Recently I was very pleased to be offered a chance to do a review of the Dinosaur Train Paint and Match app. From Kuato Studios Based on the Jim Henson TV Series, Tigerboy recognised it immediately and got stuck in straight away.
There are 24 pictures of Buddy the dinosaur and his friends to colour in, so a great selection available, and Tigerboy found the controls very intuitive. There’s a variety of pencil and brush sizes and plenty of colours to choose from, and you can print the end results (although I might not have told him that as I’m a mean mummy 😉 ). When they’re done with painting (if they’re ever done with the painting), there’s also a memory skills game with Mr Conductor, trying to match up as many train tickets as possible across 4 different levels.
For 99p, I have to say I thought this was a good value app. In the past I’ve concentrated my attention on free apps, although preferably from known organisations, but in app purchases or ads can make them really offputting and hard for children to navigate and enjoy. There’s at least several hours of play value in this – Tigerboy enjoyed free drawing as well as colouring in and really got quite inventive – and it would be ideal for a train journey or some such, and much easier to deal with than my usual tool of choice of crayons and a pad. (I can’t be the only one who gets fed up of crawling under train seats trying to retrieve the crayons?)
It did help that it was dinosaurs – he is very fond of dinosaurs as I think young children often are. (Why? What is so much fun about dinosaurs?) In terms of educational value, if you are looking to tick those boxes, this has a focus on memory skills and hand eye coordination, both of which are key to early years development.
Available to buy in Apple itunes link and Play store link
Disclosure: I am being recompensed for the time taken for this review.
This looks a good app for my eldest, who is in full-blown junior dinosaur expert mode and always navigates through Netflix to watch this show. What is it about preschoolers and dinosaurs? Maybe they like the idea of being huge, uncontrollable monsters – though he does pretty well on that score himself. Mind you, my youngest is only 14 months, and she’ll happily sit in her high chair making dinosaur noises whenever anyone mentions them, so maybe it starts even younger?