Playground HD3 - ABC Edition - A Great Educational Game App for your Pre-schoolers - Fun Educational Apps for Kids: Reviews, Daily Deals and Giveaways

Playground HD3 - ABC Edition is another great educational game app for your toddlers and pre-schoolers in the Playground HD series by Jan Essig. This learning app teaches beginning reading skills in 6 languages via various activities including letter identification, letter writing practice, upper and lower case letter matching, and unscrambling words.

Playground HD3 has been reviewed by several reviewers at Review for Dev. Overall, it is a great educational game app offering a great concept. It is engaging for the kids and some of the best comments are as follow: “The concept is fantastic” , “variety of activities allowed each student to find an activity that was suited to his/her academic level”; “This is a great tool for beginner readers and writers”; “Children of many ages can increase their letter recognition skills, as well as their letter formation and recall”

Playground HD 3

On the downside, American users would like to have the app in American English, and English users will be happy to find an app in British English ... The developer is working on adding both options!

Below, you will find all the comments from the reviewers are Review for Dev.

Playground HD3 - ABC Edition is available for download via the iTunes App Store - Universal App

If you want to try before buying - Lite version available

From Review for Dev:

Gabriel H.: I am a nice guy, who likes to play and watch basketball, I like reading mostly sicence fiction and fantasy. I like technology and use it often. I follow the news, politics and enjoy economics. I also like to watch tv.

Rating
What I liked	I think this app is very good. I really like that it is simple to use and easy to explain to little kids. I showed the app to my brother (5 years old) and he really enjoyed it. I only had to teach him how to play once or twice and he picked up on it. The graphic were very nice and the use of animals to teach the kids is very clever. The timer feature is a very nice add on.
Suggestions	In future updates I would like to see more games. Also maybe have the games seperated by age groups or have the games unlock as you finish previous games just so they kids will feel they are making progress. The timer feature might be improved by adding a password instead of holding down in the watch. Same goes for the settings. Also I think that 3 dollars is a bit pricey and needs to be lowered.
General opinion	I think this is great app that can really help kids get familiar with the abc's. It is very simple to use and the games easy to play but very effective. I had my brother who is 5 years old try it out and he really enjoyed it. It also has a timer feature which stops your child from playing for excessive amounts of time. The price might be little high but can really help your child get ahead.

Eric L.: I am an independent iOS app developer in the afternoon and an embedded systems engineer during the day. I created and maintain the iOS app GradeBook Pro (www.gradebookapp.com) and a few other, smaller, applications.

I can test apps with my own children (girls, 3 & 1) and nieces/nephews aged from 4 - 10.

Rating
What I liked	The concept is excellent and the gameplay was appropriate for my young daughter who is learning the alphabet. She enjoys tracing letters since that is what she is doing in preschool at the moment. The letter matching game (both order and large and small) were well implemented and engaging. The game timer was a great thought too (especially when multiple children share a device).
Suggestions	The English localizations were not great. You can tell that the app was not developed by a native English speaker and translated by somsone with a more abstract knowledge of the English language. I highly recommend hiring a native English speaker to review both the in-app translations and the App Store marketing copy. The app wasn't iPhone 5 4" Retina display compatible. The top menu buttons (during gameplay) were somewhat difficult to press and weren't entirely intuitive (the page curl for back, for example).
General opinion	The gameplay is interesting and engaging for a child learning the alphabet. Children should love the multiple activities and games. Parents should appreciate that the app is keeping the child engaged and teaching them a valuable skill in the process. The English translations weren't perfect and I hoped for better in an educational app.

Julie P.: I am an ASHA certified Speech/Language Pathologist with 24 years of experience in multiple settings. I am currently using my iPad in a public school, serving children w/ special needs ages 6-13. It has become an integral therapy tool for me and I am excited about the possibilities for the future.

Rating
What I liked	I can tell that this app was created by a developer who has experience with young children. He has combined a simple, clean screen design with a number of different modules to teach beginning reading skills. This allows the child to move from easier levels to more difficult levels as they are able. I especially like the timer option and the fading model in Practice mode.
Suggestions	I have a significant concern with the "Initial Sounds" option in Flashcards and Practice Mode. The speaker does not follow the guidelines for teaching American English letter sounds; for example, short vowels are taught before long vowels and the hard "g" (as in game) is taught before the soft "g" (as in giraffe). The quality of some of the sounds ( "f" and "r") is distorted, making them hard to recognize. Finally, the sound for "z" is the letter name, not the sound. Because I'm not fluent in any of the other languages, I cannot comment on the accuracy of those letter sounds.
General opinion	Playground HD 3 is an introductory level app for preschool and primary age children (ages 3-7), which teaches beginning reading skills in 6 languages. The activities include letter identification, letter writing practice, upper and lower case letter matching, and unscrambling words. The activities are all appropriate for the target ages. I would recommend re-recording the initial sounds of the alphabet.

