Favorite iPad Apps (for the kids)

Justin says he bought the iPad for me AND Claire*, but it's really mostly Claire's. Sure, I use it sometimes. I used to check Facebook on it until Claire figured out how to use Facebook. Then I was watching True Blood on it...until Claire figured out that the HBO app might be interesting. Not that this is a problem, I have my own computer that does much more than the iPad and it was mostly so that we could get an old laptop out of the livingroom and still be able to check email/facebook/news/weather/etc most of which I now do on my phone anyways.


Since the main user of our iPad Claire, it is mostly full of toddler appropriate apps. Some of them are fun for grown ups too (Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, etc) and there are a few that on there for Anaya (Draw Something, Katy Perry something, Tap Tap Glee, Diner Dash, etc). But a majority of them were purchased specifically for Claire. Since Claire spends so much time playing the iPad, I thought I would tell a little about our favorite apps for her and her favorite apps.

Any App by Duck Duck Moose.
Some of them may be a little too advanced for Claire, but Anaya likes playing with the story telling apps too. Personally, I think Park Math, Word Wagon and Fish School are the most educational although I love Puzzle Pop (probably because I love puzzles). Claire really likes their three newest apps Draw & Tell, Princess Fairy Tale Maker and Monsters vs Superheroes Comic Book Maker. Those three I think are a little beyond her. They are all basically the same thing, draw a picture or color a coloring sheet, put stickers on the page, and then tell a story about what is going on in your picture. She draws pictures and moves stickers around, but she has no interest in telling a story. I'd LOVE for her to start doing that, but she's not yet.

Disney Apps - Mickey's Road Rally and Minnie's Bow Maker and Watch Disney Jr.
Claire likes these more than I do. The Bow Maker one is pretty new - you can make a bow (pick the fabric, pick the color, pick a pattern, pick a bow design) and then you decide if Minnie or you should wear the bow. There's a "Story" mode, but we just went through that once to unlock Daisy, the twins and the bird. The Road Rally app is mostly telling the story and showing the Road Rally episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Instead of Mickey just figuring out what to do you get to click or say what should happen which is better than just watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Her FAVORITE app right now is actually the Watch Disney Jr app because she can watch a couple of each of her favorite Disney Junior shows on it (currently Doc McStuffins and Octonauts).

Peekaboo Barn & Peekaboo Wild by Night & Day Studios
I'm pretty sure I got these on my iPod before we even had the iPad. Claire loved them when she was a little younger. Basically, you listen to an animal sound but you can't see the animal (the farm ones are in the barn, the safari ones are behind tall grass) then you can attempt to get your child to guess what animal it is, then click on the barn/tall grass and it shows you the animal and says the name of the animal. Slightly educational and less irritating than a lot of other apps.

Starfall ABCs
My mom actually got Claire started on the Starfall website way before I even knew there was an app. It teaches letters and words that contain each letter. There are a few games built into some of the letters, but it's mostly a click here and then listen type of game, but she loved it for a long time and will still play it occasionally.

Counting 123 by iTot
Some number of objects are shown on the screen and as you click on each one it changes into a number and counts how many there are until you click on all of them. Then it says what it was, so if there were 6 Frogs, it would say "6 Frogs" when you get all done clicking on the frogs. Teaches them the numbers, the order of the numbers and the idea of getting the total number at the end of counting.

Angry Birds Regular & Space
Claire LOVES Angry Birds. If she sees Angry Bird stuff at the store, she'll point and say "Angry Bird, Angry Bird, Angry Bird" until we take her to look at it (or distract her into forgetting about it). This isn't really a "toddler game" but it maybe teaches a little physics? Or maybe I'm just attempting to make myself feel better about her obsession.

This is not even all the apps that we have on our iPad, these are just the ones that Claire seems to play the most. Are there any toddler apps that you particularly like?

* Yes, I know grammatically that sentence should be Claire and me, but the point was he bought it for me...and a little bit for Claire. Or something like that.