The greatest toddler entertainment invention in all of history is easily the ipod touch/iphone with countless available applications for kids.

When she gets bored, she always asks for our ipods and generally she'll start off playing something educational, generally a puzzle game, but towards the end, she always unwinds with DoodleBuddy, an application that allows you to use your fingers to paint, draw, and stamp. Numerous backgrounds to choose from and drawing techniques lead to fun and creative works of art.

Look! Below, Abby drew Paul (left) and me! I don't understand why Paul has a nose and ears, but mine are missing, though.



Although, I caught her laughing maniacally the other day and found her creating the disturbing image below. Drowning, blood-stained emoticons - yikes! As it turns out, though, she just likes the sounds that these stamps make when she plops them on the screen. She's really not losing her mind!



If you have a toddler, here are a few of Abby's favorite apps, which we really recommend.

LetsTans 10-in-1 - (free) A tangram application. You WILL be amazed at your toddler's spatial awareness!
FirstWords (Deluxe) - ($4.99) Awesome game! Learn to spell common words in various categories: around the house, colors, shapes, animals, etc. Teaches letter recognition, pronunciation, and letter order for spelling.
TrueLearning's Alphabet Air and Numbers - ($0.99 each) The former is a matching game that teaches upper and lower-case letters. The latter is a set of animated flashcards to teach numbers and counting.
Matches - (free) Test your memory by matching pairs of cards. Cute and simple illustrations with 3 levels of difficulty.
Scoops - (free) Various themes available, but the original is for stacking scoops of ice cream as they fall from the sky. Avoid the vegetables!
BubbleWrap - (free) Who doesn't love popping bubble wrap? This app recreates the experience decently well, but turns it into a timed game where the bubbles keep coming back! You definitely miss the feel of the real stuff, though.
Angry Birds - ($0.99) A really creative game! Fling angry birds via a sling shot at the green pigs who stole their eggs. These birds of various talents want to demolish the fortified lairs of the pigs and get to them, but should the birds fail, you'll be listening to the swines' smug chuckles.

Comments (1)

On August 20, 2010 at 10:03 AM , Unknown said...

Thanks for the tips! My 4 year old has just recently gotten into my iPhone and I was curious what good apps there might be out there for her...