Top 50 iPhone Apps for Kids
About a week after I began using my iPhone, I was in love. I had a calendar with me at all times, and I was able to stay on top of my family's schedule - even though there are six of us! I had email access while I was out, so I wasn't constantly playing catch up with PTO business in the evening. Then I discovered apps! There are many apps to help busy moms manage their lives, but there are also just as many exclusively for kids. My children can watch videos, interact with their favorite characters, and practice letter-writing and math. No matter where my family goes, they can be entertained and I can have peace of mind knowing they're learning even while they're having fun.
In January 2009 I began a website, The iPhone Mom, dedicated to helping moms find apps that could do the same for them and their children. Since beginning the site, I've seen both the quantity and quality of useful apps for kids grow.
Babble.com asked me to put together a list of my Top 50 iPhone Apps for Kids. Here, in descending order, are my favorites and the ones I think you'll find most useful.
--Heather Leister
114 Responses to “Top 50 iPhone apps for moms – reader nominations”
Features
A great game for toddlers
My toddler loves this one, and Peekaboo Safari is a close second (though neither are as popular as watching the old school Grinc
My toddler loves this game!
Great fun!!
Great for teaching your kids to love reading.
My son loves this new version of the classic matching game.
a classic!!!!
Here’s a great app based on the book Oscar the Pig: Mommy Goes to Work by Megan Calhoun – a wonderful story- with this app, kids
Math and reading games where the player earns “coins” that can be used to purchase “stickers” for playing with on a variety of b
Draw and place icons on a blank screen. Keeps my kid busy for a long time. Can also get screen shots of the resulting masterpi
iCanMoo brings your 2-5 year old child face to face with live animals! This app is perfect for any child who loves watching anim
Its very good and i really like it this should win !!
great for memory
Want a creative and fun iPhone drawing app for those long drives or when you’re stuck inside? Then Creople is the iPhone app for
This is a great app that kids will love!!
QBook brings Sebastians Tail to life on the iPhone using our QBook touchable text. Kids just run their fingers over the text to
To keep kids occupied in the car!
LEARNING SUBJECTS:
Sight Words: Dolch (Pre-K), Dolch (K)
Addition: up to a total of 10
Subtraction: from 10 down
Spe
We love these interactive stories (and the nostalgic “ding!” of the chime when it’s time to turn the page). We love the selecti
A collection of six educational games for your preschooler.
Narrated picture books for children, brilliant!
There are 2 games, lunchbox and dress up. My 3 and 6 yr olds love them, They are easy to work nad have a catchy tune. The lunchb
Simple and fun to use App to introduce your preschooler to basic words in Spanish and French. It´s easy for kids to fall in lo
test test test
Matching game where you turn over squares until you find two animals that match. The buttons are BIG and very easy to navigate,
A little girls urban neighborhood becomes a discovery ground of things round, square and rectangular in this lyrical picture bo
Kids from 2 to 6 will have fun solving their first puzzles. With 12 different puzzles, nice sound effects, beautiful graphics, t
Let your kids make WeeMees for everyone in your phonebook. Hours of creative fun an giggles.
Make A Mess is a simple (and free!) finger painting application available on the iPhone & BlackBerry Storm. Paintings can be sav
Papa Gatto is an iPhone picture book with full color illustrations, audio soundtrack and interactive features. With its surprisi
Such a great app for kids to learn vocabulary! Plus, WordGirl is a fantastic show for kids and adults – love it.
This is a wonderful enhanced audio book story with song videos and lovely illustrations.
And, amazingly, it’s FREE. Based on the
Lula’s Brew is a storybook by award-winning children’s author Elizabeth O. Dulemba. Lula’s Aunties want her to be a witch just l
The beloved classic “Dr. Seuss’s ABC” is now available for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
From Aunt Annie riding an Alligator to
The Dr. Seuss classic “The Cat in the Hat,” one of the top selling children’s books of all time, is now available for your iPhon
Create zany and whimsical Cat in the Hat Cards, using your Camera or images from your Photo Library. Take pictures with Cat in t
Tales2Go is an innovative new subscription service that gives moms and dads instant access to nearly a thousand great kids stor
This is a great one to keep toddlers occupied. Kids can create and pop balloons with ease. Multi-touch allows them to touch th
MY NAME is a fun and educational spelling game developed by a mommy whose two young children are always reaching for her iPhone.
