*Sponsored: This app was given to me for free by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for review. All opinions are my own.
Do you love Curious George? He’s curious, adorable, and a monkey who can do all sorts of cool things! We are definitely huge fans of all things Curious George, so I was pretty excited to try out the Curious About Me app that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt recently launched.
I’m always looking for new ways to engage my five year old in reading and writing activities, especially because she’s really eager to learn to read right now! The bonus of this app is that it’s Curious George!
I downloaded the app to our iPad and chose the settings we wanted – allowing access to photos, the microphone, etc. Then, I handed it off to Ninjette so that she could play around with it.
I loved that it was narrated so that kids of all reading levels could interact with the app easily. You can choose one of two stories to fill in with personalized details like pictures, family members, pets, and activities. Ninjette used some photos that were in our camera roll and she also drew some of our family members as well as a picture of our house. It also records her voice so she could say her name, her age, and even give a lifelike “Meow” to her imaginary pet cat! After filling in the various details, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat do some magic and turn it into a video that you can save. Ninjette definitely loved watching the completed video and even went back to add more details to different parts of her story.
This app uses storytelling to interact with my kid and it gives her control of creating her own story – that’s definitely Napkin Hoarder approved! It’s the perfect foundation for literacy development and it’s a lot of fun. This app was something that she could definitely do on her own, but could also be done together with parents, grandparents, siblings, or friends!
Ninjette working hard at coloring her butterfly for one of her stories!
The app sells for $2.99 and is geared for preschool aged children between 3-5 years old. It’s definitely worth it and a lot of fun plus you have a little keepsake video that you can save and see how it changes over time! Go download it now and let me know what you think!