Tiggly Offers Interactive iPad Toys and Apps for Preschoolers...Making Learning Fun! (Review)

Disclosure:  I was sent a sample from the vendor in order to write up an honest review.  All views shared are mine and mine alone.

I recently read an article about children and technology and have to say that while the numbers don't lie, I was a little surprised at the following statistics --

38% of kids under 2 years old...

use smartphones or tablets

and

By 2015, there’ll be 15 BILLION internet-connected devices

in use around the world. That’s more than two 

for every person on the planet!

Is your family part of the above statistics?  I have shared how my girls use my husband's iPad, and even have their own educational tablets.  And, one of our new year's resolutions was to try to disconnect from our tech gadgets to spend quality time as a family each day.  As the times change and new technology is introduced, it is hard to not get caught up in everything.  From social media sites to games you play on your phone or tablet, almost everyone is connected in some way with an Internet-connected device.  Gone are the days that computers were just at work and school.  Now, you do your work, and then come up and get on your personal computer or tablet and continue to stay connected.

Knowing that 38% of kids have smartphones and tablets really shouldn't be a surprise to most.  But, of those kids, do their parents know what they are viewing, or if the apps they are playing with are educational or beneficial?  Luckily, my girls are still small, and we have parental locks on the electronic devices in our houses.  And, when it comes to using the iPad, the girls are monitored and we are the ones doing the app downloading.  With over 1 million apps currently available for download on iTunes and the Google Play store, which ones are really educational, and good for your to download and share with your kids.  As a parent of two toddlers, I spend a lot of time reading other mommy blogger reviews of apps as well as visiting educational sites that share in-depth reviews on educational apps.  One app that kept popping up and that I found interesting was called Tiggly Shapes.  Have you heard of it?

"Tiggly is a New York-based company that develops interactive toys and apps for the digital generation. Toddlers and preschoolers love the iPad as much as Mom and Dad, but 70 years of academic research has demonstrated that manipulating physical objects is essential to early childhood development. Tiggly enables parents to bring this critical component of early learning to the “digital sandbox” today's kids inhabit.

Tiggly toys and apps are designed by educators and tested extensively by toddlers and their parents. Our products are fun for all ages, but specifically intended to help children between 18 months and 4 years old develop spatial reasoning, motor skills, language, and creativity.

Their debut product, Tiggly Shapes, was designed by educators specializing in early childhood development and tested by parents and toddlers at homes and in preschools.

Spatial Reasoning. Spatial reasoning refers to children’s ability to notice, for example, that a roof is also a triangle. Tiggly Safari encourages children to identify and match four basic shapes—circles, squares, triangles, and stars. In addition, children learn about spatial relations and transformations.

Motor Skills. Motor skills are a series of actions performed in a particular order to accomplish a task - shaking a rattle, walking, eating with a spoon. For toddlers, motor skills such as grabbing objects, holding them, and manipulating them in space are important to practice. 

Language. Tiggly develops children's vocabulary through listening, speaking, and reading. In Tiggly Stamp, for example, children listen to the names of animals as they appear on screen. In addition, the apps encourage co-play with parents; we believe face-to-face interactions are extremely important. 

Creativity. Expressing creativity unlocks children’s imaginations and reinforces learning in other subjects. Through storytelling and role-play, Tiggly Draw, for example, encourages creativity by providing a medium for children to create complex images and imaginary characters.

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After reading so many wonderful review about Tiggly Shapes and the 3 apps that you can download and use the shapes, I was eager to try this product of for myself, and see what my two girls thought of it.  Out of all the apps that we have downloaded for the them, none incorporated shapes like the ones from Tiggly.

The girls have been using Tiggly shapes along with the 3 Tiggly apps (Tiggly Safari, Tiggly Stamp and Tiggly Draw) for a few weeks now, and just love them!  Each and every morning after breakfast, we have scheduled iPad time.  Due to the popularity of Tiggly Shapes in our house, my parents ended up buying the girls another iPad, so that they could play with the different Tiggly apps -- seeing that they are still having trouble sharing. Now to just pick up another set of Tiggly Shapes so that they can each have their own 4 shapes to use.

It is hard to say which of the three Tiggly Apps is the girls' favorite, as they play with each of them and are always excited with the different levels each of the games offers.

Tiggly Safari

Lions and dolphins and pigs, oh my! Use your Tiggly shapes to construct friendly animals from the jungle, farm, and sea. Tiggly Safari is an excellent learning experience for your children to learn about shapes and to improve their spatial thinking.

Each level of the game is designed based on what we know about children’s spatial cognition development. In the first level, children match shapes with what they see on the screen and create simple animals out of single shapes. As the levels proceed, children are challenged to create more complex animals with combinations of shapes, recognize and match basic shapes in various orientations, and practice their hand-eye coordination by catching moving objects— all while being amazed by the cute animals they are creating!

Recommended age: 18 months - 4 years old 

Tiggly Stamp

Tiggly Stamp is all about creativity and open-ended play. From jack-o’-lanterns to igloos, use Tiggly Shapes to build seasonally themed scenes on your iPad! Tell stories and save your work using the video recorder and camera options.

Create things
- See four basic shapes transform into 80+ funny animals, fruits, and objects 

Listen & Laugh
- Hear the names repeated for each animal, fruit, and object, helping children learn to speak new words
- Funny and friendly animal sounds and greetings that make children laugh
- Includes 7 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese

Tell a story
- Tell a story using the video recorder option
- Make a movie by dragging things around and telling a story about them

Save a memory
- Take a picture of your work with a date to save memories

Recommended age: 18 months - 4 years old 

Tiggly Draw 

Unleash your inner Picasso and Mozart with Tiggly Draw! Your tablet is your canvas and Tiggly Shapes your tool for creating digital works of art, music, and imaginary creatures. Use the camera to save pictures of your artwork. Mom and dad can share them over email, social networks, etc. 

ACTIVITIES:
Create a drawing
- Use your Shapes to create drawings on a beautifully rendered digital canvas
- Choose from 10 backgrounds 
- 50+ features (including unpredictable eyes, mouths, hats and more) allow children to design anything they can imagine

Compose a piece of music
- The square is your piano, the circle a tuba, the star a marimba, and the triangle is a violin. A symphony awaits!
- Create more than 1,000 simple compositions while playing with your shapes

Save a memory
- Take a picture of your artwork with a date to save memories

Recommended age: 18 months – 4 years old 

Bella is 2 and Savannah is 3 1/2 - both were able to pick up the different apps and can play the games without any assistance from me. They have a blast creating fun drawings and all the different sound effects that are included with these three apps.  As a parent, I love seeing how creative they get, and how they can use 4 basic shapes to create art, play music and more. 

What a great product for preschoolers, and one that is definitely getting a lot of play time in our house.  I can't wait to see what other products the folks at Tiggly come out with next, and the apps that they develop.  If they are anything like Tiggly Shapes, they will become instant hits with my kids and the other families who have had a chance to use Tiggly Shapes and the fun apps that go along with them.

Click here to learn more about Tiggly and to purchase a set of Tiggly Shapes for your child(ren) for only $29.95, http://tiggly.com/.  Once you receive the Tiggly Shapes in the mail, you are ready to download the three apps and have fun with your kids!

---GIVEAWAY--- 

 Thanks to the kind folks at Tiggly, one lucky Inspired by Savannah reader will win a set of Tiggly Shapes to enjoy with their child(ren). To enter, please complete the entries on the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  I was sent a sample from the vendor in order to write up an honest review.  All views shared are mine and mine alone.