Created by a mom with a desire to share a fun and engaging mobile experience with her kids, HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES & TOES featur
The most inspiring educational app for all ages! Brilliant. Wanna have fun, laugh and get stimulated, play arithmaroo with the w
Licensed children’s books repurposed for the iPhone and computer. Some books are read to me only complete with narration and mus
Our daughter likes to play with Word Magic. She loves to earn the stickers with this app. We are happy that she is also learnin
Safe YouTube videos for kids. 1000′s of fun and educational videos, grouped by category. Parents choose the age, kids choose the
The Dewey Does book series Heroes Start As Kids invites kids of all ages to enjoy First Day, In the Groove and The Comeback. The new Superhero, Dewey Does a nine-year old boy who loves sports and gives 110% in everything he aspires to do. Dewey Does adventures touch on everyday lifestyle experiences for all kids.
Slide-a-ma-jig is a goofy sliding mix-n-match character creation activity with FABILLIONS (well, millions anyway!) of possible combinations! It isnt educational but it inspires creativity, joy, and mild bewilderment. A lifesaver for parents on long drives or waiting in the DRs office with kids! There’s even a downloadable MAKE YOUR OWN Slide-a-ma-jig form at the LuckyRadishAmusements website!
Help the extremely cute characters of Happy Go Driver manage themselves in traffic, through the beautifully illustrated city landscapes of this game.
This is a simple game of straight forward peek a boo for babies and young toddlers. The user touches the screen which opens to a colorful kneebouncer character who then smiles and makes funny faces and gestures when the baby keeps his/her hand pressed down on character. This app was developed by the popular site Kneebouncers.com. who have an extensive website dedicated to babies and toddlers.
Love it
This is a great book to buy for your kids,
Peter Rabbit is a timeless tale that is sure to delight children of all ages. Younger children are captivated by the narrators storytelling of this classic story, along with the whimsical musical accompaniment. Older children will be challenged to find a well-concealed hidden object in each of the early 20th Century illustrations.
LitterBug! is the educational game that introduces your child to recycling! It’s packed with cute animation, colorful characters, and great music! It’s easy for young children to play, lots of fun, and uses positive reinforcement to educate.
My neigbor’s daughter cannot get enough of this interactive story. Thanks for getting her through some waiting that is unendurable for 5 year olds!
The Rescue of Ginger is an original 20 page interactive story with rich, colorful hand drawn illustrations and original music designed for kids ages 2 to 5 years old. The goal of this game is to encourage learning numbers, colors, shapes, and sizes while also entertaining your child with more than 100 interactive elements!
This is a really addictive game where you have different colored marbles and try to get them into the right colored hole. You have to tilt the phone to get them to roll into the right place. Very fun. My husband is even addicted to playing it.
This is a children’s game that fosters imaginary play – my 6 year olds favorite! You begin by picking an adventure, pack your bags, then explore a new place.
A clown fish searches its anemone home, but jelly fish and shark interfere. It’s accelerometer based.
Innovative scroll-and-touch-and-hear game for the youngest ones. One of the nicest looking games for children at the AppStore.
With early 20th-Century illustrations and simple melodies, ABC Animals engages the imagination while immersing attention in a fun, easy-to-use app that blends hi-tech with high art, all while helping children to learn to recognize the letter of the English alphabet, and developing their picture-naming skills.
An interactive and fun way to learn to count!
Starting with “One Tasty Pie,” kids will love the art and animation of this entertaining iPad app. Silly characters come to life and teach your children early number skills.