Deana A.: I am a teacher for students with special needs, specializing in students with low vision and blindness and students with hearing impairments. I am also a member of an Assistive Technology Team. I have been teaching for 16 years.

Rating
What I liked	My students and I really liked this app for multiple reasons. First, I like the letter formation teaching and practice abilities as well as the ability to practice writing any word in the practice section. Some of my students wrote their spelling words. I also liked that the letter matching tasks were not in alphabetical order. My students enjoyed the animals and matching letters.
Suggestions	I would like for one of the language choices to be American English, I'm a teacher in the US. My students enjoyed hearing British English, but there were times that I wished the pronunciation was in American English. One other item I would change is the lower case "a". The "a" used is the fancy, typed "a" which is not the way we teach how to make in the United States. Maybe add the other "a" formation so children could see and practice writing both types of "a"'s.
General opinion	My students and I enjoyed using this app over the past week. The variety of activities allowed each student to find an activity that was suited to his/her academic level. The activities kept my students engaged and wanting to return to the app multiple times each day.

Maria B.: I am a stay-at-home mom to a five year old boy. I love to cook and read on my spare time. I'm currently enrolled in a German course. Always on the lookout for great apps (games, homeschooling, animated books, activities, etc.) and books, for my son and I.

Rating
What I liked	As a parent, I loved this app! the activities are well crafted, you can see that a lot of care and thought has gone into this app. Great tool for beginner writers and readers, as well as for tutors, parents and guardians to practice with their kids. Definitely worth recommending!
Suggestions	- Navigation needs to be reworked so it is more responsive and uncomplicated, both for parents and children - verbal cues for each section to guide children who are doing activities on their own. - a help or instruction section explaining each activity and how it should be played.
General opinion	The learning component of the app is well thought. This is a great tool for beginner readers and writers. My son is 5 years old and he has a number of ABC apps but Playground HD3 - ABC Edition offers more activities for learning which enables him to practice writing, spelling and connecting letters and objects. I only wish there is a verbal cue for each section to guide children doing this on their own.

Heather T.: I was a teacher for 4 years in a magnet school for technology; I taught 4th and 2nd grade. Since then, I have obtained my Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina, and now am a media specialist. I love learning about new technologies and helping teachers with them so we can enhance student learning.

Rating
What I liked	I really liked the variety of activities in this app. This is an app that I can use with my kindergarteners at the beginning of the year as well as 1st and 2nd graders who just need handwriting practice. I also like the fact that there are multiple languages so students from different backgrounds/countries an use it. With the letters practice, I like the way it scores the user's handwriting.
Suggestions	In a future version, I would like to see more fonts for students to practice with. Where I work (in South Carolina), students are supposed to learn print with sans serif. The print in this app is more of a handwriting print, and does not actually help students in my school.
General opinion	Playground HD3 - ABC Edition is a great app for helping students learn their upper and lower case letters as well as practice handwriting. Very young children can use the app to begin matching sounds with letters. Older children can use the app to practice their print and cursive handwriting. I recommend this app to parents of young children and early childhood teachers.

Courtney D.: My name is Courtney and I am an SLP. I love working with children of all ages, but find I have a particular passion for children with special needs. I love technology and the impact it can have on the students in the therapy room.

Rating
What I liked	I like the concepts that are incorporated with this app. I like the variety of activities focused on letters and making those more understandable. I like that the user can focus on many different languages and gain that exposure. I like that each time the user selects the tile, they gain that receptive identification piece due to the auditory component provided. I like the simplicity of the app and ease for the users.
Suggestions	The "I" does not make an "ee" sound, but that is what is presented. Also the "r" and "w" do not sound like the letter sounds. The "alligator" word does not sound like it completes the word with an "r" at the end. The "G" sound sounds like the letter sound for "J". If the idea is that the user is to match the letter sound with the word, then the word should be compatible. For instance, the "G" could be "gold". It is incredibly hard to get 3 stars in the practice writing section. Is there a criteria? A little bit of an explanation might be beneficial for success.
General opinion	The concept is fantastic. I believe the basis is great. I think users could benefit tremendously from exposure to this app. As a whole, this app provides exactly what is stated; however, there are some errors that, if fixed, will make this app even better! Those minor errors include some of the letter sounds being inaccurate or unintelligible.

