Nine to Three Thirty

Family Life With a School Age Child

Review: Guess with Jess iPhone Game

Setting Up P2 Games have launched another new children’s interactive app for iPhone.  This one is based around the Postman Pat spin off: Guess with Jess.  I was interested to try it as Henry has enjoyed watching the show.

In Play

With three difficulty settings and Jess on hand to help guide them through challenges, the Guess with Jess App enables children to play and learn without the need for help from parents.  The games are:

  • Painting,
  • Dot-To-Dot,
  • Music,
  • Spot The Difference,
  • Jigsaw,
  • Hide ‘N’ Seek
  • Guess It.
  • Plus kids can help Jess discover the answers to some Big Questions like ‘Why do spiders build webs?’, ‘What do ladybirds eat?’ and ‘How do beans grow?’.

It really was easy for Henry to play this one straight away without the need for me to help.  For me this is a key point as I am relying on the iPhone apps to keep Henry occupied when I am needing to concentrate on something else.  The 3 difficulties help extend the game’s enjoyment too.

What stopped play? Nothing really.  It’s a good app for a 3 to 5 year old.

Availability and Price The Guess with Jess App is now available for £1.99 from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

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Review: Tinga Tinga Tales iPhone App

Setting Up Tinga Tinga Tales is a popular cbeebies programme that has always been a hit with my son.  So I was interested to hear that an app for the iphone had been released.

In Play  There are 9 mini games: MONKEY’S MANGOES – Monkey loves mangoes! Help him avoid the green mangoes and catch the ripe orange ones before they fall to the ground.
YUMMY FLIES! – Tap on the flowers to help Chameleon catch as many flies as possible to eat.
CLEVER CHAMELEON – Help Chameleon disappear by tapping on the correct pattern that matches his surroundings.
SNAPPY CROC – Crocodile is trying to spoil Hippo’s swim. Tap on his head before he disappears.
FIND LIZARD – Lizard always hides under rocks. Tap on the right rock to find him in a classic game of hide and seek.
GREEDY TORTOISE! – Guide Tortoise to his heavenly feast in the clouds, but watch out for the birds!
I’M NOT A ROCK! – Tortoise is trying to cross the land of TingaTinga, but other animals mistake him for a rock! He needs help!
ANIMAL MISMATCH – The animals are all jumbled! Slide the animal parts in place to create your favourite Tinga Tinga Tales characters.  Henry enjoyed creating some strange animals with this one.
BATH TIME! – Help Elephant wash the dusty animals clean.

There was no need to explain how anything worked and Henry was up and playing immediately.

What stopped play? Henry enjoyed the games to start with, but was less interested after playing after a while.  I think they are geared more towards the preschool audience rather than school age at least in terms of providing long term interest.  I’d recommend this for a younger child 3-4 years rather than 5-6 years.

Price and Availability It’s available from itunes for £1.49 which is good value for 9 games.

Review: Fireman Sam iPhone App

As regular readers will know, I’m always on the look out for good children’s apps for iphone, so I was thrilled to test out the new Fireman Sam app. Fireman Sam is one of my son’s favourites and he couldn’t wait to have a go.

Setting Up: This is really simple.  Your junior fire cadet will need to input their name, but other than possibly helping with this, you should be able to let them get on with it.  Your cadet will have to complete various training tasks. For each game there are 2 levels: easy and hard.

In Play: There are 5 games:

  • HOSE PRACTICE – Learn how to use the hose with Elvis by filling buckets with water. This activity can also be played against the clock, which provides an extra challenge.  This requires a reasonable amount of finger control and Henry liked the way the app reacted when Elvis got wet.
  • HIDE ‘N’ SEEK – Norman is up to his old tricks and has hidden lots of objects around the fire station. Help Fireman Sam to find them but watch out for Norman.  We loved the way Norman kept popping up and you get extra points for spotting him before he disappears.
  • LOAD JUPITER – Fireman Sam needs your help to load Jupiter. Find the correct items by matching the shadows. This activity can also be played as a memory game, which provides a challenge for older players.
  • SKY HIGH RESCUE – Oh dear the cats have escaped and Fireman Sam needs some help catching them. A great chance to practice rescuing skills.
  • FIRE FIGHTER – Finally – a call out to the first fire! Use hose targeting skills to put out all the fires.

The Fireman Sam App is now available for £1.99 from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.  We tested out the iPhone version.

What Stopped Play? Nothing – this has been a popular app and it’s got an easy and a hard level to allow for some development.  I’d recommend it for any child who likes Fireman Sam.

 

Review: JCB iPhone App

JCB iPhone AppI was recently sent the My 1st JCB App to review.  It’s designed to provide interactive early learning fun with the JCB characters. There are nine mini-games and activities from which to choose. Henry already has a DVD of My 1st JCB and enjoys watching it a lot.  In fact it was one of his first ever DVDs and it’s been more long lasting in terms of popularity than some other early purchases.

Setting Up The games are easy for a little one to get to grips with.  My son quickly got to grips with the games and he’s been playing them over the last few weeks.

In Play The games test a range of skills out and provide quite a lot of variety.  Your child can choose from:
Painting: Colouring in the characters
Memory: Finding the matching pairs of characters
Matching: Matching the JCB character to the right silhouette.
Sorting: Help tidy up all the vehicle parts and clean up the mess – if only this always happened at home!
Dot to Dot: Join the dots to find the characters.
Jigsaws: Help to fix the jigsaw puzzles.
Racing: Avoid obstacles and opponents to win the race. Your child can choose from Joey JCB, Marty Mixer and Doug Dumptruck to be their racing partner.
Create: Choose different vehicle parts to build a My 1st JCB character or create a totally new one.
Action: Choose the right character with the correct set of skills to finish the jobs.

What Stopped Play? Nothing really for my son.  You do need to have the sound on for some of the games (or be able to read) and I prefer to avoid that sometimes.  I also found the Create game confusing to play, but as my son had no such problems, I think it was probably due to my lack of in depth knowledge of the characters.

Overall It’s available for £1.99 from itunes app store and I’ve found it a useful addition on my phone.

 

Copyright Erica Hughes 2025 Affiliate links means that sometimes if you click through to a website and register or purchase something, I get a commission from that sale at no extra cost to you. All opinions and reviews are my own.