Bottom line: My Town: Preschool offers kids many opportunities for imaginative and open-ended play in a variety of bright and colorful rooms set in a school for young tots. This virtual preschool has it all, including the best-ever rooms for lunch and nap time, a playground with a garden and much more.
If you want to download My Town : Preschool, please use this convenient link and support Smart Apps for Kids:
iPhone/iPad: ($2.99)
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This app has no ads, no in-app purchases, and it contains kid-safe external links to the app store.
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My Town: Preschool opens to a bright title screen with an entertaining movie-style announcement of the app's name.This page also has secured links to the App Store for other apps by this same developer on the right-hand bottom side of the screen, as well as a reset button on the upper left-hand side.
Kids can enter the preschool by tapping the arrow near the door. They can also tap a green button on the bus sign to make a school bus appear. When it does, players can help the students off the bus, whether they choose to take just one off the bus or everyone. Of course, they will need to tap the light to make the bus leave the school. Anyone taken off the bus stands outside and a character menu is displayed at the bottom left hand side of screen.
Right next to all the character options, there is another button that leads to a group of icons that, when tapped, turn into full page pictures. These pictures showcase other apps by the developer, which have secured links to the App Store. I would prefer it if you could turn off the previews for other apps especially because they are so easily tapped on accident. I appreciate the fact that they have a parental lock, but it can quickly lead to a case of the "I want that app, mom". There are a wide variety of ethnically diverse characters to choose from, including five children and eight adults, both male and female. In the wardrobe, which you see when you first enter the preschool, you can change each character's clothing, choosing by season. Also, if you tap and hold the face of any child or adult character in the app, you are shown a range of emotions from very happy to rather angry. The app even makes a noise to go with each emotion to make it more recognizable for kids who might otherwise have trouble identifying it. The option to have the characters' expressions match their activity is a nice learning feature for the targeted age group, as well as some kids with special needs.
In addition to the room that you see when entering the preschool, there are six additional, rather detailed rooms for children to discover, including a playground, classroom, cafeteria, nap room, nurses office, and bathroom. Each is filled with a bounty of activities and interactive elements for your child to work with and discover.
The cafeteria may be the personal favorite in our house. There is an oven, which kids can use to make several different meals for the hungry children and then the preschoolers can be fed with a spoon. They need to drink as well, right? Well, pour them a drink, hold it up to their mouth and watch it disappear.The kids from the app must love this kitchen because we gave them cupcakes, ice pops, and doughnuts.
On the other hand, the kids in the app can also get glasses, shots and casts in the nurse' office, so I suppose it all balances out. This app gives a daily reward of hearts or a new object for the preschool every day you play, as well as extra hearts that can be discovered by opening cabinets or simply moving one of the countless objects in the app. When you have collected seven hearts, you earn a new object for a room in the preschool. So far, my son has earned two toys for his virtual classroom. Yes, he has been exploring quite a bit.
The details really make the app something special. The tiny spoons in the cafeteria to feed the kids with, the little shots in the nurse's offices, and the really neat garden in the playground are all great examples.
I recommend My Town: Preschool. It is filled with high quality open-ended creative play. I do not think kids will get bored with it quickly. The detail is amazing, and the option for facial expression is a really great feature. It is well worth the $2.99.
***Angie has logged more hours playing with apps designed for children than she has spent sleeping. *Smart Apps for Kids was paid a priority review fee for this post.
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