Celebrating a Birthday!

Today marks 1-year since we launched The Prisoner of Carrot Castle on the AppStore and we're gonna celebrate. All week you can download the storybook about Aiden and his imaginative adventures as he tries to escape the clutches of an angry king for $0.99.

"All this happening over carrots and broccoli." ~ Aiden

Hurray for SALES!

Back to School Preparedness

Believe it or not it's Back to School for kids across the nation and the world. Parents are in a frenzy getting kids new clothes and school supplies so they get off on the right foot when they enter the classroom.

This fall the new "kid" in the classroom may well be the iPad. There will be anywhere from 1 to 10 in a classroom with more classrooms adopting a one-to-one program. Research shows that well-integrated technology where kids can interact has a positive impact on student learning outcome.

The kids app developer community backed by Moms With Apps is preparing for a school year where iPads are more common and quickly becoming an integral part of the learning curriculum.

Introducing the launch of AppyMall where all things kids apps can be found. Back2School is the first promotion where oodles of educational apps and books are discounted for the classroom.

AppyMall has Smart Searching so you find what you're looking for. It categorizes apps by appropriate age and category. It will launch with 5 anchor stores or “AppyStores” including: the Preschool AppyStore, Elementary School AppyStore, Middle School AppyStore, Speech and Language AppyStore and Special Needs AppyStore. Each AppyStore will have a comprehensive stock of apps, highlighting select apps chosen by Siva (creator of AppyMall) and his expert team as being exceptional in a category.

Of course The Prisoner of Carrot Castle will be featured on the AppyMall under books for ages 3 - 8 years old. We're excited about the mall where parents will be able to do precise searches to find what they want without all the clutter of adult apps.

Doors Open – August 2, 2012

Visit www.appymall.com
 

The World Enjoys The Prisoner of Carrot Castle

Great Zooks! The Prisoner of Carrot Castle is being purchased throughout the world. The world is so big, it boggles my mind. See all those little Aiden's dotting the world map?

In case you can't see all those countries where Aiden's adventure is being read to boys and girls, here's a list:

United States
Canada
Brazil
United Kingdom
Spain
Netherlands
Switzerland
Italy
Romania
Greece
Russia
Israel
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand

Who do you know in another country that might want The Prisoner of Carrot Castle for their iPad?

The Prisoner of Carrot Castle on the App Store

The Prisoner of Carrot Castle is now available for the iPad on the App Store for only $2.99.

Grab your cape and join the fun! Aiden is just an ordinary kid—loves costume play, watching clouds pass by, seeing castles in the sky… and he doesn’t like vegetables.

In The Prisoner of Carrot Castle Aiden’s imagination transports him to a far away place where he finds himself a prisoner in a cell made of carrots. What will he do? Must he face the angry King? Will his hate for vegetables get him in trouble? Come along and help Aiden as he tries to escape from Carrot Castle.

When Aiden gets stuck, kids play a role in helping him move ahead in his adventure. The story comes alive as the text is read. Find silly animations and sound effects as the action unfolds.

Through creative storytelling, kids learn that eating vegetables is good—it can actually help them.

The Prisoner of Carrot Castle is an original story written and illustrated for the iPad. Targeted for kids 3 to 8-years-old, the story’s interaction and games help them develop fine motor skills.

Download your copy of The Prisoner of Carrot Castle, please tell your friends, rate it and write a review.

How To Find The Best Rated Apps For Kids

In preparation for marketing The Prisoner of Carrot Castle, I did some research to find app reviewers and discovered some great sites I want to pass on to busy mom's. If you're an iPad, iPhone or iPad Touch user looking for great apps to make your busy mom's life a bit easier, read on.

First up, Apps for Children With Special Needs:

a4cwsn is committed to helping the families of children with special needs and the community of educators and therapists who support them. By producing videos that demonstrate how products educate children, a4cwsn provides a way for users to see how an app works before they buy—great concept. Choose apps to review by various categories (e.g., colors, creative play, etc.), iTunes category or developer. There are apps for motor skill development, autistic kids and if you're a special needs family, they currently have a campaign to give away iPads. Check it out.

Digital Story Time creates Top 10 reviews of kid's apps in various categories (e.g., most educational, most original, best extras, etc.). You can also find ideas, such as how to have a successful digital bedtime experience with your kids.

Digital Story Time (blog titled The Digital Media Diet) is one mom's take on kids, technology and the world of apps. This site also provides a rich resource of links to other sites for parents.

Appcheese is a straight forward review site for kids' apps. Each app reviewed receives a cheese wedge rating and lists Platform, Price, Age Group and Publisher.

Pictured with each review is the app's icon for the iTunes store along with screen shots and the book trailer (if available). An iTunes button below the icon allows you to order the app. Scan the sidebar to see a list of recently reviewed apps. Lots to love about this clean review site.

Apps for Kids~kids learning (disguised as fun) is a review site by a mom in Silicon Valley. Primarily doing reviews, she dispenses some wisdom on how to balance your kid's time on technology. Providing parents a short cut to finding some real gems, is her intent, plus giving an honest opinion on a few of the popular apps that may be stinkers. Apps for Kids is focussed on making it easy for parents to find an app for a particular purpose. By the way, contributors to the site include Dad and 5-year-old son Sal.

The Greasy Screen (don't you love the title?) discusses ebooks for kids, reading habits and stuff. Crystal, from the Chicago suburbs, blogs here and covers all things picture books—right up my alley.

Besides ebooks, you'll find library books reviewed. Each app review shows a screen shot with app title, publisher, format (iPad, iPhone), number system rating, synopsis, current price, features (e.g., interactivity, sound effects) and a brief written review.

Last, but not least The iPhone Mom reviews all things for kids and parenting for the iPhone and iPad. She will hunt down little known apps hidden in the deep recesses of the iTunes store (and they are deep).

Reviews are categorized for moms, toddlers, pre-schoolers, elementary school and beyond, plus a category just for iPad. Every week a special is posted that might be an interview with a developer, navigating in the App Store/iTunes or a step by step "how to," for example, submit an app review.

I hope this gives you lots of places to find great apps for your family fun and learning.