Goldilocks and the Three Bears – the Playfuel app for iPhone

This weekend getting out of bed is proving to be a bit of a problem, and the Wee Man was getting restless. ‘Can we read a book Mummy?’ he asked ‘or play a game?’

Just before Christmas I treated myself to a shiny new smartphone, and so I’m less inclined to worry about my long-suffering old iPhone being covered in drool and sticky smears and have let the kids use it for the odd app or two. Listening to the Wee Man’s requests, I decided that perhaps an interactive story might provide the entertainment he was looking for – so I thought we’d take a look at the Goldilocks and the Three Bears app by Playfuel.

Playfuel are a small start up who say that they ‘want to make beautiful apps for kids to fall in love with and parents to enjoy. Children are much better at adopting new technology than adults and so we wanted to give them traditional and beautiful stories in a format they will find common place throughout their life.’

Well, it’s certainly the case that even Bubby D at 16 months can sometime get the iPhone working better than her Grandma (sorry Grandma but it’s true!) and both children love stories of the traditional (papery) kind, so I was interested to see what they make of this one.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a story that the Wee Man already knows and loves, and Playfuel have brought it to life with an interactive tale that he can navigate through at his own pace, listening to the words on the screen being read out to him and playing little games along the way.

The illustrations are simple but effective, with muted colours in the background providing a contrast with the more colourful Goldilocks and Bears on each ‘page’. This simplicity also means that the small screen of the iPhone doesn’t look to cluttered and individual details are still easy to see.

A constant fairly jaunty tune runs quietly in the background and unlike some of the irritating melodies that blare out of the various noise-making stuff the kids have lying around, this one is actually quite pleasant and adds to the story rather than distracting from it.

The Wee Man can be a little heavy handed at times and it took him a good few goes to get used to how the screen swipes to move on to the next frame, but having now been through the story at least fifteen times in succession he is busy ‘swipering’ with no problems at all.

A big grin lights up his face as he makes Goldilocks fall over from carrying too many flowers, blows up a firework to wake her up with a bang or (his favourite bit) makes steam come out of the ears on Mummy Bear.

The only thing he struggles with is mending Baby Bear’s chair, which requires a bit more fine-fingered dexterity than he currently possesses – although he’s determined to figure out how to do it and I’m sure it wont be long before the chair is up and running again!

It’s lucky I quite like the tune, as I have a feeling I’m going to be hearing it a lot for the rest of the day – especially since Bubby D has just woken up from her nap and she seems to like Goldilocks and the Three Bears rather a lot too!

 

 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is currently £1.99 in the app store,and was developed by Playfuel – a small start up made up of 2 mums with small children, who are making digital books and games for kids. Goldilocks and the 3 Bears is their 1st app and they are really proud of it.

I wasn’t asked to write anything about it – but I have because I personally think it’s a great way to share a story with a three year old, and well worth shouting about 🙂