Tomo Garage - Interactive Game App

Tomo Garage is an interactive learning game focusing on everyday objects. It is a simple and fun app to help children learn the name and purpose objects surrounding. Although colorful and attractive this app might not meet all your expectations! 

 

Tomo Garage  has been reviewed by  several reviewers at Review for Dev. Overall, it is an interactive learning game for the little ones, Colorful with nice graphics it offers a lot of car related items that will appeal to boys. The game allow children to tap on the correct letters to spell the word and reveal the object that can be played with in the garage. Note that Tomo Garage offers both Bristish and American English.

 

Some of the best comments include:

“This is great for teaching letter matching both upper case and lower case”; “My male students are crazy about scooters, trucks and tools, this is ideal”; ”I love that it brings the aspects of letter recognition, spelling and learning what each item is as part of the game as well.”;”Very fun app for this age range. My five year old loves it!”; “The word puzzles are a great way for the kids to learn how to spell the object in the picture using upper and lower case letters.”

And the downside, reviewers would like to see a tutorial on how to use the app and have the word spoken first as well as listening to name of each letter. Some of the comments are:

“With no directions, it was difficult to figure out how to play”; “I would like to see a progression from 3-4 letter words such as saw to longer words like scooter (going from easier to match to harder to match.)”; “The idea behind this app is sound but it could use some tweaking.”

 

Overall a cute app that offers potential but needs some tweaking to stand out in the highly competitive offers in the App Sore! 

 

See below for all the Reviewers comments.

 

Tomo Garage is available for download via the iTunes App Store - Universal App

 

From Review for Dev:

 

 

Nathalie C.: I'm a digital publishing consultant involved in apps for kids conception and improvment. I run an app review website, www.declickids.fr. I'm also a mother of 2 kids, the eldest one, Ulysse, helping me out with reviews. My secret plan is to make app's world better for kids all over the world, on app at a time (and your's is next !) ;) Rating What I liked > I liked the musical environment > I liked that you can control the language, music, spelling, and even reset the game. > I liked that it seems that the garage is carefuly built meanwhile. > I liked the great number and diversity of words offered. Suggestions > At first, the app seems very cryptic. What am I supposed to do?? A clue of some sort would be very welcome ! > The music is far too loud compared to the voice. > Not sure I completely understand the point in choosing the right letters out of a board to form a word. It is a vocabulary builder game? A "first letters / first words" game ? What is the incentive? General opinion A letter game where you need to form words by choosing the right letters out of a board, with some puzzle game combined with it, since you unlock words one at a time. Interesting, but maybe not enough focused and with not enough incentive (the activity itself is quicly boring)

Bethany P.: I have spent the last 19 years working as a Speech-Language Pathologist in the public schools. I help kids learn how to speak more clearly or with language/ grammar difficulties. I have my Master's Degree in Speech Pathology. I also have an elementary teaching degree. I have three teenagers at my house. I enjoy trying out new apps. Rating What I liked This is colorful and interesting for a child. The music is positive and jazzy. I like that you can change settings for music, voice on/off, upper case or lower case and British versus American. I like that it lets a child know if his answer is correct or incorrect. I like that it works on spelling skills. Suggestions I had a hard time figuring out the difference between the voices for British and American. I thought that all the voices sounded British. I would like to see a progression from 3-4 letter words such as saw to longer words like scooter (going from easier to match to harder to match.). You skip around with shorter and longer. General opinion This is great for teaching letter matching both upper case and lower case. It has great, cheerful reinforcement for correct answers. My male students are crazy about scooters, trucks and tools, this is ideal. I would like to see some directions, it was confusing, at times.

Libby C.: I am a special education teacher working with elementary students with a wide range of disabilities, including speech language, physical, emotional and learning disabilities. I use apps with my students to motivate and engage them as we'll as to improve skills and remove barriers to learning. Rating What I liked The graphics are bright and appealing. There are many different car related images, sounds and words. In the block game, children tap on the correct letters to make a word and that reveals a picture of the object which is saved to play with in the garage. Touching the picture in the garage brings up the object and the name is spoken. You can choose to have narration in British or American English. Suggestions With no directions, it was difficult to figure out how to play. In the cube game, I would like to hear the word spoken first, and also hear each letter spoken. Selecting lower case letters did not work. In the garage, the cars and trucks appear randomly, and we couldn't figure out how to change from day to night or make anything happen. My child testers wanted to interact with the cars, trucks and other objects they created and were frustrated when the word and picture just appeared briefly on the screen. They would like to find the objects in the garage, or "fix" a car using the tools. General opinion Great potential, with engaging graphics and a nice variety of car and truck themed images, sounds and words. Lack of directions, and very limited interactivity in the garage game made it frustrating for my child testers. The transitions in the cube game are slow. Kids got bored waiting for 3-2-1 start before each word. The lower case letter selection setting does not work. I could not find a way to contact the developers to give feedback.

