An Android Learning Tablet That's Powerful Enough to Hold Our Son's Interest with Reading & Visual Tracking Apps

Thank you to ClickN KIDS for providing a sample children's tablet for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are our own.

If it is not painfully obvious by now, we are a family that embraces technology. Sometimes I feel we even take our technology use too far (impossible!). One aspect of new technology that will never be unwelcome in my home is any tech that helps my children learn.

We own, have owned, or at least tried, about every tablet type device made specifically for children. Most were merely OK, some weren't good at all, and a few were surprisingly good. We even reviewed a few here on this site. But mostly tablets made for kids are just that: Made for kids. I dont know about your kids, but my kids are very tech-savvy and a device that is too “toy-like” just doesn't cut it for very long, even if done very well, especially when they see mom and dad using tablets that can do everything a computer can do.

My amazing son Luke, the future DNA scientist, astrophysicist, or restaurant owner (depending on what day you ask him), who hates to read, has a visual tracking problem that bottlenecks information before it gets to his brain. His eyes skip around and jumbles the information as he scans the page. It has been quite a challenge and can be extremely frustrating for him. The issue is compounded as his thirst for knowledge is so high. You can imagine that any tool we can use to help him improve his tracking is very welcome. There are a host of applications available designed specifically to improve visual tracking and coordination and a tablet is the perfect delivery device. Luke is just smitten with tablets anyways, so getting him to spend time using one is easy.

The problem, before now, is that most tablets made for kids do not provide the ability to install special or custom apps on them. The kid tablets we own, even the good ones, almost all have proprietary apps you can only download from their sites. Many of the apps are superb and fun and all offer various learning levels, but none of the tablets can be pointed to any site on the web and download an app outside of the proprietary app service. For this you normally need a real full featured adult tablet. But at $300 and up, I hesitate to buy one for a 7 year old and frankly my personal tablet is too important to lend out to a child.

Fortunately, there is a solution to our problem: The ClickN Kids Family Tablet.

The ClickN Kids Family Tablet is a real full featured tablet with an Android operating system that can do anything you would expect from an adult level tablet, but it is very much a kids tablet with an interface and loads of content designed just for kids. I can hand the ClickN Kids tablet to Luke and know that 100% of his experience is designed for him and controlled by me. But I can grab it back, log out of the kids interface and have regular adult oriented experience. The best part? It costs just $99. I can install custom apps designed to help Luke with his tracking without limitations and present it to him in a kid friendly interface. To my knowledge there isn't another kids tablet on the market that has such flexibility, as well as preloaded educational apps. And, amazingly, it costs under $100!

The ClickN Kids tablet is full of great apps right out of the box, including the award winning Looney Tunes Phonics (an amazing value by itself). One of my kids favorite apps is Talking Tom 2, a funny cat you can pet, feed, tickle, and make do silly things. But the apps that are most important to me are the custom apps I installed from outside of the ClickN Kids tablet pre installed apps designed to help Luke with his visual tracking issues. One of those apps is called Falldown, an addictive game where you guide a ball down a series of lines with holes in them by moving the tablet from side to side, if you go too slow the ball gets stuck and you lose. This game is deceptively simple yet entertaining, but most importantly, Luke likes to play and as a result improves his visual tracking without even knowing he is learning.

This tablet offers everything you would expect in a full featured tablet. In the kids interface there is a kids safe browser and a camera in addition to the plethora of installed apps. Switch over to the adult interface and you see a home screen that is very familiar to anyone who uses an Android based device. You can install any app you can find on the web designed for Android operating systems.

Parents have complete control over their kids experience with the ClickN Kids tablet. Time and content can be controlled easily through the adult interface as well as available apps.

