With our usual knack for discovering interesting insects, we spied this gorgeous green grasshopper with pink eyes perching on top of our car, when it was parked in Camden.
We observed it closely and discussed what it would find to eat in that habitat (there was very little grass visible); whether it was born there or had hitch-hiked on our, or someone else's car, what similarities and differences there might be for a town grasshopper and a country grasshopper,why it might have chosen our car to sit on (Waratah thought it might be waiting for a lift home with us) and other such questions...
Both boys are now proficient iPad users and use their iPad minis for much of their independent schoolwork - wherever we happen to be!
Boronia has now joined the ranks of happy iPad users, with her own apps on my iPad (thankfully protected by a Griffin Survivor case...). Here she is using Spongewords, which is her favourite.
Spongewords is a video variation on flashcards. It displays and reads a word, and then shows that word above a ten second video of the object. The videos are generally well chosen. My only criticisms would be that musical instruments are shown silently. It would be nice to hear the sound the instrument makes. The categories are: people, shapes, food, activities, colours, animals, indoors and outdoors. There is an "all" option which displays objects randomly from all categories. This is the one we like. The accent and spelling is American, but this doesn't cause any problems for us, because I generally read the word at the same time as the announcer (before and after each video) and I haven't noticed any spelling problems yet (other than "color" which is in the menu). Boronia particularly likes the animals of which there is a good selection. One other nice feature is the 'lock' function. By holding two padlock icons in the top corners of the screen, the parent can lock the app on so that a child's random swiping does not close / change anything. The top notification bar remains active, though. We tried out the free version first, and then paid $4.49 for the full content.
In the next photo, Boronia is using her other favourite app, BabyUI. This app allows her to see the screen respond to her touch, or any movement of the iPad that she generates. It variously displays coloured motifs, such as
- dots which randomly wander around the screen until you touch it, when they "flock" around the touch;
- a blank screen where stars pop into existence when you touch it, and then fly off and fade;
- a kind of firework/fountain effect that blooms under your fingers; and
- a glowing rainbow coloured nimbus that starts as a bright flare and fades to spinning rainbow dots.
If you swipe your finger on the screen, any of these motifs form a trail behind your touch. The sound effects are fun too, including popping, chirping birds and giggling babies. BabyUI stands for Baby User Interface, and according to the developer, this app teaches Boronia that the screen will respond to her touch in a consistent manner. The boys insisted that they have a copy too, as we all love entertaining Boronia by leading trails of decorations around the screen :D We purchased the full version of BabyUI for $0.99.
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