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 The graphics is very inviting. My son was very excited to try this App because of this. He likes matching letters to build a word. This educational game has good potential but I feel that there is a lot of work that needs to be done so this App realizes its full potential. Suggestions The structure is highly confusing. When you load the App one would think this game leads you directly to a garage to play with cars and the like. As soon as you hit enter one has to figure out what button to press. After which, it brings you to a game that matches letters, this can be frustrating to children who are expecting cars and to parents who don't have the proper in-App instruction to tell their kids what to expect when. The timer is very fast and highly frustrating to beginner readers. My son is 5 years old and he had a fit (he actually cried) hearing the stressful timer. General opinion Tomo garage has good graphics and the potential to be something children will enjoy over and over. However, the developers need to make changes on how the App is built for its target market. Since it made it into the educational category, the App has to be mindful of the audience it wishes to reach. Consolidate sections, provide cues explaining what the game is about and what to expect when. The timer needs to slow down.

Krista C.: I am a stay at home mom with three active boys- ages two and a half, five, and seven and a half. My two and a half year old son has Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). We love to use the Ipad for therapy, education, and entertainment. Rating What I liked Tomo Garage is engaging with it's very fun and bright colors and graphics. My 5 year old enjoys the spelling portion and the vocabulary words used are motivating to children in this age category. My three year old likes pressing the letters and having them spin. Suggestions Clearer navigation. A tutorial would be nice. The opening screen is confusing as the "play arrow" is somewhat disguised. Would like an option on the spelling game to have blank boxes without the letters- i.e. CAR would be 3 blank boxes at the bottom. Words could be ordered more logically. My 3 year old can beat each level by tapping randomly- not learning anything. Once you collect the items it seems you might be able to use them in the garage- but taping them just causes them to become larger and say their name. I was expecting more. Only accidentally stumbled on the music box feature General opinion Kids will love the bright graphics and learning to spell fun words in Tomo Garage. The vocabulary keeps children engaged in learning. The idea behind this app is sound but it could use some tweaking. Clearer navigation and additional difficulty levels would be a big improvement.

Frances A.: My name is Frances Amato. I am a teacher. I am very hard working and a highly motivated individual. I am a educator that is for the use and integration of technology into the classroom. The technology I use are iPhone, iPad2, Smart Board and varied computers. I love to discovering new technology, assisting in creating and reviewing educational apps Rating What I liked What I liked most about Tomo Garage is that it was not what I was expecting, it was even better. I loved that the children had to spell the names of the different garage shop items in order to be able to have them as part of their garage work station. I also loved that it gave you a time limit, where every time you press a letter (especially the faster you go) it bring you back to the top of the chart. Every time you spell a word right you also get a score and an immediate reinforce that you did a great job. I love the intrinsic motivation put into the game for spelling every word. Suggestions I think it would be a nice idea that if when you pressed on the individual letters or the word as a whole if it was spoken to you. This would bring in earlier learners just leaving their ABC’s and make this game appropriate for them as well. I think it would also be nice if you can change how much time the children have. Thinking about children with disabilities, I think that 30 seconds might not be enough time. Perhaps if there was a setting to add an extra 30 seconds this might be helpful for this population. No one wants to get a score all the way down in the red. Just my thought though. General opinion This is a wonderful app for young children who are interested in items found in a garage. I love that it brings the aspects of letter recognition, spelling and learning what each item is as part of the game as well. This makes it into a real educational app instead of just a game. I would love to see the children be able to work on a car or use the tools that they learned about in the game, so I hope we see more wonderful apps from this developer