Lisa W.: I'm a mother of 5 children, all with different special needs. I am an occupational therapist for a large metropolitan school district. I am also the Assistive Technology Coordinator for the district that I work in. I constantly am searching for apps that are meaningful, engaging & educational.

Rating
What I liked	I like that there are multiple activities that involve letter recognition, letter sounds, and writing letters to engage young learners! When you buy this app, it's like getting 6 apps for the price of one. The graphics are engaging and likeable to young children. At a basic level this app teaches a variety of letter skills in multiple languages (Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish) that are important to early literacy. I love that one can choose to hear the letter name or initial sound, touch the animal to hear the letter in the word, and the "Write" section and timer!
Suggestions	I would like to see the following improvements made: 1. Letter formation- Capital print E should have line 2 at the top, 3 middle, 4 bottom 2.Practice and Write-Print lowercase a, most cursive uppercase, f-p-r lowercase cursive letters are not close enough for me to offer to practice for my students 3. Letter sounds-some are not correct according to phonetic standards such as i, g, o, u, z
General opinion	This is a delightful app for young learners who want to learn about letters. My preschoolers and kindergartners found this app to be engaging. This app includes 6 different exercises to promote alphabet learning including flashcards, practice, writing, assigning (matching and sequencing), pairs, and words. It was created by a non-educator and states that in the App Store description, so keeping that in mind, it is a very nice app.

Lori H.: I am a kindergarten teacher and mother of a fantastic toddler. i currently live in Georgia and am an avid technology enthusiast. i run my school's website and have for the past 5 school years. I love apple products, but am well spoken in PC as well.

Rating
What I liked	This app was completely engaging. the different options for voice and for letter styles seem to provide enough enrichment for many users. I also liked the colorful pictures and the star rewards for completing each task. It was also nice that the matching game grew harder as the players went on.
Suggestions	I would love to see an American English feature for this app. The British English is great, but many children in America could be thrown off by a new accent while learning and reviewing their letters. It was also a little frustrating when letter tiles would "fall" out of grasp. The sensitivity seemed to be a little off.
General opinion	This app is a great resource for any household or classroom. Children of many ages can increase their letter recognition skills, as well as their letter formation and recall. The boldly colored animals and engaging games will pull your child right in. This app is a welcome activity in my classroom and at home.

Mike P.: I am an instructional technology coordinator working in a K - 12 district. I work at all grade levels to use technology as a means of helping students and teachers to learn and achieve their goals. As a hobby I design games and create interactive games and activities for the classroom.

Rating
What I liked	I was very impressed with this app! The animal art is adorable. There is a lot of variety with the different ways to practice and match the letters. I am also impressed with the level of options to customize difficulty for the child. You can set it so the letters are pronounced or so it does the beginning sound instead. Parent controls allow for setting how long the child can play too, but I don't know why you'd want to limit it with all the practice it provides.
Suggestions	The most noticeable thing for me, being in the U.S., is just that it could use an American English voice. This didn't seem to bother the children I played it with. In fact, they found some of the pronunciations to be entertaining. I can see it might be a hindrance in some cases though. Also, I wasn't sure about the scoring on the letter practice. Sometimes I would trace letters perfectly, but in the wrong order, and still get a full score. I saw the children do it, though, and sometimes it would not give them a full score. That might confuse or frustrate some children.
General opinion	This is an attractive, well designed app. A lot of thought went into the interface and options. I let my nephews (ages 5 and 8) play with the app and they loved it. Both had fun trying to do the matching, but it seemed to appeal to the 8 year old more. They both liked the letter practice equally and I had to keep them from fighting over my single iPad! The only thing keeping it from a five is that there's no American English voice.

Disclaimer: Guest review from our partner Reviewfordev.com and Fun Educational Apps was paid an admin fee for its publication.

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Playground HD3 - ABC Edition - A Great Educational Game App for your Pre-schoolers

Rating
What I liked	I think this app is very good. I really like that it is simple to use and easy to explain to little kids. I showed the app to my brother (5 years old) and he really enjoyed it. I only had to teach him how to play once or twice and he picked up on it. The graphic were very nice and the use of animals to teach the kids is very clever. The timer feature is a very nice add on.
Suggestions	In future updates I would like to see more games. Also maybe have the games seperated by age groups or have the games unlock as you finish previous games just so they kids will feel they are making progress. The timer feature might be improved by adding a password instead of holding down in the watch. Same goes for the settings. Also I think that 3 dollars is a bit pricey and needs to be lowered.
General opinion	I think this is great app that can really help kids get familiar with the abc's. It is very simple to use and the games easy to play but very effective. I had my brother who is 5 years old try it out and he really enjoyed it. It also has a timer feature which stops your child from playing for excessive amounts of time. The price might be little high but can really help your child get ahead.

