Many parents will have had mixed emotions this morning as they dropped their kids off to school for the first time. It will have certainly been day of joy, happiness and possibly a few tears too. So we thought we'd scour iTunes App Store to find the best apps for kids who are just taking their first tiny steps in the world of education.
One of the biggest surprises in the tech world is how popular the iPad is for kids; the touchy feely tablets and colourful interactive apps have really struck a cord with early learners. Well, we'll point you in the direction of the best of what's on offer and we promise our choices will keep them entertained, happy and most importantly learning. Sound too good to be true? Well read on.
Everyone loves a bit of Spot The Dog, well you'll be glad to know that Spot The Dog has made the jump to the digital frontier with Spot Goes To School and it is the perfect app for kids trying to adjust to a new world of school and learning.
This interactive app offers young children lots of lift-the-flap fun, while additional notes for parents give guidance about how children can learn skills and experiences with Spot. The app combines interactive story telling and individual games to develop children's observation and co-ordination skills.
The Heart And The Bottle £3.99
The Heart And The Bottle is an imaginative interactive picture book for the iPad and was created by the award winning Oliver Jeffers. It's the story of a girl whose life is filled with all the wonder of the world around here.
Narrated by Helen Bonham Carter the app fuses interactive learning and story telling in a way that will captivate and amaze children of many ages.
You can press the audio icon at the top of the each page to have the text read out by the celebrity narrator. Children will be able manipulate the stunning pictures and artwork by pressing certain parts of the screen.
Some of the interactive sections are charmingly done and range from drawing in sand, turning day to night with the swipe of finger and magically changing a summers day into a snow flurry with the shake of the device. Beautifully presented and incredibly eye-catching The Heart Of The Bottle is a must.
I Write Words is the perfect app to help kids who are learning handwriting and basic numeracy - in a fun and imaginative way.
Kids will have to help Mr Crab collect the numbers in sequence by dragging him with their finger - as the child follows the path they are actually writing letters, counting numbers and making words whilst having a great deal of fun.
Whether they are just learning their letters or need more handwriting practice, I Write Words will get your kids tracing letters and spelling words in a fun and engaging app.
Once all the letters in the word are drawn watch the letters slide into the rotating hole and advance to the next level.
Ladybird Classic Me Books £0.69
Ladybird Classic Me Books is billed as an app of pure nostalgic joy for parents and a way to bring our childhood classics to a new generation of kids.
For £0.69 you get one book The Zoo and from there you can buy other timeless classics from the back-catalogue.
Each story is presented with eye-catching interactive artwork and hidden hotspots that, when touched, trigger narration from celebrities including Adam Buxton and Josie Lawrence – who add they own unique character voices and rich sound effects.
You can create your own hotspots, record your own voice and sound effects with the built-in microphone. It's a clever take on interactive story telling and will add an extra level of depth to stories as they can be endlessly re-told in new ways by parents, grandparents and children alike – making it great value for money.
WeetWoo is a one-stop-shop for children’s videos and is jam-packed with kid-friendly programming with everything from Kitten videos to short biographys of famous people like Ludvig Van Beethoven.
You'll be able to choose six channels which include animals, fun shows, learning, music, people and places.
All the videos are from Youtube but WeetWoo cleverly only allows kids to watch videos selected by the app developer – so you don't need to worry about them coming across anything unsuitable.
It's incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate and you can tell this app was designed by a parent because the videos average 2-4 minutes in length (just right for most kids' short attention spans).
The videos are all hosted on YouTube, so you're going to need a WiFi connection for them to load quickly (but the app works with just 3G too, if you're patient).
One of the best kids' apps in the iTunes store for parents looking for innocent entertainment for their kids. WeetWoo would be a bargain at twice this price.
2 thoughts on “Back To School: Top Educational Kids Apps For iPad”
What about The Amazing Maurice Lessmore & his Flying Books? It’s beautiful.
Ohhhh not heard of that one. Will have to check it out – thanks for the tip Alison.