One of the reasons I got an iPad was to introduce Apple’s touch screen technology to my kids. I had heard that children tend to understand the iPad user interface quickly and intuitively.
That indeed turned out to be the case for my five year old son. He got the hang of it within minutes, and mostly taught himself the rest. Now he regularly finds app features I didn’t know about, and teaches them to me.
Here’s a list my five year old’s top 5 favorite iPad apps.
This is hands-down my son’s favorite learning game for the iPad or iPhone. We’ve tried a number of free ones, but in comparison “Teach Me: Kindergarten” is well worth its 99 cent price.
A talking mouse guides the player through progressively more difficult exercises teaching basic arithmetic, spelling, and Dolch “sight words”. The math exercises in particular do a great job teaching how to add and subtract, both by counting objects and solving equations.
For every three correct answers, the player earns a coin, which can be used to purchase stickers for use in various scenes, or fish food to feed virtual fish. The combination of the exercises and reward system seems mildly addictive to my son and his friends.
There’s also a toddler version (which we haven’t tried), and a first grade version we’ll definitely try after working through all the exercises in this one.
Drawing Pad
Drawing Pad is a great drawing app for $1.99. My son loves being able to use his finger to simulate paint brushes, markers, crayons, colored pencils, stamps, rollers, etc. Over 100 stickers are included, and photos on the iPad can be used as stickers too.
Coloring books can be purchased inside the app (a feature parents can disable). It’s also possible to share pictures via email, Twitter, or Facebook.
Garage Band
Garage Band is Apple’s showcase music app for casual users. Some of the features are too advanced for a five year old, but my son loves it anyway. He likes picking out tunes on the piano, rocking on the drum kit and drum machine, and distorting his voice with the microphone effects.
The “smart” instruments are perfect for kids. For example, the smart guitar presents a fretboard that shows 8 chords, which are all in harmony in a particular key (so all the chords sound good together). It’s easy to compose a song by strumming the chords in various sequences. There’s also an “autoplay” option which applies various fingerpicking styles when tapping a chord. You can choose different guitar instruments, like acoustic, hard rock, roots rock, etc. My son loves the rock guitars with their effects pedals.
At $4.99, Garage Band is relatively pricey compared to a lot of apps, but it’s still a great bargain.
Google Earth
My son likes globes and maps, so the free Google Earth app can be fascinating. If you haven’t seen it, Google Earth is like Google Maps superimposed onto a globe, which you can spin, pan, and zoom with your fingers using the multi-touch interface.
The coolest feature is the ability to start from a view of the Earth from space, then click one button to dynamically fly in to see your current location.
My son likes to explore our neighborhood from the skies, along with his grandparents’ houses on the other side of the country. Sometimes he needs help typing in addresses to find locations other than our current position.
Netflix
I wish I could say his next favorite app was the Kindle, but it turns out some kids like to watch TV.
For parents who have a Netflix streaming subscription, the iPhone and iPad apps can be indispensable at times for keeping fidgety kids occupied.
The home screen of the Netflix app is intuitive enough that my son can easily grab the iPad and start watching his favorite shows like Jackie Chan Adventures or The Last Airbender cartoons without assistance. (Finding a specific show that isn’t related to something watched recently still requires help from someone who can spell, to type the name into the search box.)
What are your favorite iPad apps for kids?