15 More iPhone Applications for Kids (Part II)

And now for our next installment of “There are so many kid-apps on my iPhone that the kids think my phone actually belongs to them”… (If you missed the first post – I originally listed 20 games my kids loved playing on my iPhone)

1) Carrie’s Dots (Free version)
Do you remember when you were a kid, and to pass time waiting at a restaurant, you used to draw this grid of dots – each person took a turn connecting the dots with vertical or horizontal lines – when you made a box – you got a point, and also got to take another turn… That’s this game. Kids love it. Still does a great job of passing time while waiting in a restaurant.

2) Koi Pond (Full Version)
I’m kind of surprised I didn’t mention this one in my first listing. I think this was one of the very first apps I downloaded when I bought my phone. Cute little app. Has sound effects in the background. The fish swim around. Touch the pond to scare them away (my 3 year old son loves doing that WAY too much) – shake the phone to feed the fish. The graphics and interaction are well done.

3) Memory Match (Free version | Full Version – Child Development | Full Version – anime match)
A simple memory game with cute little cartoon animals to pair up.  I’m not sure why there’s the different full versions. We’ve been using the free one and have been happy with it.

4) iZoo (Free version | Full version)
This is a cute little app that plays various animal sounds. My one complaint is that some of the animal sounds are quite a bit louder than others. So randomly, my son will be playing with the phone and scare the crap out of me because I wasn’t expecting to hear a Baboon screech at that particular moment. Also – if you start to fumble to turn the volume down – you will discover that the APPLICTAION’S volume is only controllable WHILE IT IS MAKING NOISE. If you start turning the volume down when it is not screeching – you are only turning down your phone’s ring volume. The baboon will still be screeching just as loud the next time you click on the picture. If you are quick, you can turn down the app’s volume while it is making noise. So yea, it would be nice if there were more easily accesible volume controls – and if the animal noises had been processed so that one isn’t whisper quiet – while another is deafeningly loud.

5) Four Free (Free version | Full version)
Remember that Connect-Four game? Same thing – without all the little chips to lose.

6) Morocco (Free version)
Remember Othello? Again, same thing, without all the little chips to lose.

7) Toddler Teaser Shapes (Free version)
My 3 year old son loves this game. It calls a shape, you have to click it – do that enough times and you get a “sticker” to paste on the page. This developer also makes a number of other cute toddler games I’m tempted to download.

8 ) Sneezies (Free version | Full version)
This is a cute and weird game. There’s these little fuzzy guys floating around in bubbles. You get one chance to click in a spot on the screen and it starts a chain reaction. If one of the fuzzy guys is within range – his bubble will pop. His popping bubble will cause nearby bubbles to pop and so on. The goal is to clear as many of the guys on the screen as possible. Like I said, weird. (But fun)

9) Butterflies (Free version | Full version)
You can change your background, and which butterflies will appear on the screen. Touch the screen and some butterflies will “land” on your finger.

10) Dino Mixer (Full version)
Kind of like a slot machine but with different dino parts. You can mix and match and make your own dinosaurs. If you find the correct matching parts to the dinosaur, it will tell you the name of the dinosaur. I could see some ways they could expand the app – like actually SAYING the name of the dinosaur when you get it (sometimes those pronunciations can be tricky!) or giving you a random factoid about the dinosaur. Or for fun – giving you the made up name of your mixed-and-matched dinosaur… But it’s still a cute app even without that.

11) Preschool Arcade (Full version)
3 games are included with this one. A “claw” like game where you have to pick up the shape that matches the silhouette. There’s a toddler space invader type game, and a pinball like game. (The pinball game is weird, and I just don’t get it. My son plays with the claw game mostly) The main reason I got this game is because I liked the next one so much that I wanted to try a few others from this developer.

12) Make a Martian (Full version)
This game is VERY cute and simple. There are various martian body-parts you can change, you can also change the martian’s colors to create your own unique martian.

