Bottom line: a terrific app that teaches so much more than counting. Photos of real kids from around the world will help your little one count to ten while learning about geography and other cultures. The developer’s charity work is also a great starting point for discussion with kids of any age.
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I know what you’re thinking.
“This app is $4.99!” you’re saying. “Why would I pay $4.99
for my kid to learn numbers?!” There’s
actually an excellent reason behind the
price of this app, and we’ll get to that in a minute. Just stay with me, okay?
Counting Around the World is from E3 Imagine, an American developer that’s part education company, part humanitarian organization. In 2010, founders Liz and Steve Porter embarked on a worldwide photography tour, taking more than 30,000 photos and videos of kids in 19 countries. Those images are now the basis for their children’s books, ebooks, apps and more, and are being used to teach everything from counting to social responsibility. You really have to visit E3 Imagine’s website and read about this stuff for yourself — there is far more information available there than I can possibly convey.
First let me tell you about the app, and then we’ll get to
the other things E3 Imagine is doing and the reason for that high price.
At first glance, this is just a counting app. Your kid learns to count to ten through some fun little activities, and that’s pretty much it. And if your kid is at an age where he really IS learning to count to ten, this app will certainly be helpful with that. But there’s so much here for kids up to about age 8 or 9, and the counting is just the beginning. My six-year-old has known how to count to ten for years now, and she’s fascinated with this app.
Each number features a photo of a child from a different
part of the world, along with five activities to
help kids learn and remember
the number. Users can trace the number, chase a runaway number around the
screen, do a little four-piece jigsaw puzzle, watch a video and get a little
geography lesson. Each completed activity earns the user a star, and when you
get five stars, you get a sticker (and the verbal encouragement you get when
you earn a star is pretty hilarious). Simple, really, except that the photos
and video really set the app apart. The twenty-second video that accompanies each
number is like something you’d see on Sesame Street — a true lesson in
multiculturalism, using the face of a child to convey that none of us are
really all that different from each other after all. My daughter is Asian, and
I loved talking through all the videos with her as we learned about families
from all over the world.
The geography lesson is pretty light — it just shows the
child’s home country on a map and asks the user to trace a little path to get
him there. But it can be a good point of discussion with your child about other
countries and things found there that we might not have at home. For instance,
my daughter loved the lesson about the little boy from Egypt, because she didn’t
know camels existed outside zoos.
The home screen for the counting section offers users the option to play the game, view the stickers they’ve earned, or watch a video about E3 Imagine and the creation of the app (which, by the way, is very cool). There’s also a page guide, an info section and an opportunity to mute the music (yay!). The book can also be reset, so that when the user finally earns all five stars for all ten numbers, he can start again from the beginning.
There’s also a home screen for the entire app, before you
get to the counting section, and it features
three sections marked “coming
soon.” Apparently the folks at E3 Imagine are working on similar apps to teach
colors, animals and shapes. The home screen and the counting section also
contain links to external websites, and they’re not protected from little users
at all — something I’d like to see fixed in their next update.
The other link you’ll find on the home screen is labeled “buy = give,” and it’s the reason behind the app’s price. Again, it takes the user to E3 Imagine’s website, which I’m not crazy about, but the info there explains that, for every E3 product you buy, you’re providing a book to a child somewhere in the world. How cool is that?! According to their website, E3 has a goal of donating 10,000 books by the end of 2013, and 1 million books by the end of 2016. I’ll gladly purchase a five-dollar app if it means I can support that kind of work. Again, you have to visit E3 Imagine’s website and read for yourself about the work they’re doing in the U.S. and around the world. This gave me a chance to talk with my daughter about kids in other countries (and our own) who don’t have access to the education she’s getting. She was horrified to know that there are kids in the world who don’t own books or have never been to a library, and I liked that E3 Imagine is helping me spark some philanthropic interest in her.
My only complaint with this app, besides the unprotected
external links, is that the activities associated with each number are
repetitive. I realize that for kids who really are learning to count,
repetition is necessary. But this app is about so much more than counting — it
would be nice if there were different activities for each number. Keep the
video, certainly, and perhaps the tracing. But maybe find different ways to
incorporate the geography lesson, and give the user a little variety in terms
of the puzzle and the runaway numbers. A time or two is all right, but ten
times gets a little wearing.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t change a thing. I can’t wait to see what else E3 Imagine comes up with, and whatever it is, I hope Smart Apps For Kids can be part of it.
***
Emilie and her daughter would love to volunteer to be one of
the families on E3 Imagine’s next photography tour. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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