Great for Babies and Toddlers!
Sorry for the super long review, but I was really, really impressed with this app! Im pregnant with my first baby (due November!) and have been loading my iPhone up with apps to help me through pregnancy and babys first year. I saw ZOOLA Animals and thought it would make a great app for a little one thats learning about animals.
I bought the app and had my friends toddler try it out. He loved it so much that he wouldnt give my phone back to me after an 1.5 of playing with this app!!! He learned soooo much about the various types of animals and the sounds they make. I was finally able to get my phone back by bribing him with a trip to the local park so he could see some of the animals from the app in real life. We manged to find dogs, geese, squirrels, and frogs at the park (all of which are in the app). My friends toddler would squeal every time we found an animal in real life that was also on the app he was playing with. It was a great education experience!
I was surprised because ZOOLA Animals also is great for babies. I tried it with my neighbors 6 mo. old baby and she giggles when she hears the animal sounds. Its very entertaining and yet the little ones are learning.
Beyond education/entertainment value for the kids, I like this app for other reasons:
* Its very well organized. Theres a different screen for the different types of animals: farm, safari, forest, and water. (Forest and water sections available in paid version).
* The pictures are beautiful and are classic to the type of animal being represented.
* Lots of pictures. There are at least two pictures depicting a male, female, offspring, and family/love for each animal.
* Lots of different sounds. The app developers have included not just one sound to represent a particular animal, but several sounds for each.
* Paid Version Bonus: several memory boosting games! Theres Memory (where you have to flip over "cards" and find pairs, Simon (the game has a sequence of icons that it starts with and you have to remember the sequence and repeat it, and Puzzle (you piece together a simple puzzle of an animal picture).
* Paid Version Bonus: a section of pictures of kids with their animals from around the world. This is very cute and paired with a cheerful version of "Its a small world" song.
I cant wait for my baby to be born so I can have my little one use this. It should come in very handy! I would also recommend getting the paid version of the app because it unlocks a lot of the features that my friends toddler loved playing (games, extra animals).
heatherwight about ZOOLA Animals
