Miaomiao’s Chinese New Year | Educational Storybook App for Kids

✔ iPad + iPhone | kids app for ages 2-5 years

Just in time for the Chinese New Year on 19th February, the app developers Mark Animation have published the storybook app for kids called “Miaomiao’s Chinese New Year”, where kids do not only learn all about the New Year’s celebration, but also a whole bunch of Chinese vocabulary. The app is out now and available for iPad and iPhone on the App Store and we have tested it for you.

A New Year’s Story for Kids 

According to the Chinese Calendar 2015 is the Year of the sheep and on Chinese New Year, all the family and friends gather together to celebrate and share good wishes. The preparations for the New Year celebration are also running at full speed at home where the little girl Miaomiao is in the story. Kids can watch her prepare some dumplings (jiǎozi 餃子) together with her dog Doudou – the filled buns are a delicious Chinese speciality and are traditionally served for the New Year’s celebration.

However, the scent of the yummy dumplings also seems to attract the Nian monster (年兽), which according to the Chinese mythology and around the Chinese New Year, prefers to tease children. The nasty Nian monster steals Miaomiao’s dumplings shortly after, whereupon the adventure begins!

Interactive

One special feature of this kids app are the early learning Mandarin vocabulary words, that are shared throughout the book. Whenever kids discover an interactive object in the beautifully drawn illustrations, the object is named in English and in Chinese. That way, kids learn over 20 English Chinese vocabulary in a playful and unobtrusive way, which have been especially selected for children of the ages 2 years and above.

Mini-Games

Besides the interactive objects which are brought to life with sounds and animations, there are also 5 mini games, that can be discovered in the story. Kids can therefore, i.e. prepare some dumplings, as we’ve mentioned before, or find out which animal is dedicated to the new Year by playing the Conect-the stars game…

YouTube Video Trailer
In our YouTube trailer, we show you the first two scenes of the story and prepare some delicious dumplings for you.

Miaomiao’s Chinese New Year | Kids App Rating

Of course we’re not going tell you how Miaomiao outwits the Nian monster with her friends to save the New Year celebration. We can however tell you this much: The story was a lot of fun for the kids and has certainly aroused their interest in the Chineese New Year and the Chinese language. Unfortunately, the extras area for parents and teachers was a little on the short side, but the app developers offer some further interesting Chinese New Year learning activities for kids on their Website, which supplements the storybook app for kids quite wonderfully.

Pro’s
(+) Furthers the interest in Chinese culture and language
(+) Entertaining and interactive story
(+) Various Mini Games
(+) Narrated story with read along text

Con’s
(-) More background informations for parents would be nice

Kids app developer: Mark Media Corp.