Miller & Zois Kids Blog

Published on: May 17, 2011

Cosmo’s Day Off: A Review

cosmo I love Cosmo’s Day Off. It is my second favorite iPad children’s book of all-time. More on that in a second.

Cosmo’s Day Off is a children’s iPad book with just a ton of bells and whistles. I remember getting excited that every page in the Toy Story book had a fun button you could push on every page. Cosmo’s Day Off has some pages with maybe ten different things kids can touch that gives a cool response.

Cosmo’s Day Off is produced by Ayers Animation which also did Jack and the Beanstalk, a decent book but nothing special – a largely old school, nothing new rendition of a story that has a lot of moral flaws (why exactly does Jack feel at liberty to steal?). Cosmo is in an entirely different league.

Published on: May 12, 2011

Scary Quote of the Day

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

“American eighth-graders score 66 points below their Japanese counterparts in math, yet almost 40 percent of American children think they’re good in math. That figure for Japan is 4 percent. “This comes from an editorial by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. He’s mixing together studies and does not explain what 66 points even means (is a 1% or 20% difference?). But, still, you get the point.

Published on: May 12, 2011

Bartleby’s Book of Buttons Review

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Bartleby book of buttons Bartleby’s Book of Buttons may be the best educational iPad book available.

I don’t say this lightly. There are a lot of books on the iPad that my kids absolutely love. Certainly the Toy Story iPad games would come to my kids’ minds. But that is because the kids have an affection for Toy Story. On sheer quality, Bartleby’s Book of Buttons blows away Toy Story.

Okay, before I get carried away, let me fire out a quick negative. The book is short. You can get though it pretty quickly.

Published on: May 9, 2011

Analogies for iPad: A Vote for This Flawed App

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Analogies for Kids is an educational iPad app that has a premise I love. It is a quiz that lets kids practice both verbal and geometrical analogies. It is extremely low tech but the questions are just great and I think they really help cultivate young minds. My dream is that one day there are hundreds of iPad analogy apps out there and I’m buying the very best ones available.That is not, however, where we are now. This app has a very limited number of questions, so few that they often repeat frequently even in a 20 question test. Ultimately, your kids remember the answers and stop doing the analogies.

So you can only really only whip this game out for a few days. Would I recommend this incredibly flawed game? Absolutely. Because there is nothing else like this out there. So it is a weapon worth having for 99 cents. I don’t think it is even a close call. If you get just 30 minutes out of it, I still think it is a worthwhile investment. I just wish they would put out a more advanced version of the game and put on more questions (or just update the that is already out).This app is made by Nth Fusion LLC which has developed other educational iPad apps that we own that I will be writing about in the future.

Published on: May 4, 2011

Support Your Teachers

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Huffington Post offers up 7 ways to appreciate your child’s teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Published on: May 4, 2011

On-Line Math Game

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Yesterday, when I was looking for the link to Undersea Math for my review of that educational iPad math app, I found this math game on the Internet. Essentially, you are popping balloons in order, starting with the math sum of the lowest value. I have not tried it out on my kids yet but I probably will tonight.

Published on: May 4, 2011

iPads in Kindergarten

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

iPad
Nearly 300 Kindergarten students in Alburn, Maine are getting Apple iPad 2s this fall. School superintendent Tom Morrill calls the iPad what I have called it: a revolution in education.

This is just a plain good thing for these kids. But the Washington Post always feels compelled tomanufacture a debate in an effort to be fair. (“Wait, let’s hear the birthers side of the story, too.”)So we hear from one Maine mother who is concerned:

I understand you have to keep up with technology, but I think a 5-year-old is a little too young to understand.

Published on: May 3, 2011

Undersea Math

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Undersea Math

Undersea Math is another math low budget, under the radar educational iPad math app that my kids – particularly my daughter – consistently use.

The premise is very simple. You fill in the answer to the math problem on a little pretend wood puzzle and continue to solve math problems until the whole puzzle is revealed. It is hard to describe but you can look at the picture and get a feel for it. In this image, the last puzzle piece is being selected.

Published on: April 28, 2011

iPad: United States Map Puzzle

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

United States Map Puzzle

One of the great, great uses of the iPad is teaching geography. My kids know more about geography than you do. Yes you. And the iPad is the reason. I’m going to write about a lot of high tech geography games.

But let’s start with United States Puzzle Map, a decidedly low tech game. It has annoying music (after five minutes) and very basic graphics. The designer, Jenny Sun, does not seem to believe that the second name in a state should be capitalized. These are not good things.

Published on: April 27, 2011

Miller & Zois Kids Blog

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Miller & Zois Kids Blog is making some exciting changes in the future including an entirely new blog design. If you are checking up for the first time today, come check back soon.