iPhone and iPod Touch Kids: Reviews

Best iPhone Story Book Apps

There is nothing like cuddling up with your children in front of a fireplace with a story book and reading it together. Even though an iPhone story book app cannot replace the real thing, they are really fun in their own right. These iPhone/iPod touch apps are interactive, fun, have great audio and visual effects and unlike a TV program I can still cuddle up with my son when we are reading these story books, enjoy flipping pages and the little animations together.

When iPhone first came out, I searched and searched for good story book apps and there were none. In the last few months we have found 3 of them that we really liked. Here are the reviews and video clips.

Wheels on the Bus
Cost: $0.99
Age: 1 year and up
This fun story book allows interaction with the bus and people on the bus by using gestures. The music is catchy and good to sing along with. More reviews and details here.

Little Bella's - I close my eyes
Cost: $3.99
Age: 1 year and up
This is my favorite iPhone story book, because the graphics are just amazing and my kid loves the story line. The only downside is that it is a bit pricey at $3.99. More reviews and download here.

Little Red Hen
Cost: $0.99
Age: 1 year and up
The story line and animations are quite fun. The story line is long, so you can enjoy cuddling up with your kid longer. Reviews and details are here.

Do you have additional story book apps that you like you like? Do you own one of these apps and have some comments? Drop us a comment.

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Best iPhone Coloring Apps for Kids

Our son loves painting. When first iPod Touch and iPhone apps came out, one of the first apps I looked for was coloring apps. Such applications are great for a few minutes of entertainment, especially if you are in a restaurant, waiting in a line, or waiting for an airplane to board. Today, there are a few good iPhone coloring book apps available for children and below we list a few of them.

Coloring Fun
Cost: 0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This is one of our favorite coloring apps because the color selection is intuitive and the app comes with 12 great drawings, including animals, boat, snowmen, etc. There is a capture button in the app that allows you to save the colorings to the photo folder. Also the names of the drawings are spelled out loud, teaching kids spelling. You can get it here.

Coloring Book: Christmas
Cost: 1.99
Age: 2 years and up
This application has some fun graphics and color selection is very easy for the kids. We installed the Christmas addition but there are several other versions available that are less seasonal, such as Creatures and Cars. For other reviews and download the app click here.

Coloring Book
Cost: 0.99
Age: 2 years and up
Graphics are nice in this app but user interface, color selection, etc, are not very intuitive, especially for a young kid. You can download the Coloring Book app and view additional reviews here.

Color Me
Cost: 0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This coloring application lets you do free drawing (instead of filling regions) over the drawings. I really like the color selection method with crayons but I do not like the fact that the initial screen for the 'drawing selection' contains only titles, not the image thumbnails. You can download this app here.

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Kid-Safe iPhone Web Browser

iPhone and iPod Touch support parental controls where it is possible to disable access to many apps, including Internet browsing through Safari. You can access the article on how to set such restrictions here.

Once you restricted Internet browsing through Safari from your kid's iPhone or iPod Touch, you may still would like him/her to access kid friendly sites or reference sites, such as Wikipedia, for obtaining valuable information. Trying to fill in this need, there are several iPhone apps: Mobicip browser - a free app, iWonder Surf Web Browser available for $14.99 and Safe Eyes Mobile available for $19.99. All three browsers have mixed reviews, but looking at the iTunes reviews, Safe Eyes Mobile have better reviews than the other two. Here I review Mobicip browser, which is available for free.

First time you use the Mobicip browser, you need to setup an account at mobicip.com. When you are signing up, you select the level of filtering you like from one of three options: elementary school, middle school, and high school. The filtering levels are based on categories blocked and allowed for different age groups by schools. For example, gaming and entertainment related websites are blocked for elementary, but allowed for middle and high school kids. Dating, online shopping, and e-commerce sites are blocked for elementary and middle school, allowed for high school kids.

When you start the browser, you find shortcuts to many useful reference sites, such as Britannica, Wikipedia, HowStuffWorks, etc. Below is a video demonstration of how the browser works.

Even though Mobicip is a great start in addressing kid-safe Internet browsing, there is a lot of space for improvement. Some web sites are not rendered accurately. Wikipedia link on the front page is to the mobile version of Wikipedia, which provides a poor browsing experience compared to the full version. Nevertheless, user can go to the full version of the Wikipedia themselves and add this to the favorite links.

Do you have additional tips, concerns that you'd like to talk about? Drop us a note.

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Making Math Fun for Kids: 5 iPod Touch Math Apps

Are you looking for ways of making learning math fun for kids? Combining Math with animations and games can be entertaining and motivating. Some best iPhone math apps do this well and some other apps simply display a math operation and present multiple choices or a place to enter results. Below I list some popular iPhone apps for teaching kids basic mathematics operations. If you know some great math apps that your children like, please let me know and I will include it here.

