Toca Hair Salon Me - Toca Boca App Review

We at the One Quarter Family LOVE Toca Boca apps! You can read our reviews of some of their other apps HERE and HERE.

They've been busy lately focusing on their sister company, Sago Sago, it seems, but they are coming out with a new Hair Salon app TODAY and I'm super excited! (Is it wrong that I get excited about apps marketed for kids?)

Check out the preview video:

    

I'm really excited, because I know the Little Man will be excited. If you remember, it was me searching for a hair cutting app for him in the first place that got us started on our Toca Boca addiction. Their original Toca Hair Salon was their first app we downloaded. This new app takes it to a whole other level and it looks like fun. Can't wait to download it!

Also check out our other iPad app reviews.

App Review - Mini Forest Flyer and Mini Sound Box

Earlier this year, I introduced you to Toca Boca, a Swedish company that makes apps we absolutely love. Since that review, we've actually downloaded more of their apps - Toca Train and Toca Store.

We can't get enough of them! Which is good since they've now teamed up with another developer and call their new partnership Sago Sago.
Together they've created two new apps:


Sago Mini Sound Box and Sago Mini Forest Flyer. I'll share the company's descriptions with you:

§  Sago Mini Sound Box engages children through visuals and sound allowing them to explore at their own pace. The app features layered functionality – kids tap to create a sound, tap in different areas to get different notes, fling them around, tilt the device and see them move, tap with multiple fingers for specially-colored balls and tap and hold for a fun surprise.  Some children find themselves repeatedly tapping and holding for the fun animations while older kids will figure out how to play a little tune like a piano.                                                          

§  Sago Mini Forest Flyer sends children on an adventure of guiding a bird to different areas on the screen to uncover fun animation sequences. The open-play environment allows kids to take the engagement in any direction or path – they are in control.  Some may gravitate to certain actions and watch them over and over, while others will treat it as a race to uncover as many animations as they can.  In nearly all cases, children will begin to narrate their activity.  

 I'll admit a little mistake now. I got free promo codes for these apps so I could review them and I got excited an downloaded them to *my* iPad. Usually, this isn't a problem and I just take them from the cloud and download them onto the Little Man's, but that didn't work, so they're stuck on mine. What I'll probably do is pay for them once they're available to the public. (Sound Box will be available May 16 and Forest Flyer on May 23)

Anyway, all this to say, I fell in love with them immediately while on my lunch break at work. I liked Forest Flyer so much, I forced a co-worker to try it out and he liked it, too! I finally let the Little Man try out Forest Flyer this evening and he explored it and laughed at the different scenarios. He played some of the same animations over and over again and laughed, so I say it's a hit.

Also, bonus for parents: these apps have no ads and no offers to make in-app purchases. It's just simple worry-free fun!

Let me know if you try out any of these apps and what you think!

App Review: Toca Boca

Late last year we discovered a Swedish children's app making company called Toca Boca. They have loveable characters, interesting scenarios and fun sounds and music. The lively colours are really appealing and remind me of my first solo trip to Sweden, back before my motherhood days. Awwww.

Really, these apps are fun and encourage creativity. I even had them loaded on my iPad mini and got my co-workers into them over our lunch hour. These games transcend language and age barriers - which also makes them perfect for kids with special needs. They are fun, but not frustrating, encouraging imagination and not goal-based perfection or scoring points.

The first app we picked up by Toca Boca was Toca Hair Salon because I noticed my son liked pretending to cut hair. Luckily, we never leave him alone with scissors! I decided I would let him indulge that fantasy by finding an app for that and there was one!

 

They also had a Christmas edition. My son chopped Santa's hair, blew dry it to oblivion and then snapped this pic of it!

Hilarious!

Santa is such a good sport!










In the regular version, he loves cutting off everyone's hair. The characters make little scared noises (can you blame them?) as he shaves them down to the scalp. Then he dresses them up with bows and hats (it's all about the accessories!)

Many of their apps allow you to take pictures of your creations, but you can also take a pic of yourself with the characters. Look at this one he took while in the car during our Florida vacation:

That one was Toca Tailor, which lets you dress up characters. They also have apps for you (let's be honest now, they are so much fun!) or your child to play doctor, or DJ (with Toca Band) or even chef (with Toca Kitchen). Just a head's up, the Christmas version and the Kitchen Monster version are currently FREE, so jump on the deal if you want to try them.

The regular price of all their apps is $2.99.

We have almost all of their apps and the Little Man plays with at least one of them each evening during his limited iPad time. Not sure there's a better endorsement than that!



Disclaimer: we were not compensated in any way for this review. We just like them!