Reading with Farfaria App Review and Giveaway!

We fight a constant struggle balancing online time with offline time.  I can see this becoming more of a problem during the summer break.  (Help!  It’s my first summer home with the kids…every day for months– by myself!)

Sorry, quick panic attack there.  I’m back.

We obviously do a lot of crafts and spend a lot of time outdoors, mostly in the pool.  However, I am always there with them when we are outside.  This wasn’t a big problem during the school year because I was able to do normal household chores and running errands while they were in school.  Electronics and tv time normally occurs when I preparing meals.

Unfortunately I am going to have to do more chores while they are home with me.  I know they will pretend play and color for a lot of it but I can invariably see us falling into a routine with more electronics than normal.

I’ve got plans to go on outings with the kids to break up the weeks.  I have a summer craft project (which I will be sharing with all of you, of course!)

One thing I am making a priority will be summer reading.  Pork Chop is an early reader.  He astonishes me every day as he reads billboards and signs we pass aloud and discovers the joy of books.  Pea is further along in her reading skills than Pork Chop was at this time last year, right before kindergarten.  She is trying her best to catch up to him but hasn’t acquired all the phonics skills yet.

That’s why I love the Farfaria app on the iPad! The app is free on itunes but we were provided a limited subscription to fully experience the app for this review.  We’ve had other reading apps and story book apps but none compare to the experience we’ve had with Farfaria.  I love that my daughter can choose to have books read to her while she follows along and my son can choose to read the books himself.

There are far more book options than any other app we have tried.  New titles pop up all the time and the variety is amazing and more cost effective than purchasing ebooks separately.  Just the variety alone helps combat my son’s book boredom.   We even found a book about an otter on the same day that he decided, after a trip to the zoo, that otters are his favorite animals!

With a low monthly subscription of $3.99 per month you get a huge variety of books to choose from, both new and classics.  This is doubly beneficial to me because my kids don’t enjoy the same books.  I used to buy books for each because one loves princesses and all things girly while the other is all about sports and action.  There are different “lands in the worlds” and my daughter quickly found her favorite.

She chooses to have books read to her while Pork Chop reads them himself.

The great part for all of us is that they get to enjoy “iPad time” at the same times as “reading time.”

I know that many parents balk against tablets.  I do so at times myself.  But they can be a great tool.  I was adamantly against e-readers when they first appeared on the market.  I know–crazy, right?  Now I am totally addicted and have my kindle, the kindle app on my phone and the kindle app on my iPad.  I read from whichever is most convenient at the time without having to look for a hard copy book.

Plus this week, I am going to show you my kids crazy bookshelf and what it looks like after we cull their collection and organize their books.  The more I look at it, the more thankful I am for this app.  Eventually, I hope to trip over less books that they leave lying around.

Is reading on your Summer To-Do list?  If so, I hope you find this app review and giveaway helpful.   The kind folks at Farfaria are providing me two three month subscriptions to give to two lucky readers. The giveaway ends on 6/9/2014 at midnight!

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