Amazing Apps: Gary Goes to School

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

KidTale designs, develops, and publishes interactive products for younger audiences (ages 3+). They have several iOS storybook apps that teach kids decision-making and social skills. What's fun about these storybooks is that kids can make choices and the story changes along with their choices, so they can see how their decisions might have good or bad consequences. They can try out different reactions in the safety of the app, and use what they've learned when faced with similar situations in real life.

KidTale released its first chapter of the interactive storybook series Gary the Giraffe titled “Gary Goes Skiing” in March 2014, followed by "Gary Goes to School" in May 2014. Gary the Giraffe and his friends, Pete the Piglet and Bibi the Bunny, have real-life situations kids can
relate to - playing with friends and a typical day at school.

I got to review Gary Goes to School. In it, kids can face situations like bullying, sharing, and playing together. The girls really enjoyed it. My 6-year-old had some fun replaying different choices each time. My 4-year-old just picked her favorite over and over. It was definitely a nice app to play with them and talk about why they thought different choices had the results they did, and also for my older one, if she could think of other choices besides the options listed. I liked this app - it taught lessons in relationships and social skills without being preachy or boring.