Top 5 iPad Apps for Preschoolers (and a Few for Parents)
November 16, 2010, By Buzz Bishop 4 comments
Each night after bathtime, my three-and-a-half-year-old son gets a treat. It’s not a cookie, or a DVD show, it’s 45 minutes with my iPad. Originally I bought the device to give my wife a chance to be mobile around the house checking e-mail or Facebook and reading news. Instead, our son instantly took to the touch device and monopolized it. It quickly went from the grownup’s accessory to the child’s toy.
Getting an iPad solely for your children will be out of the budget for many, but after watching my son manipulate the device and teach my wife how to use it, you have to appreciate the genius of it’s design and how natural it is to use.
On the surface it sounds like a ludicrous luxury, but when you compare it to other things we buy to entertain our children, the iToys come in well under budget.
If you’re out minivan shopping and you’re thinking about getting a DVD player for the vehicle to amuse your kids on long rides, you might want to shuffle that overpriced idea out the window and buck up for individual iPod Touches or iPads. Three kids and three iPods is much cheaper than the car dealer’s tv add-on package and much more versatile and expandable.
Jamie is a father of three and just picked up an iPad for his kids and household.
“Used it yesterday to read the paper, plan the week’s menu, to shop at the store, prepare meals and read bedtime stories. If there was an app to brush my kid's teeth my life would be complete. Can't believe I waited so long to jump in,” he exclaimed.
And therein lies the brilliance of the iPad. My son can play some games, read some books and navigate YouTube before bed and once everyone is tucked in, my wife and I can read the paper (USA Today / New York Times / Globe and Mail), catch up on some podcasts or on demand tv shows and play Backgammon or Scrabble. When you buy an iPad for your house, it’s not just for you or for your kids - it’s for the family.
Here are the top 5 apps my son navigates to first:
- iWrite Words (.99) - a finger writing apps that teaches kids how to write the alphabet
- I See Ewe Matching (.99) - an animal, shape and color memory game with a great variety of settings
- Talking Tom Cat (free) - a fun cartoon cat that kids can scratch and stroke and will repeat their phrases back to them in a funny cartoon voice
- Make A Martian (free) - thousands of options allow kids to mix and match martians on the screen
- Doodle Jump (.99) - an addicting game of skill that parents will enjoy just as much
He also likes to check out the PicPocket series of books, and I really wish I could get him into the excellent array of Dr. Seuss interactive readers, but he just hasn’t bitten yet.
One warning: you’ll want to make sure you turn one-click purchasing off in your apps. I’ve scrambled back to the iPad and iPhone to find my son deep into some iAds or app upgrades to catch them in the nick of time.
Do you have an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone for your family’s use? What are your favorite apps?
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