Common Sense Media Review
Popular magazine goes digital with interactive fun.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Highlights: All About
What's It About?
When you buy HIGHLIGHTS: ALL ABOUT, the Fall book is automatically downloaded. Simply tap on the book to start. Kids can choose from three main options: Puzzles, Reading, and Activities. In the Puzzles section are matching activities, interactive poems, hidden pictures, mazes, and jigsaw puzzles. The Reading section has four stories of varying difficulty levels: One story is animated, and the others have the option for kids to read and follow highlighted text or to record their own voices reading the story. In the Activities section, kids can watch short videos, record themselves doing an activity, or draw pictures about a specific topic, such as jumping into a leaf pile. As they play kids earn stickers, which are displayed on a separate page. Eleven other kid-friendly editions are available as in-app purchases including Summer, Winter, Spring, Transportation, Rain, Camping, Amusement Parks, Pets, Clothing, Music and Dance, and Books.
Is It Any Good?
Highlights: All About provides the same top-notch quality as its print counterpart. The activities are fun and challenging with plenty of variation to keep kids engaged. Allowing for a range of reading abilities and beautifully illustrated pages, the reading selections include early and emergent readers. Budding artists can find inspiration in the autumn-related prompts and create drawings. The free Fall edition offers plenty of learning value, but it's important to keep in mind that kids will see all the in-app purchases each time they open the app and likely will ask parents to buy them.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about topics related to each edition. Ask kids what they like most about fall and why. How is it different from the other seasons?
Work together to record the action rhymes in the Activities section. For example, in the Transportation edition, act out a flying airplane with kids.
Encourage kids to write their own poems. If they can't write, have them draw pictures while you write the words.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPad , Android
- Subjects : Language & Reading : following directions , reading , Math : shapes , Arts : drawing
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : solving puzzles , thinking critically , Creativity : making new creations
- Pricing structure : Free (One edition free; each additional edition $1.99)
- Release date : February 11, 2015
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : Highlights for Children, Inc.
- Version : 1.1
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 6.1 or later, Android 4.0 and up
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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