Welcome to iSchoolSource.com's Art section where you will find many preschool learning enhancement tools for iLearning all things Art. We have reviewed many videos and apps that encourage preschool aged children to explore their artistic side.
While searching through iAccessories at the store, I came across the amazing Crayola ColorStudio HD iMarker (Stylus) for children. It is made by Crayola, and it has an iPad App to go with it (Sorry iPod/iPhone users). This crayola iMarker stylus works with the app to allow kids to color animated coloring pages! Children can choose from a crayola look, marker look, colored pencil looks, and more, including bucket fill. ColorStudio HD even gives options for whether or not the App prevents child's markings from going over the lines or not, as well as options for sharing creative artwork on Facebook. I have been playing with it, myself, and it is really fun. ColorStudio HD is an excellent app to teach children their colors, as well as art. The App is completely free, and works with a regular iPad stylus or finger.
For added features, the iMarker may be purchased to go with the app:
Your child can scroll to different options within the app to find what they would like to color.
There are many different shapes to choose from. Teacher or Parent can help child choose to customize a lesson for a certain shape.
Child can pick a color to either Flood Fill or Paint the shape. When color is touched, the name of that color pops up and the App verbally says the name of that color, which makes this App great for learning colors, as well as shapes.
iPlay&Sing is a FREE App for Pre-School aged children for learning and all around fun. The iPlay&Sing App allows you child to customize the App with their name and a photo. If your child does not wish to use a photo, they can choose one of the images within the game to represent them. iPlay&Sing allows child to choose whether they want to trace numbers or letters, play piano or sing, guess the next letter or number, go through a maze, pick the odd one out, paint a picture, or find the proper number, letter, shape, or animal. This app also rewards your child with praise and a smiley when they get the correct answer. This App is a good everything app, and is sure to please any Pre-School aged child.
Watch our four-year-old tester, Zoe, play Row Row Row Your Boat on the iPlay&Sing App!
We at iSchoolSource love the Zoodles Kid browser for PC, and The Zoodles Kid Mode App is a wonderful app for kids to either enhance their Zoodle Browser experience, or on its own. Zoodles does not let down with kid safe and educational YouTube videos and paint. Paintings are saved to your child's account to view later. Zoodles is free and extremely kid friendly with zero ads and pure fun. iSchoolSource gives Kid Mode two thumbs up!
iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-animation/id407067423?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 iPad App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-animation/id407067423?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Kid Animation seems to be a sister app to the Kid Paint app. Kid Animation and Kid Paint are much alike, but the Kid Animation app offers the ability to animate art. Animation abilities include the ability to record sound. Kid Animation is a free app, and like Kid Paint, the ads are unintrusive and at the top of the page. Children of any age can easily figure out how to draw and animate with Kids Animation. You might be amazed with what your child can come up with!
iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-timber/id408193251?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 iPad App http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-timber/id408193251?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Kid Timber is much like the Kids Blocks app, and seems to work in much the same way. The only difference between Kid Timber and Kid Blocks is that Kid Timber is like playing with Lincoln Logs (Without a mess to clean up when your child is done playing!) Kid Timber is free and ad supported. Ads are at the top of the page, and do not interfere with your child's building. There are various sizes of logs, rafters, and animals within the Kid Timber App. What will your future architect come up with?
Every child loves markers, but they can get MESSY! Let your young child use markers all they like with a free App called Scribble Kid. Scribble Kid is very simple to use. Child easily taps on the color of marker they want, and then they can begin scribbling on the page. There are different templates that can be used, such as a blank page, a circle, a square, and many more. As chlid draws with marker, a scribbling sound plays in the background to coincide with finger (or stylus) movements on the iDevice. This app does not have any ads, which is great for young children. The only flaw we can find with this app is that there is not a way to save your child's design, which could easily be remedied by using the screen capture feature on your iDevice.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crayon-kids-painting-for-ipad/id427520983?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Crayon Kids Painting is a FREE crayon app that features virtual coloring pages. While this app is free, it does have purchases that may be made within the app. The price for the purchases is $1.99, and may be worth it if you are looking for a coloring book for your child. The coloring pages may be more suitable for boys than girls, though there are interesting pages for boys and girls. Some pages that may be beneficial for all include number pages, alphabet pages, dinosaur pages, vehicle pages, animal pages, and fruit pages. There is also an imagine page that is a blank page that children can color anything that they can imagine. Cute outdoorsy kid music plays constantly in the background, which is fun (Music can be turned off). Your child's art is saved in a gallery within the app, itself, and may be viewed by your child in the app.
iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paint-sparkles-draw-my-first/id435539858?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 iPad App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paint-sparkles-draw-my-first/id435539858?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 If you are looking for an Art App for a very young child, then look no further. PaintSparkles is a wonderful free app that is appropriate for young children. The app has coloring pages that can be chosen from several categories. The controls are simple. Click on the easel to choose which picture to color, click trash can to start over, click eraser to erase, and click on different colors to pick which color to use. When a color is clicked on, a voice sings out the color that has been clicked. This app is an excellent teacher for children to learn their colors with. When children are coloring, the color literally sparkles, which is exciting. There are a few flaws with PaintSparkles. One of the flaws is that PaintSparkles only works vertically on your iDevice. The main flaw, however, is that this app is not completely free. Your child will surely see many different coloring pages that can be chosen, but you must purchase the full version for your child to be able to color all of the pictures. For the parent looking for a fun app that is appropriate for their young child, $3.99 is probably worth it for this cute and fun app!
iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doodle-buddy-paint-draw-scribble/id313232441?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 iPad App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id364201083?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Doodle Buddy is a huge hit, and has several perks. The first perk is that it is FREE, and while Doodle Buddy is ad supported, the ads are not intrusive, at all. The only time you will see an ad on Doodle Buddy, is when you are clicking different options within the tools. When you are actually drawing, the ads completely disappear -- No chance of accidentally clicking ads while drawing with Doodle Buddy. Also, unlike Kid Paint, Doodle Buddy can be used in the vertical or horizontal position. This is convenient for kids using iPad with the Smart Cover. Doodle Buddy has different backgrounds, fonts, stamps, chalk, glitter, smudge, eraser, and paintbrush options. Art may be saved to your iDevice Photo Album. Doodle Buddy will be fun for children from the age of 2-102!
iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-paint/id390806209?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 iPad App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kid-blocks/id406733982?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Kids can experience art for FREE with Kid's Paint from the App Store. Kids paint is free and ad supported. The ads rest at the top of the page, and are miniumally intrusive. All buttons and controls are at the bottom of the page, so this prevents small children from accidentally clicking an ad while they are trying to choose colors and brushes. Controls are easy to understand. Different brushes, including a caligraphy pen, paintbrush, pencil, and paint bucket. Kid's Paint also has background images, vector shapes, straight lines, eraser, smudge brush, and stampers (Fun noises come with the cute stamps, too!). All brushes can be painted in a multitude of colors, and if you mess up, there are undo and redo buttons. When you are done with your masterpeice, your art can be saved to your iDevice photo album! The only problem I can see with Kid's Paint is that it only works vertically, which is not as convenient when using iPad's Smart Cover. Otherwise, a wonderful art app for young and old -- a WONDERFUL free app!
