My kids both love the iPad. At 8 and 5, they are both way better at using it than I am and can kick my butt at most games. They love interactive books and learning apps. They love YouTube and making their own videos, although I am pretty thankful that they have not yet figured out how to upload anything. Jasper has actually broken my iPad twice, something that makes me a bit of a zealot about buying the Apple Care insurance. It's worth it for the peace of mind if you have kids.
I'm especially impressed with how Jasper navigates the iPad because he does not read yet. It's amazing how much he absorbs intuitively. It's a great tool for early childhood literacy, aside from being a lot of fun.
Cypher Kids Club makes apps and integrated flashcards that use augmented reality to engage and excite young learners. Their apps are downloadable for free on the App Store and the flashcards are available at selected Target stores, just in time for the holiday season. Black Friday, anyone?
There are three sets available thus far: Letters, Numbers and Wild Animal Adventures. They can all be found in the iPad accessories section at Target. They retail for $29.99 each.
I am massively indecisive, so I got all three sets. They contain between 18 and 26 sturdy 4" x 6" flashcards with the subject matter on one side and a QR code on the flipside. You use your iPhone or iPad to scan the code and unlock the augmented reality content.
The Letters and Numbers sets feature two robot characters, Digi and Beebot, who cheerfully banter about proper pronunciation, differences between upper and lower case, counting, etc. If the voices on kids' shows annoy you, these probably will too, although it's super cool to see them fluttering around in three dimensions against your house. I also liked that the camera "snapshot" function is embedded into the app itself, unlike on the Wild Animal Adventures set, where you have to switch between explore and snapshot mode when you scan your QR code. That makes it a little harder for younger kids to be able to play with themselves.
The animation on the Cypher Wild Animal Adventure set is pretty awesome. The animals really come to life and it's a lot of fun to play with moving your device to scale the critters against things in your home. For example, the octopus floating alongside Fonzie the cat above and the frog leaping out of Jasper's mouth below.
Jasper thought mom should have a tiger coming out of her mouth. Not sure why.
We tried all the apps on both the iPhone and the iPad. The latter was MUCH more impressive because the larger format gave you the opportunity to really see the graphics and play with the augmented reality scaling and 3D aspect. One note- if you use a folio-style case on your iPad, you will probably want to remove it so you don't have to deal with a dangling flap while you move the device around.
Overall, Cypher Kids Club i3D Interactive Cards are a fun way to incorporate learning into gameplay. I'm interested to see what they'll come up with next. To keep up on company news, follow Cypher Kids Club on Twitter and like Cypher Kids Club on Facebook.
To see my whole shopping expedition, check out my Google+ photo album.
In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and the WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Cypher Kids Club. #CypherKidsClub #CBias #SocialFabric. As usual, all opinions are my own.