Chinese for Munchkins takes children on a journey, teaching them how to say animals and numbers in Mandarin and Cantonese – the two most common Chinese dialects in the world. Kids will be drawn to the flashcard pictures, sounds and animations. The interactive Memory Match and Counting Pig games will also help children reinforce what theyve just learned while keeping them engaged and entertained.
Alphabet Photo Machine helps children get confident with the alphabet, start to read by identifying a word’s first letter, and learn over 60 early sight words by using 333 engaging photos including cats, dogs, cars, elephants, eyes, flowers, guitars, kites, volcanoes, and alligators.
Great game for all ages!! Like sims but free!
Based on the classic Beatrix Potter story, Peter Rabbit is a timeless tale that is sure delight children of all ages. Younger children are captivated by the narrator’s storytelling of this classic story, along with the whimsical musical accompaniment. Older children will be challenged to find a well-concealed hidden object in each of the early 20th Century illustrations.
Classically-illustrated Mother Goose rhymes brought to life with puzzle pictures containing a hidden object. Children of all ages will enjoy these early 20th-Century illustrations, delightful rhymes, and simple melodies.
Based on Elizabeth Gordon’s “Bird Children” book, “Mother Earth’s Preschool: Learning Birds Volume 1″ combines delightful illustrations with poems. Each bird then appears with a photograph, and a set of different sounds to see if the child can identify the correct one. It’s a fun and interactive way to help the child learn both the names of birds and their unique sounds.
Delightfully simple rhymes for children of all ages are brought to life with pictures of animals, both real and imaginary, from around the world. ABC Animals engages the imagination while immersing attention in a fun, easy-to-use app that blends hi-tech with high art, all while helping children learn to recognize the letter of the English alphabet, and develop their picture-naming skills.
Three brothers set off to build their lives, but must band to together as a wolf attempts to foil their plans in this richly illustrated classic children’s story.
A free introduction to “Once Upon an App’s” nursery rhymes, featuring Humpty Dumpty. View the story with music, then help put Humpty back together again by touching the screen and shaking the device.
Each Elizabeth Gordon fruit illustration is followed with a photograph of the actual fruit. Children are then able to interact by correctly choosing the proper color of the fruit. Ideal for young children, this easy-to-use tool expands a child’s imagination as they learn their colors and the names of healthy fruits.
Each Elizabeth Gordon vegetable illustration is followed with a photograph of the actual vegetable. Children are then able to interact by correctly choosing the proper color of the vegetable. Ideal for young children, this easy-to-use tool expands a child’s imagination as they learn their colors and the names of healthy vegetables.
intro to Math is a fun and interactive first step into the world of mathematics. It is easy to use, intuitive and, most importantly, educational! The Montessori philosophy of education is a one hundred year old tested and proven methodology, available now as a universal app for iPad and iPhone.
Splat! Squish ! Splash! ohhhh noo! The Clowns are crashing on the floor! Unless, unless YOU can catch them!
Move the monkeys as they hold the trampoline by tilting your phone and catch the falling clowns!
-Original artwork
-Original Score
-More then 25 Stickers to choose from
-Funny sound effects (touch the monkeys)
SMARTY SHORTZ is the first educational app which incorporates six core subjects each into four lessons with corresponding games. So, you get 24 lessons and 24 games all in one! It is a great supplementary tool for children. My kids, love Smarty Shortz!
educational deal of the week: 26 lessons and 26 games for $1.99 (6 subjects) ages 3-10 would love! available on iPad too!
Number Sense A new app for kids between ages 4 to 8 years that will keep the little ones entertained while developing their basic math skills, improving their concentration and inculcating an affinity for Mathematics. This app is a combination of 5 math based games.
Developped by Nickelodeon
A graphically beautiful and super simple game that lets you make a really cool cartoon characters for everyone in your phone book. This app also sends out upgrade packs with new clothes, backgrounds, accessories.
My kids (and I secretly) can play with this for ages.
