Forrest's New Favorite App: Curious World

This post was sponsored on behalf of Curious World via One2One Network. All opinions stated are my own.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared our favorite educational apps, and there’s a reason that I haven’t had any new app recommendations to share . . . we had a long streak of struggling to find great new ones! My kids (especially Forrest) love playing on tablets, and I am happy to indulge that love, especially if the games and apps they use have some sort of educational benefit.

But it can be really difficult to find great learning apps that you, as a parent, will feel really comfortable letting your kids use.

Today, I want to share our experience with a new educational app called Curious World.

The short story: Forrest absolutely loves this app and actually has not wanted to play with any other apps on our iPad since downloading this one. I’m so happy with it and am thrilled that he wants to play with it so much, since I think it is fantastic.

The longer story: Curious World has a huge library of early learning activities specifically tailored to kids ages 3-7. The content is tailored to your child’s age, so you know everything they see will be age-appropriate for them. It can be used on iPads and iPhones, and offers a wonderful variety of games, videos, and books.

No big surprise what my favorite feature is, right? THE BOOKS. The app lets him choose from an
awesome library of books (some older favorites, such as Curious George classics, and plenty of great
newer releases, too!), and it reads aloud to him as he flips through the pages. Honestly, I would get the app for this feature alone!

I love that it reads aloud to him, but we also have the option to turn off the audio and read books together. There are recent books on here that I’ve been trying to track down at our local libraries and haven’t been able to find, so I’m really excited that it has such an amazing selection.

There are also all kinds of wonderful games that teach letters and spelling, language skills, math, animals, science, and more. Many of the games feature Curious George, which is a major bonus for my kids, since they are both obsessed with George.

One of Forrest’s favorite features, and the one I see him exploring most, is the video section. Curious World has all sorts of awesome kid-friendly videos about everything under the sun: stories, crafts and experiments kids can do at home, National Geographic features on cool animals like stingrays and tigers, simple explanations of scientific ideas like weather, animal habitats, and evaporation, plus exercises kids can do at home . . . there are so many videos on such a huge variety of topics, and Forrest loves watching them.

One video Forrest particularly loved was all about making DIY shadow puppets at home.

I saw him watch it a few times in a row, then he came to me and listed out everything he’d need to make them himself, and explained to me how to do it. He was so excited to make his own shadow puppets and put on a puppet show. We made these puppets together based on the video.

Awkward smile, because he was so excited to play with them and didn’t want to stop for a picture!

I never would have thought of making shadow puppets together, but he was really eager to make them
after watching the video. As I’m typing this up, he and Darcy have been putting on shadow puppet shows for over an hour. OVER. AN. HOUR. This is awesome. Not only does the app entertain him and teach him new ideas and skills, but it prompted him to do a creative activity we wouldn’t have done on our own, and he’s having an awesome time imagining stories to act out with his shadow puppets.

For those of you with kids in the 3-7 age range who are interested in a really extensive educational app for your kids, I totally recommend Curious World. It is a subscription service, but you can sign up for a 30-day free trial if you want to check it out before you commit! There are no advertisements at all, so you don’t have to worry about kids clicking something that will charge you extra, or take them to another site or app. Download in the App Store today! The collection of videos, games, and books is curated by global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and new content is added weekly, so there’s always something new to check out. And there’s even a dashboard for parents so you can see what your content your child is accessing the most (like if they’re avoiding math activities and focusing on reading, or if they prefer books over games, etc).

I have been so, so happy with the app, and Forrest has, too. Gotta love an app that he is crazy about, and doesn’t even realize that he’s learning.

Aquarium Themed Juicy Gels Snack

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SnackPackMixins #CollectiveBias

Forrest loved going to preschool this past year. Absolutely loved it. He loved his friends, his teachers, the lessons, the field trips--it was a fantastic experience for him, all around. And I won't lie, I loved sending him off for a few hours each week, and enjoying a little peace and quiet while I knew he was having a blast at school. 

But now we've hit the summer break, and he isn't used to spending full days at home anymore. He talks fondly about preschool almost every day, and I can already tell that he's starting to forget some of the things he learned there. 

So I'm making it a goal this summer to do fun activities that I know he'll enjoy, and try to keep him excited about learning until school starts again in the fall. 

One of our first fun summer activities? We're planning an awesome, educational day at the aquarium with his best buddy, and psyching him up for it with ocean-themed activities, snacks, and books. So I used some tasty goodies to create an ocean-tastic snack for him. Nothing says preschool fun like themed snacks, am I right?

To create these adorable edible ocean scenes, I started out with Juicy Gels snacks and ocean creature gummies. 

I used ReddiWhip and food coloring to create blue ocean waves for our snacks. I just sprayed the ReddiWhip into a bowl, topped it with about 6 drops of blue food coloring, and stirred gently to incorporate the color. 

Then open the snack packs and press a few gummy fish into each container to create some underwater life. Top with a generous scoop of blue whipped cream to mimic ocean waves, and place some more gummy fish or an octopus on top.