So, the big question: Has the ClickN Kids Family Tablet improved Luke's visual tracking? It is hard to say as the problem is dynamic and hard to measure.  However, I can answer the question another way: The ClickN Kids tablet is the only kids tablet that we own Luke asks me to use. Additionally, when Luke uses the ClickN Kids tablet he spends time using the custom apps designed to help his tracking . . . on his own. So, although I cannot measure the results easily, Luke is using a tool that improves his tracking in lieu of all the other available tools we own. I would say that is a big win.

For $99 the ClickN Kids tablet gets a no brainer recommendation from me. It is powerful for the price, offers the flexibility I need for Luke, and comes in fun colors with a protective gel case, and all for a fraction of the price of an adult tablet. Honestly? This tablet would be good for anybody, even an adult, that doesn't want to spend a ton of money. Being a technology snob, that is an enormous endorsement from me!

NOTE:  I have read on retail site reviews that some people have had problems with their tablet freezing, so I wanted to share that we have been using ours for over 5 months and have not had any issues with freezing so far.

To learn more about the ClickN Kids 7" tablet, visit www.clicknkids.com.  You can purchase this android learning tablet at Walmart.com and Amazon.com.

Free Printable: 69 Sight Words Flashcards for 1st Grade

We had discovered last year that our youngest son learns differently, so we need to work with him at home daily to help him succeed in school.  One of the main things he struggles with is reading.  He is now in first grade and will be turning 7 in January.  Last year, I made kindergarten sight words flash cards and they seemed to help him quite a bit.  Now that the school year is well-underway, I have created a new set of flash cards for 1st grade sight words.  If your child could use some extra help in this area, feel free to print and cut out these flash cards to use with your child.

You should know that, when I made these cards, I omitted the sight words that were also on the kindergarten sight words list.  If you have not already done so, you should print out the kindergarten flash cards to use in conjunction with these.

TO PRINT:  Make sure your printer is on and ready to print.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right click on the image and choose print.  Use your browser's back button to return to this page and repeat these steps with the remaining pages.

Speakaboos is a Dynamic Children's Storybook App for your iPhone, iPad, or iPad mini

Thank you to Speakaboos for providing a complimentary reading app subscription for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Our 6-1/2 year old son Luke does not like to sit and learn.  He would much rather do just about anything else (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all!). As a result, Luke needs extra help learning to read and also with his speech. Karen and I made a commitment to spend time with Luke each and every day to help make sure he stays caught up with his peers.  We both know how amazingly intelligent he is and know that much of his distaste for learning is related to a lack of confidence due to not being able to read. Karen and I will guide Luke past this barrier no matter what. I liken this challenge to removing bricks from a dam . . . the next brick could be the one to burst it open.

Finding ways to help teach Luke is a challenge. There are literally thousands of tools out there to help a child learn to read, but finding one that works for both Luke and us is surprisingly hard to do. The fact that Karen and I are very busy ourselves makes the challenge that much more difficult. Any learning tool that utilizes technology to give Karen and I a helping hand would be a welcome one.

Speakaboos is a storybook app for your iPad or iPhone with an accompanying website that offers dynamic storytelling for your child. When Karen and I learned about Speakaboos, we were very interested in this new tool to help us motivate Luke to sit and read.

Speakaboos is not a program that teaches your child how to read, but rather an app that reads to and with your child in a dynamic and fun way. It is like an interactive book that your child can guide through the story at their own pace.

The imagery is bright and artful and the voice acting is superb. The voice actors enunciate each word clearly which is good for Luke's speech. There are many stories and characters to choose from, literally dozens to experience with more becoming available in the future. I can see Luke following his favorites and looking again and again for new stories to become available.

Each story comes with different options to guide your child through the story. Some are simply read to your child with interactive pictures and others allow your child to progress the narrator by touching the words one at a time.

In addition to stories, Speakaboos offers music and more through the app. All of the content is bright, exciting, and visually interesting for your child. I can see where a child may think they are being entertained without realizing they are actually learning.

Overall I think Speakaboos is a big help with Luke. Alone it is not going to teach Luke how to read, but Speakaboos is a wonderful way to break up the monotony of our traditional lessons. It is also a great tool to use when Karen and I just don’t have time for a traditional lesson.

