by Becca Eisenberg | Oct 11, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Bluebee News, Speech and Language Apps |
Fun Spanish Language Learning games is a free and engaging app for children who want to learn Spanish. This app is part of series of many different apps by Study Cat include Fun Chinese, Fun French and much more. The app includes 2 Free Lessons and 13 Learning Games. The app is designed for children ages 3-10 and includes courses for preschool, early learners and young children learning different languages. The app combines a language course with different games to keep a child engaged and entertained while learning. The course is divided into lessons with each lesson including core vocabulary in several contexts. Both male and female voices are included with appropriate intonation and expression to learn the pronunciation correctly. The free lessons included are colors and animals. More lessons are available for purchase including numbers, body, fruits, food, clothes, vehicles, the house, sea animals, school bag lesson, and actions. Children love learning and languages introducing at an early age are considered easier to absorb than in later teen years.
These lessons can be purchased individually or in a pack.
Connect your Bluebee Pal!
1. Connect your Bluebee Pal via Bluetooth to your tablet.
2. Let the fun begin. Bluebee Pal can provide the audio feedback during all of the games by helping your child learn new Spanish vocabulary in addition to aiding your child with the sounds of the letters for early learners.
3. Practice the free games in the category of Animals such as Silhouettes (identifying each animal), Two by Two (learn plurals), Spellbounce (spell the animals in Spanish), Whack (singular and plural), Animal Band (reviewing the animals) or Voice Choice (provide your own voice). With Bluebee Pal, learning Spanish will be endless fun for you and your child. Now they have a tech companion that can also teach and motivate them.
by Becca Eisenberg | Oct 8, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Bluebee News, Speech and Language Apps |
It’s never too early to expose your child to different languages, especially in the younger years. “During this period and especially the first three years of life, the foundations for thinking, language, vision, attitudes, aptitudes, and other characteristics are laid down,” says Ronald Kotulak, author of Inside the Brain. In this article, I am going to list some parent and child-friendly apps to get you started with learning new languages with your child’s favorite interactive toy, Bluebee Pal!
Duolingo is fun and free! It allows you to learn up to 23 languages- Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian, Polish, Hebrew, Esperanto, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swahili. How does the app work? You can choose to create an account or start without signing in. Next, choose a language! Do you want to learn the language casually (5 minutes a day), regular (10 minutes a day), serious (15 minutes a day) or insane (20 minutes a day). Then you either choose the option, beginner or not a beginner which will lead you to a placement test. For children, choose beginner and start the course! The app will open up and start asking multiple choice questions with visuals. Once a choice is activated, you will hear the correct pronunciation of the word and the app will continue. This free version has ads but an ad-free version of this app can be purchased through the app which also includes additional lessons. The free version contains the first lesson which gives you the opportunity to try the app and see if you want to purchase the full version. To learn how to use this with Bluebee Pal, click here.
Baby Sign Language Dictionary-Lite allows the child an opportunity to learn some simple and functional signs for more effective communication. The full version of this app includes 340 signs and over 1 hour of video instruction. This app includes 40 signing video demonstrations and is easy to follow along. According to the app developer, “The keyword signs demonstrated in this video dictionary are based on American Sign Language (ASL). All signs have been carefully selected for their ease of use, helpfulness to carers and appropriateness for baby’s interests and daily routine.” Each sign contains a detailed video tutorial with simple instructions on how to perform the sign, tips to help you remember the sign and practical suggestions on how to introduce the sign to your baby. Various categories included in this app are action words, animals, colors, daily routines, feelings and emotions, food, manners and behavior, nature and much more. Within the settings, you can choose to see the single sign only, autoplay, autoplay, and shuffle or manual transition and shuffle. To learn about how to use this app with Bluebee Pal, check out my review here.
Take a virtual trip to Paris with Suzette, the crepe maker with this language-rich story app that includes a children’s book, videos, photos of Paris and an interactive map with the unique opportunity to explore target words in different languages. Five other languages can be narrated with app including Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese. When playing the app, Suzette (the Parisian crêpe maker and street cart vendor) takes her cart through the streets of Paris and makes delicious crêpes along the way. She meets a postman who orders a strawberry crêpe, children who request chocolate crêpes and the shopper who likes crêpes sprinkled with sugar. On each page, there is the ability to activate each character on the page who all speak the keyword in different voices. This app can not only teach your child new words, but you can learn some fun facts as well! To learn how to use this app with Bluebee Pal, click here.
