Happy midsummer! As is usually the case when things are a little quiet around here, we’re polishing up new apps (and other exciting things!) to share with you soon. To get you through the dog days, here are a few links we’ve liked as of late.

While every Explorer’s Library app is accompanied by a handbook designed to help adults support kids’ learning, we felt it was appropriate to make something for kids first and adults second for the first app in our Digital Toys series, The Robot Factory. The result is The Robot Factory Technical Manual.

In Simple Machines, kids experiment with wheels and axles by sending a cyclist through an obstacle course. In this activity, you can see how wheels and axles work by getting outside and going for a ride together!

We’ve doubled the number of parts (100 in total!) to build with and test in The Robot Factory.

This summer, stay up late one clear night and look at the stars. Here are some of our favorite resources for further learning about what you see up in the sky.

Whether you’re traveling or staying put this summer, here are a few of our favorite kid’s books, apps, and sites to inspire wanderlust for worlds near and far.

Here in Brooklyn, summertime means picnics in Prospect Park, hopscotch all over sidewalks, and for the 4th of July: sparklers! In celebration of our Independence Day, we updated Homes.

As we develop our apps, we look to data-rich resources to strengthen them. One of the best resources is the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (JGCC). The JGCC’s mission is to help kids who struggle in traditional education settings. Their research is focused on answering the question: how can we use digital technology to help these kids?

When we learned that Michael Levine, Founding Director of the Cooney Center would be discussing his new book, Tap, Click, Read, and answering questions about advancing children’s learning in the digital age at NYU Poly, a few of us eagerly joined for the lunchtime conversation.

In Simple Machines, kids twist a set of screws to lift and hold up a trio of sloshing fish tanks. In this activity, you can test the self-locking abilities of screws by seeing if water splashes out of a container when dropped.

This year some of the dev team at Tinybop — Rob (not pictured above), Cameron, and I — got the chance to go to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. It was nice to be surrounded by knowledgeable developers with an eagerness to both learn and share their experiences.