Parcel of Courage App Review
Win this app July 15th, 2016!
We offer free copies of apps we review on Facebook, Enter the giveaway here.
Parcel of Courage App Review
The Parcel of Courage interactive storybook app is charming. The illustrations are incredible. The colors jump off the page and because of their interactive features, it will keep a child’s’ attention a lot longer. The background moves through each page and you never know what will happen next. I found myself mesmerized by the shimmering scenes. The story teaches about a wonderful family adventure and is great for kids that struggle to understand social relationships and the feelings associated with them. I would suggest this app mostly to preschoolers however the story would suit children through grade school as well. This app was created by Moona. They develop high quality apps for anyone young at heart. The apps are full of warmth and offer a lot of balance between fun, learning, and growth. They have a great promotional video available that is worth checking out as well. It really got me even more excited to use the app.
Features
Let’s get started! Open the app. Choose whether to read, play, or listen. I would recommend reading or listening first. The “play” section offers interactive activities that are related to the book. These could be used as an incentive after reading the story and really help encourage learning. A lot of the activities work on numbers, colors, or sequencing. They aren’t quite as colorful as the pages but pretty close. My kids loved the activities. The story itself is very family focused. It teaches about having adventures, trying new things, and finding courage with one another. It can really help to bring families together. The pages are magical! You can click on the characters. By the way, they talk! How cool is that. It took us a little while to realize that during the story. You can also move the scenes around and the rooms go off of the page so there is a lot more to explore than what you first see.
You will find 15 illustrated pages in the story. There is roughly 3-4 sentences on each page so I wouldn’t recommend it for babies or toddlers that are still on board books with very few words. Children with a low attention span may still struggle to listen to the entire story but the illustrations are very grabbing. It is perfect for children ages 3 and up. Within the story and games, you will discover maps, line up courage cookies, build marble runs, address and send post cards, as well as help grandma clean up the yard. You will learn quickly that this app is packed full with fun features and new things to explore. The app is very safe. There is a link to Moona’s other apps but they are guarded with a passcode. There are no annoying advertisements or useless links outside. 
Many will also appreciate that this app is offered in multiple languages. I get requests often because there are many students who are fluent in multiple languages and teachers want to be able to support that. There are also many classrooms participating in a bilingual immersion program. This app is offered in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. In the settings menu, you can adjust the music or the text volume through out the story. I love that the two can be adjusted separately. Many kids with Sensory Integration Disorders can be bothered by very particular noises but may still want access to the audio listening feature. One thing I would recommend as a change for this app is the page turning arrows. They are rather small. Children with fine motor delays may struggle at times to turn the page with them. Enlarging them a bit more will solve this problem completely. One other small note is that the app did shut down on me twice while I was reviewing it. It’s hard to know if it was from my device or sometimes there may be a small glitch in the app but it is important to mention. It was not a nuisance and I was still able to fully enjoy the app.
Parcel of Courage Overview
I loved this magical story. The app is easy to use. I was delighted with the interactive activities, the relatable characters, and the colorful pages that came to life. Teaching about families is helpful to children on the Autism spectrum. It can teach to social relationships and appropriate behavior. The separate audio features were fantastic. I haven’t seen them separated before in a storybook app. My kids loved the story! We read it once in the day and once during bedtime. It kept their attention both times really well. They were even more motivated by the activities available in the “play” section. These are geared for preschoolers mostly but my 6 year old enjoyed them as well. I would love to see the arrows that move through a story a little bigger for children that struggle with fine motor skills but overall, I was pleased. At the time of writing this review, A Parcel of Courage retailed for $2.99.
Download Circles in the App Store today!