Fun Spanish Language Learning games is a free and engaging app for children who want to learn Spanish. This app is part of series of many different apps by Study Cat including Fun Chinese, Fun French and much more. The app includes 2 Free Lessons and 13 Learning Games. The app is designed for children ages 3-10 and includes courses for preschool, early learners and young children learning different languages. The app combines a language course with different games to keep a child engaged and entertained while learning. The course is divided into lessons and each lesson includes core vocabulary in several contexts. Both male and female voices are included with appropriate intonation and expression to learn the pronunciation correctly. The free lessons included are colors and animals. More lessons are available for purchase including numbers, body, fruits, food, clothes, vehicles, the house, sea animals, school bag lesson, and actions.These lessons can be purchased individually or in a pack. To learn how to use this app with Bluebee Pal, click here.
by Becca Eisenberg | Oct 8, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Literacy, Speech and Language Apps |
is fun and free! It allows you to learn up to 23 languages- Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian, Polish, Hebrew, Esperanto, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swahili. How does the app work? You can choose to create an account or start without signing in. Next, choose a language!
Do you want to learn the language casually (5 minutes a day), regular (10 minutes a day), serious (15 minutes a day) or insane (20 minutes a day). Then you either choose the option, beginner or not a beginner which will lead you to a placement test. For children, choose beginner and start the course! The app will open up and start asking multiple choice questions with visuals.
Once a choice is activated, you will hear the correct pronunciation of the word and the app will continue. This free version has ads but an ad-free version of this app can be purchased through the app which also includes additional lessons. The free version contains the first lesson which gives you the opportunity to try the app and see if you want to purchase the full version. The app also gives you the ability to have a practice conversation with a Bot. In order to have the conversation, you need to build up your skills.
Bring Bluebee Pal along for the ride of learning a new language!
- Connect your Bluebee Pal to your favorite tablet via Bluetooth.
- Get started with Duolingo by learning new vocabulary and gaining skills along the way. Bluebee Pal can provide the audio feedback with the correct pronunciations of the words as the child is practicing and learning the chosen language.
- Have a conversation with Bluebee Pal once 3 skills are completed. This is an excellent way to practice conversation with a new language, learn new words that you just learned and turn take with a partner!
by Becca Eisenberg | Sep 17, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Bluebee News, Literacy, Speech and Language Apps |
Do you want to teach your child to be more independent in the kitchen? How about helping them to prepare and purchase food? Dinner preparation can be a very busy and stressful time for parents due to homework, after-school activities, sports, etc. Often, we rush through preparing our meals to just get the food on the table. Teaching your child food preparation can not only be a fun and bonding activity, it can also help target language and learning goals.
Language concepts such as expanding vocabulary, following directions, recalling information and sequencing are just a few goals to start with! Bluebee Pal can help by providing that extra level of entertainment and engagement with your child. With these apps suggested below, your child will become a little chef in your kitchen! The key to carrying over these skills is by playing the apps with your child together when learning the app and then engaging in the same steps at home in your own kitchen. Labeling specific modes of cooking can be helpful. For example, when your child is microwaving a vegetable in Toca Kitchen, say “I see that you are using the microwave to cook the vegetable. Where is our microwave?”
Sidechef App: SideChef makes cooking accessible, easy and fun at any skill level by providing the user with step-by-step photos, instructions, and voice commands. This free app includes over 3500 step by step recipes and a homepage that changes daily with helpful tips. Each recipe has an integrated timer and allows for hands-free cooking with the timer and audio feature. To learn more about how to use Side Chef with your child and Bluebee Pal, click here.
A Day in the Market app: A Day in the Market (Araw sa Palengke) a story app that is about little girl’s very first trip to the market with her mother. The market is an exciting cultural adventure as she meets lively vendors, see a variety of foods and items and finds a special item that she wants! This story can help give a child background in purchasing foods for a special meal. For an additional $2.99, you get access to the book in two other languages, a sorting game and interactive scenes that bring the book to life. The story and illustrations were tested with more than a hundred schoolchildren who gave their feedback and thoughts about the story and art. To learn more about how to use this app with Bluebee Pal, click here.
Ice Cream and Smoothies Panda Shop app. It’s never too cold for ice and smoothies! Healthy breakfast smoothies can be an excellent way to get your child to start their day off right. This app allows a child to manage their own shop and make their customers happy by customizing each order. The player will be able to choose your favorite shapes, fruits, and flavors with more than 10 choices. The app will also help a child learn specific flavors and different fruits which can help build vocabulary and learn the various foods within the category of fruit. Other categories include shapes, appliances and other food groups such as dairy (e.g. milk). It will also help with sequencing, following directions, prediction, categorization, and learning simple actions (cut, scoop, blend, eat, etc.). After playing this app, make your own smoothies in the kitchen for breakfast. To learn more about this app and how to use Bluebee Pal with it, click here.
