Early learning: Toddler or Early Preschool Focused Apps-Ages 3-5
Grandma’s Preschool by Fairlady Media for iOS reminds me of the preschool I used to attend as a little girl. There are lots of great activities (more than 20) and opportunities to try out new things like coloring, playing outside, using toys, practicing early academic skills like letters and numbers, having a snack, taking care of a class pet and playing with others. There are three primary characters in the app and after you get off the school bus you go into the preschool classroom. This is a great app for practicing the routine of school which involves getting off a bus, selecting different activities in a preschool setting such as coloring or painting centers as well as having fun in a bright cheery environment. Read our full review.
MTA Animals by My Toddlers App, LLC is a iPad only app that includes over 40 animal photographs designed to teach your toddler or children about animals. The animals range from cats and dogs to whales and elephants using real photographs. It is designed for preschool aged children and teaches image recognition as well as early spelling. Read our full review.
Sago Mini Boats app by Sago Sago is a cute and fun game with a nautical theme, which is perfect for children 2 to 5 years old. Sago Mini apps never disappoint, this one is no different! Little ones get to choose from five boat adventures, pack their suitcase, choose their boat from eleven choices, and set off on their little adventure! On the high seas, they can pickup some treats, meet some interesting characters, go underwater and cruise along until they meet their best friend. This app encourages problem solving, creative play, language from your kids to describe what they are doing. Read our full review
Puppet Workshop – Creativity App for Kids by Sebastian Bachorzewski from Jump App is a fun and creative iPad only app for kids 3 to 12 years of age. With Puppet Workshop, kids can create their own sock or glove puppet. With all of the accessories available, the possibilities are endless! You start off by choosing a glove or a sock from the 20 different templates. You can then choose your bling from the accessories such as buttons, strings, zips, material, shapes etc. You finish off by choosing a background (either one of the provided or one you upload yourself), naming your puppet and then taking a snap for your collection. This app encourages kids creativity as well as language to have kids describe what they are doing with the puppet. Read our full review
Tiny Farm – Animals, Tractors and Adventures! by Wonderkind It is designed for kids from age 2-6 years and features 3 interactive farm scenes to explore, one of the scenes can be explored in 2 ways – at night and during the day. The illustrations in this app have a wonderful warm, hand-drawn feel to them. A beautifully illustrated app that encourages young children to explore and find fun hidden interactions, it can also be used to practice storytelling and work on speech and language. My son loved finding different animals contained within the app. Read our full review
TinyHands Raccoon’s Treehouse is a fun, educational app for young children. it is available in 2 versions – a full version and a free lite version. Neither version has any adverts or in-app purchases, the lite version has a child-locked app store link to the full version. The lite version includes 3 mini- games and the full version has 12 mini-games. Overall this is a very well-made, engaging educational app for toddlers and pre-school aged children which works on important skills including: sorting, classifying, memory, visual perception and hand-eye coordination. Read the full review