure

This is the one that sealed the deal for me. I looked at it at the Apple Store and thought, this would be a perfect app for Bear. Aside from being unbelievably cute, it is also very educational. It teaches shapes, colours, body parts, and animals. Must-get for every parent with a child.

2. Peekaboo Barn

Kids love playing peekaboo and this game opens with a red barn where an animal is hidden behind the doors and it makes a sound. Guess what it is. The sweetest part is when the sun sets and everyone goes to sleep. A little girl says, shh…

3. The Little Red Hen

Lovely story book read by a little girl in English, Spanish, and Cantonese. The animated and interactive characters make it a super fun adventure for your child. Bear adores this app. Looking forward to more from this developer.

4. First Words: Animals (and First Words: Vehicles)

They teach spelling very interactively. Your child can simply pop the letters into the grayed boxes and it is spelt and read out when all are fitted. Cute and fun! Keeps Bear busy every morning.

5. ABC Animals

This very nice app teaches children how to write the alphabet by tracing it on the iTouch. Both the caps and the small letters. Bear writes H beautifully now. Working on the rest.

6. Hidden Expedition

Although this game is really more for adults, Bear took to it like a duck in water. His vocab really increased while playing this find-the-hidden-object game. Worth every penny. I had fun too.

7. Animatch (and every other matching game)

Animatch is special cos the animals are really cute (says Bear who adores the cat) and make a sound when clicked. But still, all matching games are fun and educational for kids as they train their memory. Good for reminding Mom where she left her keys.

8. ICDL

ICDL, which is lovely and free, has 4 illustrated stories which you can read to your child. The funnest is definitely Waldo at the Zoo. For some arcane reason, Bear loves The Three Little Pigs. This is the PG version. I have to water it down for him.

9. Ike the Inventor

This app is amazing. Your child can play inventor and put together a tractor, iron, television, video camera, and many more things from the raw materials hung in the workshop from blueprints of that object. It teaches your child how to read a blueprint and also have fun making things and seeing them work!

10.Wild Animals (and Fruits, and now Puppies)

A fun series of jigsaw puzzles for kids. You can choose between 9, 16, or 25 pieces and you get a yay or nay when the piece is wrong or right. Encouraging and fun for all children. Bear spent hours playing with these.

11. Match Magic

A regular “draw a line to match two similar objects from 2 vertical rows” app but with a cheerleading team. One of the sweetest little girl’s voices encourages and cheers whenever you make a correct match or an encouraging “it’s okay” or “try again” when a wrong match has been made. Lovely for children learning shapes, numbers, pictures, and colours. One of Bear’s favourites.

12. iTykes FP (Finger Painting)

We have tried a few and found this one the simplest to use. Bear has made many drawings proudly captured by Mom with a two button click, saved in the Photo album.

This morning when we woke, Bear nursed as usual and sweetly asked, “Mama please hold hands”. I held his hand. Once done, he peered into my dozy face and grinned, kissed my cheeks repeatedly and then ran outside to look for his Dad.

We accomplished a lot today. Got a new pair of spectacles, ordered a new bathroom door to replace the broken one, did some market research on sewing machines (I was very awed by the Singer 8280 and the saleslady’s demo).

In the end, we lugged home my brother’s old Singer – actually my grandmother’s – after much convincing (“It’s the second last furniture I have of grandma’s.” “Grandma’s going to live with you soon. Isn’t having grandma herself even better than her furniture?” Pause. “You’re so rude.”).

I spent the latter half of the evening cleaning it (and here’s a link to some step-by-step advice). It is rusty but I rubbed in lemon and salt and hoped for the best. The gears still work and everything is where it should be. I spent a moment thinking of my grandma sitting by her machine with all the chalk, thread, and needles in the drawers.

I confess still being tempted by the 8280, its reputation only slightly marred by some jamming issues. Duds, some of them? The saleslady May said they’re all assembled in China now, although the parts are made in Brazil. I’ve been lucky so far with the Nokia phones. But let me run a couple of projects on the old Singer first. But it would be nice to have a machine ready to go…

Since it sells on Ebay for about slightly more than the list price including shipping (over US$100 – ouch), I might just get it here if I want it. Okay, I want it, but for now, I don’t need it.