The only reservations I have about Speakaboos is the navigation though the text in a story. The words are easy to see and read, but are just small enough to require a bit of dexterity to touch and advance the story. If we are feeling this challenge on an iPad mini, I can only imagine it's harder on an iPhone. Although its good for Luke to work on his fine motor skills, I feel the extra effort to accurately touch the words detracts from the importance of moving the story and reading forward.  We even tried giving Luke a stylus to use, but the results were similar.  We found that the arrows to scroll the text up and down also needed to be tapped just right in order to work.

Overall Speakaboos is a wonderful app and I am glad I have it as one of the tools we utilize to help Luke learn to read. Having a tool that we can use to add some excitement (and a break for me and Karen!) is very welcome.

You can download the Speakaboos app for free on iTunes.  Although there are a limited number of stories that you can view for free, you will need to subscribe to continue your usage.  For a limited time, you can receive your first month for just $0.99.  After that, the cost is $4.99/month or $49.99/year.

24 Days of Christmas Books!

Last year, my family did 12 Days of Christmas Books to countdown the last 12 days leading up to Christmas.  Well, my 3 children enjoyed it so much that I decided to do 24 days of Christmas books this year.  Yes, that means I had to double the number of children's Christmas books I had on hand, but I did not mind at all.  Christmas is my favorite Holiday and it was so much fun choosing new books to add to our collection.

On December 1st, we will be reading The Elf On The Shelf and, on the 24th, we will be reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.  I made sure to wrap these two books in different wrapping paper so I could tell them apart.  The other 22 books were wrapped in identical wrapping paper.  Each night one child will have a turn at choosing a book.  Some of the books are old favorites and some are new Christmas stories, which is very exciting to them.

One of the new Christmas books I added this year is Christmas Magic: A Changing Picture Book written by Kirsten Hall and illustrated by Simon Mendez.  This beautifully illustrated book shows scenes based on some of the best things about the Holiday season, such as baking goodies or going sledding.  Every page has a tab on the right-hand side that magically changes the picture when pulled.  My children will just love this book. I can just see them sitting quietly looking at the pictures changing back and forth for hours.

This hardcover book is recommended for ages 4 and up.  It retails for $14.95, but is currently selling on Amazon for $10.72 with Free Super Saver Shipping.

Another book I added to our collection is A Bit of Applause for Mrs. Claus by Susie Schick-Pierce and Jeannie Schick-Jacobowitz, authors of A Bit of Applause for Santa Claus, and Muffin Drake-Policastro. This book tells the story, unlike any our children are familiar with, of how Santa comes down with the flu and how Mrs. Claus must save the day by making sure everything is ready for the big night.  There is always so much focus on Santa, that it is nice to see a story that gives the ever-important Mrs. Claus some recognition.  The illustrations by Wendy Wallin Malinow are colorful and lively.  This book is recommended for ages 4 and up.  The large text of only one sentence per page is perfect for emerging readers.

This hardcover book retails for $15.99, but is currently selling on Amazon for $12.79 with Free Super Saver Shipping.

I am so happy to have started this tradition at our house.  If you would like to start your own tradition, it is not too late.  You can always do the 12 Days of Christmas Books and work your way up to 24 like I did!

Thank you to Sterling Publishing and to Sourcebooks Jabberwocky for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.

3 Signs That You May Need Reading Glasses

Many people associate needing reading glasses or bifocals with aging.  Although this need does become more apparent around the age of 40, give or take a few years, I think there are many other factors that contribute to someone developing the need for reading glasses, such as heredity.  In this day and age, when glasses are so fashionable that some people wear them with non-prescription lenses just because they love the look, there really is no good reason for you not to make that trip to the eye doctor to get a professional opinion if you think you may need them.

