TVOKids.com’s first iPhone app

Wow!  Good for you, TVO Kids.  Never thought you’d spend the money, but here you are, delivering a free preschooler app to the masses.  Now parents all over Ontario can also do the pass-back thing to keep screaming children quiet and mesmerized.  Let’s hope they know how to handle those devices, since I’ve really only seen small children rather aggressively punching their little fingers into the screen.

THE LOOK
The interface seems nice, normal and friendly enough.  Melvin the skunk is fairly cheerful-looking and proportional against a nice park-like background.

GAME PLAY
The purpose of the game is to match words.  Randomized cards appear on the right hand side of the screen.  When selected, they turn over with a word.  A voice reads out the word as it’s tapped, and if you don’t match the words correctly, he says, “Try again!” Once you successfully match two of the cards, there’s a chime, small applause, and the word goes on to the “Word Wall” on the left hand side of the screen.

When you finish the level, he reads the words off the Word Wall.

PURPOSE OF THE GAME
The point of the game is as such:
“Playing Melvin’s Marvellous Words teaches your early learner sight words in a fun card-matching activity.  Melvin’s Marvellous Words is produced by tvokids.com with iPhone programming by zinc Roe design.  Visit tvokids.com for more excellent learning experiences for children.”

For what you pay for (it’s free), I really can’t complain.  There’s no way to take this and monetize it since there isn’t any place to put an ad, or stuff brand names into the matching cards.

What I would like to have seen though is the words matching up to pictures.  Words like “three” and “yellow” could be associated with the word (letters) AND thing, rather than be jumbled into a mixture of words that I have uncovered so far.

this
he
can
two
one
a
are
to
under
the
come
get
is
funny
little
yes
at
go
not
blue
away
it
look
we
said

Okay, the more I play the game, the more I can see the repetitive reuse of technology and programming.  It’s a simple concept and as one progresses through the levels, the number of cards increase from 6 to 10, then down to 8 (?), then stays at a steady 10.  Words progress in difficult, moving up from “at” to “blue” and “away.”

My doable suggestion would be to use the words in a proper sentence on the Word Wall.  It feels a little too random and out of context to bring two and two together for story time.

If the limit is 5 words at a time, you could combine sentences to reinforce how those words are actually used:
“He is my good friend.”
“Look at the little dog.”
“Yes, he can be funny.” -- CUE: Melvin laughs.
“He said to come here.”

But other than that, good for you, TVO Kids and zinc Roe!  Good job, it’s a pretty finished product!