What do Tom Thumb, Pecos Bill, John Henry & the Velveteen Rabbit have in common?
Over the holiday break I reviewed several iPad, IPhone and IPod Touch apps from Ruckus Media Group, four of which included Tom Thumb, Pecos Bill, John Henry and the Velveteen Rabbit. You might wonder what do all of these apps have in common? Simply, after you download them, once you select them, you can choose to watch them as a video, you can read them as books to yourself or outloud, or read while recording the sound of your voice!
We didn’t buy an iPad with wireless capabilities and though we like to watch movies on it for free at home, it doesn’t work in the car. However, because the video’s are about 25 minutes in length, many of which are told by well known actors such as Robin Williams, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan, John Cleese and Jeremy Irons, they are fantastic movie alternatives — but I think even better, as they are classic and historical tales with extraordinary musical accompaniment that help to transform these books into experiences. All of a sudden, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I used to love watching Reading Rainbow. These apps are very reminiscent of that show, and a great way to bring literacy into the lives of children in a multimedia way, especially for those kids who find reading challenging. These apps are $1.99 each, and can be used on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
As children advance their reading skills, you can choose to read the book together, with the flick of a finger, turning the pages of the book.
Lastly, as children become more advanced at reading out loud, they can read the story themselves and record it. As there are many working parents these days who may not always make it home each and every night for bedtime, why not surprise your child by recording your voice? That way, if you can’t be home to read the book yourself, at least they can hear your voice while you are there in spirit. A close friend of ours is in the military and before her deployment they taped her reading the kid’s bedtime stories, these apps would work wonderfully in that type of situation.
Ruckus Media Group provided the above named apps free to facilitate a review. The opinions expressed in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.