Andrew M.: Father of three young girls; middle school principal; chair of daycare board of directors; "connected educator"; former Language Arts teacher; avid reader; passionate about equipping colleagues with powerful tech tools Rating What I liked This app is GREAT for teaching children spelling words. My five year old played through the entire game the first day I downloaded it. She also likes trying to get three trophies for all the words. The scrolling menu helps keep track of the words done, how quickly each word was spelled, and helps get back to words that might need a do-over. Suggestions There are two parts of the app we haven't figured out. First is the points awarded for each word spelled. There doesn't seem to be any significance to the points - they are based on the speed completed, but the actual numbers don't seem to mean anything - there is no "record board" (that we can find) nor any acculturation of points scored. The other thing that baffles us is the garage itself. We figured out that cars drive/race through and words spelled can be called up/displayed, but the does not seem to be any other function/interactivity. Did we miss something? General opinion Very fun app for this age range. My five year old loves it! In-app play encourages accurate and swift spelling of common words. Points and trophies are awarded for each correctly spelled word. Wrong letters result in a time penalty. Scrolling menu helps children/parents see words that have already been completed.

Mark S.: I love learning about new and interesting products and consider myself a first mover in that sense. I love sports, technology and love making money. I work as a mortgage banker in Columbus and love the freedom it provides with both income and day to day operations. My wife works with special needs children, has a library background and edu. tech. Rating What I liked I really enjoy the large animated pictures. I think that is a great feature of this game. Overall, the animations make this game very attentive for kids to use. The application has a United Kingdom and United States setting. The noises are very interesting as well, kids love that feature. I very much enjoy the "music box" after scrolling over in the application. Suggestions There are a few things I would update: 1.) I would add a tutorial. When I first logged into the application I had no idea what the goal of the application was. This would be a GREAT feature so parents can explain to their kids. 2.) You should add a feature where you can use the tools and other items you can earn to build or create stuff. 3.) The voice in the game could be a little clearer. It sounds like it has an British accent and I think that would be confusing for American kids. General opinion In general this seems to be a good learning application. It seems very interactive and caters to the enjoyment of young children. It is a little confusing as you log in without telling you what you need to do. I mean, it makes sense what you need to do but a tutorial would be great for kids to learn themselves. On top of the current focus (garage related items), adding something with colors where you spell out different colors would be great.

Mandy N.: I have three special needs children that I love dearly. They have learned soo much from apps and love to share about apps that they use as well as apps I use. Children can learn soo much with the iPad when used as a teaching item as well as a fun gaming device :) Rating What I liked The app is friendly and cute. I love how you have to find the letters quickly to gain stars. The app is layed out nicely and I really like that in the garage you can see your items you found along with them being said aloud. The music is well done: not too loud our too soft or annoying. Suggestions I would like to see more direction of what your child is supposed to press next. It got a little confusing starting out on what they needed to do to play. In the garage it would be really neat to play with the items not just see a card come up. I would also like to see where your child must get the letters in order when finding them. General opinion The app is cute and friendly. My children and myself really like playing around with it. I love that it is teaching my children words in many formats: the word, finding the letters, and being said aloud with picture. The speech is clear in this app even with the accent :)

Michelle W.: I am a mother of two children ages 5 and 7. I like to see what educational and fun apps that are out for them to play. Puzzle apps are a big hit with our 5 year old right now, while my 7 year old likes educational or art type apps. Rating What I liked My 5 year old son played this for awhile and said he liked it. The graphics are crisp and the narrator is clear. My son was able to solve the word puzzle for each picture in no time. I like that you can turn caps and music on and off. I really like that there aren't any in app purchases or links to social media. Suggestions There needs to be a clearer home or back button in the app. It took me awhile to find it by tapping on the screen. I'm not sure what to do in the work bench/ tool section. Instructions on how to play the game should be posted in the help section of the app. General opinion Great app for kids age 2-6. Boys will like the app because it has tools and cars in it. The word puzzles are a great way for the kids to learn how to spell the object in the picture using upper and lower case letters. Nice graphics and sound effects.

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

Have Fun With Apps!

 

If you want to discover more Fun Educational Apps make sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and our news letter to receive regular update on great Fun Educational Apps and for great offers visit our kids apps deals

Like our offers … Follow us !

      
 

… and if your are looking for the latest kids apps deals make sure to visit: 

And if your are looking for more great apps for kids … Discover AppStar Picks, a kids apps catalogue with hundreds of apps reviewed!