13) Pet Playpen (Full version)
My (almost) 9 year old daughter liked playing this game. You can pick three animals to have as pets. Feed them, play with them, clean up their poop. Can it get more fun than that??

14) Spazzle (Free version | Full version)
Basically whack-a-mole. The twist with this game is occasionally other animals pop up that you are NOT supposed to whack – so you can’t just go whacking animals willy-nilly. Well almost. Download the game at your own risk, and hopefully your 3 year old won’t bang his hand on the screen in an attempt to whack as many creatures as once. (Disturbing on many levels.) Hey, there’s also an alien version.

15) Colorama (Full version)
I saved the best one for last. This is my favorite of the list. The drawings are adorable, and there’s lots of them. The color picker is really cute. You can save your colored drawing, or go back and edit it (when you complete the drawing, it plays a little fanfare) Definitely worth the mere $.99!

I should also add, that I finally caved in and bought the full version of the Balloon Animals game. The kids have just loved this game, and really wanted to see some new animals. The additional animals you get with the paid version are very cute and the kids have been having a lot of fun with them.

BONUS APP:
Have2Pee (Free version)
So this isn’t a “kid-app” exactly – but if you have kids, you’ve probably been in the situation of needing to find the nearest bathroom as soon as possible!!! I haven’t yet had to put this app to use, but I have it now at the ready should the emergency arise!

There’s still a ton more apps on my phone that I didn’t mention yet – so another iPhone apps for kids review post will be coming again soon. Stay tuned!

iPhone Applications for Kids (Part I)

Just about a year ago, I bought my iPhone. I have loved (almost) every minute having it this past year. I was a Mac fan even while I was still using a Windows machine, and finally made the switch to all Apple last year. At first, I was extremely protective of the iPhone and the thought of actually handing it over to my kids to let them play a game on it – it was madness.

Welllll….never say never. It’s amazing what one will do to entertain your child. There’s a number of apps (many of them free) that are great for kids. Some of them, I’ve even loved playing myself. Whenever I can, if there is a free trial version of a game, I’ll usually download that first to see if it holds their interest long enough to make a purchase worthwhile. In some rare cases, I’ve just gone ahead and splurged and just bought a game because it looked cool from the description (usually at a pricetag of $1!! Big spender that I am!)

I thought I’d share some of my favorite downloads. I’m constantly finding and downloading new applications (Yes, I have QUITE a few pages of apps on my phone!) so expect another post like this sometime in the future (shorter next time I promise). So assume this post is part one.

1) Solitaire City (Free trial | Full version)
Ok, maybe this one is more for me but I can see older kids liking this game. I think the concept may be too hard for the real little kids, though. I got the free trial, and it became one of my favorite games on my iPhone. I went ahead and bought the full version to have access to all the other versions of solitaire, but the same one that is included in the free trial is the one I still play the most.

2) Airport Mania (Free trial | Full version)
In this list, you’re going to quickly find out that my favorite game genre is the what they call time management games. You have to do something for X Y and Z in such an order before A B and C walk in the door, or X gets pissed and leaves, etc. So this is a time management game with airplanes. Landing them in sequence, unloading and loading passengers, fuel and or repairs for the airplane.

3) Arcade Claw (Free trial | Full version)
Like the arcade game without the headache of feeding the machine endlessly while you continually just miss getting the super cool elephant stuffed animal.

4) Balloon Animals (Free trial | Full version)
I really like this one – kids “blow” the balloon up (by blowing into/at the iphone) then you shake the iPhone to twist the balloon into an animal. We only have the free trial on this one because it only comes with 7 animals if you buy it. (The free one only comes with one.) The description says it’s “packed with various animals” – I don’t really consider 7 to be “packed”… 15-20… maybe that’s packed. 7? Not really. Also, the game is about $2 (yes, I know, we’re getting nit-picky).  If they lowered the price, I’d buy it. OR if they added A LOT more animals, I’d buy it. In the meantime, my kids are still amused by the one that comes free.

