SP Picks: 10 iPad Apps Kids will Love

Many parents purchase an iPad because of its ability to keep children of any age entertained for hours on end. Its intuitive interface is grasped by the youngest of minds and many high-quality apps and games are within easy access at the iTunes store and are quite affordable. That said, here are ten of the most entertaining iPad apps we’ve seen so far.

Scribblenauts Remix
Price: $0.99

Originally from the Nintendo DS, this port from the iPad is a highly imaginative and appealing puzzle game that allows children to draw on their own creativity for problem solving. Players assist a little boy named Maxwell as he explores fifty puzzle environments so he can acquire a star, a key to progressing towards another stage. In order to aid him, kids can type or scribble in objects Maxwell can use to help a witch fill a cauldron or a monster fall in love. Sometimes the game will require simple words (diamond, frog) and other times, it can allow the use of adjectives (big, juicy steak). The game has simple cartoony graphics that are really cute and even adults will find themselves drawn into the world of the Scribblenauts.


Mathboard
Price: $4.99

More a learning tool than a game, Mathboard transforms your iPad into a traditional school blackboard with a twist. Math problems are presented in quiz form and are customizable to allow addition, subtraction, multiplication, division square roots and cube roots. Answers are presented as multiple choice and for complex problems, the bottom part of the screen functions as a scratchboard so the child can work out the solution before giving his or her answer (however, a limitation in the scratchboard’s design prevents manipulating its size, making it a bit challenging to scrawl more detailed equations). The app stores quiz scores and completion times in its dashboard and allows you to track your child’s progress.

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Kids Song Machine HD
Price: $1.99

Designed with younger kids in mind, the Kids Song Machine HD is a cross between a Fisher Price toy and a videoke machine. Loaded with classics such as Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Itsy Bitsy Spider and I’m a Little Teapot, the app also has charming animations, vibrant colors and interactive pictures your child can poke, squeeze and swish. Just like a videoke machine, the song lyrics appear as they play and the interface is easily grasped, allowing for hours of singing, dancing and learning.  


MeeGenius
Price: $2.49

More like Kindle for kindergarten, MeeGenius presents your child with a digital library of time-honored classics. Each storybook has an audio track which functions as a virtual storyteller while each word spoken is highlighted for word recognition. MeeGenius’ books can be customized by answering a few brief questions – this allows the child to have a more personal experience with the story. For example, in The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the boy in the story and the village where he comes from may be renamed so as to give the listener a stronger connection to the tale. Delightfully illustrated and colored, each MeeGenius story comes alive in the hands of everyone, a perfect tool for bedtime story time or any other time of the day.

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Kid Art For iPad
Price: $.99

Coloring books and sketchpads are indispensable for little girls and boy but Kid Art for iPad takes those traditional tools into the 21st Century. Aside from the standard options of choosing what color pencil to use, this app comes fully loaded with over twenty backgrounds and various animal and object stamps that your child can use to decorate his or her drawings with. A Themes option exists, adding variety to the available backgrounds and stamps. Kid Art for iPad lives up to its name by relieving the user of having too many options (you can save that for Adobe Photoshop LXVIII when your child enters high school) and keeps the act of drawing and coloring fun, simple and satisfying.


Bobo Explores Light
Price: $4.99

For a more science-oriented learning experience, Bobo Explores Light introduces school-age children to the principles of how light works. Topics such as reflection, refraction, photosynthesis, the effects of the environment on light and the inner workings of the human eye are tackled by Bobo, an adorable bobble-headed robot who also serves as the app’s host. Bobo Explores Light comes with a comprehensive array of articles, videos, factoids and interesting bits of trivia, as well as interactive models and environments that behave like the coolest science toys around (the astronomy section is especially wondrous). All these are rendered in sumptuous graphics that are a joy to behold. Science was never this much fun!

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Lego Creationary
Price: Free

Sometimes the best things in life are free. In this case, Lego has made an iPad version (most likely a virtual ad) of its latest boardgame venture. Lego Creationary is a variant of the game Pictionary, but instead of drawings, the game requires its players to guess a Lego construct as it is being built in front of them. A die is rolled to determine the category of model to be guessed and it’s a race against time as players must identify the toy before it is fully constructed. As if this wasn’t appealing enough, the little Lego blocks and toys look as real and as cute as can be. After all, what kid doesn’t like Lego?


iWriteWords
Price: $2.99

Kids nowadays have it so good. iWriteWords is how we should’ve been taught how to write and spell. The app creates patterns for children to trace with a finger – these patterns form letters and the letters form simple words.  The iPad says each letter after it is correctly traced, spelling out a word and pronouncing it while showing an illustration of what the word is (usually an object). The app can also teach a child how to write capital and lower case letters and numbers and chimes in a fanfare when every task is correctly completed.

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Monkey Preschool Lunchbox
Price: $1.19

If you’re looking for a learning tool with variety, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is the way to go. Monkey is all about fruit, and through fruit, he teaches your child things like colors, shapes, matching objects, letters and numbers. This app is filled to the brim with mini-games, simple puzzles and audiovisual aids that are, all in all, an engaging learning experience. Each completed task results in a fanfare from Monkey and earns your little player a sticker for a digital baseboard that he or she can decorate. The more games, tasks and puzzles completed, the more stickers earned and the more basic skills your child learns about the world we live in.


Where's My Water?
Price: $.99

This funny and endearing game is good fun for all ages. All Swampy the Alligator wants is to have a refreshing shower but his plumber is nothing short of deranged so it’s up to you to help him. All the player has to do is trace a path and manipulate valves, pipes and switches down an obstacle-laden sewer system so that clean water and cheery rubber duckies can descend onto Swampy’s soapy backside. This is certainly a great way to learn spatial logic, liquid physics, pressure, gas exchange and cause and effect.