ABC Wildlife lets children of any age explore a world of animals by moving seamlessly from animal to animal when letters are touched. The app features 80 animals and is packed with hundreds of carefully curated photos, videos, and fun facts that bring each animal to life. And the beautiful index marks all the animals your child has seen along their journey.
This app provides a creative gaming interface for improving kids’ grammar skills.
Stack the States makes learning about the 50 states fun! Watch the states actually come to life in this colorful and dynamic game! As you learn state capitals, shapes, geographic locations and more, you can actually touch, move and drop the animated states anywhere on the screen. Carefully build a stack of states that reaches the checkered line to win each level.
TeachMe: Kindergarten is an educational iPhone app which teaches four different age appropriate subjects to Kindergarten aged children: sight words, addition, subtraction and spelling. Parents can select which subjects they want, set different difficulty levels, and even choose specific questions. Parents can review performance history for each subject to check how their child is doing.
Join the Peepers as they explore the wacky world of opposites filled with whimsical visual vocabulary, creative concepts, and those perpetually perky Peepers.
Ducks, owls, zebras, lambs and more lay waiting to be discovered within illustrations of Mother Goose’s Animal Tales. Narrative rhymes guide the child through the sequence of illustrations encouraging focus and awareness. The reward for finding the hidden object is a screen that springs to life with full color.
TeachMe: Toddler is an educational iphone game that helps toddlers to learn letters names, letter phonics, numbers, shapes and colors. It is designed specifically for 2-4 year olds, with a simple, easy to follow user interface. Customize what your child learns by selecting which topics are enabled.
The 1,500+ words included with Smiley Sight Words comprises up to 85% of the text in a child’s early reading materials. A child who can recognize just 8 of 10 words in a sentence can typically understand its meaning! “Sight words” often cannot be illustrated via simple pictures or sounded out according to regular phonetic decoding rules, thus they need to be learned and recognized “on sight”.
TimesTables teaches the basics of multiplication with an emphasis on learning the times tables and becoming very fast at recalling multiplication facts!
Youtube videos for kids at ages between 2 and 8.
More videos will be available each week,as we get more and more recommended videos from parents.
Please write us about this app and your suggestions at: kaya.iphone@gmail.com
we try to keep the App as simple as possible. (with no buttons to send email) only screened videos.
The children’s story “Noble Gnarble” is told with colorful pictures and narration. It includes definitions of all the underwater sea creatures that the gnarble meets on his way to the surface.
The beautiful illustrations in this rendition of Sleeping Beauty bring new details and style to this favorite fairy tale. Vibrant watercolors relate the timeless story of the princess who sleeps for one hundred years. From an emerald frog to the cascades of roses that twine their way through the story, the rich colors of these painted pages are bound to please!
Kids Coin Fun teaches kids how count coins, identify coins, add up coins, and buy/sell items using United States coins.
kids can talk to carl and he repeats everything back. you can tickle or poke him too.not educational but entertaining nonetheless. my 4 year old cracks up with this. It like having a brother or sister.
puzzle app.
interactive stories for a yearly fee
A very fun game
Rocket Math is a fun and educational iPhone/iPad app where kids build rockets, fly them to the stars and perform over 56 math missions. Missions include: Numbers, Arithmetic, Fractions, Decimals, Counting, Telling Time, Money, Shapes, Patterns, Square Roots …and more!
Toddler Fun is an amazing collection of four games in one, designed to keep your toddler and young one entertained for hours. Not only will they be entertained but educated you as well on the letters of the alphabet, numbers, planets and shapes and fruits.
Mixamajig is a fun, creative, mix & match imagination activity for kids and silly adults! It’s loaded with great characters by artist Chuck Gamble and allows users to add their own photos and sounds to the characters! Make yourself (or your cat) into a crazy robot kook! Use a picture of your bedroom as a background! You can even share your creations with email, Facebook, or Twitter!
Great application for your child. It may sound brutal, but our application has been tested on children
My 3-year-old daughter, son of my sister and countless other children guarantee your great fun (and education!) during entertainment with 123 Kids Fun Game.
What will you find there? There are 5 attractive activities in the application.
