Of iPhone Apps for Kids and Learning through Gaming – II
If you are a proud (smart?) owner of a smartphone, or an iPhone to be more specific, chances are that you aren’t the only user of the device in the family. Your kids probably use it just as much as you do – and for good reason! Whether it’s to silence the rear row passengers of the minivan, or prevent that late morning meltdown in the shopping mall, that clever iPhone app can be a savior.. And boy, are we spoiled for choice these days! Just to get a sense for just how big the apps market is – “educational games” alone number over 2000 now in the App Store and “educational apps” run into many thousands, and there is a newly launched “Apps for Kids” section in the App Store that is dedicated to the booming new audience of toddlers and preschoolers. Clearly, the potential of this device and medium, that kids have access to anytime and anywhere, is HUGE – not just for entertainment and engagement, but for learning as well.
The first part of this 2-part series shared recent research on learning through well-designed games. In this (part deux) we will list some of the most popular iPhone and iPod Touch apps for kids from 3 to 13 years.
To compile this list we have drawn from our own faves, winners on mommy blogs, articles in newspapers and trusted blogs such as GeekDad, and winners on magazines such as Wired and Parenting.com. We also received some suggestions from our fans on facebook. We were disappointed by the Math apps which seem to be mostly of the drill and practice kind. We decided to exclude from consideration the hundreds of run-of-the-mill apps for teaching the ABCs and 123s.
Note that this is by no means the last word on iPhone Apps for kids, and there may well be some great apps that we’ve missed for one reason or another. Please feel free to comment and suggest. We do hope this points you to at least a few good ones you were not aware of 
Art & Doodling
 Scribble |
 Create a Cartoon face |
 Brushes |
 ColorSplash |
 Kid Art |
 Doodle Buddy |
Word Games
 Book Worm |
 Word Crasher |
 Wurdle |
 Word Warp |
 Word Search |
Puzzles
 Enigmo |
 Rush Hour |
 Trism |
 Flood-It |
 TanZen |
 Labyrinth 2 |
Basic Skills
 iWriteWords |
 Curious George Coloring Book |
 Shape Builder |
 AniMatch |
 Connect the Dots |
Language Learning
 iSign Alphabet |
 FlashCards for Kids |
 Langu (Chinese) |
 I See Ewe |
 abc Pocket Phonics |
Science
 Geared |
 Electric Box |
 Implode |
 Mitosis |
 Touch Physics |
Math
 Math Magic |
 Cute Math |
 Pop Math |
 Mathemagi cs Mental Math Tricks |
 Math Ref |
 Graphing Calculator |
Music
 Tappy Tunes |
 Tap Tap Revenge |
 MooCowMusic |
 Wheels On the Bus |
 Bebot |
Storytime – Audiobooks & eBooks
 Tales2Go |
 The Graveyard |
 Dr. Suess eBooks |
 iReadandLearn |
 iStoryTime |
Facts, News, Information
 The Chemical Touch |
 NASA |
 Nature.com |
 Dictionary.com |
 US Presidents |
Just Plain Fun
 Scoops |
 Dizzy Bee |
 Face Melter |
 Mad Libs |
 Run Stick Run |
 Doodle Jump |
 Slide-a-ma-jig |
 My Monkey |
 I Spy |
 Feed Me |
 The Finger |
 Sneezies |
 Atomic Fart |
 iSeismometer |
 Where’s Gumbo |
iPhone Versions of Classic Games
 Scrabble |
 Reversi |
 Tic Tac Toe |
 Connect-4 |
 iChess |
iPhone Versions of Retro PC Games
(Parents, do these bring back memories?)
 Tetris |
 Pac-Man |
 Dig Dug |
 Space Invaders |
 Pole Position |
Tags
digital natives, gaming, iPhone, iPhone apps, mobile learning, video games
Categories
[...] toddlers and preschoolers. We list some of the most popular apps for kids from 3 to 13 years in the second part of this article. Clearly, the potential of this device – and medium – that kids have access to anytime [...]
Ah! what a shame… The post is great, but as you say – you overlooked a few really good apps.
You should have a look at the interactive storybooks made by Touchoo.
See the demo of the first storybook app to be available on the AppStore – 1 Little Boy: http://touchoo.com/books/1-little-boy
Another great StoryBook app soon to be released – Thumbelina, finalist at the App Star Awards for great apps that are soon to come! http://touchoo.com/books/Thumbelina
Thanks for letting us know about Touchoo! Looks like your first story became available only a month or so ago. It appears to have only one customer review on iTunes. We will check it out though, and if we find that it deserves a spot on our list, we’ll be sure to add it
Hi! I love this post and believe passionately in the power of games for learning. The company I founded – Barefoot Explorers – is dedicated to creating ‘Play 2 Plant’ games where kids can learn about conservation through super fun gameplay, and have a real world positive impact because we plant 3 live trees for each download.
After a year of development, our first game – Panda Hero – launched last week and so far has all 5-stars! The game play and graphics are amazing – kids go on missions to rescue adorable endangered pandas, take care of their pandas, and plant real live trees! I’d be delighted if you checked it out. Thanks!!!
Jodi
http://www.pandahero.com
http://www.facebook.com/pandahero
Jodi, thanks for letting us know about Panda Hero. We’ll be happy to check it out.
Thanks Shuchi!
What about learning how to tell time? Jungle Time is GREAT for this. Kids can customize the jungle animal that roars and smiles at you when you solve a clock problem.
See http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jungle-time-learn-how-to-tell/id366422129?mt=8XXXXX
Hey! GREAT choices . . .so many to choose from. If you get a chance, check out the kids apps from http://www.onceuponanapp.com
Two of our apps have been listed as a top choice in iTunes Store: “Tale of Peter Rabbit” was recently a “Staff Favorite” for iPad; and “Twas Night Before Christmas” was a “What’s Hot!”
Stay tuned . . . we have several more ready to launch!