10 iPhone Apps For Kids

I was actually suprised how long it took me to work out that there are some excellent iPhone apps for kids of an educational nature! I find that the iPhone comes in handy at times when you have to wait unexpectedly with the kids or need a distraction under duress! Here are 10 of our favourite iPhone apps for the kids at the moment:

1. Live Mathletics

Cost: $2.49
Age: Primary school age
Pros: Great for reinforcing basic number facts. Easy to use even for those in the first year of school with limited reading ability. As it has levels, kids can continue to be challenged.
Cons: If you enter a wrong answer, you can’t correct it (frustrating!). You can’t choose whether you want to do addition or subtraction. Edit – I was wrong! You can correct a mistake. Thanks to Yvonne from Mathletics who said “If you make a mistake typing in the answer in the Live Mathletics app – just gently shake the iPhone – it acts like delete! (click on the i for instructions) “
iTunes Link: Live Mathletics

2. Chess

Cost: Free (There is a premium version without ads for $1.19)
Age: 4+
Pros: Chess is a fabulous game for kids to learn and if like me you don’t play so well, this game can help challenge them in their play. There are lots of options in this game. You can have either one or two player games, timing options and the ability to adjust the difficulty of the game.
Cons: No rules or help section for beginners (like me!)
iTunes Link: Chess

3. I Know Phonics

Cost: Free
Age: 4- 5 year olds
Pros: Three different games to play. They use lower case letters. Simple enough for children who are beginning to identify their letters.
Cons: Sound and graphics are pretty basic. To play again you have to exit one game and then re-enter from the main menu.
iTunes Link: I Know Phonics

4. Super Why

Cost: $3.99
Age: 4 – 5 year olds
Pros: Although it seems expensive at $3.99 there are actually 4 solid games within this app and the sound and graphics are much better than most games. The games look at basic concepts like alphabet, rhyming, spelling, writing and early reading. The games require the children to listen and then respond. The games also continue to offer new options without having to go back to the main menu.
Cons: All the games are in capitals – all advice I have had from school teachers is to expose children to lower case first.
iTunes Link: Super Why

5. Arithmaroo

Cost: $2.49
Age: 4+
Pros: Excellent for kids to practice one to one matching with numbers. The children also have to earn their levels and can’t simply choose which level they want to play. You can have up to four players listed and can save their times and scores.
Cons: It can get slightly repetitive.
iTunes Link: Arithmaroo

6. Dot To Dot Number Whiz Lite

Cost: Free
Age: 4+ ( They need to be able to recognise numbers between 1 and 25.)
Pros: Kids have to master each puzzle before moving on to the next one. The game can still be challenging for older kids as they may have to count in 2s, 4s or 7s or know the order of the alphabet.
Cons: Make sure you turn training mode off, otherwise you keep doing the same puzzle all the time!
iTunes Link: Dot To Dot Number Whiz Lite

7. Learn To Tell Time

Cost: $1.19
Age: 6+
Pros: It has a mix of games that the kids can play: Tell Time, Elapsed Time, Time After, and Time Before, Set Time, and Mixed Mode. They also have the option of choosing to just do 10 questions with no time restraints or choose 1 minute to complete as many answers as they can. Once they are finding the questions easy at one level, they can then choose to move up a level to harder questions.
Cons: I think sometimes it is easy for the children to guess the answer as it the options are so distinct eg 12 o’clock and 2.30.
iTunes Link: Learn To Tell Time

8. Toddler Teaser Shapes

Cost: Free
Age: 3+
Pros: Very simple for child to use. They can start with the basic shapes and the move on to more complex shapes like an equilateral triangle and heptagon! The children have to listen and then choose the right shape.
Cons: No function to repeat what the shape is that they are looking for. (It does repeat though if they get it wrong.)
iTunes Link: Toddler Teaser Shapes

9. abc PocketPhonics

Cost: Free for Lite, but you only have a selection of letters. To have all letters of the alphabet and letter blends you can upgrade for $1.19, which we did.
Age: 4+
Pros: Excellent game to help preschoolers learn the sounds of the letters and letter blends. They can also practice writing the letters by tracing over them. The font that they use is very similar to the Victorian Modern Cursive that is used in my home state.
Cons: It would be good if there was some way of tracking what letters the child has completed, so they can easily work their way through all the letters.
iTunes Link: abc PocketPhonics

10. Spell Blocks with Sight Words

Cost: $2.49
Age: 4+
Pros: One of the better sight words iPhone Apps that I have tried (and I have tried lots of them!). It has a repeat function if the child does not hear the word clearly that they need to spell. The word lists go from pre primer to grade 3.
Cons: There doesn’t seem to be an “end” to the levels. Well at least not that we have found when playing it. I think kids need to know that there is an end line that they are heading to.
iTunes Link: Spell Blocks with Sight Words

Do you have some favourite edcuational iPhone apps for kids that you can add to this list?

Tagged as: iPhone Apps