My iPad is one of my son’s favorite things to play with (in doors). For the most part we look at the Explore the Animal Kingdom App , some story book apps and a few others that I’ll post here in the coming weeks.
Gizzard Stone App of the week, like everything we post here, is for apps that are interesting for the parent and the kid so that we can all have fun, and learn something cool together. This week, the app of the week is:
Solar Walk 3D: $2.99
Solar Walk is a dynamic tour of our hood in the galaxy that lets you fly around, zoom in and out and look for more information on the planets and moons that make up out solar system. The visuals are incredible and just zooming around and looking at things keeps me and my 20 month old son entertained for a good half hour or so before he gets antsy and remembers he has a 3 foot dinosaur in the other room. I like to read the info panels on the planets, particularly the core section cut-away views. He likes to smear his slobbery fingers on the gorilla glass.
Planets and Moons
Solar Walk lets you zoom in on all the planets and moons in the solar system including Pluto! Which is important because Pluto is one of the easiest [non]planet names for a kid to say. The visuals are stunning as you can see in the Saturn view below. For now, all I do with my son is try to get him to say the names and things like planet, crater, ring, moon, etc… He can also say, “space station.” He can also say, “love Dada.” He’s a smart kid (or maybe he’s into art.)
Satellites
When you zoom in on Earth it shows many major artificial satellites orbiting Earth and lets you zoom in on them to get more information. It actually shows a lot of information and data about the International Space Station. When you see the space station with the moon in the background you are obligated to say, “that’s no moon. It’s a space station” no matter how much your wife abuses you for it.
Videos
There are a 7 short vidos in the app that explain things like the tides, 0rbits, the seasons on Earth, etc. The videos are pretty cool. I imagine that they are good for helping older kids start to understand how things move about in the solar system. They are good for teaching toddlers that cool things move around on the iPad screen and that they need to smear more nose goo on it.
It’s in 3D
Is this a big deal? I say not really. I haven’t tried it. I don’t have the glasses. If you care about 3D. This might potentially be an interesting distraction for you (and your child).
Should you buy Solar Walk?
Yes. If you like cool images of the planets and information on orbits and cool stuff like that. It’s well worth the $2.99. I don’t know if it’s the BEST solar system app. But it’s pretty cool. You and your kid will definitely like Solar Walk. As long as you don’t let them play fruit ninja or the bubble wrap or [oh god] Elmo’s Monster Maker.
Similar Apps
Solar Walk is made by a company called Vito Technology which also makes some apps that I’m curious to try.
[jcolumns] [jcol/][/jcolumns]
-Mike
Add comment