Happy 2017 and Screen Time

FIRST I want to say HAPPY 2017!!! I know, it's March.  I also know that I failed to write last year.  I also know that it has been a year since saying that I would.  Life just threw one wrench after another at me.  However, maybe things are looking up.

SECOND I want to talk about screen time for kids.  I know we aren't supposed to give kids a lot of screen time.  I'm guilty of letting the kids have a movie on in each room--I got tired of fighting with them about only having one on at a time. Plus, two kids? There's always a fight over who wants to watch what.  Of course, we haven't set the best examples as adults, either, being constantly glued to our phones or computers.
However, I think some of the apps for kids don't count as "screen time" due to the learning aspect of them.  My kids are currently 8 and 4 (almost 9 and 5).  They don't have their own tablets or anything, but there's apps on my phone to keep them occupied while we are out and stuck at, say, doctors' offices or getting our hair cut for the first time in months.  My daughter loves the bilingual apps--we have one for Mandarin and Spanish.  Well, let me correct myself there.  There's one for Mandarin and English, one for Spanish and English, one for Mandarin only, and one for Spanish only.  There's a child for each language and they say the word and you are supposed to move the block that corresponds with that word up to a little box.  It's cute.
My son, the four year old, loves the Endless Reader app, which was mainly what this post was for.  No, this is not an ad.  Well, not in the "I'm getting paid" sense, because I'm not. But I love this app.

ClassDojo is for my daughter's school.  Reader is the Endless Reader app. And at the bottom you can see the bilingual apps.

 Endless Reader has helped my son so much with learning.  He'll come up to me while I'm lost in facebook or pinterest or instagram, pull at my arm, and ask, "Mommy, can I learn about monsters?"  The app uses "monsters" to spell words and act out sentences with those words.

The screen after the "opening scene", which you can skip by just tapping on the screen.

 After you select a word (sorry, I didn't take a screen shot of the word selection screen), it shows on the screen in colors and the narrator says the word.  Then the letters get jumbled up and your job is to move them back into the correct position.  The letters also make their own sounds, after faces appear once you touch them to move, until they are placed.  As they are placed, the letter name is said.

You can move multiple letters at the same time I recently discovered.  My son likes to use all of his fingers to place them at the same time and THAT can be a bit of a ruckus...

 Once the word is spelled out, there's a recording of a group of kids repeating the word.  Then the little green bird picks up the word and carries it to the next screen which has the sentence.  However, before s/he can place the word, all of the monsters stampede across the screen and knock out a few words from the sentence.  The child then has to move the words to their correct places in the sentence.  Once a word is selected, it changes into whatever word it is ("house" is a house) while being moved.  It also says what word it is.  Quiet is whispered.

 Once your sentence is finished, a scene pops up and the monsters act out what is on the screen.  The narrator then speaks the sentence.  My son likes to repeat the scene a LOT; the repeat/refresh symbol (what is that called?) shows up in the middle of the screen after the scene is acted out.

The concert is muffled and Dapper Dandy does smile after this.  My issue is, if he didn't like the loud noise, why did he go to the concert? 

The app only starts with so many words. You have to buy additional upgrades.  However, each stage, if you buy all available in that stage, is only $11.99 or $10.99.  I think it's well worth the money, and a better use of funds than spending $9.99 on coins to buy Pokeballs because I'm too lazy to walk down to the Pokestop at the end of the street.