A Touch of Learning

Little Bella’s – I Close My Eyes – Lite – Children’s Book (Age 2+)
	Overall: Quality: Education: Longevity: Fun:

Little Bella’s – I Close My Eyes – Children’s Book (Age 2+)
	Overall: Quality: Education: Longevity: Fun:

I found this app when looking around one someone’s blog that I found when searching for good story book applications for the iPhone. They were raving about it, so I grabbed the lite version. I must say the quality is absolutely top notch. However I think the education merit, while present, is a bit thin after watching Big-T (my 3yo boy) play the app. He played it frequently initially, but tired of it after a week or two. (Other reviews have indicated their kids enjoyed it for much longer periods of time.)

Disclaimer: I have only tried the lite version. The full version appears to be the same with more sequences. This may have contributed to Big-T tiring of the app sooner. Less variety.

The Application

The application plays a series of short cartoon sequences. You touch on introductory text to start the sequence playing. The text follows a pattern of “I close my eyes and imagine I am…”. You can go through the sequences one by one, or jump to a specific sequence. The flying sequence is lovely.

The Good

• The quality of the UI, graphics, animations, music is absolutely superb. If you enjoy good quality apps regardless of other issues, then get this app.
• Good for just before bed – the last sequence is about closing eyes to go to sleep.
• Teaches the concept of imagining things.
• Very easy to start up and interact with – I have given it a 2+ years rating, but a 1 year old would probably enjoy watching it too.
• It does encourage listening.

The Bad

• Touching the text just starts the video. I was hoping it would do more in terms of teaching to read – for example possibly highlighting the words as they are spoken. A parent could read the text with the child, pointing at words, as long as you don’t actually touch the screen. In these reviews I am looking for that bit more – more than what a physical book could offer.
• Does not engage the child as much as it possibly could. Its a series of short video sequences, where the child is only required to start up the next sequence.

Educational Value

There is writing shown at times (the intros to the sequences), but not much is done with it. You touch the writing and the video starts. (I was hoping it would do a bit more here.) The app does encourage imagination in its sound track, but observing Big-T I think he tended to switch off his brain and just watch. There was no real engagement. You just used touches to start up the next video sequence.

My Score

3.5 stars. This may be harsh. The quality is absolutely superb. But the educational value (in my completely personal opinion) is limited. This is one of those apps that I would happily recommend if educational merit was not the objective. On this site however I consider educational merit to be fundamental, hence a lower score.

Longevity (how long Big-T played the app) was OK, but not great – but that be because I did not buy the full version. The iTunes store description did not make it very clear (when I read it) how much more the full version was over the lite version, so I never got around to buying this app.

Get it in iTunes

More information, screen shots, and user reviews can be found in the iTunes store.

• Little Bella’s – I Close My Eyes – Lite – Children’s Book
• Little Bella’s – I Close My Eyes – Children’s Book

Share this Review