5 Great Edu-Apps
Interactive Alphabet
What’s Learned? Letters
Description: Hawaii-connected app-maker Piikea Street won instant recognition for Interactive Alphabet, which charms your littlest technophile through the early stages of literacy with easy, interactive play. Latest versions offer lower-, upper- and mixed-case letters and words.
Feed Me! (Hawaiian)
What’s Learned? Hawaiian-language vocabulary,
colors, shapes and numbers
Description: Practicing vocabulary gets easier when every correct answer feeds a purple monster, as in this immersive Hawaiian-language game from Kamehameha Publishing, in partnership with PencilBot Preschool.
Mathtopia
What’s Learned? Arithmetic
Description: Habit-forming + Arithmetic = Mathtopia, an app that seamlessly blends the eye-catching, addictive mechanics of the popular “jewel” games with years’ worth of elementary-level math drills, from addition to division.
Stack the States
What’s Learned? American states and capitals
Description: Legendary app-designer Dan Russell-Pinson used every gamification trick in the book to make learning the American states’ names, shapes, locations and capitals into something suspiciously like fun. See also: Stack the Countries and (yes) Presidents vs. Aliens.
The Elements
What’s Learned? Periodic table
Description: It’s $13.99, but anything that can reveal the beauty of chemistry, while you are still required to study it, is priceless. The app’s user interface is thrilling and elegant, and the rotatable visuals are gorgeous. Only for iPad.
