Kids love Ruckus Reader!

I asked a Mommy friend of mine to do a guest review of Ruckus Reader!  Here's Dina's thoughts on the iPad app for kids!

I've never heard of the Ruckus Reader app prior to Xenia asking me if I wanted a free trial. I'm not prone to spend money on apps to begin with. My girls tend to play with the apps on our iPad more than I do, but I try to encourage more educational apps, so I was more than willing to give Ruckus Reader a try.


I love that there are varying types of "books" available from Transformers, My Little Pony, and even nature-esque ones like the Sea World book. Of course my 4 year old was drawn to the My Little Pony book first, but to my surprise she was just as intrigued by the Transformers book and the Chuck and friends book. My 6 year old (who is reading at the level of a 4th grader) enjoyed the Sea World book, moreso for the content and learning new things about the animals. The Crayola book is fun at integrating coloring the pages at their own will.


I find that she gets bored easily though and misses a lot of the content. I wish she were grasping the words better but I'm hoping that will come with time. She is allowed to use the iPad at will, and one of the Ruckus Reader books is always her first choice, spending about 5 minutes on a book and then flipping over to the next one. My 2 year old nephew loves to watch over her shoulder, but I think it's more the colors and characters he is into more than the content and reading aspect.
It's a great app for her age group (preschool age, 4-5). She's not in preschool yet, but I think if and when she is put into preschool her interest might be piqued. I don't pressure her much on the academic side (probably because she's my baby), but my inner Asian Tiger Mom is screaming inside because she's so lazy when it comes to wanting to learn. To me, this is a start, hopefully in the right direction.

Thanks to weekly updates from Ruckus Reader I can see her activity as well as progress. Still borderline if I would be willing to pay for this app, but I am really enjoying this free trial with it.  When the trial runs out, I will ask her if she still wants to "play" and depending on her progress from the weekly emails I will decide if it's worth it.   

The Ruckus Reader is a breakthrough learning program, a unique series of digital storybooks designed to help your child practice important reading skills AND keep you up to date on your child's progress. All of the stories and interactive activities are developed by educational experts to adhere to national educational standards for preschool through second grade.

Disclosure:  Ruckus Reader provided a free trial of their app for review.  All opinions are entirely our own.