With all of the creative learning apps made just to engage our little ones these days, it’s especially important to teach our minis that their finger isn’t their sole creative tool. That’s why we’re gushing over DRAWNIMAL, a drawing app that encourages kids to think outside the screen by expanding the canvas beyond the device with a pencil and piece of paper.
Once your kiddo’s arts and crafts space is deemed iPhone or iPad-friendly, lay your device down on a piece of paper to begin. The concept, like the app’s design, is perfectly simple, making it easy for kids familiar with a visual swipe command to navigate from A to Z, literally.
Each letter of the alphabet is represented by an adorable animated animal (an alligator for A, a bear for B, a cat for C, etc). One you choose your letter from the app’s pastel-drenched grid, DRAWNIMAL shows your child how to draw that critter’s main features, like their pointy ears or spiky tail. Once the real world doodling is done, a simple tap of the screen reveals the animal’s full, funny face. With round, wild eyes blinking and darting, and some creatures even snoring, croaking or meow-ing, it’s as if your child’s drawing has really come to life.
Aural cues takes the learning experience you get with DRAWNIMAL to the next level. Throughout the mini drawing session, letters are pronounced and reinforced using multiple inflections. And here’s the coolest part: you can choose to play the cues in different languages — English, Spanish, French, German or Italian — making the barrier of entry for onboarding a bi-lingual (tri-lingual? multi-lingual?) baby a real breeze. We only wish that learning another language was as seamless (and fun!) when we were tikes as it can be these days.
DRAWNIMAL gets gold stars for reinforcing the idea that there’s nothing but beautiful potential in space between the digital and analog worlds. ‘Cause seriously, Moms and Dads, when was the last time an app got you THIS moved to splurge on pastel drawing paper? And even though an abundance of glitter crayons would amp up that canvas just fine, imagine what DRAWNIMAL could look like if you brought a 3Doodler to the party? Look who’s earning those gold stars NOW!
Would you download DRAWNIMAL for your kiddos? What other kid-friendly apps are you letting your little ones use? Tell us in the comments below.
