Jump Up and Join In – a singing, dancing, fun filled app from David and Carrie Grant

One of my fondest memories of being young is of listening to tapes in the car whilst we travelled to our family holiday destinations. We had all different ones, and they came with book that you could turn the pages to and read along, really bringing the story to life.

Some had songs or rhymes that went along with them, and the one I remember most is Gerry the Giraffe:

‘Too tall, too tall, the evil cries still lingered in his ears. And Gerry did not see the wire, for his eyes were full of tears…’

The wire in question was a washing line, and he kept on getting tangled up in them.

Sadly, Gerry the Giraffe is now out of print. But its a testament to the properties of song and rhyme that I still remember it!

And David and Carrie Grant are two firm supporters of the properties of song as well. Creators of the CBeebies series ‘Pop Shop’, singers, coaches, and most recently authors both in print and the online world; their new ‘Jump Up and Join In’ books and app are aimed at making learning full of excitement, music and fun. An aim that seems to have totally been realised, judging by the Wee Man’s reaction upon seeing the app in front of him.

Immediately, he started poking at the screen, soon figuring out that he could create various musical effects from manipulating the characters in the story.

The app is aimed at 4-8 year olds and the Wee Man is 4 next month, so the perfect age to start playing with it. It’s based on the series of six interactive books which Carrie and David have written, and encourages children to get singing and playing instruments, as well as reading of course! As David himself said ‘they’ll pick up skills without knowing it’ – and the whole app is aimed at making learning about music a fun filled experience that they’ll want to engage with.

The course of the game follows a story, where you begin with easy rhythms and gradually build up to more and more complicated ones. There are also songs to sing, and a whole variety of instruments to play. The Wee Man really loved that he could take a photograph of himself, then add a funky hairstyle and outfit and watch himself dancing to the song he’d just sung – something that was demonstrated during our walkthrough of the app and he couldn’t wait to give it a try! We come from a musical family – and the Wee Man has just got his first guitar and loves giving it a strum – so this is a perfect way to build his confidence and awareness of music and rhythm whilst he builds his skill with real instruments.

Even better, he can share his musical exploits with his Nana in New Zealand, because the video’s of his ‘performances’ can be shared via YouTube or Facebook!

With four children themselves, Carrie and David are very at ease around children and had a lovely chat with the Wee Man, making sure he was included and enjoying himself. Bubby D slept through the whole thing, but woke up right at the end and was very perturbed that she hadn’t had a chance to play with the app at all, although she did get a copy of the book which she loved reading on the way home.

And good news for her – the app is available from the 15th July (on iPhone and iPad, priced a very reasonable £2.49) and I know we’ll be downloading it the first chance we get. The Wee Man hasn’t stopped talking about it and I’ve no doubt it’s going to be constantly clamoured for, both by him and Bubby D once she’s had a look at it!

So it may not be Gerry the Giraffe, but I’m very sure that it’s going to create the same great memories for my own children that I have of singing, music, reading and rhyme as a child – and I have to say I’m kind of looking forward to having a bit of a play myself 😉