Kids Apps

Ideal for: Introducing kids to logic puzzles

The latest in the Thinkrolls series, Thinkrolls: Kings & Queens gives its classic gravity and logic puzzles a regal twist. Just like its other editions, Kings & Queens’s goal is to make a clear pathway in a huge maze to allow the game’s hero to travel through. “Hurdles” include various type of contractions, from hatches, gears, bridges and animals to magical instruments that have effects on its surroundings. It’s a great way to get tiny tots to begin to develop their problem solving abilities through video games.

Price: $3.99

Ideal for: Having kids watch programs on iPlayer without fear

Much as everyone loves BBC iPlayer, there is always a hidden fear for kids to veer off from kids content and end up watching something that could either scar them or get them interested in something they shouldn’t. iPlayer Kids eliminates this problem by limiting its broadcasts to shows that are aired on CBBC and CBeebies. Besides this one crucial factor, iPlayer Kids functions just as the normal iPlayer – fast searches, simple and elegent interface, and the ability to download and watch offline are all included.

Price: FREE

Ideal for: Kids who are just getting acquainted with mobiles

The latest among Sago apps, Mini Friends is one of much better and more popular ones. The game rules are simple, yet interesting – the player has to choose a character and move around in the neighbourhood while barging into houses and playing the mini-games that awaits them in each. Games include fix birdhouses by hammering nails into them, “eating” snacks, and “playing” dress-up, among others. The most interesting this about these tasks is the way they are designed to introduce and promote empathy and kindness in children.

Price: FREE

Ideal for: A simple app that is enjoyable and educative at the same time

A simple-looking, single-screen app, Peek-a-Zoo makes for a deceptively educational and entertaining app for kids. Featuring a series of basic-looking cartoon animals, the game asks the player to identify said animal on the basis of a clue. The clue in question could be an action, posture, sound, or emotion – anything that is simple. Once the player correctly identifies the character, the scene changes to a new puzzle. Intuitive and pleasant, the app will not fail to garner the attention and smiles of children – and sometimes parents too.

Price: FREE

Ideal for: Being a suitable introduction to Minecraft

As great as Minecraft is, it can get increadibly vast, complicated and even intimidating for kids. And that is exactly where Toca Blocks comes in. The app works much like Minecraft – sandbox and all – albeit in a much simpler form. That being said, Toca Blocks does not in any way limit the child’s imagination – much the opposite, in fact. The app’s 2D format makes it easier for kids to navigate, while the feature of “mashing” blocks together to combine them to make different formats and textures is easy and fascinating to young minds. Toca eliminates other, more complicated features, like survival modes and dangers, allowing kids to let their imagination run free – that is, until they level up to Minecraft anyway.

Price: $3.99

The newest installment of the Baby Vacation series, this app is an advanced play set which provides your kids a virtual situation of being on a vacation. The game has a simple and easy-to-use interface with interactive features and allows your kids to make decisions and undertake their tasks themselves. The game’s main screen can be used to navigate to various places (airport, beach, hotel etc.) at the touch of a button, the player can do various tasks, such as opening and rearranging the bags, exploring the area, and making the characters try and buy clothes from the shops. All-in-all, an ideal app to bring out your child’s creativity and inventive skills.

Price: FREE

As the name suggests, PBS KIDS Video is a video app that aims to strengthen parent-child bonds through media. The app provides a wide variety of contents – from classic children’s shows such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and Bob the Builder, to videos that feature the Mother Goose Club and Super Simple Songs, and encompasses a large field of topics – from arts and science to nature and wildlife, and everything in between. Armed with a very simplistic interface complete with child-friendly features, the app is simple enough to be used by the youngest of children and contains contents that parents and children can enjoy together. What really makes this app special (for parents, especially) is its safety features. Not only does the app have parental controls to ensure the type and quality of content, it also has a clock that can be used to set a certain time limit for the kids to view content.

Price: FREE

Perhaps the best substitute to actual children’s books, Epic! Is an automatic storytelling app that uses digital reading-aloud technology to tell stories, which in turn keeps your child occupied for hours at a stretch without parents having to take out the time to read the books themselves. Not only does the app read stories aloud, it also adds to them beautiful artwork, top-notch narrations, and realistic sound effects.

