You’ve been there, I am sure.  In a doctor’s office… waiting. In the grocery store… waiting. Stuck in traffic… waiting… Trying to talk on the phone with kids… waiting… and you just need to give the kids a quick little something to keep them busy – for sanity’s sake.  If you are an iPhone or an iTouch user, then here is an applications you need.

From the company:

” The My Living Stories apps combine beautiful artwork, narration and interactive features in an easy to use platform that is perfect for preschoolers to read along all on their own, without any help. My Living Stories are a great solution for entertaining on-the-go or as an aid for teaching children to read at home. The apps allow for your child to read along with English or French narration or read the stories themselves. Interactive sounds and animation bring stories to life.
Another great feature is the ability to record your own voice to go along with the story (this feature requires an iPhone or iPod Touch with microphone capabilities). My Living Story classic stories include Princess & the Pea, King Midas, The Tortoise & the Hare, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

Reviewed by Katrina from Binksy and Bobo: Reversible Custom Clothes for Babies and Children.

Max loved the 3 stories from Living Stories. We chose Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Tortoise and the Hare.
In all: The visuals in each of the stories captivated Max, the colours were bright, the illustration was good and it was easy for Max to control it himself, by advancing to the next screen on his own, he simply pressed the bright orange arrow (next button).

What certainly held my son’s attention was the animation of the characters in the story. Some stories achieved this better than others. Out of the 3, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears was most visually appealing, since there was a lot of ‘action’. For example: the main character Goldilocks was always moving and it wasn’t just her eyes blinking (as with the characters in the other two stories). The background was also nicely animated with smoke puffing out of the chimney’s cottage, tears coming from the bears’ eyes, the movement of fire, the cottage door closing as she ran inside (to name a few)…..this all made for a really interesting experience.

The ability to customize the story by recording your own voice made the stories really personal. You could add whatever ’script’ you felt like.
The quality of the recording (of the customized story), wasn’t that great though – there was some echoeing, (but this is a result of the limitations of the iPhone speakers) not the application. However, tied in with the background music, it was a really nice effect and fun for Max to hear my voice in the story.

Overall I would highly recommend this iPhone app. It’s lightening-quick to load, the graphics are excellent and it will entertain your child when out at a restaurant or car trip….and save your sanity!

But wait… there’s more.  Enter to win a $25 Gift Card to iTunes right here.  How to win?  Easy.

Leave a comment telling which My Living Stories story you would like the most. That’s it.

Don’t forget you must be a member of practicalmum.com to enter.

For additional entries to this giveaway, you can:

1  – Post or reply to a question (as many times as you like). Leave a comment below telling me you’ve posted.

2 – Become a fan on Facebook. Leave a comment below telling me you’ve signed up.

3 – Follow @practicalmum on Twitter and tweet this giveaway (max: once a day). Include the hashtag #MyLivingStories  (Leave me the link to your tweets below)

Giveaway is open to Canadians. Readers may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win one iTunes gift card as part of the My Living Stories contest.

Giveaway Ends Friday, August 6th, 2010, 9pm EST. Winner will be chosen using random.org and contacted via e-mail with 48 hours to reply or new winners will be chosen.

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This review was written while participating in the My Living Stories program by Mom Central on behalf of Decode Entertainment. The iTunes gift card was provided by Mom Central and Decode Entertainment. We received 3 free apps and a gift card as a thank you for our participation. The opinions on this blog are our own. We say it the way we see it.

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