Top 20 Kids iPhone Apps
It’s easy to love the App Store, but I do have one frustration – it lumps in kids learning apps with all educational apps, including those aimed at goals such as teaching Korean to businessmen and logic to prospective lawyers. In my mind, this makes it harder for developers to share their kid-specific content, and harder for parents to find quality apps. Someday, we hope, Apple will find a way to display kids educational apps in their own category within the app store. Until then, we’ll keep you updated on great options when looking for learning apps just for the kids.
Top Kids iPhone Apps in the App Store
Wheels On Bus
1. Wheels On The Bus
Price: $0.99
Description: Created by parents, Wheels on the Bus is a fun, interactive musical book, based on the popular children’s song. Come aboard the bus to spin the wheels, open and close the doors, swish the wipers, pop some bubbles, make a dog bark, and much more!
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Cute Math
2. Cute Math
Price: $1.99
Description: Your little one can count baby penguins, pick the right amount of apples to put in a basket, move some happy birds around to solve addition problems, and drop apples off a tree to solve subtraction problems.
Review Coming Soon
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Toddler Flashcards
3. Toddler Flashcards
Price: $0.99
Description: Toddler Flashcards has cards to teach children the names of animals, foods, things – as well as advanced stuff like the alphabet or numbers. Over 200 images, text in English, French and Spanish.
Review Coming Soon
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Voice Toddler Cards
4. Voice Toddler Cards
Price: $0.99
Description: A collection of talking flashcards. Cards speak in English and Spanish. You can also add your own voice to any flashcard.
Review Coming Soon
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Preschool Adventure
5. Preschool Adventure
Price: $0.99
Description: Contains simple activities parents can do with their toddlers: ocean colors, space shapes, monkey body, farm sounds, animal matching, dot-to-to numbers.
Review Coming Soon
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Word Magic
6. Word Magic
Price: $0.99
Description: A picture is shown and and kids select the missing letter for the word shown in the picture.
Review Coming Soon
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Five Little Monkeys
7. Five Little Monkeys
Price: $0.99
Description: Little Monkeys jump on the bed to music — kids can build counting and math skills by taking the monkeys on and off the bed. Interactive objects teach concepts like on/off, open/close and more.
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ShapeBuilder
8. Shapebuilder
Price: $0.99
Description: Shape Builder educates & entertains your little one with easy to move shapes that snap into place on top of silhouette puzzles. Real images are revealed when the puzzle is complete.
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Letter Tracer
9. Letter Tracer
Price: $0.99
Description: LetterTracer is an educational tool that helps preschoolers and other pre-reading children trace and paint letters and number shapes. The exposure to letters and numbers helps prepare children for reading and writing.
Review Coming Soon
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Pick A Letter
10. Teach Me Toddler
Editor’s Choice
Price: $0.99
Description: Teach Me Toddler helps toddlers learn letter names, letter phonics, numbers, shapes and colors.
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Suzy Dress Up
11. Suzy Dress Up
Price: $0.99
Description:Create and customize Suzy’s wardrobe and accessories with options including: hat, shoes, jewelry, purses, pets, glasses, hairstyle, eyes, mouth, skin color, wings, costumers and more.
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PopMath Basic Math
Price: $0.99
Description: Pairs of bubbles float on the screen and your goal is to pop each pair. For example, if one bubble says “7″ and another says “3+4″ simply touch one bubble, and then the other to pop them both.
Review Coming Soon
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Animal Memory Match
Price: $0.99
Description: Animal Memory Match is a fun filled memory match game for kids of all ages. Improve/test your children’s memory skills by matching pairs of cute and friendly animals.
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Best of Eye Spy
Price: $0.99
Description: A collection of children’s game and puzzles. Each puzzle consists of a picture with hidden objects. The challenge is to find the hidden objects within each puzzle.
Review Coming Soon
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Flash for Kids
Price: $0.99
Description: A collection of children’s game and puzzles. Each puzzle consists of a picture with hidden objects. The challenge is to find the hidden objects within each puzzle.
Review Coming Soon
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Letters A to Z
Price: $0.99
Description: Letters A to Z is a captivating set of animated flashcards designed to help toddlers learn the letters of the English alphabet in a fun and engaging way.
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Coloring Book
Price: $0.99
Description: An outline of a picture is displayed, and then you simply touch the appropriate color and paint in the picture with your fingertips.
Review Coming Soon
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abc PocketPhonics
Price: $0.99
Description: PocketPhonics teaches the letter sounds for all the letters in the alphabet. It also visually demonstrates how to write each letter.
Review Coming Soon
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Math Flash Cards
Price: $0.99
Description: Math Flash Cards is a fun to use math drill application that looks just like paper flash cards.
Review Coming Soon
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Lady Bug Tree
Price: $0.99
Description: A simple game: tap on a ladybug in the tree and drag it into the jar. Helps with fine motor skills, counting and number recognition.
