 |
Let’s face it: if you have a child born in the last 10 years, tech is goign to be part of your world. I will tell you right here and now that I used to be the kind of person who looked at you, out at the restaurant with your child, who was staring intently at an iPad games for toddlers and I’d judge you silently.
“Well when I have a kid, he will NOT play ipad games for toddlers at the table. Eating is for family.“
Until I realized that I could eat an entire meal….or cook an entire meal….while my child played a game on my iPhone. It’s sort of our last bullet in the box, ya know? Meltdown is imminent, time to pull out the iPad games for toddlers!
This is the scene from this morning, when I had been up for 2 hours already and Mama needed to get ready for work. He found it and screamed “FLASH CARDS!” which is one of the ipad games for toddlers we have loaded onto the iPad. So he got it and he played it and he swiped and mashed buttons and gently clicked the X when he was done and turned it sideways so he could see the video better. It was pretty amazing. How can a child just inherently know how to use an iPad without any instruction?
He has a few favorite iPad games for toddlers and I believe he thinks I’m just over here playing these games on my iPhone whenever it’s in my hands.
iPad Games for Toddlers
This one is his favorite iPad game for toddlers:
He calls this one “kids”. “KEEEEEEEEDDDDSSS! Keeds?” He probably calls it that because he’s heard me say “Do you want Phone for Kids?” a million times. It’s like a mini iPhone but with kids games, including numbers, letters, colors and animals. There is even a little car racing game and pretend text message “app”.
He can move between “apps” without my help. HE’S BRILLIANT. This one will keep your kid occupied for a long time. It’s free, but the paid version is only $2 and it’s the best $2 i’ve ever spent….ever.
Another favorite iPad game for toddlers at my house is Talking Dino.
He loves this darn dino. Dinosaur obsession is new at my house, but he calls for this one by saying “eyesaur, eyesaur?” I love toddler talk. This little guy is just like Talking Tom, Talking Ginger, Talking ….anything. Anything that repeats what you say in a ridiculous voice and also responds to different touches on the screen is just like Talking Dino. He doesn’t care. He loves to hit him in the face and then make him brush his teeth, and then he says hi to the talking dino. It’s adorable. This one is free too.
Flash Cards is another free iPad game for toddlers that has 8 or so different categories of everyday objects: food, clothes, body parts, vehicles, animals and so on. The developers used clip art that legit has appeared in ads for my work, so that’s pretty funny for me. Luke can scroll through the cards in each category, or play a game in which four appear on the screen and he has to pick the one the Flash Card game “says”.
IN conclusion, don’t spill your haterade on the people next to you handing their iPad to a toddler…they just want to finish dinner.
What are your kids’ favorite iPad apps?
|
Twitter: euregirlsandboy
Brinky would love it if we had an iPad
He likes to get right up on the laptop, or phone, or Nook, or Kindle, if we have one out. He stares so intently. It’s hilarious. I no longer judge this sort of thing at all because sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to have a little peace. Just a few minutes.
Katie E recently posted..Music = Togetherness #iPPP
Twitter: gfunkified
We don’t have an iPad, and if we did, I’m not sure they’d be allowed to use it! We do have two tablets, though, that they have free access to, even the baby (as you know). It’s incredible what they can do!! I need to look and see if any of these are available at the google store. They look like fun!!
Greta @gfunkified recently posted..How Instagram Has Changed My Life #iPPP
I just got an iPad for Christmas, and its best feature is its ability to distract my kid at the point of Imminent Meltdown. Our two favorites are the Dinosaur Train game (grabbing dinosaurs and putting them into the appropriate-sized train car… I am shocked at how good he is at this) and another one I think called Peekaboo Farm (animals sit behind a hay bale and make noise, and he guesses what it is, taps the hay and the animal comes out). Keeps his attention for way longer than you’d think.
Now excuse me, I’ve got to go download that Talking Dinosaur app…
Meg {Phase Three of Life} recently posted..Finishing the unfinished posts.
“Haterade”?!? Ha ha ha, love it. I have a new word! Yay!
I’m going to look into the flashcards one for my daughter.
I wish I had an iPad sometimes, just for the apps, but I've gotten pretty lucky at finding some good ones my kid loves on Amazon for my Kindle.
We are in LOVE with iPads around here. Monkey inherited his dad’s old one, and we bought this tough case for it. We’ve got Phone 4 kids, which is annoying but he loves it. I think that’s the one that helped him learn his colors?
We also have Fish School, which has been amazing in teaching numbers and letters. Monkey counts to 20 so far, by rote memorization and also by counting objects.
We have an Elmo app for letters too…not sure what it’s called. And Netflix for tv shows, so Mama never has to hear commercials. (WOO!)
Julie recently posted..Well played, sir. #iPPP
I swear that’s exactly how Luke learned his colors too. We were watching Baby First TV (I know….) and there was that stupid ass show with the dumb unicorn that paints stuff. Anyway. It turned Yellow and he goes ‘ELLO!” …”red” “BUUU” “GEEN!” And i’m all….HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?
I"m totally the same. If we're home–it's one thing. Everybody sits at the table, no tech. But if we're out? all bets are off. I'd rather just eat
it's our ace in the hole too. thanks for the recs 
My almost 2 yr old has played more with my iPad than my older 2 b/c he gets to play during their soccer games, ball games, at restaurants, etc.
Twitter: kerstinauer
My kids are way beyond toddler, but they love their ipads
My son is in grade 6 and his school actually has an ipad for every student – they do lots of stuff with it. It’s a good time to be in school!
Kerstin @ Auer Life recently posted..Life in General
Right? I had nothing like that… in fact, I didn’t have access to a computer until college!
So, yeah…I was that girl too. In fact, when we were sitting at breakfast one morning NOT THAT LONG AGO (with baby in tow, as a matter of fact), we were at the Embassy Suites in DC and I saw a family of 4 with both kids on their DS's. And I think, even as a mother at that point, I made some sort of snarky judgmental comment. And then we downloaded Twas the Night Before Christmas on the iPad – the one where you swipe it and the scene changes and you have to find the singing mice in each frame. And then I would pull up the reindeer cam. And Little Baby M is 6 MONTHS OLD. So, I'm totally down with this post and have made myself some notes when the time comes. We're pretty far from being a toddler, but these things may still be around at that point.
G likes Matching Zoo and the Curious George coloring app as well. Your little guy will be asking if wi-fi is available before you know it!
HA! I don’t doubt it. He already knows many of the app names and will scream for them. It’s not annoying or anything…
That goodness for the pin on how to kid-proof your phone. if you have not done it yet, you will definitely want to! Infant visual stimulation is our favorite app.
abcmouse.com has cute apps too
Ella enjoys my mini iPad as a treat only…just 15 minutes or so a day. But her face lights up like a Christmas tree when she gets it in her little hands…even to the point where she has given it it's own nick name.. they love their electronics!
They will FOR SURE be around. It’s really a matter of sanity….I’m starving and my food is getting cold and we were dumb enough to take our toddler out to dinner….it’s iPad time.
My sister said that too but same thing…She can get stuff done! When I was babysitting a few weekends back, I let Alex play on it for a while so I could make her lunch so I totes get it. Although she had some annoying app that made me want to break the ipad.
They are all annoying but eventually you tune them out because you’re so excited to be doing things that include NOT looking after a kid
Twitter: gapgrad
*Nods head knowingly* Yep. I used to be a judger, too. Now I hand my toddler my iphone to watch youtube and Netflix videos. *sighs in defeat* But I love “eyesaur”…I love toddler speak too
check out http://russpuppy.com/ for some more great apps for young kids and toddlers!