10 Best iPad Apps for Kids

July 15, 2010, By Bruce Tyson 1 comment

iPads are turning up everywhere and if you have one, you know how much kids want to play with them. By downloading kid-friendly iPad apps, keep your children entertained as they learn with your cool iPad. You'll find any of these apps by searching by application name in the iTunes store. These apps range in price from free to $4.99, and some offer a free trial version so you can try before you buy.

PegLight for iPad – This app is like the old Lite Brite toy where kids create pictures and shapes using pegs inserted into a black background. This encourages creativity, but it requires patience, so it generally works better for older children. Recommended for ages 4 and up.

Skee-Ball – This game emulates the popular arcade and fair game and works better on the iPad than it does on the iPhone because there’s more room to move your fingers. For ages 4 and up.

Sneezies HD – Children free pompoms imprisoned in bubbles by spreading sneeze powders. This makes the pompoms sneeze, breaking the bubbles and scoring points. This app is for ages 4 and up.

WeetWoo – Here’s a good app for smaller children beginning with a recommended age of 2. Weet Woo serves up kid-friendly videos that youngsters can easily browse to find hours of entertainment that is both fun and educational.

123 Color HD Talking Coloring Book for iPad – This multilingual coloring book talks to kids and gives them hours of fun coloring maps, cartoons and shapes. Plays delightful music as they color, play, and learn. This app is as close to real coloring as you can get, only you can take it anywhere and there is no mess or cleanup.

Chuzzle – A game of matching fuzzy creatures brought to you by the same people who make Bejeweled. Slide chuzzles around the screen until you get three like chuzzles next to each other. Kids are challenged by the puzzle and are thrilled by the chuzzles when they reach the goal.

Monopoly – No game collection is complete without one of the most popular board games of all time. This version lets you take your place at your side of the board. Movies, animation and artificial intelligence players combine with humans to make a thrilling and fulfilling game experience. Designed for ages 4 and up.

MagniMatch – Kids use a magnifying glass in MagniMatch to examine things and match the details they examine to the larger object it belongs with. Great graphics and sound round out a superb game of learning and fun. Made for ages 2 and up.

Face Time With Mage Nuttings – Kids build their own stories with this clever iPad app. Kids pick photographs from the iPad and they become part of a fantastic interactive story that will be hours of fun for kids of all ages.

My First Words in American English – A great game for children to get a head start in life by developing their vocabulary. Designed for one-year-olds and older, the game uses ten videos for instruction and then mixes in music. If you trust a child that young with your Apple iPad, this app is sure to be a winner.

Bruce Tyson is an expert on everything gadget. He provides contract IT consulting along with freelance writing and is a contributor to Six Apart Media.