PopMath
Cost: $0.99
Age: 7 years and up
This app displays simple math operations and their results in bubbles and expect users to pop the math operation and the result bubbles one after the other. This is a really fun app even for us adults. You can get the app and view the other reviews here.

Basic Math
Cost: free
Age: 7 years and up
This app simply displays basic math operations, offers 3 choices as answers, and lets user pick the correct answer. Basic Math app lacks motivating animations or sound effects, but it's free. You can access the app and other reviews here.

Cute Math
Cost: 1.99
Age: 3 years and up
Cute math teaches counting, addition, and subtraction with very nice graphics and effects. More suitable for teaching math to young kids compared to some of the other math apps. Download and read additional reviews here.

miTables Lite
Cost: free
Age: 7 years and up
A plain math application that displays math operations and gives user 4 choices to select the answer from. Screen shots, download, and reviews can be access from here.

Dotty Shapes
Cost: $0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This app displays numbers and you can connect them in order and create shapes. Teaches counting in a fun way. To get the application from iTunes app store and see other's reviews click here.

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An iPhone App with Magical Powers: Amazon Remembers

Imagine an application that can find any product that you take a picture of. You see a really nice toy or a book that you'd like to get for your little one, snap a picture! You see a pair of shoes that you like, snap a picture! Amazon Remembers is an iPhone app that finds the product you take a picture of and e-mails you a link. The magic behind the app is not some state of the art image recognition technology. When you take a picture, Amazon workers perform searches manually and find the best matching product. The results is e-mailed in about 2-5 mins.

I already used the app few times, including at our pediatrician's office when we enjoyed reading a book together and we wanted to get a copy. We just snapped a picture and got the Amazon link to it in the e-mail.

Below are examples of some of my snapshots and products returned by the Amazon iPhone app:

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8 iPhone Apps to Get when Traveling with Preschool Age Kids

Traveling with young kids can be very difficult. Many of us parents know that the more entertainment you have for them is better. Especially if you are in for a long plane or a car ride, loading up your iPhone or iPod Touch with your preschooler's favorite movies is a must. If you are going to hand your precious iPhone to your kid, you may consider getting a good case with a stand, which I list few of them here. It is also smart to download some entertaining and educational apps for your kids. Here I list a few of them. Most of these are my kid's favorites, I also included few coloring apps as well. Let me know if you have additional suggestions!

Create A Cartoon Face
Cost: $1.99
Age: 2 years and up
This app lets you generate cartoon sketches by selecting a face type, hair style, eyes, mouth, nose, etc. Without any skill, you can create quite entertaining cartoon faces. My son loves this app, he giggles constantly when playing with it. You can get the app and view the other reviews here.

Dotty Shapes
Cost: $0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This app displays numbers and you can connect them in order and create shapes. Connecting dots is a popular drawing game for young kids, so it is nice to see one such app for iPhone. However, it would have been nice if the app also supported drawing letters, numbers via connecting dots. To get the application from iTunes app store and see other's reviews click here.

Koi Pond
Cost: $0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This is one of the most unique apps on the iTunes store. The app shows a fish pond and when you touch the screen the fish swim away from your finger. You can hold your finger on the screen and fish will come and nibble on your finger. The app is entertaining but the attention span of a young kid playing with this app is not very high. View additional reviews and get the app here.

Peekaboo Barn Lite
Cost: Free
Age: 1.5 years and up
Kids love animals. This app shows a barn and plays an animal sound. Then the user tries to guess the animal and taps on the barn to see what the animal actually is. The graphics are very nice, kid friendly. You can download Peekaboo Barn Lite here.

Animal Farm Lite
Cost: free
Age: 1.5 years and up
This app shows pictures of 3 animals, plays an animal sound and asks user to find the animal who makes that sound. The quality of audio recordings can be improved. Nevertheless my kid enjoyed this app very much. Get the app and see other reviews here.

Coloring Book
Cost: 0.99
Age: 2 years and up
When I got my kid an iPod Touch, I tried to find good coloring apps. They were not any at the time but now parents have at least several options. Graphics are nice in this app but user interface, color selection, etc, are not very intuitive, especially for a young kid. You can download the Coloring Book app and view additional reviews here.

Color Me
Cost: 0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This coloring application lets you do free drawing (instead of filling regions) over the drawings. I really like the color selection method with crayons but I do not like the fact that the initial screen for the 'drawing selection' contains only titles, not the image thumbnails. You can download this app here.

Memory Match Kids
Cost: $1.99
Age: 3 years and up
Memory match game for kids. While this is better than having bunch of memory match cards lying around, it had too many cards for young kids to start matching successfully. It is even challenging for me. A better version could be where you can set the number of cards and make it less or more challenging based on age. Graphics and animations are quite pleasing. Click here for download and other users' reviews.

