Review- Mobile Apps-Rainbow Sentences

Have you noticed my new sidebar button?  We have a new name- Schoolhouse Review Crew along with an updated website.  Check it out to see what we are so excited about here!

And here's my first review under our new name: Rainbow Sentences by Mobile Education Tools.
Mobile Education Tools has created some neat products!  The one our family got to review last month is a grammar related product made for your iPad.  Here's what the web site has to say:


Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues. The who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure.




Here' a screen shot of a level three sentence.  Your child is encouraged to drag the separate sentence parts to their correct location.  As you touch the word group to drag it, it is read to you, a huge benefit for my non-reader. Once you think they have the sentence correct you check your work, and then either move on to the next sentence or get a second and third try with a little more guidance.  Every few sentences done correctly earn a puzzle piece that is then animated when complete.  A fun little  built-in reward system.   A level one sentence would consist only of the who and the what.

One of the best things about this program, in my opinion, is the settings button.  You can gear it specifically to your child in numerous ways: turning on or off the color coding, line color coding, word color coding, word grouping, and the audio instructions, as well as changing the complexity level.  CJ's favorite part- the record correct Answer button, which allows him to record the sentence he has fixed and then hear himself.  He thinks it is great, though I did have to remind him occasionally to record the correct sentence, not his own funny one!

Though I am pretty sure my almost 5 year old did not get quite yet the mechanics of how you build the sentences, he was able to do so with the color coding off eventually.  By listening to the sentence parts he could figure out where to put the word groups.  The program held his interest, I think, for several reasons: 
-It's very colorful and engaging
-The voice used is clear and easy to listen to
-The menu at the bottom of the page was simple enough for him to navigate alone
-The puzzles were a fun incentive to play

Happy Boy, Happy Mom!

Rainbow Sentences can be purchased here for $7.99 to be downloaded though iTunes onto your iPad. 

In the past I have not been a fan of games on my iPad for my children.  I have since changed my mind because of excellent products such as these.  While in iTunes, check out the other apps this wonderful company has to offer.  Several of the reviews online mentioned using them successfully with special needs children, a bonus in my book!

  Disclaimer:  As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.