What really sells the app, however, is the fact that it can be used as virtual bookstore and bookshelf. Not only can users read books from an already saved collection, they can also buy some from Google Play store. Epic! includes popular storybooks such as Robin Hood and Ice Age, among others, allowing the user to try the app first before actually shelling out the money to buy more books.

Price: FREE

Designed specifically for 3-5-year-old children, Preschool Basic Skills aims to teach math skills to foundation students and pre-schoolers. The app ditching the same-old number crunching approach and uses friendly animated creatures to explain basic mathematical concepts. It tests basic skills like subtraction and addition, counting and recognition and other such concepts in the form of games. Furthermore, they feature Shape Sort and Match Up games which teach concepts such as patterns, shapes, sequence and colors, whereas minigames teach concepts like sharing, multiplying, and splitting. All-in-all, a great way for your children to spend their time enjoying themselves – and learning math skills while they’re at it!

Price: FREE

An app that brings the best of learn-through-playing, Babbel helps children get acquainted with English as a language through friendly and interesting games. The app has eight separate sections which teach the kids basic English lessons through exercises and activities. The app features four primary activities – using letter blocks filled-with-pictures with the pronouncing of the letter, making their own picture blocks, burst letter-filled bubbles that float on the screen, and merge phonics when word puzzle series together.

Price: FREE

Though not a gaming app, Kid Mode is nonetheless a useful one that creates a special place on your device where you can store all of your kid’s favorite apps, while keeping them away from using any others. Designed specifically keeping children upto 8-years-old in mind, Kid Mode automatically adds books, games, videos, and apps on the basis of your child’s age. Easy-to-use and equipped with a great and appealing design, Kid Mode packs in some fantastic features such as the ability to add children’s’ accounts, a child lock facility and the ability to search for new apps – all while keeping parental control in place.

Price: FREE

The only reason why a parent would hand their child an uber-expensive Android smartphone, and allow them to use apps, is because it actually acts as a great parenting tool that keeps the child busy for long stretches of time. So why not let the children actually learn something through the apps while they’re using it?

Intellijoy’s new app Kids ABC Letters does exactly that. Aiming to provide basic alphabet skills to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children, the app teaches children to recognize letters, remember their shapes, and be able to find a letter from a group. The apps can be operated by dragging and touching, which makes it very suitable for toddlers. The instructions are also very simple. For instance, in order to recognize shapes, all the child needs to do is tap the letter, and it is reads aloud by the app (This is big ‘A’). To learn shapes, the child needs to drag the letters to its outline.

Kids ABC Letters encourages users to try the app first, supplying a free version that includes the letters “A” to “H.” The entire alphabet is priced at $3.99. While the app does lack exercises and challenges, it is still a great tool to actually teach small children something they have no idea about.

Price: $3.99

Yet another game offered by Baby Bus, Rescue the Fish is a simple yet interesting game that tests your child’s quick reflex and recognition skills. The game consists of fishes that are trapped inside bubbles, which the player has to “save” by bursting the bubble (by tapping on it) – once they go to the screen’s top. Points are earned when you free a fish from its bubble. Be careful not to free any jellyfish or sharks, though, for you will get an “ouch” if you try so. The kinds of fish that appear increases as your child progresses through the game.

Price: FREE

Developed by the famous Kevin Bradford, Preschool and Kindergarten is one of the best games your child could get his/her hands on. The game has three modes – Math, Basics, and Language, each of which test preschoolers skills such as Colors, Shapes, Counting, Letters, Alphabet, Memory, Puzzles, Addition, Subtraction, and Spelling. The game provides the child the opportunity to learn new concepts by visualizing and hearing. The game comes in two versions – a free one consisting of three levels, and a pro version consisting an extra six.

Price: FREE

One of the simplest, yet most effective apps, Wordseeker is word searching game that tests your elementary students’ spelling skills. The game consists of a large variety of categories (like Machines, Vegetables, Animals etc.) and two separate difficulty settings – normal and difficult – that you can adjust according to your child’s age and intelligence. Despite being very simple to operate, Wordseeker is challenging enough to keep your child on their toes. The game has no timer and gives the player the ability to shuffle letters and skip puzzles. The only minor disadvantage in the game is the inability to save your child’s progress. And while the lettering shouldn’t be a problem for young children, they may be problematic for those suffering from eye problems.

Price: FREE