Deanne sent me a note about this one, so I tried it with Ethan last night and he loved it, exchanging several Maily messages with his grandma.
The app is a secure and cute way for children to communicate with relatives and friends with all the contacts controlled through a parent's dashboard. Adults can even set an option to view all incoming messages and approve them before the child can have a look.
With a parent's help this app can be enjoyed by kids as young as toddlers, all the way up to and through elementary school or perhaps even older, especially if you own a stylus.
There are no in-apps or ads, but all the people sending or receiving will need the app or to go through the Maily web interface. Very cool, though.
If you would like to download Maily (FREE, iPad) please support Smart Apps for Kids by using this link button:
** Only the app's developer can control when an app is free or not. All apps that we post as Good Free Apps of the Day are verified to be free at the time of this post. We make no guarantees otherwise. **
From iTunes:
Especially designed for kids from 4 years old, Maily allows your kids to send quirky, personalized emails to mom and dad, their grandparents or close friends easily, rapidly, and securely.
Your kids can now create and send their own emails, using elements like digital pencils, brushes, photos, personalized backgrounds, stickers, and their most commonly used expressions.
New emails from family or close friends arrive in your kids' personal inbox, and with their personal contact list, they can reply and send emails anytime.
Maily comes with extensive built-in parent control features, which enables you to be completely in charge of who your children communicate with, and when, including the ability to approve or reject messages before they are sent or received by their children.
FEATURES:
✔ Pencils and brushes to draw and write in their emails
✔ Over 30 cool stamps to create stories
✔ Over 30 personalized email backgrounds
✔ Photo camera
✔ Personal inbox to receive emails from friends and family
✔ Personal contact list
✔ Parent dashboard to supervise emails and manage contacts
✔ Kid-friendly replies from Maily contacts
****
Every day we pick what we affectionately call the Good Free App of the Day, an app that we have downloaded, tested and certified: It can't have a ton of ads or just a little content with a ton of in-app purchases.
It also has to be good.
We then present them to you to read, download, and share and, based on which ones got the most hits, here are your Top 100 Favorite Free Apps!
We've done our best to only include apps that are permanently free, but sometimes developers do change their minds so please leave a comment if you find an app that's no longer free.
Enjoy!
(** indicates that the app contains in-app purchases or is very closely tied to a purchase)
1) Educreations Interactive Whiteboard (students/teachers can make whiteboard videos)
2) LEGO App 4+ (build a vehicle and then use it in activities)
3) ** Toddler/Preschool Flash Cards (warning! now has ads!)
5) Open Wide Snap (we rated five stars, pictured)
6) National Geographic Explorer
8) The Lorax
10) ** Storylines for Schools
11) Play 123
12) Hide Run Growl (we rated five stars)
13) Disney's Where's My Water - free (pictured)
14) Little Stars - Toddler Games (letters, numbers, shapes, colors, words)
15) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally Appisode
16) ** Playful Minds: Math (5-8 years old)
17) ** Build a Word Express
18) Rover (flash-enabled web browser for kids)
19) Lego Star Wars - Battle Orders
21) NASA App HD (pictured)
22) Disney's Jake's Never Land Pirate School
23) Scholastic's Sushi Monster
24) Khan Academy (educations videos for adults and older children)
25) ** Draw Something (Pictionary online! Older kids/adults only)
26) I Can Write 2 (make sentences about images)
27) Super Duper's Using I and Me
28) Little Writer - Tracing Letters, Numbers, Words and Shapes (awesome app)
29) Miss Spider apps (Bedtime Story and Tea Party)
30) PBS Kids Video (all their favorites, U.S. only)
31) ** Thomas & Friends - Engine Activities
32) ** Brain Quest (from the people that make those card thingees)
33) ** Goodnight Safari (baby animals!)
34) Toca Kitchen Monsters (all kids need Toca Boca)
35) ShowMe (virtual whiteboard app, shared education videos)
36) Learning Games for Preschool to Kindergarten
37) ** Scribble Press (make an book!)
38) Rocket Speller
39) ** Toontastic (we rated five stars)
40) Color Uncovered (please don't let your dog drive)
41) ** Puzzingo
42) Little Finder
43) Lego Duplo Jams
44) ** Spy Mouse
45) Touch the Sound
47) Bluster! (McGraw-Hill)
48) ABC Mouse Zoo Sets 1, 2 and 3
49) ** Let's Color (drawings come to life)
50) ** Math Vs. Zombies
51) ** BrainPop Featured Movie (No. 1 on our Editor's Choice list)
53) ** Articulation Station (lite version, only one letter free)
55) ** MeeGenius (six ebooks for free!)
56) ** Alphabet Tracing
57) Kids Learning - Photo Touch Learning Concepts
58) ** Sock Puppets
59) ABA Flash Cards & Games - Emotions
60) ** Monkey Drum
61) 6-in-1 Children's Games (lite version)
62) ** Clockwork Brain (mind-training puzzles for older kids/adults)
64) DialSafe Pro (we gave five stars, kids learn to dial emergency numbers)
67) Sprout's Good Night Star (nighttime routine, brusha! brusha! brusha!)
68) iTunes U (go to college on your iOS device/older kids & adults)
70) Chipper's Rainy Day Adventure
71) Lego Duplo Zoo
72) Rocket Math Free
73) Feel Electric (The Electric Company is back!)
74) Screen Chomp (virtual whiteboard)
76) ** BrainPop Jr. Movie of the Week
77) Kids Learning - My First Numbers Counting Game
78) Tim and Tom
79) Google Earth
80) Super Duper's Let's Name Things
81) Stewie The Duck Learns To Swim
82) ** Booksy (one of our Top Picks)
85) Squiggles (bring scribbles to life)
88) ** Motion Math - Hungry Fish
89) Astrid & Siri (ebook, Vikings who love fashion design?)
90) The Lorax Truffula Shuffle (U.S. only for some reason)
91) How Stuff Works (parents/older kids that have had "the talk" only)
92) ** Jingle All the Way (Hallmark Christmas app)
93) Fisher-Price's Laugh & Learn Animal Sounds
94) Pocket Law Firm (learn the amendments)
95) The Land of Me - Story Time
96) ** JibJab Jr. Books (put the child's face in a book!)
97) IQ Test - Free Edition (older kids and parents only, not a real IQ test)
98) ** Domino's Pizza Hero (U.S. only)
99) Little Stars - Word Wizard
100) Little Bird's Internet Security Adventure (internet safety!)
We've done our best to only include apps that are permanently free, but sometimes developers do change their minds, so please leave a comment if you find an app that's no longer free.
(** indicates that the app contains in-app purchases or is very closely tied to a purchase)
I've looked on their website, but I don't see a way to create more than one child account per parent, unless I create several 'parent' accounts using different email addresses. This is a pretty serious limitation, and should probably be mentioned in your review.
Posted by: Tracey | 09/22/2012 at 07:09 AM
Tracey:
This isn't a review. It's just a notice of a free app you might want to download.
Thanks,
Ron
Posted by: Ron at smartappsforkids.com | 09/24/2012 at 12:10 PM
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Posted by: Pupil | 12/10/2012 at 12:53 AM