There’s plenty of electronic entertainment at our house, but when the grandchildren visit, I get out the coloring books and crayons. They love to color and we’ve found that coloring is a quiet activity that helps them focus on a task and feed their creativity.
And with the Kids Coloring Book app on a mobile phone or tablet, we can keep them entertained in the car, at a restaurant or just about anywhere.
The free app has a pallet of 72 different colors — no more lost or broken crayons - and a growing library of more than 130 pages with more added every week. The collection is grouped by topics such as animals, flowers, fruits and people along with topical themes like Christmas and Halloween.
The coloring options include Redo and Undo buttons to help make the finished artwork just right and the app saves work in progress and finished projects in the My Work section, which acts like a personal portfolio.
Finished creations can also be shared on social media channels including Facebook and Instagram.
To see Kids Coloring Book in action, watch the video below. The app is available as a free download for Android devices in the Google Play Store.
I’ve seen 3D printers in action and I still think the concept of printing a solid object is science fiction. And 3D pens aren’t far behind.
At the CES trade show earlier this year, I saw people use 3D pens to create wondrous objects like flowers, superhero figurines, and even tiny houses and villages.
Most 3D pens work like a glue gun. They create solid objects by heating a plastic rod and shaping the soft output into different designs while the plastic streams quickly harden. Other pens use photopolymer ink that hardens when it’s exposed to ultraviolet light. With no heating element, those pens are more suitable for children.
One of the most popular 3D pens is the 3Doodler Create Pen which sells for about $100. The pen comes with a starter collection of colored filaments and the support of an online community that shares hundreds of stencils and designs.
The 3Doodler and several other 3D pens are described on the BestSeekers website which also has links to sources that sell the pens.
Back when my children rode in car seats and I was their chauffeur, I constantly scanned the rear view mirror looking for trouble in the back seat, especially after they were old enough to undo the restraints by themselves.
A child on the loose in a car is a child in danger. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says unrestrained children 14 and younger accounted for nearly 170,000 car injuries in 2012 with 1,100 of them fatalities.
I suspect Bob Steffen probably had parental anxieties like mine when he founded Cars-N-Kids in St. Louis and invented a device called Driver’s Little Helper. It’s a car seat sensor with built-in Bluetooth communication that sends an alert through an app when a child gets out of the car seat or when the temperature in the car gets too hot or too cold.
The Driver’s Little Helper system uses three components. One is a small plastic cushion that slips under the pad of a child’s car seat. A short cable connects the pad to a battery-powered transmitter that clips to the seat or to a seat belt strap. The third element is a mobile app that can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store.
When I tested Driver’s Little Helper, I found it was no more difficult than setting up Bluetooth speakers or wireless headphones. I started by installing three AAA batteries in the transmitter, (something the Driver’s Little Helper instructions neglected to mention), then plugged in the cushion cable.
In the app, you can enter your name along with a mobile number and email address plus contact information for any additional parties who should get alerts.
The next stop was a link to add a new car seat. The app quickly found the sensor and gave me the options to assign it to a specific child’s name and upload a photo. The Driver’s Little Helper supports multiple sensors, so naming them sounds like a good idea for parents who have more than one little passenger.
When there’s no pressure on the cushion, the transmitter powers down and the app shows that the sensor is offline. But when a child is in place, the app lights up and reports “Child in seat” and shows the temperature, battery level and whether the vehicle is moving or stopped.
If the child leaves the seat, the display changes to “Child out of seat” and when the car stops, an alert appears on the screen. The system will also send an alert if the car stops and the child remains in the seat. Users can specify how long to wait after the car stops before the alert goes out. It’s technology like this that could put an end to children being forgotten and left in a hot car.
The creators of Driver’s Little Helper are accepting preorders at the Driver’s Little Helper website. The device costs $79.99 and comes with the sensor pad, transmitter and story book and stickers for the little passengers.
To learn more about Driver’s Little Helper, check out the video below, visit the DLH page on Facebook and follow @drivers_helper on Twitter.
Willy Moonberg is the creator of almost a dozen different Android puzzle games and educational apps, including two math trainers and a cool maze game that will remind older players of Pac-Man.
Willy’s latest offering is Rainbow Drops, a fast-moving puzzle game that will appeal to all ages.
The challenge is to move a player piece into its matching color home. To be successful, players have to change the color of the moving piece by pushing it into a colored raindrop while staying clear of fires and lasers.
The game includes switches elevators, teleports and new paths. It moves through several levels and Willy promises more levels with future upgrades.
Rainbow Drops works on most newer Android phones and tablets. It can be downloaded for free in the Google Play Store.
Math was never my strong point in school, but I know I would have performed much better if Slide was around to help. Slide is a new math-based puzzle game that trains your brain to make quick calculations.
The game has a series of boards, each displaying numbers and operations - multiplication, addition and subtraction. To score points, players drag the numbers to match a specified target. For example, if the target result is 17, you would slide number buttons into line to make 5 x 3 + 2.
To add a little more pressure, Slide is played as an online multiplayer competition that rewards both speed and accuracy.
The game tracks your progress and your ranking with detailed statistics. It works for younger players who can benefit from math drills and older folks who just want to sharpen their analytic skills.
The game is a free download for Android devices in the Google Play Store. A paid version eliminates ads and lets you play offline. Fractal Games, the developers, say an iOS version is in the works.
It didn't take long for my preschool grandson to discover the best place to learn his numbers is on his Android tablet. I've helped his parents pack the device with a variety of programs that mix learning with fun. The latest addition is Math For Kids from 360 Sages.
The app focuses on the early stages of math. Children learn to count from 1 to 10, add and subtract numbers up to 1,000 and do some simple multiplication.
The games use colorful cartoon animals and characters including frogs and dinosaurs to keep a child's attention. Each set has a series of matching challenges to make the lessons fun and entertaining and players are rewarded with scores for each round.
In addition to the Android version available in the Google Play store, the game is also available for Windows phones.
In our world of digital displays, how do you teach children to tell time on a traditional analog clock? Now there's an app for that.
Clockwise delivers a series of easy exercises that will help young minds understand the concept of time and how a clock with hands and numbers works.
The app displays a time on an analog clock face and asks users to enter the numbers on a digital display. A correct answer is rewarded with a "Well done!" Score 25 or more correct answers in a row and you're a master clock reader.
The app was created by Piotr Nowacki, developer of a series of puzzle and activity apps for children. Clockwise is free at the Apple App Store in versions for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
I started reporting on gadgets and gear when Atari ruled electronic games and computers used floppy disks. My weekly column ran in the The Louisville Courier-Journal and online at USAToday.com and ABC News.com. I was a regular at tech trade shows including COMDEX, CES and the CEDIA show for home theater. Follow @GizmoEditor on Twitter and on Facebook. Contact me at ricman@iglou.comI also create short videos for vendors to use on Amazon and YouTube. Click here to see a portfolio of my recent videos.
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