1) Digits
2) Letters
3) Hit balloons
4) Animals
5) Words
This app will turn brushing the teeth into a lively adventure. Children can choose their buddy from a set of characters who will teach them how to brush their teeth properly and how long for, using the rhythm of a song. In the How to Brush section, parents will find instructions about how their children should brush their teeth properly, according to the latest recommendations of dentists.
NEW & NOTEWORTHY IN EDUCATION USA! NEW & NOTEWORTHY IN GAMES FOR KIDS! NEW & NOTEWORTHY IN EDUCATIONAL GAMES!
My 3-year-old daughter and countless other children guarantee your great fun (and education!) during entertainment with 123 Kids Fun Game.
Great application for your child. It may sound brutal, but our application has been tested on children
-”Patrick & Friends cartoon – Colors and shapes.
In this episode, children are exposed to different shapes and colors. They also learn the concept of sorting in a systematic way.
-Let your kids understand the relationship between the objects and the environment through interesting games.
-”Patrick & Friends cartoon – Everyone has a dream.
-Interactive learning game: Sounds and Music. This entertaining game for toddlers comes with colorful illustrations and interesting sounds. Not only does this game train your toddler to listen, it also encourages him to identify and imitate the different sounds around him.
Mixamajig is a fun, creative, mix & match imagination activity for kids! It’s loaded with great characters and even lets users add their own photos and sounds to the characters! Make yourself (or your cat) into a crazy robot, monkey, princess or ???! Use a picture of your bedroom or the inside of your fridge as a background! You can even share your creations with email, Facebook, or Twitter!
Kindergarteners can get introduced to basic concepts of measurement such as weight, volume and length. As with the rest of the apps in the Mathomatix series, Measurement has also been developed based on National and California Standards.
an application written in a very schematic and practical way useful for mums who need to face the delicate moment of weaning. What to eat? When? How to introduce food? How to prepare food? You can sync your baby age with iPhone and it authomatically proposes the right “list”, day by day.
great!
This iPhone app is the classic game of hangman specially designed for kids. Word categories include the grade levels kindergarten through Sixth, countries, mammals, birds, bugs, reptiles, fish, US States, superheroes, dinosaurs, and sports.
Twinkle Twinkle is an interactive bedtime story, a beautifully animated music video, and a simple counting activity, all in one great app. Based around the extremely popular Twinkle Twinkle Little Star video from Super Simple Learning, the bedtime story introduces us to a friendship between a restless owl and a star that watches over the forest.
Brilliant App for Kids! Tap Play to start – charming Tina will explain what to do. There are 8 games to learn names of animals, fruits, vegetables, objects and to learn colors, digits, similarities/differences. Games are chosen randomly. Each game has great graphic interface with the animation and pronunciation. Each successfully completed task is rewarded by Tina and great collection of stickers.
Teaches kiddies to use a calculator. Talks and has interactive buttons and fun sounds. Sooooo cute.
ABCKeyboard is a really cute new app! Learn letters by touching on the keyboard. Fun game for each letter. My granddaughter especially loved the “find the letter” feature, shows sad faces for misses and happy face for correct letter. Kept her entertained for over an hour in the car! Worth 99 cents and more!!
It’s an amazing App for children. Your task is to hit the bubbles before they disappear from the screen. Hit Bubble iPhone Game for Kids consists of four colorful boards to choose from. Each of them has great graphic design, amazing sound effects and many other surprises. Its addictive fun. If you start playing you will not be able to get away from this. Enjoy for free!
123 Kids Fun Music HD Lite is designed for kids of all ages. It’s a fun and easy way to use virtual Xylophone and Drums – wonderful instrument sounds with attractive interface, graphic design and animations. Just tap to hear the sounds. Enjoy for free!
123 Kids Fun Animated Puzzle HD is a new attractive game for Kids. Arrange all pictures on the board to enable animation! Fun with the application involves an easy and quick navigation between many boards, animated colourful pictures and realistic sounds.