Mobile Devices: 3 Apps to Help Promote Reading, Imagination, and Cooperation

Technology—Smartphones and tablets can be entertaining tools to focus children’s attention, but finding age-appropriate apps that were built with kids’ development in mind may be a challenge sometimes. With apps developed with their own children in mind, three tech-savvy moms have created apps for kids that go beyond gaming to drive meaningful play and learning.

Aliza Sherman, Anna Rosenblum Palmer and Maya Bisineer are Moms on a Mission with Mobile Apps who are bringing imaginative and purposeful play to your mobile devices. Created with a healthy dose of mothers’ intuition, these apps are designed specifically for families and children -- two audiences they know very well. Their apps include a paper dolls dress-up game, a family goal setting and progress tracking app and interactive e-reader for kids.

3 Apps to Help Kids Develop Reading, Imagination, and Cooperation Skills

Girls Can Be Anything Paper Dolls App

Many moms can remember playing dress-up with cut-out paperdolls as little girls. After finding that some dress-up apps marketed for children included overly mature imagery, Sherman, along with the help of her daughter created her own Girls Can Be Anything Paper Dolls app. Developed in conjunction with Agile Monks, her Paper Dolls app is not only age appropriate, but also sends a positive message to young girls that they can grow up to be anything. The app lets girls dress-up and accessorize their virtual dolls with  hundreds of mix-and-match options to choose from.

Marble Jar App

Rosenblum Palmer’s Marble Jar app lets parents and children collaborate on family goals, then work together and track their progress. Using virtual marble jars to represent specific goals, families award a certain number of points, represented by marbles, for a positive action toward that goal. Families can watch their progress and celebrate their success together when the marble jar fills up. Whether it’s creating a morning routine to get out the door faster in the morning or working toward a family camping trip, the possibilities for Marble Jar can be an interactive tool to help your family succeed together.

MeMeTales App

Making reading “the funnest thing ever” is the simply-stated goal of Bisineer’s MeMeTales. The MeMeTales app lets children connect with literature in a new fun and interactive way, embedded with games and progress stickers to reward learners for their reading achievements. The MeMeTales library gives children a wide selection of kid-friendly, mom-approved books to access and choose from. MeMeTales also makes it simple for adults to publish their own stories through the built-in publishing platform on their site.

By taking a modern-day look at a few old-school learning and development techniques, these Moms on a Mission with Mobile Apps are bringing better apps to kids and families at home and on the go.

What Mobile Apps do your kids love to use on your phone? What do they enjoy most about these apps? What skills do these apps help develop?