Out of Necessity an App is Created ~ Kyle Tomson of Mobile Ed Store

I had the great fortune to speak to Kyle Tomson today, he is the founder and President of Mobile Education Store. But first and foremost he's a dad and like most of us struggled to get help for his daughter, and after spending lots of money on useless apps that never quite fit his daughters needs he developed his own. After losing his job in 2009 and having tons of time on his hands, decided to take the fate of his daughters education into his hands. In the three months that he was off he learned all the coding it would take to do the apps  and Mobile Education Store was started. Now he has two jobs, creating great apps and returned to the job he was formerly laid off from.

 Sure at first he was just filling a need for his daughter, but when he realized that he could be filling the needs for many children all over he put it on itunes and thus really began this amazing journey of apps. Ones solely built upon needs, the needs of his daughter but also the needs of so many children everywhere.

When you visit the site and I hope that you do, you will find some really great educational apps but with a fun twist. They aren't just for special needs children either, they are perfect for any child struggling with language, conversations, story building, sentences, and questions.

So here is what is making Kyle Tomson so special right now....in case you aren't part of the great community that is A4cwsn you are missing out. Over 5,000+ community members sharing ideas about apps for children with special needs. It isn't about the giveaways or the great app parties, its about being a part of a community of giving and sharing. BUT coming up we have a great app party one which Kyle Tomson of Mobile Ed Store is going to be reducing prices on some of his apps, and giving Gary some codes to giveaway. Some of which are going to include are the ones for the ipad and ipod/iphone and a new app that we the community have yet to see which is the preposition app! If this app is like the rest of the great ones he's come out with so far we will not be let down!

One last thing I would like to share with you all, and I hope you all share with any teachers you know. There is a education stimulus that schools/teachers can use but it runs out in 5 days!! Please let your teachers know that this is open for them and then send them to Mobile Education Store ! He does a lot for our community, lets get the word out! He wasn't given the first Developer of Distinction award for nothing!


The app party is next week! Running from Sept 30th to Oct. 2nd! It will be hosted right  here by Gary James. With apps from tons of developers either free or at a reduced cost!


Hope to see you there!

Why Askate

Before I start there is something I want you all to watch....

When you think skate boarding I bet the first thing that comes to mind is "how could that ever help my child?" Well you may be right, but until you try you NEVER know what could unlock your child. Be it skate boarding or surfing, horseback riding or the other millions of things that we have all invested money into.

Now here is where you can help Pepsi Refresh and the Askate project......click on that link! It sends you directly to their page and vote for them!

After you've done that do the text vote!

Once you've done that you know all those yellow caps you see! Snag them, beg for them....heck buy pepsi and then use those caps to vote again!!

Its that simple....and by helping you could be unlocking more and more children. Time is running out! What can you do to help!?

Head Over

Today dear readers I have a simple request I'd like for you all to visit and enter the giveaway hosted over at Nathan's Voice. Its fairly simple and you get a great book out of it if you win! While your there read her blogs, share her page with someone you know. If you don't win you can always buy the book!

Put please go visit, a few simple clicks is worth the time to support fellow autism bloggers!

#TechTues ~~~ ClickN KIDS Review

During my journey at BlogHer 11 I had the chance to speak to a rep from ClickN KIDS. It sparked a interest for me because I have younger children who will be learning to read soon. I loved that they were partnering their program with Looney Tunes to make Looney Toons ClickN READ Phonics are they are a huge hit in our house.

I was lucky enough to be able to get the program and use it with Racer. You can read more about their phonics program here!

I have to say I'm not very tech savvy, or as savvy as I should be with 7 kids. But going through the enrollment process to start the phonics reading program was really simple. I was able to have 8 open slots for the kids but since Wolverine and MommaHen are already reading I did two, one with Racer and the other with PigPen.


After reading through the skills directions we got into it.  Racer started off at level 10, he speed through it pretty easily but 11 was a bit harder for him so we decided to not skip any levels. I have to say that the 20 min or so lessons held his attention the entire time. Being a special needs child the task of attention and staying focused can be difficult  but the Looney Tunes ClickN READ phonics program worked for him.

The lessons that we have done were listening ones and simple mouse clicks to answer questions. You can change the pace of the questions and completely customize it for your child's ability. They even sell on their website child sized mouse and keyboard to work with the program.

Since Racer never does anything without his sisters they sat with him and said the sounds out loud as well.

I thought I was going to struggle to get Racer do to this program but he was entertained and engaged in what he was seeing and learning. Reading and word recognition aren't his strong suit so this program was perfect for him. We've been running levels with him for the last 3 weekends since school started, I've noticed he's sounding out words more. I can honestly say that I would recommend this to other parents with both special needs children and normal developing children. It was a great program that all three of my younger children enjoyed including the 1yr old. It was cute hearing her try and say the sounds with her siblings or cheering Racer on as he worked through the level. There are free sample lessons on the home page for you to try out with your child as well. 

I will revisit this review in about a month to update everyone how his progress is going!