One thing you should pay attention to if you suspect you may be farsighted is whether you are constantly squinting and adjusting the distance between you and your computer monitor (i.e. leaning yourself back or tipping your laptop screen to make it clearer), a book, or anything else you might be trying to read.  You also may be feeling drowsy more quickly when reading at night, but that could be caused by blurring vision.  A third sign of your eyesight changing is headaches.  Headaches can be caused by numerous things, but needing glasses is a common cause and one people often overlook.

I have been told by my eye doctor that I will likely need bifocals someday.  Currently, the need is so small that single vision lenses are still fine for me, however, I am paying close attention the the 3 signs I had mentioned above so that I will be aware of the need when it arises.

If you are weary about adding reading glasses to your look, you will be pleasantly surprised by the selection of fashionable options at sites such as www.readingglasses.com for both men and women.  I am especially loving the frame styles by Donna Karan and Emilio Pucci for women.  Which ones are your favorite?

Free Printable: 41 Kindergarten Sight Word Flashcards

After attending curriculum night at our school, I was provided with a list of sight words that our twin kindergartners will be learning this year.  It was suggested that we make flashcards to help them learn to recognize these frequently used words by sight, so I decided to make the flashcards I made available to other preschool and kindergarten parents.  Hopefully, other parents will find these to be useful.

There are 41 sight words on these cards altogether plus 3 blank cards for you to add your own words.  Perhaps your child needs to work on recognizing his or her last name, a sibling's name, or their street name.

TO PRINT:  Make sure your computer's printer is turned on and ready to print.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

The 12 Days of Christmas Books

Soon after I completed an advent calendar craft for our 3 children, a reader told me that she had seen a great advent calendar idea using books somewhere online.  A couple of days later, I happened upon this Christmas Book Advent Calendar on the blog MADE.  I loved this idea about having one wrapped Christmas book to read each day as a way to get children excited about reading.  However, since I had already made an advent calendar and we do not have 24 Christmas books, I modified the idea to create a fun Christmas activity for counting down the last 12 days of Christmas instead.

We had about 9 Christmas books in our home library, so I added 3 new ones to make a total of 12.  One of the books we already owned was The Night Before Christmas, which will be reserved for reading on Christmas Eve.  I wrapped all the books in one of two different wrapping papers, with the exception of that title, which was wrapped in a different paper to set it apart.

Starting on December 13th, one of the children will either choose a wrapped book out of the stack or reach into a bag and pull out a book blindly.  I will let them choose which they would rather do.  Then this book will be their bedtime story that night.  The children will have to take turns choosing a book in rotation each night.

Some of the books in our Christmas book collection:

• Frosty the Snowman
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• A Present for Santa Claus
• A Magical Christmas
• A Perfect Christmas (Barbie)
• Santa Visits the Big Blue House
• Merry Christmas Little Critter!
• Little Critter:  Just a Snowman
• The Little Have a Merry Christmas

If my children enjoy this activity, I will definitely repeat it next year, switching out a few of the books for new ones.  After a few years, we might actually have enough books to do an advent calendar.  Thanks for the inspiration Dana!

LIVE V.Reader Giveaway: Family Game Reading Night [CLOSED]

Our Winner is Shasta!

Even though we live in a hectic household, we always have at least one story read before bedtime. Sometimes Dad would read the story, but recently our 6 year old son has been having a go at it quite often. Well, wouldn't it be fun to have one night a week, perhaps on Friday when the kids can stay up a bit later, when all five of us would each choose a book to read to the group? No, our 3 year old twins cannot read yet, but they could choose an animated storybook to read to the group. The new VTech V.Reader would make it possible for our whole family to feel included in our "Friday Family Reading Night". There will be 11 different story game cartridges and over 100 ebooks to download, many of which will be available to be downloaded for free. This will keep our Family Reading Nights going for quite awhile.

The Family Reading Night Challenge Giveaway!

Please read the instructions completely before entering. Everyone MUST complete the mandatory entry to be eligible to win. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and will end when we reach 447 valid comments.

