Miffy's Garden Childrens App Review

The Miffy's Garden App for iPhone and iPod touch costs £1.49 or it is available on the iPad for £2.99 - they are both available from the app store.

We like the Miffy's Garden app because it is incredibly simple - I always find that the most simple apps with the clearest challenges and the boldest graphics are the apps which my girls return to time after time.  The graphics are very familiar for any Miffy fan, with big blocks of bold colours.

We tried Miffy's Garden on the ipod touch and found parts of it to be suitable for both our 1 year old and our 3 year old.  The app features a simple counting game which encourages fine motor skills by dragging and dropping carrots onto Miffy and her family, counting as you go.  There is little to challenge my 3 year old in this game, but my youngest daughter enjoys experimenting with the drag-and-drop functionality and will enjoy the counting element as she grows older.

The app also features a short interactive story about Miffy and her garden. The text is clear and the narration is beautifully read.  My daughters sit and listen in silence!!! Each page features a short animation and occasionally there are interactive activities, such as digging the garden, which encourage your child to pay attention to the story, and to play using the screen, making them feel like part of the story too.  The app allows you to dig, rake, sow seeds and harvest carrots.

I like the app a lot, but I would struggle to justify the full cost of it.

You can find out more about Miffy at www.twitter.com/miffy_uk and www.facebook.com/miffyUK 

Cool technology for the home

Image courtesy of Danilo Rizutti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you have spent a long time trying to make a house a home and are ready to put the finishing touches to your place or if you are simply seeking to invest in some technology to replace your old work of entertainment systems, then here are a few things you might want to think about which are available on the market today.

Highly powerful, highly immersive and extremely good value for money, any of these great pieces of technology will not only allow you to enjoy the things you want to faster and to a higher standard but will help your house look great!

A 3D television

3D televisions have exploded onto the market over the last year and are fast becoming the forefront of a new wave of home entertainment. What was once reserved for the cinema can now be enjoyed in the home at a very reasonable price.

If you’re looking for a great piece of home entertainment technology that goes above and beyond just having a big screen and a great picture, then go 3D! You’ll be able to enjoy your favourite movies and television shows on a whole new level and can use them with active 3D glasses or simply as a standard television, making watching television a whole new experience.

A laptop

If that old desktop computer is taking up too much space, then why not think about changing it for a laptop. Most new laptops on the market run circles around an older desktop computer, with the ability to not only do what you want a lot quicker, such as edit photographs, surf the internet and play online games, but also to take up a lot less space.

If you have a lot of extra files that you want to keep, you can always store them on an external hard drive which is extremely inexpensive.

With a new laptop, you’re not only relegated to home use, as you can take it anywhere you choose. Laptops have also come down in price a lot in recent years due to the fact that they are now fast replacing desktops as the computer of choice. There is a lot of great laptop deals out there; you buying a new one could work out a lot cheaper than you imagined.

A Touch Screen Computer

If you do want to stick with a desktop computer for your family, then there is also some great new technology available. Many desktops now offer fully functioning touchscreens that can be literally controlled by the click of a finger; a great option if the whole family uses the computer for a multitude of different reasons and you want a PC that not only looks great but can perform well under any circumstance. 

Note: This is an advertorial post

Are we the tablet generation?

Are we really the 'tablet generation'?  Well if we aren't, our children certainly are.  My 3 year old daughter is certainly more comfortable using her Grandma's tablet than she is with my old fashioned PC and mouse!  She even has a children's tablet of her own. In families up and down the country a tablet is used for a whole host of different activities.  From first learning games for toddlers and pre-schoolers to watching movies and listening to favourite family tunes. The infographic below features the Xperia™ Tablet and explains what the world seems to do with their tablets.

Xperia™ Tablet

Over the past few years, the things that families do with their tablets have evolved.  These days a tablet such as the Xperia™ Tablet is a lot easier to read on than other handheld devices and websites, as well as publications are increasingly becoming more accessible through a tablet interface.  I used to be a purist when it came to books, and to photographs (I'm a keen photographer) but as the technology gets easier to use I admit that reading and sharing photos has become so easy that actually it doesn't make sense not to use the tablet. The things I most commonly do with my own mobile device are (a) check the weather... usually for nice sunny places I'm planning on going on holiday to in many, many months’ time (b) entertain my two girls; they have about 10 times as many books and applications than I do... one of my girls isn't 10 months old yet but still has stories and apps of her own! and (c) check my emails.

Just before Christmas we got high speed fibre broadband installed so we have recently been exploring movie streaming services which usually are accessible from a tablet too although the ability to download whole movies is most appealing as we are planning a long road trip this summer and will be looking for back-seat entertainment for the two children. What does your family use a tablet for?

This is a Sponsored Post but that doesn't stop it being fun to read!