Best iPhone and iPad Apps and Games for Kids
By Laura Clark (from Tecca) on February 24, 2012
While iPhone and iPad apps are certainly helpful for grown-ups who want to manage work, home life, or simply watch a movie over the web, these programs also offer kids diverse learning and entertainment experiences. Whether it's teaching math or reading skills -- or even some stealth elementary physics -- iPhone and iPad apps have moved way beyond the grown-ups' table, enticing kids of all ages to learn while also having fun.Here are eight iPhone and iPad apps that will stimulate kids' reading, science, and even art skills -- plus a few more just for kicks.
1. Cut the RopePrice: 99 cents for iPhone, $1.99 for HD iPad
Tapping into the less "angry" side of physics-based games, Cut the Rope encourages kids to use their noggins as they figure out how to feed treats to a hungry little monster. Players need to cut a sometimes swinging rope to land a tasty piece of candy in the little guy's mouth. As levels get more difficult, kids need to navigate floating bubbles, hungry spiders, and menacing spikes.
2. Helicopter Taxi
2. Helicopter Taxi
Price: $1.99
Download: Helicopter Taxi for iPhone
This creative app uses augmented reality to show an animated yellow helicopter flying around a child's room. Simply hold up the iPhone, and the helicopter looks as if it's hovering over your own bookshelves and dressers. The app also provides a game mode that lets kids pick up and drop off five different animated characters.
3. Super Why!
3. Super Why!
Price: $2.99 for iPhone, $3.99 for HD iPad
Download: Super Why! for iPhone or iPad
Kids can boost their vocabulary with this engaging and kid-friendly app. Just like the PBS Kids show, the Super Why! apps for the iPhone and iPad offer kids choices of words to place into fairy-tale stories. Boys and girls can also find letters and rhymes and earn sticker rewards.
4. Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History Collections
4. Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History CollectionsPrice: Free for iPhone, $1.99 for HD iPad
Download: Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History Collections for iPhone or iPad
What child does not love dinosaurs -- or at least find them fascinating if not exactly cuddle-worthy? Both boys and girls will enjoy this paleontology-friendly app, which features a near encyclopedia of dino fossil facts and more than 1,000 photos from the archives of the New York museum.
5. Mad Libs
5. Mad Libs
Price: Free
Download: Mad Libs for iPhone
Often associated with long road trips, this silly word game for kids reinforces grammar terms such as adjective, noun, and verb while allowing children to create sometimes nonsensical (albeit hilarious) stories in the name of fun. And the best part? No worrying about scribbling over previous words or those pesky eraser marks.
6. Juno's Piano
6. Juno's PianoPrice: 99 cents
Download: Juno's Piano for iPhone and iPad
Teaching kids how to tickle the ivories without all of that stress about practicing? That's what the Juno's Piano app for both iPhone and iPad has set out to do for children. Presented in a non-threatening, fun interface, Juno (of Baby Juno DVD series fame) encourages kids with positive reinforcement as they learn to play songs on their own. What also supports kids' learning is the way the various keys light up to show them where to place their fingers on the screen. Kids can even play with their parents, if they want to show Mom or Dad a few things.
7. Stack the States
Teaching kids how to tickle the ivories without all of that stress about practicing? That's what the Juno's Piano app for both iPhone and iPad has set out to do for children. Presented in a non-threatening, fun interface, Juno (of Baby Juno DVD series fame) encourages kids with positive reinforcement as they learn to play songs on their own. What also supports kids' learning is the way the various keys light up to show them where to place their fingers on the screen. Kids can even play with their parents, if they want to show Mom or Dad a few things.
7. Stack the States
Price: 99 cents
Download: Stack the States for iPhone and iPad
Somehow, learning about our 50 states by interacting with wide-eyed shapes, aka Maine or California, makes absorbing facts seem a little less rote. With Stack the States, kids can learn capital cities, border states, and other fun facts about each of the distinct members of our country. Kids can even set goals for themselves as they try to reach new levels by, yes, stacking those states.
8. Drawing Pad
Somehow, learning about our 50 states by interacting with wide-eyed shapes, aka Maine or California, makes absorbing facts seem a little less rote. With Stack the States, kids can learn capital cities, border states, and other fun facts about each of the distinct members of our country. Kids can even set goals for themselves as they try to reach new levels by, yes, stacking those states.
8. Drawing PadPrice: $1.99
Download: Drawing Pad for iPad
Inspire children's inner Picasso or Matisse with this versatile, art-friendly app, which provides kids with not only a plentiful palette of colors but also a variety of real-sized pencils, crayons, and paintbrushes to realize their masterpiece. What might be even better for parents is the added bonus of sharing those drawings via email, Facebook, and Twitter.
[Top image credit: Yutaka Tsutano]
What's your kid's favorite app? Let us know in the comments below.
=================================================================== Laura Clark is a writer for Tecca. Her work also has appeared in Woman's Day, LA Weekly and Variety. You can follow her on Twitter at @la_story. Tecca is a next-generation personal electronics information and shopping service. We bring together the web's leading content, commerce, and community features to provide comprehensive solutions for consumers' ever-growing technology needs. Think of us as that tech savvy friend who helps you when you have questions about what to buy, what to pay, how to make the most of you already have, and when it's time to upgrade. Get to know us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Inspire children's inner Picasso or Matisse with this versatile, art-friendly app, which provides kids with not only a plentiful palette of colors but also a variety of real-sized pencils, crayons, and paintbrushes to realize their masterpiece. What might be even better for parents is the added bonus of sharing those drawings via email, Facebook, and Twitter.
[Top image credit: Yutaka Tsutano]
What's your kid's favorite app? Let us know in the comments below.
=================================================================== Laura Clark is a writer for Tecca. Her work also has appeared in Woman's Day, LA Weekly and Variety. You can follow her on Twitter at @la_story. Tecca is a next-generation personal electronics information and shopping service. We bring together the web's leading content, commerce, and community features to provide comprehensive solutions for consumers' ever-growing technology needs. Think of us as that tech savvy friend who helps you when you have questions about what to buy, what to pay, how to make the most of you already have, and when it's time to upgrade. Get to know us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
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