30 March 2015

Canberra duo’s puppy app entertains and educates

| jettz
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Preschool Kids Math promo screen
Canberran parents of young children finally have an option when choosing an educational and entertaining mobile app.

What do you get when you mix super cute puppies with numbers and catchy music? An engaging educational Smartphone and tablet app designed by professional educators, thoroughly tested and safe for kids.

After the many disappointing experiences in finding quality apps to suit her 4-year old-son, business partner Bronwen Mackenzie wondered what if…? What if a game app could teach new skills in an easy to use and fun way? What if an app could have original graphics and music? What if her son could engage with familiar characters and work towards a realistic educational goal?

Putting these thoughts to friend and colleague, Adrienne Gross, the idea for Flame Learning was ignited. But Adrienne, ever the dog fanatic, had one rule: the game must contain puppies! That’s how Poochi the pug, Sheppie the German Shepherd and Rhubarb the Shetland Sheepdog came to life, guided by adult husky Shadow through adventures in their puppy playground.

“What’s really satisfying for me as a mother and as co-creator of this app is the true joy I see when my son traces the numbers. Even as he gets better at the tracing, he still loves to choose a different puppy and hear their cute growls and barks as they go about their adventures,” Bronwen explains while her son sits with concentration punctuated by excited giggles during the rewards screens.

So, not only are children having a fun (and occupied!) time, their skills in recognising numbers and writing according to the curriculum based NSW foundation font helps them to get a head start on learning before kindergarten.

Why get this app then, and not one of the thousands out there? Adrienne explains, “many kids apps just whack together some average looking graphics without considering the total educational value. So you get games that provide a babysitter for a few minutes but have no real value to the child.

The Pups with Numbers series of games are designed by Bronwen and I, who are educational professionals with over 19 years educational experience between us.

We know what is needed to maintain engagement while still ticking the boxes in terms of key curriculum achievements.” Flame Learning also know what matters to parents: quality and privacy. The coding was done by international best pick of developers Toptal and underwent extensive functional and user testing—this means no crashes, freezes or errors for you or your child. They also respect the need for privacy: so they don’t collect data, and there are no in-game ads or links.

What also sets Preschool Kids Math apart from other apps is the local flavour. Only a small percentage of childrens’ apps are by Australian companies. This means children can be confused about accents and number styles.

The Preschool Kids Math app includes original character graphic design by Ruwandi Perera of Canberra, and custom composed music and voiceover by Duncan and Trish Delaney-Brown, internationally renowned musicians based in Sydney. The end result? A polished and heartening experience for both child and parent alike.

You can download Preschool Kids Math right now from Google Play in the paid category of educational games and from iTunes.

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