Dr. Panda’s Restaurant Asia: Learn all about how to prepare Asian food with Dr. Panda Restaurant Asia app! As the character enters the restaurant, Dr. Panda greets his first customer. How will Dr. Panda prepare the food? Should he chop the food first? After chopping the vegetables, Dr. Panda will help you through the next steps of the recipe. By paying attention to Dr. Panda’s nonverbal language (nodding his head yes or no), your child will figure out the steps of the recipe. Will the customer like the food? Find out by playing this app with your child! To learn more about how to use his app with Bluebee Pal, click here: https://www.bluebeepals.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=32319&action=edit
Toca Kitchen: Toca Kitchen is an excellent app to help teach your child about the different types of food preparation. When the game opens up, you have the ability to choose a character and then prepare food for them. First, you choose a food from the fridge and then it’s time to prepare! Choose from chopping, blending, boiling, sautéing or microwaving! Your child will be an expert in the kitchen after playing with this app. To learn how to use this app with Bluebee Pal, click here: https://www.bluebeepals.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=32319&action=edit
by Becca Eisenberg | Sep 15, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Bluebee News |
Learn all about how to prepare Asian food with Dr. Panda Restaurant Asia app! How will Dr. Panda prepare the food? With over 20 ingredients to choose from, the player will get the opportunity to make a variety of food choices including stir fry, sushi, soup and more! Key features include the ability to chop, boil, fry, blend and much more! When playing this app, the player will get the opportunity to experiment with cooking given no limit constraints and learn nonverbal cues of the customers to see if they are enjoying their food or not.
In the beginning of the game, the customer enters the restaurant, Dr. Panda opens the door and greets his first customer. As the customer sits down, the bubble will give you a clue about what he wants to eat. Will it be soup, sushi or stir fry? You have to play to find out! As Dr. Panda enters the kitchen, all of his ingredients are in front of him. It’s up to the child to follow the steps to the recipe.
For example, when making sushi, the seaweed and rice are available. When following the steps of seaweed and rice, the fish becomes available to place on top of the rice. This app is excellent for sequencing and learning the steps to preparing food! Does your customer like cucumber, shrimp or a different type of fish for dinner? Roll it up and then chop! Add a little seasoning for that final touch! It’s ready to be served. After feeding your customer, you will know from their reaction whether they liked it or not and what their preferences are.
Bluebee will make this activity super fun by providing the sound effects, music and some of the limited speech in the app!
- Connect your Bluebee Pal via Bluetooth to your favorite tablet.
- Get started! As the customer enters the restaurant, you will hear Bluebee greet the customer by providing the audio feedback. As the child is playing the game, Bluebee will provide the music in the background. By playing this game, the child will begin to learn the nonverbal cues of Dr. Panda and the customer.
- Practice nonverbal cues with Bluebee Pal! Nod his head up and down for yes and back and forth for no. Practice with Bluebee Pal by offering him food and determining if he likes it or not. This can be an excellent way to engage in pretend play as well as learn nonverbal communication.
by Becca Eisenberg | Sep 15, 2017 | Becca's App Reviews, Bluebee News, Speech and Language Apps |
Toca Kitchen is an app to help your child explore cooking in a fun and nonmessy environment! Does your child or student even want to play with their food? When you open the app, you choose one of out of four characters. Once you choose a character, you have the choice of selecting one of twelve different ingredients from the refrigerator. How will you prepare these ingredients? There are 180 different ways that you can prepare these foods! Explore the process of slicing, boiling, frying, cooking, microwaving and mixing all in one app. Is your child a vegetarian? You can even switch the mode to vegetarian.
This app is an excellent way. One of the best parts of the app is feeding the food to your customer. Will they like it or hate it? How can you tell? The app is also an excellent way to work on facial expressions and nonverbal communication. Toca Kitchen is also an excellent way to explore food groups, various actions, and sequencing. For more fun with Toca Boca and cooking, check out Toca Kitchen 2 app!
Let Bluebee in the kitchen for some fun cooking together!
- Connect your Bluebee Pal via Bluetooth. Let the fun begin!
- Bluebee Pal will now provide the music in the background as well as the sound effects of the various cooking preparations and the vocal expressions from the characters.
- Try role-playing with Bluebee Pal with pretend food. Use toys to imitate the various food preparations and let Bluebee join in on the cooking and tasting of the foods. Will Bluebee like the foods that are prepared? How can you tell? Although Bluebee can’t change their expression, use language to express their feelings on the food. Words such as “I like that” or “Yuck!” are good ways to tell if they like the food or not. A head nod can also be a sure sign of a good meal!
