Never thought I’d download a kid’s app like this…..

I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to kids apps and often boast ‘you’ll only find educational apps on my phone/ipad’.  I even have them in folders; Literacy, Numeracy, Big Books, etc.  You won’t find Angry Birds, Ninja Fruit or any farting animals!

However, during the school holidays, I started to look for some new apps that had great reviews and kept coming across one in particular.  After reading the reviews I succumbed and downloaded it (£1.49)…..

It’s from Toca Boca and it’s called……wait for it…..

Hair Salon 2!  It made me squirm!

Recommended Apps for Kids

I have never seen my daughter so taken with an app, she normally gets bored after a while but was engaged with this one for ages and eventually had to take it off her but she keeps going back to it.

Please tell me there must be some educational content:   Exploring the world around you, fine motor skills, creativity????

Am I stretching it?

Note:  Make sure you download the second one as it’s a lot better than the first version.

You can find a list of other Apps we liked here.

Sneak HD – iPad App for kids

iPad Apps for Kids

Do you worry about your kids sitting like lumps in front of the iPad?  Then this app ‘Sneak HD’ by Made in Me (£1.49), is for you.  It gets them up off the sofa moving around, perfect for the looming school holidays.

It does what it ‘says on the tin’.  There are 5 monsters that live inside the iPad.  You have to select some bait, then run and hide and sneak up like a Ninja to catch it.  You unlock more bait as you go along.

I think this would be great for groups of kids, possibly for parties.

 

Why I pay for Apps?

One of the biggest reasons I tend to pay for Apps is to avoid the advertising.  Plus, I’ve heard of children managing to download full versions at great expense to their parents.  This happened to one of my neighbors  but he did manage to get a £70 credit from Apple and he has now changed the settings so it doesn’t happen again. 

I was trolling the net today looking for more Maths apps for my 5 year old.   I often rely on the reviews when deciding whether to purchase or not.

I know I shouldn’t find this funny, but I did!

Free Ipad Apps for Kids

 

You may want to bear this in mind when downloading those FREE apps and don’t forget to turn off the ability for ‘in app purchases’ on your devices to avoid any nasty surprises!

 

 

 

Apps We Love! Ladybird: I’m Ready for Phonics

I’ve been on the hunt for a decent Phonics App for quite some time and if I’m honest the ones I’ve found have been crap.  Being Canadian I can overlook American accents, but many of them use the wrong font, wrong pronunciation, wrong level and don’t reflect how kids are being taught Phonics in school.

Phonics AppThanks to the lovely Geek Mummy, I finally found a good one, Ladybird:  I’m Ready for Phonics.  It’s not cheap at £4.99 but I personally feel it’s worth it.  There are 12 Spaced Themed levels that the children can progress through and it is in line with the Letters and Sounds documents that schools in the UK follow.  I love the fact that they can record themselves pronouncing the letters.

It also contains and easy to understand Parent’s Guide to Phonics.  Even as an ex-teacher, I trained pre-phonics and it’s all new to me.  So I’m glad I have some guidance so I don’t contradict what the school is doing.

My 5-year old loves it and have to drag her off it!

You can check our more of our favourite apps here.

Apps we love! Doodlecast

I absolutely love this app, bar the music at the beginning.  At first, Doodlecast (£1.99)  just looks like another drawing app which we have many, but if I’m honest we prefer paper and crayons for that.  What I really love about this one is that the children can record their own narrations whilst drawing the pictures.  It comes with a selection of templates for inspiration (shopping trolley, park, dinner late, faces etc) or you can start from a blank canvas.

In addition, if you set it up, it will automatically upload the final product to YouTube which makes it incredibly easy to share with friends and family!

You can check our more of our favourite apps here.