Saturday Spot: Se7en + 1 of Our Favorite Ipad Apps…

After two days of glorious sunshine and being unable to drag myself away from watching kids at the pool to sit face to face with my laptop, I though I would write you a quick post… reviewing our favorite iPad apps… Turns out I am mad to think that there is ever a quick post and I underestimated my ability to select the best of the best iPad apps!!! I have to be honest when the father person said he was getting an iPad I wondered why on earth we would need another piece of electronic equipment in our home – little did I know what a fun gadget it would be. All of us, from the tiniest one to the oldest one, have got our favorite goodies that we enjoy on the iPad, it is definitely one of the most used tools in our home!!! So here is a quick list of the favorite kiddable apps in our house…

1. Dr Suess Books:

Let’s start with books, always a good place to start!!! I collect the Dr Seuss Apps, really I do, they are too adorable not too. There are so many books available for kids on the iPad, it can be quite overwhelming. But you can’t go wrong with kids classics and there are literally dozens of Dr. Seuss story books available. Each book you can elect to read the story yourself or have it read to you. And since we are talking about collections… Sandra Boynton is your friend… there is a lovely dry voiced reader who read their way through the Sandra Boynton books – The Going to Bed Book is my fave for soporific-ness and hood #8 simply loves: Moo, Baa, La, La, La



2. Dear Zoo and Harold and the Purple Crayon:

Some books are a bit more interactive than others. My kids love the board book Dear Zoo, so when they discovered it on the iPad they were overjoyed!!! Dear zoo comes with one or two games and I have to be honest hood #6 could simply sit all days and play pairs. And then Harold and the Purple Crayon – what’s not to love!!!



3. DK Kids Crafts:

This App is based on the brilliant Dorling Kindersley crafty books by Jane Bull and is full of typically beautifully photographed crafts that kids just want to do. There is a mix of crafts to do onscreen – like fuzzy felt and decorating your own bean bag and directions for crafts to do offscreen: Rainy Day Doodles and Fabric Dolls. My kids would rank this high in the favorite App rankings because it has ideas for offscreen time and something to do when they are playing on the iPad!!! Only trouble is there are not enough crafts, they think they should have chosen more crafts to put onto the app.



4. Usborne’s Sticker Dolly Dressing:

These are the paper dolls of the modern era. A couple of girls and a whole lot of backgrounds to choose from, there are ponies, and a beach scene. You get to name your doll and pick from heaps of clothes to dress her: jeans, dresses, shoes, accessories. You can add flowers and dots and stripes to your outfit, and then to your scene you can add important features: ice creams cones, cool drinks… Basically this is the ultimate sticker book and all my girls beg to play with it!!! When they are finished dressing up their paper doll they are free save it to play with another time or to mail out an image of it to important people like their mum!!!


5. Drawing Pad:

This App is so fun, it is the ultimate artists desk with a drawer packed with every conceivable stationery treat you can think of. There are pens, markers, paints, crayons, pencils, even stickers… and one can select a background from heaps of background papers to draw on. I think I may use this app more than anyone else. I can’t help myself when I sit down with the iPad I really want to chill out and play a bit…



6. My First Classical Music App:

I love this app it is produced by Naxos and they have put a heap of thought into it. In a nutshell, it is a Classical Music Appreciation Lesson. You can find out about musical eras, great composers, their instruments, and you can listen to them all. Throughout the app, which is packed with factoids that are really well presented, there is an opportunity for the reader to listen to all sorts of samples of music with “Play” buttons scattered throughout the pages.



7. The DK Quick Cook App:

This is not technically a kids app at all, but we live with a chef. Our chef has so enjoyed this app you can not believe. Apart from hundreds of beautifully photographed and presented recipes this one has quite a few other nifty little features. Obviously you can search through your recipes by ingredient and you can make a shopping list for your chosen recipes, but the feature he likes best is that you can store selected recipes in your own menus… for instance an entire menu called: the chocolate menu!!! And another menu with recipes we have to try… and so on. The sorting and organizing of recipes is a fine art and this app allows you to master it!!!


And the Se7en + 1th
8. Nighty Night:

This is by far the favorite app of our youngest kidlet!!! Every night before bed he settles down on the couch to say good night to all his favorite farm animals. Eventually all the lights are out except his own and then it is time for bed. Too cute for words.

That’s it: Se7en + 1 of our favorite iPad apps… Hope you have a fun week!!!