Tuesday, August 12, 2014

FarFaria App {A Review}


FarFaria sent us a 6 month membership to FarFaria - Children’s Books for the iPad and Android Devices ($4.99 a month) for ages 2-9 to review. 


First Thoughts
When we were offered the FarFaria app to review, I originally thought it would be a good fit for Li and maybe Jo-Jo. But I quickly found I was wrong. Although my sweet Ceesa is older than 9 (she still loves to be a fairy), and she likes to listen to the stories, too! Especially the fairy tales, imagine that. So all of the kids (including Wheel) liked to listen to the stories.



What There is to Discover

FarFaria is an app that provides over 700 children’s stories with five new ones added each week. FarFaria is an archipelago, a chain of themed islands, full of stories. The islands have names like Classics Grove, Bed Time Bluffs, Adventure Island, Fairy Tale Falls, Looney Lagoon, GoodLand, Animal Kingdom, Mt. Make Believe, Genius Jungle, Preschool Playground, and Sing Along City.



From the Explore tab you go to the lands of FarFaria. By clicking on the individual islands, you can investigate the stories related to the themes. Or you can go to the Home tab and see what is new, most popular, stories from around the world, and (for the summer) summer brain gain stories.


Each story has a level for reading difficulty (P, 1, 2, 3, or 4). Reading Level P is for pre-readers, Reading Level 1 is for pre k-kindergarten, Reading Level 2 is for kindergarten-grade 2, Reading Level 3 is for grades 1-3, and Reading Level 4 is for grades 2-4.

Each story has the option of auto play, read to me, and read to myself. Stories can be read over and over again. And pages are turned with a swipe of the finger. You have an option to add stories to your Favorite tab and listen to them offline. 


How we Used it
I let the kids listen to the stories together or individually. I let each of them pick a couple of stories at a time when they wanted to listen to some. There were many times when they asked to listen to them throughout the day. We just attended a wedding over the weekend, during the time that the newlyweds were getting pictures and the dancing started, Ceesa said, "Lets get the mini so we can go on to FarFaria while we wait."



What the Kids Thought
Ceesa reports: "FarFaria is a very fun program. I mostly read stories from Fairy Tale Falls because there weren't many scary stories there. I didn't even like to look at those covers. There were some really interesting stories like The World of Where, Anya Outwits the King, The Magic Mirror, Hearts of Gold, and Beauty and the Beast. I listened to some from Mt. Make Believe like Cinderella and from BedTime Bluffs Princess and Pea. There was one story called Callie's New Suit, that one was a really funny one. The stories put the people in interesting situations like The World of Where and Callie's New Suit. And some were old fairy tales that I've heard a lot. I highly recommend this for kids of all ages from Li to me, even Wheel liked them."

Jo-Jo had to say: "I like the books because they are interesting. You can have it read the story to you or you can read it yourself. The islands are very neat. I've read lots of stories from different places. I like how Animal Kingdom has a Mount Rushmore of animals and Preschool Playground is made of blocks and how Classic Grove has little houses and a face on the tree with windows."

Li tells me that he likes The Little Red Train Tries, Go, Car, Go, The Little Yellow Train, Rapunzel, and Sleep, Baby, Sleep.

Caution
There were some stories that we did not read as they contained monsters, sorcerers, zombies, goblins, etc. You may need to supervise your children's use of the app or choose the ones that are appropriate for your family, put them in the Favorites tab, and keep your device offline while they are using it.

Wishlist
We'd prefer the "scary" types of stories to be separated on their own island, since Ceesa didn't even like looking at the covers. 

Giveaway & Free Offer

You can try FarFaria one story a day for free by downloading the app: App Store download link and Google Play download link.



And FarFaria has generously offered a 3 Months Membership to FarFaria App for iPad and Android devices (for US and Canada entrants) to our readers.

The winner will be randomly picked by Rafflecopter and will be notified by Bethany from Little Homeschool Blessings via email and posted here. Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside within Canada or the United States. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest or any other entity unless otherwise specified. Prize will be issued by FarFaria. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the Rafflecopter terms & conditions. 

This giveaway is now closed!
CONGRATULATIONS LYNN!!

Wishing you homeschool blessings,


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4 comments:

Lynn @ TDHGP said...

How neat! Thanks for sharing this -- I'd not heard of this app.

Emma @ Our Whimsical Days said...

We've tried FarFaria and my 5 year old loved it! I think she liked being about to take the tablet and say she was going off to "read" :). Thanks for the chance to win!

Bethany said...

Lynn~I was so excited to hear about it for the first time.

Bethany said...

Emma~How fun! My kiddoes are always asking if they can listen to a story, even both my older readers like to listen to them!

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