The lucky winner will receive . . .

A VTech V.Reader of their very own plus a bonus V.Reader Story Game Cartridge. The winner may choose between a blue or a pink V.Reader. The bonus cartridge will be a surprise!

How To Play . . .

1) Mandatory Entry ~ For your first comment, briefly tell me about a time when your family sat and read together. You can draw from experiences with your current family or from your own childhood.

2) After you have completed the mandatory entry, you may leave as many comments as you like as long as they have anything to do with reading.

For example:

Where do you like to read with your children?

What are your children's favorite stories?

What were your favorite stories as a child?

What good books have you read?

Get the idea?

3) Your comments must be in complete sentences.

4) You may make consecutive comments.

Commenter #447 Will Be Our Winner!

(Because those digits are my children's ages rounded up)

You might find me commenting too, just to help you along. I will delete any comments that do not meet the above criteria, which will make all the numbers shift, so please play by the rules. I will close the contest and announce the winner as soon as I have verified all the comments are valid.

Have fun! Once the conversations get started, this should go by quickly.

This is a compensated post written as part of a VTech V.Reader campaign for The Motherhood. Thank you to VTech for providing a prize for our contest.

Favorite Reading Spots For You and Your Child

We are so very lucky that our 6 year old son is an avid reader. I believe the fact that I had a lot of time to read with him starting at a very early age helped to make that happen. I feel very guilty for not having the same amount of time to read with our 3 year old twins. According to the Summer Smarts survey, I am not alone. 82% of moms who participated in this survey thought their children would benefit from more reading time. That is why VTech came up with the V.Reader Summer Reading Pledge. The first 100 moms or dads who sign up to make this pledge within the U.S. will receive a V.Reader for their children. So what are you waiting for?

The new VTech V.Reader is an e-reader system for kids that makes books even more portable. This allows you to sneak in reading time when you can without always carrying a variety of books with you, which can be cumbersome. The V.Reader also allows you to find new favorite reading spots. My children's and my favorite reading spot is actually on my bed. Since the children are not usually allowed to play in mom and dad's room, this is a special quiet place, where each child knows he or she will receive undivided attention. One of my children and I always prop ourselves up with several pillows, squish together, and read out loud. With our 3 year old twins, I would read out loud to them. With our 6 year old son, we would either take turns reading or he reads out loud to me. There are many places we can read, such as the front steps, under the big tree outside, or at the park on a bench, but none are quite as quiet, intimate, and comfy as our favorite spot on mommy's side of the bed.

The V.Reader is currently available at Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Amazon.com, and other retailers of VTech products. To learn more about this VTech product, read my V.Reader review and visit VTechKids.com . While you're there, sign up for Club VTech. You can also follow VTech Toys on Facebook and VTechToys on Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest VTech products for kids.

Thank you to VTech for sending us a sample product free of charge to base this article upon. This article was written as part of a paid campaign for TheMotherhood.com .

Review: Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks

Anyone who has been a long time reader of my blog knows that I am an avid believer that children should engage in educational activities outside of school. I even started my Kindergartner-in-Training series last summer to make sure my son was well-prepared to start elementary school. This summer, I did not have a clear plan about what skills my son should be working on. I know he was already doing some 1st grade work in kindergarten, so I wanted him to continue on that path.

When I had the chance to try out the Summer Bridge Activities books, I was excited. I usually think up my own activities, so it would be nice to have some that are created by experts.

These workbooks are designed to be a "bridge" between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. It is set up so that your child does 2 pages per day for 60 days and it is estimated that it would take your child 15 minutes to complete those two pages.

Well, I have quickly come to the conclusion that these books are only a good fit for children who are a little behind or right where they should be in reading, writing, and math. If your child is a little ahead, then these books may be far too easy. In the Grade K-1 book, my son can do 8 pages in 10 minutes. He has not completed the entire workbook yet, but looking ahead, there is nothing in it that he will find challenging until the very last few days in the entire workbook.

