One of the best things I can find as a parent are really educational and important applications to help my young child learn. I am not a teacher and I don’t have the insight of an educator – but I do know what my child needs – to have her intellectual curiosity grow. I want her to want to learn; to become a nurtured child that loves education for the sake of it as well as to feel rewarded.
I stumbled onto an app called Marco Polo Ocean made by the great folks at GoMarcoPolo.com. I am super joyous to show this to my daughter over the weekend and here’s why.
I loaded the app fairly quickly and noticed enjoyable and kid-friendly color schemes with a small repeatable soundtrack that made the initial experience pleasing. It brings you to that internal beach as you sip your pineapple drink while listening to the radio smiling as your coworkers back home toil away when you are in paradise.
After selecting one of five activities (I selected the submarine), you are given a piece-by-piece puzzle where you build a cartoon submarine that actually details the important basic functional personas and equipment that guide them. You even hear a kind voice that explains why each part is important. After you are guided by one piece at a time through this puzzle, you conclude it by putting the entire visible shell on the submarine – and you’re off!
The user gets to now finger drag the submersible around the layers of the ocean while also gaining the ability to drag and drop more fish that have a basic level of interaction to them. At the lowest depth, some of the jellyfish I dropped glowed when my submarine lights shone upon them.
The activities include a coral reef, herring fish schools, orcas (killer whales), a giant party boat and finally the submersible that I mentioned.
This app is great for children of 2-4 – just reaching that age where they love entertainment that is both educational and fun. It’s especially valuable if they seeing you eyeing your iPhone and want to snipe it to play with it.
I am very excited to have my child use this app and you should be too. I will be excited to see future games released.
Update: I had my daughter use the app; I got my phone back two hours later.
Parent Site
Learn about the digital sandbox educational game at MarcoPolo Learning, Inc.
Available for iPhone/iPad iOS at the App Store.
The company is Kid safe certified as well.
http://www.kidsafeseal.com/certifiedproducts/marcopolo_ocean.html
Raul is a contributor to the Geekinitiative.com and as well to MysticRealms.com and is a creative enthusiast as well as a loving father.