Review Coming Soon
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This list is based on iTunes App Store data as of early July ’09. We agree with a lot of the titles on this list – many of these are truly great iPhone apps for kids — but we’re not completely convinced these are truly the best of the best. The nature of the app store makes it easy for some high-quality titles to slip through the cracks and hard for them to ever get rediscovered. On that note – are your kids using any great apps that you love that you don’t see on this list?
Let us know — we’ll be putting together a few other Top 20 lists in the coming weeks, but next time not based on sales.
Do share your favorites.
[Editor's Note: Descriptions listed in this article are adapted from the info provided by developers on iTunes. Our take on the apps can be found in the relevant reviews -- linked from above as available]
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Thanks for the comment. Couple thoughts — if you’re looking to create an app, the group Moms With Apps recommends a few good developer options.
Also, if you’re looking for some options for your 1st-6th graders, check out the list that that The iPhone Mom has put together.
And, if you don’t have them already, do grab both Motion Math and Stack the States. They are both outstanding – a great blend of fun and educational value.
Hope that helps.
You are welcome to use the content from the blog post — a back link is appreciated, but our real goal is to help parents find quality app content so that they can help their kids learn and have some fun. If you’re sharing our content in that spirit, you’re more than welcome to repurpose it.
I built an app called Homework that helps kids learn their vocabulary. You enter your word lists and record your word and then kids can practice and take tests. My wife loves it because the kids want to play on the phone, so this way they must pass their spelling test first. No pass, no play. It also makes it saver to do spelling in the car since our son can practice with the iPhone and mom does not have to read spelling words while driving.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/homework-for-iphone/id399086922?mt=8
Thanks!
My son loves Letter Pick and it is only 0.99. ALphababy and I hear Ewe are great free apps as well. For moms, you can check another great free—Intuition (www.iconapps.com) aka “mom’s personal assistant”. Task management tool that is simplifies Mom’s busy schedules.
We are trying to teach our kids Spanish so we really like Leo Spanish, a Spanish alphabet program that introduces simple words and letter pronunciation. It also has a nice coloring activity that our kids like. Check it out here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/leo-spanish/id408559855?mt=8
Try this nice for teaching good habits to kids – Little Steps to Good Habits.
For iPad : http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/little-steps-to-good-habits/id411404110?mt=8
For iPhone : http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/little-steps-to-good-habits/id415863237?mt=8
Totally agree that kids should have their own section on the App Store ! I was very surprised to find that wasn’t the case.
Snow Island Apps paper theater series has a great new app for young children -
Your child is the puppeteer! Their goal is to help Captain Snow find words to represent each letter in the alphabet. Words will magically appear as certain objects are clicked on in each scene and the corresponding letter will be highlighted at the bottom of the stage. Try to find all the letters of the alphabet!
Stuck? Try clicking on one of the letters at the bottom of the screen. Letter clues and pictures of the objects you are looking for will help you get back on track.
• Make Captain Snow dance, swim or jump up and down by dragging him to different areas on the stage.
• Change the weather by dragging the clouds around. What happens when you drag a cloud over the sun?
• Find the hidden key to open the treasure chest.
• Make music under the sea.
• Meet some different creatures that live under the sea. What can you make them do?
Thank you for sharing the Apps! Do not forget about Free PowerVocab App for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/powervocab-lite/id413511366?mt=8&ls=1#
PowerVocab is very helpful in preparing for GMAT, SAT, GRE. Use it as your personal English vocab builder. While practicing, app automatically determines your language level, figures out words that are difficult for you and plan your learning approach.
I discovered a funny and educational game Baby Animal World.I like this game, I bought it for my youngest brother, he is 3 years old and he loves it!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-animal-world-free/id423755398?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-animal-world/id420899240?mt=8
One of the best app for kids: Snail alphabet- is an is an educational and engaging app for kids, which helps them to learn while they play! Not just one game, but four in one. A lot of games, so your child wont get bored.
Features:
-Alphabet recognition
-Visual and auditory memory skils
-Color identification
-Sound recorded audio for each letter of the alphabet and word.
http://itunes.apple.com/md/app/snail-alphabet-free/id430547750?mt=8
My son’s 2 favorite games right now are:
Licking Letters – Spelling game with tons of cool stuff to do
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox – A bunch of mini games
I like Licking Letters because he is actually learning while playing
Another app that is simple and helps kids with monster fears, or likes to play and catch monsters, is Go Away Monster 3000. Designed by kids between 4 and 8. Parents control when a monster can be found, this app becomes part of your bed time routine and your kids can make a room monster free. During the day, your kids will run around looking for monster in places you never knew they existed.
