My First Puzzles: The Alphabet

by Alexandre Minard © AR Entertainment

Tonight we continue our series of reviews from developers at AR Entertainment. The next in our line up is part of the “learning is fun” educational puzzle collection called My First Puzzles: The Alphabet. As Applicable2u plays the role of both a parent and an educator, I began introducing my son to what we thought were age appropriate “academic” things (ie. colors, letters, shapes) during his toddler years. Unfortunately the approach that we took wasn’t what our son wanted. When we wanted to practice “academic” things, he wanted nothing to do with learning thus putting frustration on all parties. So the traditional way of teaching was put on hold and we chose to go another route, to make learning fun. When learning is seen as fun, the desire and curiosity builds. If only we had the “learning is fun” educational collection at the palm of our hands several years ago.

While playing My First Puzzles: The Alphabet, listen to calming music on your Apple device running iOS 3.0 or later and manipulate small and large puzzle pieces in order to build and match letters. As letters are correctly built, learn how to pronounce all 26 letters of the alphabet. If English is not your native language, not to worry. Developers also offer this educational app in Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. My First Puzzles: The Alphabet is initially a free download offering four free puzzles as it introduces the first seven letters of the alphabet. While exploring the free version, users will be given a quick glance of the applications potential. For an additional in-app purchase of $1.99, young learners will be able to unlock 12 additional puzzles, thus providing them access and experience with all letters of the alphabet. An added bonus, once your native language is learned, extend the use of this educational app by supporting your child as they learn to say and build letters of the alphabet in another language.

My First Puzzles: The Alphabet is a pretty basic, easy to navigate educational app that allows most users to be independent. Playing and learning go hand in hand as your little one drags and drops various puzzles pieces into an empty lettered place holder. Tap one piece and all others will appear transparent. When placed correctly, players will be reinforced with a chime. Once letters are successfully built, each piece manipulated will pop up randomly in a 3D fashion and narrated with its letter name. A note to the developers – once a lettered puzzle is complete, might it be possible that pieces pop up not randomly but rather in a sequential order. By sequential order, we are looking for puzzle pieces to visually represent the formation of each letter of the alphabet. Since the application does focus on school age children, this would be an added bonus and reinforcement. In addition, we wonder if My First Puzzles: The Alphabet will also include the manipulation and building of lower case letters as well in a future update.

Using your mobile device has so much potential and with My First Puzzles: The Alphabet learning happens as your child drags, drops and listens for some form of positive reinforcement, a chime. It’s time to steer away from the traditional workbook and hop on board with those 21st century skills as it integrates with your Apple devices. For children who struggle with holding a pencil, that need learning activities like letter recognition as a way to build their fine motor skills then you will want to try My First Puzzles: The Alphabet. Make learning fun by getting to know AR Entertainment and the applications that they have to offer your child(ren) or students, be sure to visit their website here. Children need to know all the letters of the alphabet, so why not download the full version of My First Puzzles: The Alphabet to your device by clicking here.