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ABC Coloring Town (Mac) Review

 
mac town logo
mac town logo
mac town logo

 
At a Glance...
 

Formats: Mac
 
Genre:
 
Year:
 
Developer:
 
Final Score
7.5
7.5/ 10


User Rating
1 total rating

 

We liked?


Kids benefit from letter and word recognition, basic computer concepts, creativity, and fun.

Not so much?


Only twenty-six pictures total.


Final Fiendish Findings?

ABC Coloring Town mixes creativity and fun with the alphabet and basic words to make an educational app that kids will want to play. My four, six, and eight year olds all enjoyed the ability to play around with color in a new way, and learning a little bit about technology at the same time. While it is somewhat limited in scope (twenty-six letters, and only twenty-six pictures), it helps with letter and word recognition as well as basic computer concepts. Best of all, kids like it.

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Posted March 21, 2013 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

Coloring is great for kids. It helps them develop creativity, hand eye coordination, and imagination – and besides, it’s just plain fun. It’s such a universally loved activity, and coloring apps have sprung up everywhere. Of course, coloring with paper and a box of well used crayons is ideal, there are all sorts of reasons why a coloring app can be a great choice too. When done right, coloring apps are educational, engaging, and a great way to introduce young kids to the technology skills they’ll need in today’s world. ABC Coloring Town, from EnsenaSoft, combines joyful music, a colorful town, and the ABC’s into a fun game that my kids adored.

mac color town 3

If your kids are already fond of coloring apps, then you’ll know that they actually have quite a bit of variance in how they are done. Some allow very little control, and kids simply click to fill in defined areas of each picture. Others have them clicking and dragging to color in manually. Some have several palettes of colors to choose from, and loads of pictures to page through till they find the one they like, while others offer only the most basic of choices. For the most part, the one that’s right for your child will depend upon their skill level and temperament. The youngest kids simply don’t have the dexterity to click and drag properly, older kids may be bored by the click to fill approach, etc. What I liked about ABC Coloring Town is that it offers both, which is great for families with multiple children.

The game is set in a town, which consists of a variety of different houses, each marked with a different letter. As you start the game, it leads you to the “A” house. The child clicks on the door of the house, and is taken right to that letter’s coloring page, which has a picture and word associated with the letter. For instance, the “A” house has a picture of an apple, with the word “apple” below it. Kids can color the picture, the word, and the background. They have the choice between a brush tool, or a paint bucket, and sixteen different colors. The brush tool allows them to click and drag, and it has four different widths, so it offers a little customization for their art. They can either color the page that way, or (as my daughter did) use it to write their name or draw little pictures all around the margins.

 

The bucket tool is for click and fill coloring. They select a color, and then an area of the picture (for instance, a leaf). When they click, it automatically fills in that area of the picture. It’s a really simple introduction to the idea of using a computer, and works well for younger players. This is an ideal way to introduce your kids to the idea of using a computer, as there is very little they can do that could frustrate them. While there isn’t any eraser tool, they can just color over the top of mistakes, or completely restart the page. Each letter has just one coloring page. Once they finish that page to their liking, they are led to the next house.
The player is led through every house in coloring town, one letter at a time. There isn’t any option to skip ahead to a different letter, or go back to an old one, but that can be a plus in some ways. Younger kids won’t get frustrated trying to figure out where to go, and you go through the alphabet in order, which is how you’d want them to learn it. When they get to the end, it simply takes them back again to “A”, and they can work their way through as many times as they like. While I don’t think kids are going to actually learn how to recite the alphabet with this game (you simply work through it too slowly), it is a valuable tool to help them become familiar with letters, and even for new readers to sound out their first words.

I’m a big fan of inferential learning. I think kids who are presented with a variety of tools and experiences will learn more effectively than those who are constantly quizzed, and ABC Coloring Town fits right in with that philosophy. Kids are presented with words and letters in a way that is interesting and fun. By playing around with the letters, words, and colors, they become more familiar with them, and have a great time doing it.

mac town
ABC Coloring Town mixes creativity and fun with the alphabet and basic words to make an educational app that kids will want to play. My four, six, and eight year olds all enjoyed the ability to play around with color in a new way, and learning a little bit about technology at the same time. While it is somewhat limited in scope (twenty-six letters, and only twenty-six pictures), it helps with letter and word recognition as well as basic computer concepts. Best of all, kids like it.


Amy

 
U.S. Senior Editor & Deputy EIC, @averyzoe on Twitter, mother of 5, gamer, reader, wife to @macanthony, and all-around bad-ass (no, not really)


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