There is something to learn

Do you wonder how iOS apps are evolving? For what reasons do they arise? By the will of demand, or lack of supply, and maybe because of the creative impulse of its creator. Obviously, for one application or another, the reasons can be very diverse. Today we want to talk with you about how our team came to the idea of ​​developing the development project "Bukvario".

What to compare?

In order to understand the way of becoming “ Bukvario ”, we will go through the project in steps, and at the same time we will analyze the market of Russian-language educational / developmental applications for children of preschool age.


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So, filled with hopes and anticipations, open the Education section in the AppStore .

We represent ourselves as the parent of a restless kid who needs something to take while you are preparing a raspberry pie, make another project or just want to relax on a day off, taking yourself to watch an interesting movie. But, as a truly caring and far-sighted parent, you do not want to slip your child “anyhow what” entertainment; you want him to play, get new and useful knowledge. Therefore, we methodically begin to sort through existing applications in search of those that would satisfy our interests. Namely: the application must be Russian-speaking, or its interface should not play any role in the learning / development process (let us leave foreign languages ​​for a while); it should be colorful and intuitive to the kid; The application should contribute to the development of memory, imagination, intelligence and / or motor skills.

So, having rummaged in a huge number of applications, we find about 25, externally satisfying our requirements (ie, described exactly as such), applications. Plus, in the section “Books” we can find a huge number of books that are suitable both for self-study by children and for reading by parents, for example, bedtime stories. Naturally, here we will not pay attention to each of them, but only systematize them into certain groups and consider the pros and cons. Well, and for interest, let's not leave aside the various opuses :)

Tale - a lie, but in her hint

Fairy tales. A huge set. Good old children, and children in a new way. If your wonder-child can read - great! There is something to please your young reader. And even if you still can not - you will find a number of voiced tales. In addition, in this category we assign collections of rhymes and various instructive stories.

Among the variety there are very decent options, containing excellent pictures and, often, some educational games. For example, a fairy tale about a turnip, which you can just listen to and she herself will scroll through the pages, but you can listen and leaf through yourself, or you can just read. And plus 2 games, thanks to which the kid can learn the names of fruits and vegetables.



In addition, with perseverance and desire, you can still find a number of excellent fairy tales, which are analogs of those that our parents read to us in childhood. Or fairy tales of various nations of the world, which can be interesting for adults.



But there are very strange works. Let's leave them nameless (a curious habraiser, if we find everything by ourselves), we will give only self-speaking screens.



Separate attention to the style of illustrations and the "Russian" flag.



Yes, yes, this is the "red hat", you are not mistaken.

Examples of "good" tales:
" Little Red Riding Hood " by Beegang.com
"The Frog Princess " by Versolab
Smart tales by AppGrade
" Munchausen " by Ripol Classic Media
Quryaba by Articul Media
Ladushki by Bulbax
Russian folk tales (audiobook) by Slushaiknigi.com

ABCGDake

Next, I would like to talk about a group of applications designed to teach letters, words, or numbers, but, unfortunately, there is almost nothing to talk about.



" Smart baby " by SoftService
Uchubuka by Vstrecher
" ABC Free " by 4iKids
" Arithmetic " by 4iKids
“ AAzbuk ” by Alisa Media Group
" Alphabet of children " by Versolab
Alphabet (HD) by E Forma
“ Mal da desal ” by Evgeniy Gemba
“ Writing, drawing, learning ” by Evgeniy Gemba

Above is a list of available applications, it is small, and besides, more than half of them are frankly sad. Instantly it becomes a pity for children who can begin to master the Russian language with such material.



Try to explain to your child why the letter “K” is attached to the tail and paw of a strange, melancholic cat.



Or prove to him that the reed does not have the slightest relation to the letter “A”, but is here, apparently, for the “interior”.



Well, or tell a tale about a half-shaved shaving squirrel with the letter "B" on the mirror ...



Or how do you like this idea to study words?

In general, if it’s time for your child to learn letters, numbers, to familiarize himself with the words - application developers have little to offer to meet the needs of parents and children in this niche.

For small pens

A variety of colorings, puzzles and everything that can contribute to the development of fine motor skills and imagination are also found. Among them there are many who possess an English-language interface, but for these applications this is not a crucial point. Therefore, here a caring parent can devote more than one hour to choosing the most suitable applications for her baby.



In addition to the applications included in one or another of the groups described above, there are others that are difficult to systematize due to their singularity. For example, an application with riddles . Not bad, but the colors chosen by the developer depress the eyesight.



Or, for example, an application that helps develop auditory perception. Your baby clicks on the animal and learns how it is called and what sound it makes.

Let's sum up

And the results are sad. As we can see, the niche of Russian-language developmental applications, though externally filled, is by no means what many parents would like. Many tales, stories, puzzles and the like. But for the active development and training of applications for children is not enough. In fact, there are no good alphabets and primers, no applications for the baby to learn sounds, numbers and words.

The most important part of becoming a human being still has to go with applications (here we mean not only programs for various platforms, but also what is used in real life - books, illustrations, games, etc.), at best, created in the last century. What does not fit in with how quickly modern children develop, what they require entertainment, and in the end, with what our plans for the unborn child.

When developing Bukvario, we took into account, above all, the experience of the entire industry, which, most likely, can be characterized as negative. But, as they say, they learn from mistakes, and our application, by common standards, is still quite modest, literally - a kid. Therefore, if you have any valuable comments on Bukvario - feel free to express them, here - in the comments, or email pimenov (at) ppk.ru

Only we have two pre-school beta testers,
Team Bukvario .