Techno Kids

I have to hand it to Apple, Inc. They have created a very intuitive operation system for their iPhone. Case and point: my 3 year old figured out on his own how to turn it on, slide the screen, bring up his favorite application, adjust the volume, and turn it off. This can actually work to my advantage when he is with me and I need to distract him: I just whip out the phone and I'm assured ~15 minutes of distraction. I thought I would dedicate today's post to the toddler applications on the iphone. I haven't spent a large amount of time or money on these so this is in no way an exhaustive list, but the ones we use are:

Toddler Teasers offers a selection of quizzing applications that have subjects such as letters, shapes, numbers, etc. When the child has finished a set of quizzes they are able to choose a "sticker" they get to place on a special scene.

First Words Animals is a neat spelling game. There is an image of the animal, the animals name spelled and tiles with the letters of the animals name. The child touches a tile and the letter is voiced. The child drags the letters to their proper place in the name and once the name is completed all the letters are voiced and then the animal makes its' sound. This program has been Aidan's favorite so far.

AniMatch is a memory game with animal faces and sounds. There are tiles they press on which flip over to show the animal, shake and make the animal noise. Just like a standard memory game once a match has been made the tiles stay flipped over. This one is moving up quickly as a favorite.

I just discovered a new program that looks promising. It is actually a web app that is for toddler videos. You can optimize the video selection for age ranges such as infant, toddle, preschooler, etc. and it offers a parent lock feature. The program is called Totlol and you access it through Safari to install a button on your home screen. They have videos like Sesame Street, Baby Signs and others available.

We have just been using YouTube and had favorite videos he would access, or we would run a search for him. He generally wants to watch videos of trains or train crashes which there is an ample selection of on YouTube.

Does your young child have a favorite application on the iphone (or other device)? If so, leave a comment sharing the name of the program and a short description so we can check it out!