Rating
What I liked	The concept is excellent and the gameplay was appropriate for my young daughter who is learning the alphabet. She enjoys tracing letters since that is what she is doing in preschool at the moment. The letter matching game (both order and large and small) were well implemented and engaging. The game timer was a great thought too (especially when multiple children share a device).
Suggestions	The English localizations were not great. You can tell that the app was not developed by a native English speaker and translated by somsone with a more abstract knowledge of the English language. I highly recommend hiring a native English speaker to review both the in-app translations and the App Store marketing copy. The app wasn't iPhone 5 4" Retina display compatible. The top menu buttons (during gameplay) were somewhat difficult to press and weren't entirely intuitive (the page curl for back, for example).
General opinion	The gameplay is interesting and engaging for a child learning the alphabet. Children should love the multiple activities and games. Parents should appreciate that the app is keeping the child engaged and teaching them a valuable skill in the process. The English translations weren't perfect and I hoped for better in an educational app.

Rating
What I liked	I can tell that this app was created by a developer who has experience with young children. He has combined a simple, clean screen design with a number of different modules to teach beginning reading skills. This allows the child to move from easier levels to more difficult levels as they are able. I especially like the timer option and the fading model in Practice mode.
Suggestions	I have a significant concern with the "Initial Sounds" option in Flashcards and Practice Mode. The speaker does not follow the guidelines for teaching American English letter sounds; for example, short vowels are taught before long vowels and the hard "g" (as in game) is taught before the soft "g" (as in giraffe). The quality of some of the sounds ( "f" and "r") is distorted, making them hard to recognize. Finally, the sound for "z" is the letter name, not the sound. Because I'm not fluent in any of the other languages, I cannot comment on the accuracy of those letter sounds.
General opinion	Playground HD 3 is an introductory level app for preschool and primary age children (ages 3-7), which teaches beginning reading skills in 6 languages. The activities include letter identification, letter writing practice, upper and lower case letter matching, and unscrambling words. The activities are all appropriate for the target ages. I would recommend re-recording the initial sounds of the alphabet.

Rating
What I liked	My students and I really liked this app for multiple reasons. First, I like the letter formation teaching and practice abilities as well as the ability to practice writing any word in the practice section. Some of my students wrote their spelling words. I also liked that the letter matching tasks were not in alphabetical order. My students enjoyed the animals and matching letters.
Suggestions	I would like for one of the language choices to be American English, I'm a teacher in the US. My students enjoyed hearing British English, but there were times that I wished the pronunciation was in American English. One other item I would change is the lower case "a". The "a" used is the fancy, typed "a" which is not the way we teach how to make in the United States. Maybe add the other "a" formation so children could see and practice writing both types of "a"'s.
General opinion	My students and I enjoyed using this app over the past week. The variety of activities allowed each student to find an activity that was suited to his/her academic level. The activities kept my students engaged and wanting to return to the app multiple times each day.

Rating
What I liked	As a parent, I loved this app! the activities are well crafted, you can see that a lot of care and thought has gone into this app. Great tool for beginner writers and readers, as well as for tutors, parents and guardians to practice with their kids. Definitely worth recommending!
Suggestions	- Navigation needs to be reworked so it is more responsive and uncomplicated, both for parents and children - verbal cues for each section to guide children who are doing activities on their own. - a help or instruction section explaining each activity and how it should be played.
General opinion	The learning component of the app is well thought. This is a great tool for beginner readers and writers. My son is 5 years old and he has a number of ABC apps but Playground HD3 - ABC Edition offers more activities for learning which enables him to practice writing, spelling and connecting letters and objects. I only wish there is a verbal cue for each section to guide children doing this on their own.

