Item: Neon Tiki Tribe Review
Rating: 5
Author: Jessica

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE stories with a message. And I’m a total fan of wonderful FREE resources. If a company combines the two, I’m over the moon. So, I was really happy to discover Neon Tiki Tribe and their FREE, colorful, message-filled story apps. This is my review.

Spoiler Alert: You’re going to want them!

(And since the company wants to give away 1 MILLION FREE apps – maybe you can help them reach their goal?!) 🙂

Just Search” Neon TIKI Tribe in ITUNES or on AMAZON.COM depending on your device (Ipad, Iphone or Android- Tablet or Phone)

FYI – the Neon Tiki Tribe apps (Tiki stands for Thoughtful Intelligent Kind Individuals) uses comic book super heroes to teach valuable life lessons to elementary aged school children. Each story contains “action and excitement”, vivid colors, outstanding artwork, and a specific core value or character building message.

And there are lots of apps to choose from!

The Introductory Apps

Apps 1 – An Explosive Beginning (The Beginning/Part 1) – Parental Advice

Apps 2 – Digging Up Adventure (The Beginning/Part 2) – Battling Boredom

Apps 1 and 2 are an intro to the series – they set up the story of the good and the bad tikis, and they introduce the main human character Greg, and his dog Sniff-Sniff.

Life lessons (good vs. bad behaviors, how to overcome boredom, and how one should have an open mind about new situations) are also covered. That said, the main purpose of these two stories is to set up the series. You should start with these.

MORE Series Apps and the Lessons They Teach

TIKI BEACH BATTLE – Environmental Responsibility

DOG RESCUE MISSION – Honesty

BULLIES: PLAYGROUND PUSH-AROUND – Bullying

RISE OF KUNATOS – Perseverance

STRANGERS: THE KU KIDNAPPING – Stranger Danger

BAD SPORT BRAAKUS & HIDDEN HUMBUG – Sportsmanship

ETHAN SPARKS TROUBLE – Fire Safety

GIGABYTES OF DISASTER – Internet Safety

TIA AND THE A-MAZE-ING MIRRORS – Self Image

HOME RUN PRIDE: READING WITH THE TRIBE – Literacy

Coming soon – Brave Hope Hospital – teaches hope and is a collaboration with the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana.

Here’s a little more info of one of the apps – TIKI BEACH BATTLE – the website has this type of info for each app – which makes it a breeze to decide which ones you’re especially interested in.

Welcome to Tiki Island home of the Neon Tiki Tribe. A series of new Super Hero stories with tales of action and adventure, combined with “real life” educational messages.

One sunny day on TIKI island Zeke (Leader), Tia (Smartest), Dar (Fastest) and Mowah (Strongest) all took a trip to the beach with Greg and Sniff-Sniff. That’s when they discovered the water in the ocean was turning an unusual dark color.

Zeke discovers someone has been dumping trash in the water! Not only that, but while he is floating out there he found some turtles that have soda rings caught around their shells.

The Tikis knew that they had to take action to find the culprits who were destroying the environment, and hurting so much marine life. As they investigate, they find the source of the trash being dumped into the ocean. It’s a mysterious masked man in a boat dumping all the trash.

Who is the masked man and why is he dumping trash in the ocean? What will happen if the Tikis confront him? Will they be able to clean up the ocean again? Read to see who’s behind the mask and learn how we can keep our oceans cleaner in Tiki Beach Battle. This book will help plant the seeds of environmental responsibility in every child. We can clean this planet up but we have to do it as a team, because we’re all in the same boat (Pun Intended).

And here are some app screen shots –

Who doesn’t want to teach their child environmental responsibility, the importance of perseverance, and positive body image?

In addition to the great subject matter, there is something else that makes these apps super. ALL the tiki apps use Dyslexie font – a font designed to help people with Dyslexia read easier (while being almost unnoticeable to other readers). One study found that dyslexic children “read faster, and “made fewer mistakes” with Dyslexie font – and 70% of the children preferred Dyslexie font over a standard “Courier” Font.

Neon Tiki Tribe apps are the first super hero apps to use this dyslexic friendly font. As the website points out – “most people are not dyslexic, but we all probably have friends who are, so shouldn’t the font be added for them?” Wow – I think this makes THEM super heroes, don’t you!?!

(NOTE- Dyslexie does NOT help everyone who is dyslexic.)

What I like about the series:

The apps teach important life skills in a fun way.
By using fictional tiki super-heroes and funny cartoon-like settings, the authors engage children about serious issues, without frightening them.
The extra activities are super.
I’m a HUGE fan of the Dyslexie font.
The smartest tiki super-hero is a girl! Yah!

Both my boys and my girls like these super hero apps. Both have read them over and over….. and over again.
The app artwork is very nice.
- They contain FUNNY illustrations – a lot of thought went into the illustrations.
- The vibrant coloring is exceptional.
There are lots of purchasing options as well as FREE apps – I appreciate options – and I truly appreciate FREE! http://neontikitribe.com/amazon-underground/. I spoke with the creators/founders and they want to give away ONE MILLION FREE apps. Want to help them reach their goal?

Speaking of free – the site offers lots of freebies – under their MORE tab. These include coloring sheets and teacher guides (some are 20+ pages!) that include educational activities, writing suggestions, a quiz, answers, and more. See examples below. These guides do use the Common Core – but just ignore this if you’re not a Core fan– the website knows that homeschoolers go beyond the Core! In addition, the company offers more FREE stuff on their YouTube channel . The physical books shown aren’t available yet – but I have seen them and they are lovely (very colorful, wipe-able covers AND pages, extra info and more)! I’ve included a few pics of the physical books at the end of this review.