I have a confession to make. I am one of those moms that allow way too much TV and tablet time!. It’s funny because I swore before Logan was born that I would be the type of parent that limited all screen time. It would be a luxury. Well, once you become a parent, things change and they don’t always go as you plan. Some days I feel guilty about the amount of time Logan spends on his iPad, but most days, I try to put a little limit on it. In all honesty, this doesn’t make me a bad parent, it just means I do what works for our family. It may change over time and we will adapt as we go.
The one thing that I do try to be consistent about when it comes to tablet time is to be sure that most of Logan’s apps are educational. I love knowing that he is learning while having fun. We have quite a few that are our favorites, but one I want to share with you today is the Kidloland app. There are some things we absolutely love about this app and some things that we felt didn’t quite work for us.
It’s Educational
With over 1000 rhymes, songs, games, and activities this app is definitely a good educational tool! It’s great for introducing new topics because it uses fun songs and animations to teach it. In our house, we are always singing and playing music so it makes sense that we would love an app that helps to reinforce that. Also, the amount of information taught is amazing! I love that there are some topics included that a lot of the other educational apps we have, doesn’t include, like learning the seasons and days of the week, or different occupations. Kidloland is unique in the topics it chooses to include and we love that!
There are some games that are just for fun, like popping balloons and bubbles, but there’s still an educational twist with letters or colors or animals inside to help reinforce learning. Also, this is made for boys or girls. While there are lots of monsters and vehicles to hold Logan and most little boys attention, they have done a good job of making this appeal to girls as well.
Lots of Music
In our house we are always singing and playing music. I think that learning with songs makes it so much more fun and easy to remember. Logan is always making up songs and singing as he plays. So this app gives us a few new ones to throw into the mix. The great thing is that while many of what Kidloland use are original to the app, they do have a section that are well known children’s songs, like Old McDonald and Row Your Boat, just to name a few.
There is a feature that allow us to make a playlist as Logan finds songs he likes. We can put together 25 of his favorite songs and it will play them continuously. It would make great background music while playing on the app. Plus, I am working on teaching Logan the days of the week and the different months. This feature allows me to put these songs in a list so that we can work on them specifically. The options are endless for learning and the ways how you can use this app.
The Animation
The graphics and animation of Kidloland are really well done. I love how colorful they are and plus they don’t come across as being cheap or cheesy. However, a downside is that there’s not one or two main characters that stay the same throughout the app. Logan seems to gravitate toward things when the main characters are the same across the board. Since this app doesn’t use popular or well known characters, it would have been beneficial in my mind to have a character to sort of be the main face of the app. I don’t think it makes or breaks the app, but it might help hold Logan’s interest a little more and give him a character to relate to and ask for.
Games and Activities
While I’ve touched on all of the music included in this app, I haven’t really mentioned the games and activities. There are quite a few of them and they all help teach and reinforce the learning aspects. Right now, Logan seems to want the games and interactive activities more than the songs. The songs are interactive and you can tap the screen and watch the animated characters do things, but older kids may need a little more. Kidloland also provides that. Some of the games have no end, and just seem to keep going on forever and ever. While, for me, this was kind of frustrating, Logan loved it! It kept his interest in the game longer than just a minute or two. There are some activities that only last a minute or two as well. So this will appeal to all types of kids with different learning and attention spans.
A little negative for us in this area, is that Logan knows all of his letters and numbers, so some of the activities just weren’t advanced enough for him. He needs a bit more of a challenge to keep him interested for longer. I know that there are things he can and will definitely learn from this app, but it just isn’t as challenging as I would like for it to be at times.
Download and Delete at Any Time
When you download the Kidloland app, you open it up to see many different topics to choose from. Then you can click on a topic and it shows you a whole list of subtopics. After that, there’s the option to choose specifically what to download to play and watch. To some, this might be a great feature and to others it may be a little frustrating. Let me explain why.
Logan can pretty much navigate the entire app on his own. So when he would go into a topic and see it needed to be downloaded, he would get frustrated and not want to take the time to mess with it. So, I found in the parent settings that I could download every single item onto his iPad at once. This helped with the ordeal and allows him to play freely.
Now, I know why the app was made this way. It does take up memory on the tablet when everything is downloaded. So, to be able to pick and choose different areas to download can be great. Espeically if your child is not that old or ready for all of the higher learning features of the app. A plus is that it is great you can download topics so that if there’s not access to Wi-Fi, the games and songs can still be played. Overall, it’s a great feature but for us, it was just a little frustrating at first for Logan.
Overview
So, here is what we loved about this app:
- It’s educational with over 1000 rhymes, songs, games, and activities.
- Lot’s of music is used throughout to help teach all the different topics. Some are well known songs, and some are original to the app. They are all wonderful and we loved them!
- You can make a playlist with 25 of your child’s favorite songs and play them continuously.
- The animation is really well done and fun.
- There are lots of games and activities to help teach and reinforce all of the different topics.
Here are some things that didn’t quite work for us:
- It doesn’t use popular, well known characters or even a main character.
- The activities and games are not the most challenging. Logan seemed to lose interest in them quickly.
- Having to download the games, activities, and songs individually was a little frustrating for us.
Overall, we really love this app and I believe the more Logan plays with it the more he will grow to love it. I look forward to using it to help him learn things in a fun and interesting way. However with Logan being almost 4, he probably won’t have interest in this much longer. If your child is younger and just starting to get into colors, the alphabet, and numbers, Kidloland is fantastic. The learning possibilities are endless and that is what makes it such an amazing app.
What are some of your favorite “edutainment” apps in your house? Have you ever tried Kidloland? If you’d love to check out this app you can download it at the following places: iOS, Google Play Store, and Amazon App Store.
- We were kindly gifted a subscription to the Kidloland App in exchange for a review, but all opinions are our own. You can read our disclosure here.
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Rebecca, we are loving it and I think it would be perfect for your two-year-old. 🙂
Sounds like a fun app for kids. Wish it was around when my son was a little younger.
Michele, it’s a really fun app, but definitely for the 5 and under crowd. Thanks for stopping by though! 🙂