Meanwhile, I’m planning to make this lovely stuffed tomato dish (with organic spinach, diced carrots, raisins, black beans, garlic, some herbs) for dinner tomorrow. It will be a nice change from the usual pasta+fish combo. That and the wrinkled yellow capsicum that is now 1 week old in my fridge.

After taking 2 days to make my very first small tote bag (instead of buying them) which is 100% cotton and a cool black (and a day of carrying and admiring it), I’ve decided it is time to go get a machine to help me out. This just is not productive.

Into Alice’s rabbit hole I fell.

From Pfaff to Singer to Brother and Bernina, I spun. And those are just the brand names. The models are even more, almost like genuses of some new species (I remember those days in Anthropology 101) I had to remember. It was impossible to find a conclusive model to buy.

Never mind my mother and brother both have ancient Singers, all in good health ready for use, which they insist they need to keep. Mom: “It is worth 1000 dollars if I sell it now, and I do use it. Occasionally.” Right. Bro: “I still want it.” Okay.

At Great World City I found a nice craft lady who wore a measuring tape like a necklace. She said they sell Janome and recommended me the entry-level Jem at $262. Gosh. I was looking to spend no more than $120.

Then the advice online. There seems to be a consensus that you can’t do wrong by Bernina and Pfaff but they’re worth more than what I earn in a year (now). Brother and Singer are all apparently plasticky and made in China now, and they’re erratic from model to model – I hate that.

There’s a woman selling a Brother XL-2220 on Ebay for $120 now and I can’t find a single review on that model. Other forum advice points to Ebay being overpriced although generally we noobs are better off buying second hand higher end machines than new entry level machines.

So this is what I have decided.

1. Go look around in live shops and touch the machines.
2. Find one I like that isn’t plasticky.
3. Consider seriously if I will be using that machine much.
4. Try to convince mother and brother to part with theirs.
5. Look at the Bernina Bernette series and the Janome Jem, which seem to have the most thumbs ups so far.

It is mine! On Wednesday night, I decided that it made perfect sense to buy a phone that was also a fabulous camera and so after a night of research and many questions and answers later, on Thursday I bought the Nokia N82. Just snapping a pic of Bear and I in the car and seeing it turn out perfect cheered me so.

I know that it is a nay in the spirit of non-consumerism, which I am striving for, but I have abstained for a long time till the price fell within a reasonable range and I cut coupons and accumulated points for it. Plus it helps me document my son’s and my cats’ lives and those are important to me. Plus my last cams were 3.2MPs so you can figure out how old they are.

I always regretted not buying a good camera phone when Bear was born and so early pics and videos of him are grainy and not very many. So this time, there are no regrets buying the best I can afford. Now I might actually catch that elusive Bear smiling in his sleep shot. Hopefully without waking him!

Here are my reviews of it on TechBot:

10 Thing I Love About the Nokia N82
Tips for Uploading to Flickr on the Nokia N82
Why Nokia N82 Beats N95 8GB Hands Down

Ahh what else is there to blog about but my Lenovo V100 (dang I need a name for it already). After playing with it all evening, I have to say I am entralled.

Things I love:

1. In the sidebar installed, your pics run like a mini album. Bear’s face keeps smiling at me from various angles and positions.

2. There is a clock.

3. I can type notes to remind me of things I shouldn’t forget.

4. The built-in camera. For amusement at self.

5. The lightness of the whole laptop.

6. The fingerprint authenticator. I feel like a spy.

7. The beautiful Windows backgrounds.

8. The keyboard tapping under my fingers.

9. The little beeps it makes.

10. The new Vista taskbar.

11. The cute kitten startup icon.

12. How the screen cover opens.

13. The tough display screen.

And this is just the first day! More to come…

It is 90% a stomach virus Bear has. His father has it several days ago and so did I, although mine manifested quite differently. This morning at 830am he woke up and let’s just say I changed his diaper thrice in ten minutes. He sweetly smiled and we went back to sleep after.

Anyhow, this is the first post written from the luscious yet unnamed Lenovo 3000 v100 that is mine, all mine now. I am writing from my bed with Bear sleeping, mouth attached to my nipple. The keyboard is heavenly and I think I’m the happiest tech-crazy Mom out there today.