123… as easy as ABC

10/08/2012 by David Maybury · No Comments

The Jacksons once sang: "ABC, easy as 123, or simple as DO RE MI"

Turns out that may not be so true when shopping for pre-school apps: the app store can be a mind boggling maze. There are countless different ways you can navigate a digital store and the superabundance of choice makes things better, and worse. I spent a chunk of my week playing with Alphabet apps in iTunes to choose some of the more interesting available. (I'm a self-confessed iPad/Apple fanboy so forgive my iTunes leaning, I'll catch up with Android versions soon.)

 

Alphabeast (James Kelleher) €2.39

No alphabet list can exist without mentioning Alphabeast. Illustrated by Irish Book of the Year winner Chris Judge, Alphabeast contains working background features and animations... including musical instruments (you have been warned.)

 

Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar (Night and Day Studios) €0.79

What isn't to like about Night and Day's Very Hungry Caterpillar counting app? Featuring another favourite Eric Carle's most famous creation there are varying levels to tackle counting, addition, vocabulary and more. 

 

Numberlys (Moonbot) €4.99 

From the creators of the smashhit The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore comes Numberlys. Stylish, filmic and full of story, short animations, games and echoes so many American cinema classics it's hard not to smile. 

 

Little Digits (Cowly Owl) €0.79

Little Digits is a fun engaging numbers app that has children using their fingers to bring up numbers (you can really confuse things, with some help,  by putting 12 fingers on the screen)

 

The Singing Alphabet (Ministry of Letters) €0.79

Hot on the heels of their book, Operation Alphabet, the Ministry released The Singing Alphabet. As accentuated and polished as the book The Singing Alphabet has something addictive (I was singing in seconds) and the Ministry are, cleverly, tying digital and print projects together with resource downloads on their site.