Bottom Line: Back Soon – Parent’s Vacation is a book app that can help children deal with the worry when a parent has to be away from them. From reassuring them about who will take care of them to helping them count down the days, this little app can help a child find ways to cope with a parent’s temporary absence.
If you’d like to purchase Back Soon – Parent’s Vacation ($3.99, iPad/iPhone), please use the handy link below so they’ll know who sent you.
______________________________________________________________________________________
No ads, no in-app purchases, no external links
______________________________________________________________________________________
Anna and Dan’s parents are going away on a trip without them. This makes the kids sad to be left and concerned about who will take care of them. Soon, though, Anna and Dan learn that their grandparents will be coming to stay to take care of them while their parents are away. As the story progresses, we learn about the ways that Anna, Dan and their parents deal with being away from each other. The kids get a chance to FaceTime with their parents, and Grandma also shares kisses that their dad left behind. Mom made up a “longing chart” for them, a calendar to track their days apart.
Anna and Dan also found that a visit from their grandparents meant that they got to do special activities like going to shows and visiting a farm. Treats and special cuddles are always available when grandparents are around, aren’t they?
This app is made up of 23 pages of activities and rhyming story with each page teeming with interactive elements. Two of the pages are drag and drop mini-games. You can help mom and dad pack their suitcase in the first one, and the in the second one you can help them out at the toy store.
Your child can choose to read the story on her own or to have it read to her. Besides the story, there is a “longing chart” that you can customize along with your child to help get through an absence of your own.
What I liked:
- I liked that the story was relatable to young readers and offers them ways to help manage in similar situations.
- Functionally this app had a well-made feel to it. Everything worked as expected with no technical glitches.
- I liked the longing chart that was included as a separate activity for readers to customize for their own use.
What I might change:
- I really like the inclusion of the “longing chart” but, while cute in its current form, it could be adapted a bit to be even more customizable for a variety of situations.
- I’m afraid that I found the rhyming mechanism made the story a bit stilted at times. We would have enjoyed it more and found it just as effective if it were told in a more traditional story format.
Overall, this is a cute app with bright characters and the potential to be a useful tool in helping children handle the temporary absence of a parent. However, I do find the price of $3.99 to be a bit high for the current level of content.
Be sure to check out Ellie’s video demo here:
*****
Kelli loves her kids to bits, but a holiday without them sounds pretty appealing.
Comments