Since not all children are the same, I want you to be able to judge whether this book would be right for your child. This book covers the following:

• Single digit addition and subtraction
• Writing upper and lowercase alphabet
• Sounding out parts of words (beginning sounds, vowel sounds, etc . . .)
• Telling time
• Sequences
• Counting by 2s, 5s, etc . . .
• Counting money
• Counting to 100
• Reading comprehension
• Following instructions
• Rhyming

There are probably a few more things, but this list should give you the general idea. There is something unexpected and fun I found in this workbook, which is the "Fitness Flash". At intervals, there are instructions for your child to do something physical. It could be something as simple as 10 shoulder shrugs or something like imagining you are an animal stretching, acting it out, and asking your parent to guess what animal you are pretending to be.

Overall, I think these workbooks would be useful as long as they match your child's skill levels.

You can find Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks on SummerBridgeActivities.org and other retailers of educational books, such as CarsonDellosa.com .

Thank you to Summer Bridge Activities for sending us a sample workbook free of charge to base this review upon.

Giveaway & Review: National Geographic Little Kids Magazine [CLOSED]

Finding magazines that are suitable for young children is a challenge. Not only do many of them cost twice as much as the average magazine, my children often only find certain parts of the magazine engaging.

National Geographic Little Kids is a magazine for preschoolers that focuses on animals and beginner science. That in itself almost guarantees that my children will be interested in the content. Each issue is about 23 pages long and is filled from cover to cover with amazing color photographs, which National Geographic is known for.

The first thing my children (3yr old twins and a 6yr old) did was to go through and pull out all the subscription cards. That is what they do with every magazine they get their hands on. When they began looking through the magazines, one of my children discovered the wild animal cards. Each issue comes with a set of six. So they had me go through and tear out all the cards for them before they would proceed.

In addition to beautiful photos and wild animal cards, each issue contains age-appropriate activities for children 3 to 6, such as mazes, matching objects, rhyming, and more. There are also things for children and parents to do together, like reading about animals and science, executing easy experiments, and trying fun recipes.

All 3 of my children focused on a different part of the magazine, but seemed to enjoy the content overall. My 6yr old found most of the activities to be too easy, but he enjoyed reading the articles on his own. My 3yr old son's favorite part was the wild animal cards. My 3yr old daughter was obsessed with the animals and would sit and look at the color photos for as long as possible.

Currently, National Geographic Little Kids magazine sells for $3.99 an issue or you can subscribe to one year of 6 issues for just $15. That is much more affordable than most children's magazines I've come across.

Thank you to National Geographic for sending us sample magazine issues free of charge to base this review upon. This review was written as part of a campaign for the Family Review Network.

What you can win:
One lucky reader will receive a current issue of National Geographic Little Kids.

Limitations:

This giveaway is open to U.S. entries only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. If you enter anonymously and do not include a valid email address in your comment entries, I will not be able to notify you should you win this random drawing.

How to Gain Entries:

Leave a comment telling me who will get to enjoy this magazine if you won this contest. You MUST do this to be eligible to win this contest.

Extra Entries:

1) For 5 extra entries, leave a relevant comment on one of my non-giveaway posts. Then leave FIVE separate comments with the name of the post on which you commented. You will earn 5 extra entries for each different non-contest post you comment on.

2) For 5 extra entries, enter one of my other contests. Leave FIVE separate comments here telling me which contest you entered. You will earn 5 extra entries for each contest you enter.

3) For 10 extra entries, blog about this contest linking back to this post AND National Geographic Little Kids . Then come back here and leave TEN separate comments with the link to your blog post.

4) Friend me on Facebook. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your Facebook profile.

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(All entries will be verified prior to awarding this prize.)


Random Drawing:

This contest will be closed on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. A random number drawing will be held shortly after. The winner will be announced here and will be contact via email or through their blog. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new number will be drawn.

Good luck in the drawing!