April iPad apps that will entertain toddlers

Our iPad is a great piece of machinery.  As Toddler Mojo gets older we’re learning more and more that it can be an invaluable tool in educating him and keeping dad sane.  The iPad sure isn’t a toy.  However, all of those stories you hear about children loving the iPad are true and sometimes those quiet moments your child has with it are priceless.

Here are three great apps that can really help out mom and dad when yon toddler needs a distraction.

Meet the Animal Friends

This app is so silly and goofy I may lose IQ point just describing it to you, but our son loves it.  We have 6 pages of apps loaded on the iPad and he can find this app very quickly.

Meet the Animal Friends has four characters who deliver a cute spiel about what they do and like.  The Dairy Cow is a southern cow who talks slowly about milk.  If you touch the cow in the background it gets abducted by a UFO, touch her nose and it lights up, touch her eyes and she wears glasses.  The Lion Chef, Sporty Monkey and Princess Kitty are the other three animals that are very interactive with loads of surprise things to touch.

See?   I done told you’d get stupider just describing it.

Having said that, what mom and dad think is irrelevant.  Your child will learn the basics of cause and effect and maybe a couple animal sounds, in addition to laughing and smiling.   The recommended age for Meet the Animal Friends is 4 and up, but our 18 month old loves this app.

I Hear Ewe

Based on the name I wouldn’t have downloaded this app either.   I Hear Ewe is a realistic sound app that teaches children what animals and vehicles sound like.  It features two pages of animal avatars and one page of vehicles that you click on and then pop up and say various things.  “This is the sound a monkey makes”, with the very real sound of a monkey after that.

In the settings I Hear Ewe is available in English, Spanish, German and Chinese.   I hear Ewe is also free.  Even if this app wasn’t free it would still be worth the price most of the other children’s apps charge.

LetterRoute

LetterRoute is too young for our 18 month old, but when he’s three he will LOVE this app.  I’m just getting him started early.

The concept of this app is so cute that you can get chills.  A vehicle, sometimes a car or train, but other times featuring a Kitten on bike or a bunny on a moped traces the outline of numbers and letters.  When your little vehicle finishes tracing the figure the app then says the number aloud.

The free app only allows you to trace the numbers.  The ‘paid’ app is .99 and you can then trace the letters or hiragana and katakana, if you’re teaching your children Japanese.

iPad apps that will entertain toddlers is a monthly series that highlights iPad apps that may entertain toddlers.  If it’s a bad month and we download some bad iPad apps, we’ll share them with you too.  In general we are very cheap and look for free apps.  However, we’ll give you a sampling of what’s keeping out toddler entertained ( and Dad sane) on the iPad.