Preschool by cell phone.

I could not sleep last night, so I stayed up downloading apps for my iPhone. I love the app store. It’s like Taco Bell—you order about seven different things, and it comes to, like, $4.89. Because, as Michael Aggers says in Slate, denying my 2-year-old access to the amusing technology of the day would be like taking away my Simon in 1979, I am happy to let Milo play games on my phone, and I browsed the kids section delightedly.

I was taken, though, by reviews that focused on whether or not games were educational enough; some people lamented that the app where kids have to choose a monkey’s occupation is not as academic as the one where they are instructed to touch the purple fruit or the word beginning with “B.” One mom pleaded for more challenging games “to push my child even further.” Her daughter is 2.

If you rely on Monkey Preschool Lunchbox to educate your child—rather than to amuse her while you make supper—you might be interested in“Learning: Is there an app for that?”, a report by Cynthia Chiong and Carly Shuler for the Children’s Television Workshop.