This year I’ve been devoting one week a month to a themed blog series with daily blog posts. I’ve talked all about project life, shared some ‘wish someone told me sooner’ parenting advice, written about ways to preserve your memories/photos, revealed our favorite things in West Seattle, taught a few easy photo editing tips, celebrated my third birthday, and shared ideas for documenting childhood. This week is all about my favorite apps!
my favorite apps: for the kids!
Ok, let’s be honest… I have no idea how people parented before the invention of smart phones & tablets. There has been many a public meltdown instantly halted because of my iPhone. I do my best to reserve these devices for things like flights & road trips & doctor’s appointments, but when my kids do get their hands on a screen, these are the ones they love.
1. Musical Hands. Best for ages 12 – 24 months, in my opinion. Babies love this one because when they tap the screen it makes different musical notes & little fireworks.
2. Puppy Play. Best for ages 12 months – 24 months, in my opinion. It’s a free Fisher Price app filled with tons of cute videos. You can save a playlist with your favorites so they can be played over & over.
3. Peekaboo Fridge. Best for ages 12-24 months, in my opinion. Colin LOVED it and Jill does too. They tap to open a fridge and each time a new item appears. They learn some simple words and learn to identify those foods. We also have Peekaboo Barn which is really fun too!
4. Night Night. Best for ages 18 months – 3 years, in my opinion. This app is so sweet. You tap on various rooms in a barn and say goodnight to the animals by turning out the lights. Very calming!
5. Elmo Calls. Best for ages 18 months – 3 years, in my opinion. It’s basically FaceTiming with Elmo. Which is genius.
6. Puzzingo. Best for ages 2.5+, in my opinion. This app is full of various puzzles (some are an additional purchase, but there are freebies too) and after you complete the puzzle, it turns into a game. Colin laughs HYSTERICALLY when he gets to feed the dinosaur, but his FAVORITE is the musical instruments that play a song over & over & over & over (and over) again.
7. Hungry Caterpillar. Best for ages 2.5+, in my opinion. This is a sweet little game based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle.
8. Endless Alphabet. Best for ages 3+, in my opinion. This one is a little pricey, but if you think of how much you’d spend on a hard-copy letters workbook, it’s really not terrible. You select a word, then drag the letters to fill in the puzzle, but while the letters are moving, they’re making phonetic sounds. This app has been AMAZING for teaching Colin to start spelling & sounding out letters. He discovers words in this app and then uses his foam bathtime letters to practice spelling them in a different context. Highly recommend!
9. PBS Kids. Good for any age. This free app houses a bunch of PBS shows. Scroll through and select your child’s favorite! My only caution would be that it uses a LOT of data so if you don’t have unlimited data, set this app up to only work on Wifi.
10. Amazon Video. Good for any age. We use this app on every device to access movies we have purchased and to stream free Prime videos/shows. I LOVE the new(ish) feature to download Prime shows ahead of time so you can continue to view them when you’re not on wifi. Before we take a trip, I always load up on the kids favorite episodes of Bubble Guppies, Daniel Tiger & Thomas.
So, there you have it…. my list of the best toddler apps! What are some favorites of YOUR kids? (No, really, please share in the comments because we are always looking for more fun for our iPad!)
More favorite apps are coming all week long (still to come: for me, health, photography & business)! If you’d like to receive a summary in your email inbox at the end of the week, enter your email address here!
