mini-me app: toddler email

If your tot is anything like mine, he or she is a little mini me! One of the Bug's favorite things to do is grab my cell phone and talk on it -- or even pretend to text. Some mornings she mumbles "puter," opens the laptop and starts hitting the keys. Not in any apparent order, but in a fashion where the typing pattern sounds like my own.

{{Side note: I may be "too connected."}}

21 X 20 MixMedia Inc. has created an email app -- just for your toddler. Aptly called Toddler Email. Now your kiddos can get their "mail" on your iPhone.

Well - - that's how you read your mail right?

I downloaded the app today and it's a really cute take on email for the pint sizers. Before you start worrying about identity protection, know that no real person emails your child. There isn't even a place to enter his or her name (as with the LeapFrog products). It's an email graphic-looking interface used to introduce your tyke to nursery rhymes, classic rhyme characters and an assortment of online games -- everything from matching to letter recognition. The games are displayed in an email menu, while nursery rhyme characters are displayed in a 'friends' menu.

Entre into the world of 'contacts.' Starting with Twinkle Twinkle.

From the developer:

Each friendly email not only teaches them the basics of spelling, counting and memorization, but also introduces the basic technology of email in a way they can easily understand. After each email has been checked, children can tap the "Check for new Email" button to generate more emails. And because every email is randomly generated, your child can even play and replay a single email many, many times!

The downside? The background music. It seems a bit loud in comparison with the characters your child is supposed to be listening to. There may be a way to turn it off in the settings, but I can't seem to access them (it says to slide your finger across the bottom to access info and settings... but it doesn't work for me).

All in all, 99 cents well worth it. Available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.