Favorite Apps for Toddlers

Brennan plays on the iPad more than I should admit. The usage has increased since Baby Bryce was born because he likes to play on it in the nursery while I am nursing. Thankfully he plays almost all educational apps, so I know he's learning something and not simply rotting his brain. I wanted to share some of our favorite apps (his and mine).

My favorite is definitely Letter School.
I rarely pay for apps, but this one is worth it! It works on writing your uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers 1-10. Each letter/number has three components: tap, trace, and write. The graphics are super colorful and engaging. Brennan can play this one completely independently.

One of my other top favorites is Zoo Train.
This is another one that is worth purchasing. It has four "games" you can play. One has you drag letters to spell words, another you must drag pieces of track to build a railroad, a third plays music, and the last one contains several puzzles. After completing a few rounds of each game, you get to choose a sticker which is probably Brennan's favorite part. He fell in love with this game this summer and still plays it often. He's able to play it completely independently. You can watch a video about the app here.

Another good, educational app is Marble Math Jr. Brennan needs some help with this one sometimes, but it still works great to entertain him while I'm nursing because I can just talk him through what to do. The nice thing about his app is that if you click on the direction at the top of the page, it reads it aloud. There are three levels and lately Brennan has only wanted to play level three which requires a lot more help from Mommy (it involves multiples, multiplication, telling time, money, etc). The first level has some directions he can completely follow on his own and he's learning a lot from this app. He's able to recognize some fractions now, which blows my mind. It's also good for fine motor skills because you have to drag the marble through a maze to collect the answers and prizes.

We also like Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games. There are nine games in this one and Brennan loves them all. The only one he can't do independently is the spelling game. He quickly caught on how to count up all the fruits in the addition game. In the subtraction game, you click on the fruits with a 'x' and then count the left overs and get your answer, so it's not too hard either.

Those are definitely my top four favorite apps. Here are a few others we use a lot too.

Hello Chalk - This app is like a chalkboard and allows the user to write or draw with chalk or Sharpies. I upgraded to the paid version to get more colors because Brennan liked it so much and uses it to practice writing his letters.

ABC House - I find this app a little strange, but Brennan seems to like it. There are several different pictures of ordinary objects for each letter of the alphabet. When you click on them, you either get to watch a video about that object or interact with the object in some way using by dragging your finger.

Little Writer - This is the tracing letters/numbers app we had before we found Letter School. It's nowhere near as neat, but Brennan still chooses to play it sometimes.

iLearn with Boing - There are several different versions of this app. We currently have Savannah and Ocean. Savannah has math games and Ocean only has one free game that they consider a vocabulary review. Brennan has been playing the Ocean one recently. It features an octopus that is looking for certain objects hidden in the ocean. You find the four objects he asks for and he juggles them. Then you're given four new objects to find.