Adding Ticklish and Cookie Fun to Your Phone

by Karen Genco

Karen has been married to her husband Mike for 9 years, and is a mommy to 5 year old twin girls with another baby girl due in August.  She has a rewarding part time career as a family practice physician assistant.  In her hard to find spare time, she enjoys gardening, crafting, and taking the kids out just about anywhere.

When I first saw the Sesame Street Character iPhone cases from i.Sound*, I was excited for two reasons: one, if they made these kid friendly cases, then surely I wasn’t alone in giving my young kids their own iPhones (disconnected); and two, if they used their iPhones in public with the cases on, it would look like an actual kid toy.  My kids love having the iPhones for games, educational activities, pictures, etc., and I love them having them, especially for those times when I need them happily occupied (doctors’ offices, restaurants, etc.)  I just have a little guilt over giving two 4-year olds a grown-up high tech device.  These cases eased my guilt just enough to be happy to pull them out in public.  I even got some questions from fellow kid-with-iPhone parents about where we got them!



The cases are made for iPhones, iPod touches, and even iPads.  Since we have twins, we naturally went for the twin pack (iPhone 3GS), which included both the Elmo and Cookie Monster cases.  Both are very vibrantly colored, red and blue respectively, and have the characters face popping up on the back —  big google eyes and all.

I loved the colors because it made the phones easy to find at the bottom of my purse, with a quick glance around the living room, or even under the couch.  It also helped to identify each phone; Elmo has the princess matching game, Cookie Monster has the animal matching game, etc.

I was a little worried that the rubbery material of the case would be a problem for collecting sticky gooey stuff that seems to seep out of my kids, but they actually stayed fairly clean, and were easy to wipe off if anything did goop up on it.  The material is fairly thin, and I wondered how much protection it would really offer.  We’ve had a couple small drops and the phones stayed protected, but I don’t know how much protection it would give with a harder drop or a throw (we did not test this… as far as I know).

The case slips on easily, but comes off even easier.  This became a small problem for my one daughter who is a picker/tinkerer by nature.  She would often come for help with putting the case back on after she had slipped a corner off.  My other daughter, however, never took the case off.  I guess it depends on the kid.  The case features openings for the speakers and dock connector, camera, volume on/off, and headphone connector.  The case also has a raised area over the volume control and power buttons.  This particular feature we really liked because it made these buttons easier to use for small fingers.

Overall, these cases are certainly made with kids in mind.   I speak for myself and my twin girls when I say we are very happy with our Sesame Street cases, and would recommend them for any family with pint-sized iPhone users.

These fun cases are available from i.Sound online through their store.  The iPhone 3G/GS Elmo and Cookie Monster cases sell for $14.99 and they are also available for iPad 1 cases for $24.99.  i.Sound.net has provided a special discount for WellConnectedMom.com readers.  Enter the code SSMOM10 to receive a 10% discount on all Sesame Street products.

* i.Sound provided the two phone cases for review but all opinions are my own.