Website http://www.goawaymonster.com
or on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go-away-monster-3000/id381349793?mt=8
savvy app for kids. parents should play this fun game with their kids / teens.
will raise their sense of street smart and alertness.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/make-me-dance-quiz/id442936329?mt=8&ls=1
makemedancequiz
We are very excited to share our two I-App puzzle games for kids- “Tile Teaser” where you move the tiles to solve the puzzle, and “MaZigSaw” which is a magical Jigsaw game. These puzzles are unique because they are very simple and clutter free puzzles, sure to stimulate the little brains. My 5 and 7 years old kids just love these personalized puzzles. You should try them out: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tile-teaser/id429139210?mt=8, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mazigsaw/id451033658?mt=8
This is a great list! My other favorite resource for finding iPhone apps for kids is http://ikidapps.com
I love that these sites make it so easy for me to find quality apps for my kiddos!
I purchased the below interactive book for my kids iPad… and its helping them be better at tooth brushing
Author, Jamie McClaine, launched her idea of promoting good personal hygiene to children with her first app book, “Have you ever seen a Moose brushing his teeth?” Available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
Find out more about the game online at http://mooseandfriends.com/
Interactive book on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/have-you-ever-seen-moose-brushing/id461746150?mt=8
Richly illustrate, interactive game, which the children do not get bored after 5 minutes of play.
We encourage you and your children to hear stories such as “Ugly duckling” and more over to sing songs about it.
This application opens the way to create more new and better apps.
App ver 1.0:
* Chose one of 15 different animals, and hear story of it or hear song.
* This app is tested on kids.
* Beautiful colorful application.
* Spelling each letter of animal.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/animals-story-for-kids/id465791207?mt=8
It’s only 0.99$
Talking toys are really nice for my 3 little boys,and their parents;) We send messages and movies easily to each others and we feel like each of us get his own one. Pirate, Teddy, Rapper and Cowboy are all really nice. It is mainly a game, they won´t learn how to read with that, but have fun without destroying everything in the house
Thanks for the post, it helps people like me who doesn´t know where to get info. The talking toys are so far my favorite, but I prefer the Rapper, also on Androïd.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Talking-Rapper/218933488170591
http://www.mytalkingtoys.com/
Yeah, I just discover the talking toys! really nice thanks! Talking pirate is really funny and cute!
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/kids-opedia-learn-quiz-report/id468443350?mt=8
Check out our newest offering for Kids and Toddlers.
KIDS Opedia is a complete encylopedia for young children built in an engaging, colourful, and fun learning format. It uses a mix of attractive pictures, sounds, animations, and text to entertain kids and help them learn.
The app is a great learning tool for toddlers, pre-schoolers, as well as school-going kids that entertains and educates them. It contains a wide range of topics, such as Alphabets, Numbers, Colors, Animals, shapes, Everyday objects, Fruits, Vegetables, Transport, Body Parts, Occupations and many more. It allows you to build different levels of complexity for your kids by focusing on single category or multiple ones of your choice.
I like Farm Animal Puzzle app for my kids. Its very polished and keep my kids entertained on the road.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/farm-animal-puzzle/id469925593?mt=8
Youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXx58135XoI
Game:LittleZee
Free Promo Codes
34F339YLMXT4
XET7ENHPYEMM
W79P6KH9X6XY
Description:
In a magical kingdom TeddyLand, live a Happy TeddyBear name Little Zee. Little Zee has been deemed the chosen one. She must save YellowBright, the last living sunflower in TeddyLand.
YellowBright has 6 Magical Petals that needs your protection. If the bees touch YellowBright a Petal will be lost. If 6 petals are lost, YellowBright could be destroyed forever and Little Zee will loose her homeland.
The Dark Lords, Nectar and Pollen once arch enemies have join forces with the Queen, Larvae to capture YellowBright magical petals. They have unleashed a army of angry bees to attack and destroy YellowBright.
You must, should you take this challenge destroy the evil forces that have risen and help Little Zee save YellowBright.
Simple and easy (wink wink)till they really start buzzzzz’n fast
Simply TAP to kill…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Red Wasp “Pollen” Tap 1 time
Green/Yellow Bee “Larvae” Tap 2 Times
Fat BumbleBee “Nectar” Tap 3 times
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hint: Tap special magical water jug for life
100 stages to complete. Get your Points!
http://www.zazzle.com/tygamer
(Check Out All the New Cool Accessories)
Protect Little Zee.. Do not let the Angry Bees attack YellowBright and take her Magical Petals.
thanks for sharing this article, I also want to share a BEST Memory Match Game for Kids, named “SUPER KIDS”, it will help your kids to learn Alphabets, Numbers, Colors and Objects Through this single Game with funny characters and all this for FREE and being a parent I am happy that there is NO hidden ADS, really enjoying this app with my son.you can find it App Store, your kids definitely love it.
If you have preschool children then you might like the Things That Move app. This simple building set game will keep your kids busy while you’re standing in line at the supermarket.
Here’s the iTunes link if you want to check it out – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/construct-o-set-things-that/id453720004?mt=8
Nice list of apps for kids. I strongly recomeneded free Memory Match Game for Kids:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/super-kids/id476304571?mt=8&ls=1