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iPhone and iPod Touch Educational Apps for Kids 2

FirstWords: Animals
Cost: $1.99
Age: 3 years and up
Basic spelling application, where letters are scattered around and kids can drag and drop the letters to their placeholders. Even though my iKid absolutely loved this application, I think there are many improvements possible. For example, graphics can be improved and letters can be spelled out when they are touched. Also, currently it is impossible to place a letter to a wrong location. While this feature makes my iKid correctly spell every word, it is not teaching spelling as well as it could. Get it here.

Firstwords-animals-iphone-ipod-touch-kids

iBear Flags
Cost: $1.99
Age: 5 years and up
This application has a 'learning' mode where it displays flags and names of countries, and a quiz mode where it shows the flag and asks users to select the correct country name. The app lacks audio/visual effects, which could have made the app more entertaining and engaging for the child, but nevertheless it is innovative. Get it here.

Word Warp
Cost: $0.99
Age: 7 years and up
The Word Warp app displays bunch of letters out of order and gives the user limited time to form some words. It also displays placeholders for all the possible words, so you know if you found most of the words etc. Entertaining for older kids and adults. See other user reviews and get the app here.

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iPhone and iPod Touch Games and Entertaining Apps for Kids 1

Moo Shake!
Cost: 0.99
Age: 2 and up
Application displays mixed body parts of many animals and you try to match the body parts. Graphics are awesome and various effects are very entertaining. See others' reviews and get the app here.

Trace
Cost: free
Age: 5 and up
This is one of the most unique apps I have seen at the app store. The goal of the game is to walk a man to a target in each screen and level. You can draw and erase paths and you need to avoid moving obstacles. It helps to develop problem solving skills since as the levels gets higher it becomes much harder to avoid obstacles and get to the target. Even though my iKid is young and can only finish 3-4 levels without my help, it has been great fun to play this and find paths together. See reviews and get the app here.

Maze Finger
Cost: Free
Age: 2 and up
This application displays mazes and let you follow through it with you finger, making great light and sound effects. This is originally not a kids application but my kid found it very engaging and entertaining. Click here for the app.

iBasketball
Cost: Free
Age: 2.5 and up
This application displays a basketball court and where with a slight up-and-down motion of the iPhone you can shoot the ball. Even though this application goes against my rule of 'no motion controlled apps so that my kid is not used to shaking the iPhone', it was super entertaining my 3 year old, and surprisingly educational at the same time. Because the app displays his score, he was very motivated by it. I think now he understands that 3 basket + 1 more equals to 4. You can get it here.

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iPhone and iPod Touch Art and Music Apps for Kids 1

MiniPiano
Cost: FREE
Age: 6 months and up
This application just displays a mini piano and let you interact and make music. This is not particularly a kids application but very entertaining. Click here for download.

KidArt
Cost: 0.99
Age: 1 and up
This application allows kids to select from 5-6 colors and scribble using their fingers. There is a mode where you can make the screen background black, looks pretty cool.Click here for download and other users' reviews.

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iPhone and iPod Touch Educational Apps for Kids 1

Preschool Adventure
Cost: $0.99
Age: 1.5 years and up
This application allows kids to select from 5 applications teaching colors, shapes, body parts, sounds, and a body matching game. Click here for download and other users' reviews.

Tell Time LT
Cost: Free
Age: 3 years and up
This application displays 3 clocks, tells the time and expects user to pick the correct clock. The graphics can be much better. Other user reviews and application can be accessed here.

Word Magic
Cost: $0.99
Age: 3 years and up
This is a spelling application for preschoolers and kindergarten'ers. Basic functionality is good but more exciting sound and visual effects would have been nicer and more encouraging for the child. Click here for download and other users' reviews.

Memory Match Kids
Cost: $1.99
Age: 3 years and up
Memory match game for kids. While this is better than having bunch of memory match cards lying around, it had too many cards for young kids to start matching successfully. It is even challenging for me. A better version could be where you can set the number of cards and make it less or more challenging based on age. Graphics and animations are quite pleasing. Click here for download and other users' reviews.

Number Drop

Cost: $0.99
Age: 3 years and up
The application displays few numbers and groups of stars and asks user to drag-and-drop the numbers to the correct groups of stars, e.g., number 3 goes to 3 stars etc. The drag-and-drop functionality makes the app unnecessarily complicated. You can get it here.

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iPhone and iPod Touch Kids

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Best iPhone Story Book Apps

Best iPhone Coloring Apps for Kids

Kid-Safe iPhone Web Browser

Making Math Fun for Kids: 5 iPod Touch Math Apps

An iPhone App with Magical Powers: Amazon Remembers

8 iPhone Apps to Get when Traveling with Preschool Age Kids

iPhone and iPod Touch Educational Apps for Kids 2

iPhone and iPod Touch Games and Entertaining Apps for Kids 1

iPhone and iPod Touch Art and Music Apps for Kids 1

iPhone and iPod Touch Educational Apps for Kids 1

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