Kiboomu Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Piano iPhone/iPod Touch App {Review & Giveaway)

Kiboomu is a kids’ digital edu-tainment company created by one of Canada’s Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs Wendy Wiseman & Sherry Segal.  Their philosophy... Teach. Sing. Learn. Give Back.  Their new Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Preschool Storybook Piano interactive app was created by a preschool teacher and pianist that encourages children to take a more active role in learning!  It's also a really fun way to introduce children to playing piano!

With this play-a-song iPhone app, children can do the following:
♫ follow the lighted keys or match the colorful music notes to the piano keys
♫ watch the piano keys light up one by one with the song
♫ press the start button and sing along
♫ add animal sounds to the song
♫ hear the song played on a banjo, xylophone, harp, flute, bells and more!
♫ record your child singing and playing the piano (w/ iPhone 3GS & 4)
♫ sing and read karaoke style lyrics in English, French & Spanish

Playing the piano is not just fun, it's educational too!

Research has shown that piano lessons:

1.  Help Children in School
2.  Raise Self Esteem
3.  Increase Coordination
4.  Help Children to Concentrate
5.  Help Children to be Well-Rounded

*     *     *

My Take:  My 5 yr. old daughter really loved this app, especially the 'free style mode'.  You're able to just play however you want on the keyboard.  We also enjoyed the 'play and sing along' mode where we could both sing the song together.  And in every mode you can switch between different instrument sounds- and there's even one that has silly animal sounds, which was our FAVE... very funny!  I liked that the black keys made sound in addition to the white keys.  I also loved the graphics- cute & colorful.

One thing that frustrated my daughter a little at first, was when she switched between the different instruments there was some lag time.  It took about 5 seconds for the app to register that you had switched and wouldn't allow you to press any keys during that time.  And you know with kids, 5 seconds is a looong time (*eye roll).  But after she got used to that, she waited patiently after switching instruments and had a blast playing this app.

My daughter didn't want to do 'learn the song' just yet, but I think sometime in the near future she'll tinker around with it, and before I know it she'll be playing the song.  I think the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star App is perfect for keeping kids entertained on long drives, in waiting rooms, visiting family, or even just playing at home... it's only .99¢ and a portion of all sales goes toward feeding kids through the Kiboomu Foundation!

To learn more about Kiboomu, you can visit their blog.  They can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Onto the GIVEAWAY, Wendy & Sherry at Kiboomu have generously offered 10 of my readers a gift code to try the app themselves!!

Just LEAVE A COMMENT below to be entered!

U.S. & CANADA ONLY


This contest ends on 9/15/10 at 11:59 pm EST. Open to U.S. & CAN residents. The winner will be drawn via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification email before I draw another winner. Please make sure I can find your email on your profile or leave with your comment(s).

Disclosure:  I received a product for the purpose of this review but no other type of compensation was received. This has no bearing on my completely honest review above. The opinions and experiences I’ve shared with these products are 100% my own and yours may differ.