Reading Rainbow to Your Summer Rescue

As I may have mentioned before, I am trying my best to help my kids retain what they learned in school this year.  (My recurring nightmare is letters, numbers and books falling out of my son's ears!)

And leave it to Levar Burton, Mr. Reading Rainbow himself, to introduce a brand new iPad app that is great at engaging and entertaining kids, all while they are reading!  I was fortunate enough to talk with Levar Burton about the new iPad app and all the time and effort that went into making it happen. 

The iPad app is free to download and is an interactive journey kids can take to floating islands in the sky.  (The free membership allows you to buy one book.  To read more online books, you will need to purchase a membership.) Just as Reading Rainbow did during its longtime run on PBS, the Reading Rainbow app for the iPad connects real world adventures to a child's imagination and literature. 

Unlike its television predecessor, the Reading Rainbow app has trackable data that allows you to know exactly how much time your kids are spending reading.  The data also lets you know exactly how long it takes your child to read a particular book.  This was especially fascinating to me because a book I figured my son would spend 10 minutes reading, only took him 2-1/2 minutes to read!  (What can I say, I'm raising geniuses in my house!)

My kids have definitely enjoyed the new Reading Rainbow app.  My 7-year old son liked how he could tap on the images in the book and they would come to life as he was reading.  My 4-1/2 year old daughter loved the video field trips.  She and I learned a lot of fascinating facts about giraffes and snakes. 

In full disclosure, this app is not going to make your kids stop wanting to play Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja.  (Well, at least my kids aren't going to stop.)  But this app does give them an educational and imagination inspired option of something fun to do on the iPad - which can be so hard to come by these days. 

That makes this mom happy!

Stay tuned...a Reading Rainbow giveaway is coming soon!