Toca House

$1.99, iPad, iPhone Universal

Teaches: sorting, logic, language

CTR Rating: 86%

CTR Review

This "app toy" (Toca Boca's approach to app design) takes place in a house where five zany friends live, one on each floor. You help them with their chores, by washing the floor (move the mop with your finger), ironing (move over a shirt to get rid of the wrinkles), sorting the trash (by color), mowing the lawn, and so on. According to Chris Crowell, "Toca House showed up this morning on the iPod Touch, so I handed it to the first child in line as we waited to enter the class. It took her a few minutes to figure out the details of how to play (just as a child uses trial and error to build with blocks) but she never went for the home button. Later in the morning one of my ESL students had some time exploring the app and she gave it a thumbs up as well. A male student I handed it to stayed on the laundry floor the longest. He got a kick out of ironing the clothes. Overall, from one morning with it in my kindergarten class, Toca Boca seems to have another hit. The artwork is very pleasing and children are extremely receptive to all facets of the app." This won't go down as a Toca classic. The random nature of the activities diminishes the level of child control, but still, there's a lot to like about this app, making it well worth the download.