My favourite iPad apps for the kids

If you have an iPad, and one or more children over the age of 6 months, then it is likely you have already fought over control of your ‘pad’.

The iPad has an amazing ability to draw sustained focus of children no matter what their age.

The apps that my little ones (all under 9) have seemed to prefer (and which I have generally provided approval) include:

Talking Tom
I introduced this app to my kids by sending them a recorded good night video message while I was away traveling. The recording was my voice (with more than a slight enhancement) projecting from a interesting looking cartoon character cat. Apparently it took some time for the giggles to subside. There are a number of other ‘Talking’ character variations. Try one of the many free ones for fun.

My First Words – Flashcards by Alligator Apps
If you have a child learning to speak or learning to read, this is a great learning tool. It has numerous flashcards in a variety of categories. If you choose the ‘Play’ mode, it can show pictures with multiple choice answers for the appropriate word – which your child needs to select correctly. What I really like, is the customisation it allows. You can re-record the voices, to avoid introducing undesired accents into your child’s vocabulary, as well as creating new pictures and words of your own. It seems a little ‘buggy’ still, but it still works well.

Lazy Larry
Lazy Larry the Lizard is one of many fantastic interactive books that easily engage the young reader.
A couple of other interactive books that the kids have enjoyed are How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story.
Like me, the kids have trouble putting Angry Birds down, and have also enjoyed Cut The Rope. Both are simple enough to play, but difficult to play well. And they are very addictive!

I’d also take a look at the numerous musical apps, including Drums (I have micro edition) which lets you tap on your iPad drum set, or for piano the Virtuoso app works for one or two at a time.

This is only a few out of the massive number of apps available for kids, but among them, many hours of joyful entertainment for the young ones!

Do you have others that your children love to play? Any great apps for educational purposes that you have found. Let me know in the comments below.