Children?s e-book iPhone Apps + $50 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

The girls and I have been trying out some children’s e-book iPhone applications from ScrollMotion.  I know this isn’t the kind of thing I normally write about here on LFM, but I’m a huge believer in exposing children to lots of reading, and I love having apps on my iPhone that give me the ability to do so in situations where it is harder to do it with an actual book.  So I decided to try out the apps and then share them with you if we enjoyed them.  ScrollMotion, the developer of these apps, is a media and technology company that develops electronic platforms for books, children?s books & magazines, including lots of titles that are kid and mom friendly (Sesame Street, O by Oprah magazine, Thomas the Train, etc).  We tried out:

Thomas and Toby:

Photo Credit: iTunes

Bert & Ernie’s Great Adventures: Dinosaur Days

Photo Credit: iTunes

and Bert & Ernie’s Great Adventures: What’s Cooking?

Photo Credit: iTunes

Wanna guess which one the girls loved the most?  Yep, “What’s Cooking?“!  Can you tell my daily activities might have a slight influence on my children?

This particular book is taken from a segment on a Sesame Street episode that we’ve seen before.  It uses the claymation style being used by Sesame Street now, and the narrator is none other than Gordon from Sesame Street! Yes, he’s still around!  You can also record your own voice reading the story, but we love Gordon’s reading voice, so haven’t used that option yet.  Gordon reads the story, and if your child reads, they can follow along as he reads, because the words are at the bottom of each page.  The app also comes with coloring pages that your kids can color over and over again using an interactive tools palette.

In the short time we’ve had the apps, the girls have already listened to each story at least 5 times each, and have done quite a bit of coloring.  I haven’t found anything not to love, except for trying to convince them to give my phone back to me when I want to use it!

I am giving away the three apps I mentioned above, along with a $50 Visa Gift Card, courtesy of ScrollMotion, so that one of you can try out these fun apps with your kids too!

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite (or your kids’ favorite) children’s book is.  One winner will be picked, using Random.org.  Contest starts today, February 17, 2011 and will end on March 17th, 2011 at 10pm PST.  This contest is restricted to US Residents.*

Bonus Entries:

2. Follow ScrollMotion on Twitter, then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me you did so.

3. Like ScrollMotion on Facebook, then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me you did so.

4. Tweet about this giveaway, then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me you did so.  To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: Children’s iPhone App + $50 Visa Gift Card #Giveaway from @fujimama and @ScrollMotion

* The winning prize package will be sent out from the ScrollMotion Marketing offices.  The prize will be sent directly to the winner’s home address.  Winner must respond within 48 hours of email contact or the prize will be given to another randomly selected contestant.  This contest is restricted to US Residents.