Friday 31 May 2013

Bertie's ABC by The Storymouse (App Review)

Bertie's ABC - Squeaky-keen phonics for your youngsters!
Try as we might, we can't keep away from a good app so it was great to hear from The StoryMouse and to take a look at their phonics / early readers app "Bertie's ABC".

For those of you who haven't yet met Bertie the Guinea Pig he's the happy smiley little chap in our header image, and he's also the star of a series of children's storybook apps which you can find in the link below:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stories-bertie-guinea-pig/id458976567?mt=8 (iPhone)

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stories-bertie-guinea-pig/id458976567?mt=8 (iPad)

Check those out but of course today don't miss out on Bertie's ABC as it's free on the app store:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/berties-abc/id642465878?mt=8 (iPhone)

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/berties-abc/id642465878?mt=8 (iPad)

Diving into the app, it's very easy and intuitive to use with a good user interface (vitally important for kid apps) and nice clear speech and sounds (with lots of squeaks from Bertie himself).

The app is divided up into several minigames:


  • Bertie's ABC - Lots of rhymes and fun sounds as children learn their letters
  • Letters and Sounds - A more interactive way of listening to letters, learning them and using them
  • The Carrot Quiz, Big and Small (Capitals and lower case letters) and Matching Pairs - Some game fun to play with once kids get a bit worn out from wrestling with letters. 
The games are great fun, and it's a good idea to use them as mini 'rewards' for children after they've used the other more educational parts of the app.

There's lots of fun to be had with Bertie. Check out the apps (today if you can, as they're free!), and definitely check out Bertie's brilliant stories too.