5 minutes total for a fun, themed snack that got Forrest absolutely psyched for his upcoming aquarium trip, and got us talking about some cool sea creatures he'll be seeing soon.

I mean, I'm no preschool teacher, but I suppose I can be fun on occasion.

If you have a little ocean enthusiast in your life, pick up some Snack Pack Juicy Gels at Walmart to recreate this fun themed snack! And while you're at it, grab a great coupon for the Juicy Gels, as well as a coupon for new Snack Pack Pudding Bars. You'll find them in the baking aisle!

What fun themed snacks have you made for your kids? 

Preschool Prep and a No-Sew Personalized School Bag

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Sharpie, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia  #StaplesBTS http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Forrest starts his first year of preschool in T minus 10 business days. Not that anyone’s counting, except that I am totally counting, and might I add: sing praises, all together now, hallelujah it’s almost time for preschool! When I signed him up, I had the option of placing him in a two day per week class or a three day per week class. And at the time, he was right in the middle of a super sweet, very adorable, obedient and well-behaved phase. Which I now believe was a carefully planned, expertly orchestrated ruse to ensure he was not shipped off for the maximum possible number of preschool days each week. Because I swear, the second—the very second—I checked the two day class box in a moment of flowery motherly weakness, thinking that I couldn’t possibly bear to be away from that sweet angel boy for three days each week, his inner demon returned and everything fell to pieces—tantrums, arguing, talking back, sending me to time out, the works. If it were an option, I’d send him to 7-day per week preschool at this point. (And yeah, I totally called to see if I could switch him to the three day class and nope, all the clever parents who knew what they were doing went for that class and it’s full.)

So yes. Yes, I am a bit excited for preschool. I’m not sure Forrest is entirely sure what it is I’m going on about as I try to pump him up for his first year of preschool, but he seems excited anyway. I think (and really, really hope!) he’ll love it—he’s very social and always excited about any sort of interaction—and I’m doing everything I can to make sure he’s looking forward to school. I thought he’d have fun spending a few minutes working on a little craft project together to help get him excited about preschool, so we worked together to make a special bag for him to bring each day. So simple and easy, but really fun for us to make together. And I’m telling myself that strutting through those preschool doors on his first day, carrying a special bag that he helped make and thinks is awesome, will help give him a little extra confidence. A trait he is certainly not lacking, but still. He’s my sweet little stinker, and I guess I’ll build him up however I can.

I briefly entertained the thought of sewing a tote bag myself, but when you get a 50% off craft store coupon in the mail which makes a plain canvas tote bag ring up in the $2-3 range . . . yeah. You change those plans real quick and go the store-bought route. While we were there, we grabbed two sheets of colorful felt, then swung by Staples to pick up some neon Sharpies.

Although it is always surprisingly difficult to let go of the reins and give full creative freedom to someone else (especially a pre-preschooler with limited motor skills and questionable artistic vision), I let Forrest go to town on one side of the tote bag, drawing and scribbling however his little heart desired. His preschool, his confidence at stake, his tote bag, and his artistic passion, unleashed.

He seemed super nervous about drawing on fabric, despite my insistence that it would be okay. I’ve put so much effort into drilling “we ONLY draw on paper!” into his little head, and never did I dream that I would have to convince him otherwise; that he could, in fact, just this once, go wild with Sharpies on a non-paper surface. It took some encouraging to get him to make that first artistic stroke on his canvas. But the artist finally emerged and he did a lovely(ish) job. (Just look at the expression—he absolutely thinks he’s getting away with something here.)

With his art filling one side of the tote bag, I took over for the other half. Each student in his preschool is assigned a color and a shape (what purpose this serves, I have yet to learn—I guess we’ll both be learning some new things this year). Forrest’s color and shape are a yellow star, so I figured they’d make a nice choice to adorn his tote bag. I cut a star as well as an F (for Forrest; hopefully not as foreshadowing of the preschool grades he’ll be receiving) from felt, and hot glued them to his bag. (I considered stitching them on by hand with colorful embroidery thread, but really. My hot glue gun was sitting right there on the counter. I didn’t want to hurt its feelings.)

Forrest seems pretty excited about having his own bag to bring to preschool, and especially excited that he got to help make it. Every time we do a craft together, I think, okay, this is more fun than I expected . . . why don’t we do this more often?

Just look at that artistic talent—undoubtedly the work of a prodigy, a budding genius. (Lest you think too highly of my at-home teaching skills, he did not write his name all by himself. He did, however, draw the happy face, and I think it’s pretty charming.)

If you’re in the market for Sharpie products for a back-to-schooler (or not—let’s be honest, any and all back to school shopping I’ve done so far has been almost exclusively for myself . . . oh, how I miss fresh crisp notebook pages and shiny new pens!), perhaps you’d like to know that all Sharpie Fine and Ultra Fine assortment packs and Sharpie Neon Marker packs are on sale at Staples through August 24th, while supplies last.

Happy back to schooling, everyone!