5) Bug Squash (Free trial | Full version)
This one is a big favorite with them. Pretty simple game, bugs run across the screen – you need to squish them by touching them on the screen. We bought the full version on this one to get access to more bugs and get rid of the nagging in the free trial to upgrade. It’s worth it. My one complaint with this game: My son really isn’t playing a game here – he just likes squishing the bugs. For him, I wish they had an “endless mode” that would just keep the bugs coming until you said you were done.

6) Bugs! (Free)
This is like Bug Squash – with the endless mode – but without the variety you get in Bug Squash. BUT it’s free. 😀

7) Cooking Mama (Free trial | Full version)
We have this game on the Wii and my daughter loves it – we got the trial version and then the full version for the iPhone. You have to do certain things to cook a meal – and the better/quicker you do them, the higher you will score.

8 ) Crazy Hotdogs (Free trial | Full version)
Another time management game – cook hotdogs, don’t burn them (it makes the customers angry) give them to your customers before they get tired of waiting and leave.

9) Diner Dash (Free trial | Full version)
Time management – seat customers, take their order, get their food, clean the tables and get the next set of customers in before they leave hungry.

10) Crazy Penguin Catapult (Free trial | Full version | Free trial version 2 | Full version 2)
Apparently there is something extremely entertaining about catapulting penguins. At least to my kids. Should I be worried? 😉

11) Pocket God (Full version)
This is one of those games I just had to risk it. As of this writing the game is only $.99 which is an amazing bargain for the amount of content they already have in the game. It seems like every other week they add a new “episode” (which you get as a free update after you buy the game) with new stuff. I don’t even know how to describe this “game” really – there’s pygmies on the island, and you can pick them up and move them around… or fling them into the distance into a volcano. Do that enough times and it will rain lava on the rest of the pygmies. A shark swims by, pick it up and it tries to eat the pygmies. Or in another scene, there’s a dinosaur egg that if you pick up and drop enough times, a dinosaur appears and eats pygmies that get too close to it. Latest episode has a dodo bird that flies overhead. Touch the dodo bird to drop… uhm… droppings on the heads of the pygmies. Just crazy random stuff.

12) Sally Spa (Free trial | Full version)
Cute time management game – my daughter loves this one. Send customers through a round of various spa services.

13) See ‘n Roar (Free)
My son loves this one. A wheel you spin with various animals on the wheel. When the arrow lands on an animal – you hear the sound it makes.

14) Supermarket Mania (Free trial | Full version)
Time management game – stock shelves in a supermarket, pick up dropped groceries. Watch out for theives, etc.

15) TanZen (Free trial | Full version)
Fun game with tangrams. When I first bought this game – it was missing a few features they’ve since added. Most notably a “hint” feature. (You’ll need that one the tougher puzzles!) 😉

16) ToMaCow (Free trial | Full version)
Another one that I don’t even know how to begin to describe the randomness. Aliens come to attack your farm, and you must try and kill them… with a hose that sprays… tomatoes.

17) What would you chose? Party game (Free)
I found this game through my niece (who is 13) and who giggled endlessly at the questions.

18) Dress Chica (Free)
Chica is a chicken puppet from the cable TV show PBS Kids Sprout, and in this application you get to dress her. Who knew putting clothes on a chicken would be so entertaining!

20) Kids Four (Full version)
I don’t know, maybe even the $.99 is still too much for what the app does, but my son really does like it. There’s four mini games – pick letters, shapes, colors, and numbers.

Also – don’t forget the applications that come with the iPhone (or at least the latest version of iPhone OS software). Voice Memos and the Camera are two of my son’s favorite apps. He especially loves recording himself singing. (Ironically, if I tried to get him to sing so I could record it, he’d probably refuse, but because he’s doing it himself, it’s fun)

(See Part II here for 15 more iPhone applications for kids)