Sarah Mahi Harder shows off her App called 'Clay B C's'

Most teachers spend their summer recovering from a long school year.  

Not Sarah Mahi Harder.

The Green Valley School teacher spent her summer developing an application to teach youngsters their ABC's in a very interactive way.  The 'App', called 'Clay B C's', has been available on iTunes since the end of September and has already received a five-star rating.  The comments from those who've purchased it heap nothing but praise on the developer.  The program itself is simple, effective and appeals to kids with its vibrant colors, touch-screen navigation and voice recognition.

"Each page is one of the letters of the alphabet and there's six or more objects that the kids can hit and find what the object is.  It'll tell the child what it is with a voice and with words."

Harder started working on the app in July and says it was actually a little bit easier than she thought it would be.

"This program was a little simpler than what I had originally planned on making.  Each of the objects in the App is its own button, so when you click on the 'boat' button, then it says what it's supposed to.  It made it easy because once I understood the code for the letter 'A', I could just do the same for all the letters of the alphabet."

Despite that seemingly simple repetition, the layout for each page was what turned out to be the time-consuming part of it.  Using clay, Harder designed each page on her own from scratch and then had to voice all the objects contained within.  Still, she says it was a process - and a challenge - she enjoyed.

"I wanted to challenge myself by trying to make an App.  I teach Computer Science so I wanted to inspire the kids and show them a way to use programming outside of school and why it is actually useful in life.  Since everyone has an iPhone, it seemed like a logical place to start."

And the response has been tremendous, even amongst her 'older' students.

"The kids are thrilled about it.  I get stopped in the hall by kids saying 'Mrs. Harder, I bought your App and it's so cool and exciting'.  It's really interesting seeing high school students excited about this app that's really designed for kids.  I've really enjoyed seeing kids get excited about it along with my friends and family, who are totally excited about it."

That excitement now has her thinking there are perhaps a few more Apps in her future.  She says she will stay with the 'kids' theme and may look at an App related to kids and money and then possibly a history program she could use with her Grade 8 class.  That may mean at least one more working summer.

'Clay B C's' went up for sale in the App Store at the end of September and has sold over 100 copies already.  It is available for $0.99.

iTunes Link: CLAY-B-Cs