Our first Digital Download game

Zooming spaceship!

Press to Zoom! - Things That Fly is our first mini game available to purchase as a digital download. Written in Flash it will play in a browser, or we include a stand-alone full-screen version for Windows, too.

Press a switch, mouse button or key to make a picture zoom across the screen. Great for early switch skills and visual tracking.

Home and school licences available.

Menu screen

New products - Memory Quest Flex and Math Plus

Two new products from us this month. The fantastic Memory Quest Flex, new working memory training software. Developed from the experiences of Memory Games, Flex is designed for all ages, has much improved reporting and evaluation systems, and you can create your own custom training programmes.

Math Plus is a beautifully simple basic skills program. Practice addition and subtraction with numbers 0 to 10 in an engaging set of games.

Free games area updated

Free Games and Demos Area

Been doing some housekeeping on the Shiny Learning free games area recently. I've shortened the information for each game on the index page and given each game its own page with instructions and more images. This is in anticipation of more games to come, and demos of some "micro" games that we'll be selling soon as digital downloads.

Don't forget to "like" us on Facebook! You can do this via the navigation menu on any Shiny Learning page - or of course, visit us on Facebook itself.

Facebook and YouTube update

We've joined the world of Facebook Facebook and YouTube to help you access Shiny Learning in a more dynamic way. We're starting to put together some video demonstrations of our software to give you a good idea of why we like them so much! The first videos will be of programs for which we don't have software demos, so have a look at our YouTube Channel to see what we're up to. We always love hearing from friends and customers so visit us on Facebook for all the latest.

Letters and More - fun ways to learn the alphabet

Letters and More is the latest fun program published in the UK by Shiny Learning. Created by LaraMera and Leripa in Sweden, it follows in the footsteps of their other great literacy favourites, Learn More About Words, Reading World, Words and Sentences and Crosswords and More.

Letters and More - twelve activities

It contains twelve different activities and has eighteen different word lists. Beautifully drawn illustrations create a fun and encouraging learning environment. With letter names, letter sounds and words spoken it also has switch and keyboard access.

Letters and More - complete the word

Letters and More - sort words by initial letter

Letters and More - sort pictures by initial letter

"Lost in translation"?

We had a dilemma, some years ago, when working on the English translation of Troll-lek. It was a leap too far for our imaginations that this benign and very cute little creature should ever be called a troll. Aren't trolls a bit wicked, and not nearly so pretty? This little being who lives in the forest at one with nature, who also likes to dress up as a cowboy, a baker or a sailor, plays the electric guitar or settle down with some knitting is not a troll - please. The little chap with the baggy pants and goofy grin who likes to keep his cupboards tidy and collects pine cones? That's not a troll.

Well, actually, he is. But we renamed him a Pixie. Before you tell me, I know - he's not a pixie either - but sometimes these decisions have to be made. It doesn't seem to bother him.

And to be honest, I don't think most trolls are as clever as this guy. He has a lot of thinking to do - and matching and sorting, and working out puzzles.

In my head he lives in Troll-lek (though we call it Pixie Games) where, should you choose to join him, you can inhabit his beautiful world for a little while, watch for funny things happening in his forest, help him sort out his cupboards, dress him up, rock out with him, help him work out which of his many household things belong together and generally help to keep order in his little corner of the forest.

"Beatrix Potter characters remodelled for blind children"

What a fantastic inclusion story this is. An artist has secured the rights to redraw Beatrix Potter's characters so that blind people can enjoy them.

Read about it here, and watch an interview with the artist.

And here's a link to Fieldsman Trails - publishers of all sorts of multi-format information.