Why let your preschool children play fun but mindless games when they could play fun but educational games? Hopefully this site will help you find more of the latter.
- Elephant Song (free) by Appsnminded, Age 1+, Animals, Singing, Story Book, Jigsaw Puzzle, Matching. Elephant Song is an iPhone app based on the song by Eric Herman. Its really delightful, with over 6 million views on YouTube.
- I Hear Ewe – Animal Sounds for Toddlers (free) by Claireware Software, Age 1+, Animals. A quality iPhone game for preschool children (toddlers up) to teach them animal sounds.
- Memory Match (free, paid) by Jirbo, Inc., Age 3+, Matching. A quality implementation of the popular memory match game where you have to flip cards to find pairs with the same picture.
- Peekaboo Barn (lite, full) by Night & Day Studios, Inc., Age 1+, Animals. Hear an animal sound, touch the barn, and see what is inside. A lovely game for the very young. (Might be too simple for older children.)
- Preschool Adventure (paid) by 3DAL, Age 2+, Animals, Colors, Numbers, Shapes, Matching. Possibly the most reviewed preschool app on the iphone – because its pretty good. It is 6 simple apps in one, with good educational merit for 2/3yo children.
- Shape Builder – the Preschool Learning Puzzle Game (lite, full) by Darren Murtha Design, Age 3+, Jigsaw Puzzle, Shapes, Matching. Shape Builder is a quality educational jigsaw puzzle like game for preschoolers on your iPhone. Months later Big-T still loves it.
- ABC Match (free) by Appsolutely Fun, Age 3+, Matching, Letters. A memory match game where you match letters rather than pictures. A good little app for those wanting your children to practice with letters.
- Alphabetic (lite, full) by No Monkeys, Age 3+, Letters, Coordination. Arcade game where you have to quickly touch the right letter. Fun for all ages.
- Animal Farm (lite, full) by iDev2.com, Age 2+, Animals. A good little iPhone game for young children that has photos of animals, sounds, a learning mode, and a quiz mode.
- Chocolate Shop Frenzy (lite, full) by Digital Chocolate, Inc., Age 3+, Shapes, Matching. Run your own chocolate shop selling chocolate to customers. I used this with my 3yo to teach concepts of how a shop works from the perspective of the shop owner. (Its also fun!)
- I See Ewe – Animal Sounds for Toddlers (paid) by Claireware Software, Age 3+, Animals, Shapes, Colors. Good app for practicing shapes, sounds, colors, and images. Good educational merit.
- MPB: Spaghetti (free) by Moving Picture Books, Age 2+, Story Book, Singing, Words, Listening. A quality digital story book for the child’s song about meat balls and sneezing. Moving Picture Books have a range of other titles too. I thought I had found my nirvana in searching for digital story books for the iPhone, but limitations soon became apparent. So very good, but not perfect.
- Scribble (free, paid) by Zintin, Age 1+, Drawing. Scribble is a simple drawing app that even Little-J (1yo) can make wonderful artwork with. OK maybe its not so wonderful, but he finds it fascinating.
- Toddler Teasers Shapes (free) by Toddler Teasers, Age 2+, Shapes, Listening. Teaches your toddler shapes like squares, triangles, cresents. My 3yo loves the sticker rewards concept.
- Wheels on the Bus (paid) by Duck Duck Moose, Age 2+, Singing, Story Book. The “Wheels on the Bus” interactive book is a high quality book for young children. However, for some reason, Big-T (my 3yo boy) does not enjoy it! Go figure.
- iPushFit Jigsaw (lite, full) by Vivid Apps, Age 3+, Jigsaw Puzzle, Shapes, Matching. A jigsaw puzzle style game where you have to push pieces of a photo into the correct positions. My 3yo boy loves it.
- Clara (free) by Memention AB, Age 2+, Animals, Listening. Basic app for young kids. Plays a sound clip and then you have to identify one of four photos the sound clip is for (horse, cat, baby, steam train, truck, etc).
- FunBoard (free) by Cool Kid Software, Age 1+, Coordination. This app is targetted at very young children. It is based on some sound educational concepts for its age group, but falls short in a few areas.
- Learn Time (lite, full) by Rob Clarke, Age 3+, Time. Teaches reading the time on an analog clock. Great concept, pretty good graphics, but room for improvement.
- Little Bella’s – I Close my Eyes (lite, full) by Tui Studios, Age 2+, Imagination, Story Book, Listening. An interactive story book about Little Bella and things she imagines when she closes her eyes. Superb quality, reasonable educational merit.
- Looptastic Electro Edition (lite, full) by Sound Trends LLC, Age 3+, Musical Appreciation. Plays a loop of electro music where you can mix and adjust the drums, electro rhythms, and a voice to create some funky music.
- Postman Plum Interactive Kids Book (free) by Iconic Apps, Age 2+, Story Book. An interactive childrens book that speaks. Does not teach children to read. This was Big-T’s favorite app for several weeks.
- ABCs (free, paid) by 24x7digital, Age 2+, Letters. Shows and speaks letters in the alphabet with an elementary user interface.
- Animal SNAP! (lite, full) by collect3, Age 4+, Matching, Coordination. The game of Snap with cards with animals pictures.
- Drum Kit (lite, full) by CrimsonJet, Inc., Age 1+, Musical Appreciation, Coordination. This is a popular drum kit app. I wanted to use it to teach the concept of percussion as distinct from notes.
- Melodica (paid) by CandyCane, Age 5+, Musical Appreciation. Melodica plays a music loop where you can choose the notes by touching squares in a matrix (plays left to right, which high squares representing high notes). Its something like wind chimes – the available notes are selected to sound good together. My aim was to teach my boys some basic musical concepts (such as high and low notes).
- Crazy Mouth (lite, full) by Ezone.com, Age 2+, Interactive Play. A review of the iPhone app “Crazy Mouth” for preschool children. Quite fun, but questionable educational value.
- Paper Toss (free) by Backflip Studios, Age 3+, Physics. Toss paper into a rubbish bin, with fans to add wind. A little education about wind but lots of fun.
- BubbleWrap (lite, full) by Oresome, Age 1+, Coordination. BubbleWrap allows you to pop bubbles in electronic bubble wrap. No skill required – a 1yo can pop bubbles. For older kids get it to amuse, not to educate.
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