Slow-paced letter tracing app with a mild game element.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
Any Positive Content?
Products & Purchases
a little
Large buttons on the main page advertise other Nickelodeon apps. Tapping on each one gives more information and the option to visit the app's page in the App Store.
Ease of Play
some
The game is intuitive and straightforward to play, and has plenty of instruction built in. Tapping the question mark at any time gives additional help. The game doesn't have any real navigation, however. Going through the entire alphabet in the game takes a long time, and it is impossible to skip to letters.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Dora's Skywriting ABCs is an educational game that successfully mixes education and play. Dora, from Dora the Explorer, with her usual combination of English and Spanish, teaches kids to trace capital letters of the alphabet. Tico the Squirrel flies around in his plane writing the letters and drawing pictures in the sky. The sound of each new letter is said out loud as kids trace it. If kids draw too far outside the lines, the game will make a noise and have them retrace that portion of the letter. Next, kids play a tilting game to reveal something that starts with that letter. Then the game goes on to the next letter. Once you finish the letter Z, it starts again at A. Dora's Skywriting ABCs has fewer options thanLetter Tracer Preschool Letters Writing Practice, but has more of a game element.
When my preschooler saw Dora on my iPad list of available preschool apps, she could hardly contain her excitement. She wanted it badly, but I had reservations about buying the app at first. After all, Dora the Explorer is a marketing machine. She is inescapable — whether in the grocery, drug, or toy store — she is everywhere. Why would I want Nickelodeon’s cash cow residing on my iPad too? Maybe it was laziness. Perhaps ignorance. Or maybe just a mom wanting her kid to be happy. Whatever it was, I bought the app and my preschooler enjoyed it. See more at www.iPad-Preschool.com .
DORA'S SKYWRITING ABCS is part letter tracing educational app, part game. The letter tracing portion is well-done -- kids get practice "writing" their letters as well as with sounds of letters. Both the letter names and sounds are reinforced often.
The tilting game in between the tracing portion seems like an afterthought. Tilting your device is hardly required, since the acorns bounce into place mostly on their own. The whole game is fairly repetitive and slow-moving. There are no controls in the game to allow you to skip ahead to another letter, or go back to an earlier letter. If kids want to trace the entire alphabet, it is time consuming. Only capital letters are represented. Also, some of the sounds for the letters seem off. P sounds like dropping a nut on the ground while Q sounds more like Qu.
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Jenny Bristol
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