Rating
What I liked	I really liked the variety of activities in this app. This is an app that I can use with my kindergarteners at the beginning of the year as well as 1st and 2nd graders who just need handwriting practice. I also like the fact that there are multiple languages so students from different backgrounds/countries an use it. With the letters practice, I like the way it scores the user's handwriting.
Suggestions	In a future version, I would like to see more fonts for students to practice with. Where I work (in South Carolina), students are supposed to learn print with sans serif. The print in this app is more of a handwriting print, and does not actually help students in my school.
General opinion	Playground HD3 - ABC Edition is a great app for helping students learn their upper and lower case letters as well as practice handwriting. Very young children can use the app to begin matching sounds with letters. Older children can use the app to practice their print and cursive handwriting. I recommend this app to parents of young children and early childhood teachers.

Rating
What I liked	I like the concepts that are incorporated with this app. I like the variety of activities focused on letters and making those more understandable. I like that the user can focus on many different languages and gain that exposure. I like that each time the user selects the tile, they gain that receptive identification piece due to the auditory component provided. I like the simplicity of the app and ease for the users.
Suggestions	The "I" does not make an "ee" sound, but that is what is presented. Also the "r" and "w" do not sound like the letter sounds. The "alligator" word does not sound like it completes the word with an "r" at the end. The "G" sound sounds like the letter sound for "J". If the idea is that the user is to match the letter sound with the word, then the word should be compatible. For instance, the "G" could be "gold". It is incredibly hard to get 3 stars in the practice writing section. Is there a criteria? A little bit of an explanation might be beneficial for success.
General opinion	The concept is fantastic. I believe the basis is great. I think users could benefit tremendously from exposure to this app. As a whole, this app provides exactly what is stated; however, there are some errors that, if fixed, will make this app even better! Those minor errors include some of the letter sounds being inaccurate or unintelligible.

Rating
What I liked	I like that there are multiple activities that involve letter recognition, letter sounds, and writing letters to engage young learners! When you buy this app, it's like getting 6 apps for the price of one. The graphics are engaging and likeable to young children. At a basic level this app teaches a variety of letter skills in multiple languages (Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish) that are important to early literacy. I love that one can choose to hear the letter name or initial sound, touch the animal to hear the letter in the word, and the "Write" section and timer!
Suggestions	I would like to see the following improvements made: 1. Letter formation- Capital print E should have line 2 at the top, 3 middle, 4 bottom 2.Practice and Write-Print lowercase a, most cursive uppercase, f-p-r lowercase cursive letters are not close enough for me to offer to practice for my students 3. Letter sounds-some are not correct according to phonetic standards such as i, g, o, u, z
General opinion	This is a delightful app for young learners who want to learn about letters. My preschoolers and kindergartners found this app to be engaging. This app includes 6 different exercises to promote alphabet learning including flashcards, practice, writing, assigning (matching and sequencing), pairs, and words. It was created by a non-educator and states that in the App Store description, so keeping that in mind, it is a very nice app.

Rating
What I liked	This app was completely engaging. the different options for voice and for letter styles seem to provide enough enrichment for many users. I also liked the colorful pictures and the star rewards for completing each task. It was also nice that the matching game grew harder as the players went on.
Suggestions	I would love to see an American English feature for this app. The British English is great, but many children in America could be thrown off by a new accent while learning and reviewing their letters. It was also a little frustrating when letter tiles would "fall" out of grasp. The sensitivity seemed to be a little off.
General opinion	This app is a great resource for any household or classroom. Children of many ages can increase their letter recognition skills, as well as their letter formation and recall. The boldly colored animals and engaging games will pull your child right in. This app is a welcome activity in my classroom and at home.

Rating
What I liked	I was very impressed with this app! The animal art is adorable. There is a lot of variety with the different ways to practice and match the letters. I am also impressed with the level of options to customize difficulty for the child. You can set it so the letters are pronounced or so it does the beginning sound instead. Parent controls allow for setting how long the child can play too, but I don't know why you'd want to limit it with all the practice it provides.
Suggestions	The most noticeable thing for me, being in the U.S., is just that it could use an American English voice. This didn't seem to bother the children I played it with. In fact, they found some of the pronunciations to be entertaining. I can see it might be a hindrance in some cases though. Also, I wasn't sure about the scoring on the letter practice. Sometimes I would trace letters perfectly, but in the wrong order, and still get a full score. I saw the children do it, though, and sometimes it would not give them a full score. That might confuse or frustrate some children.
General opinion	This is an attractive, well designed app. A lot of thought went into the interface and options. I let my nephews (ages 5 and 8) play with the app and they loved it. Both had fun trying to do the matching, but it seemed to appeal to the 8 year old more. They both liked the letter practice equally and I had to keep them from fighting over my single iPad! The only thing keeping it from a five is that there's no American English voice.

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