State Bingo and Roadtrip USA. Time for a cross-country educational adventure! Hit the open road and learn fun facts about all 50 states, including state capitals, birds, landmarks, flowers, nicknames and more. With a fully illustrated landscape of the country to help your child practice map-reading skills, this game blends creativity and learning with 600+ questions, varying levels of difficulty, bonus rounds and more.
$2.99; ages 7+; available on iPad.
Mystery Math Town. Set out with a friendly ghost to help rescue the town’s missing fireflies by solving addition, subtraction and multiplication problems. Using critical thinking and strategy skills, your little number crunchers are sure to love the town’s chatty characters and backstory as they build equations and solve problems to unlock rooms and passages that take them closer to cracking the case wide open.
$2.99; ages 5+; available on iPad.
Caspar Babypants Music Time. Known for rockin’ many a kids’ concert, Caspar Babypants offers up this groovy interactive app for music lovers of all ages. Whether you just want to jam out on your tablet or try your hand at playing along to your favorite tunes on a virtual guitar, xylophone or drumset, this app has it all for Caspar Babypants superfans.
$1.99; all ages; available on iPhone and iPad.
Puppet Workshop. Put your creativity to the test and make your own puppets using a variety of virtual socks and gloves in Puppet Workshop. Featuring over 150 items to bedazzle your adorable new friends, this app is perfect for the crafty littles in your home. (Especially when you’re away from home and in need of a little creative distraction!)
$1.99; all ages; available on iPad.
Petting Zoo. Acclaimed author and illustrator Christopher Niemann really knocks it out of the park when it comes to creating a cool and imaginative app for kids (and parents!). Featuring 21 animals and over 1,000 hand-drawn animations, Petting Zoo invites users to see what happens when an elephant is in your bathroom, or say, when a dog tries to breakdance. Simply poke and play with all of the animals and see what fun noises and surprising reactions result.
$.99; all ages; available on iPhone and iPad.
Princess Fairy Tale Maker. If your little prince or princess can’t get enough of fairy tales, why not encourage them to dream up their own? Featuring a variety of coloring pages and animated background screens inspired by well-known “once upon a time” tales, this app allows your little ones to draw, create their very own stories and movies, and even decorate with animated sparkles and glitter. Talk about a happily ever after ending!
$3.99; ages 3–9; available on iPhone and iPad.
Night Zookeeper Teleporting Torch. Take on fun drawing missions and create stories about magical animals as the resident Night Zookeeper. In this unique imaginative game, you’ll find silly animals such as spying giraffes and time-traveling elephants. Educational, inventive, and a quick and easy boredom buster, this app is a must for young animal lovers and artists. Parents can even create additional challenges for their mini gamers!
$.99; ages 8+ (though parents say 6+ is more the case); available on iPad.
Super Why ABC Adventures. Got some Super WHY fans at home? Consider snapping up this interactive ABC adventure app with five literacy games, such as “Woofster’s golden letter bones” and “Alpha Pig’s Lickety Letter Safari.” Kids will love the additional ABC sing-along music videos, and parents are sure to appreciate the progress tracker included.
$3.99; ages 3–6; available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
Ultimate Dinopedia: Complete Dinosaur Reference. Give your budding paleontologist the all-in-one reference of his dreams with this extensive app from National Geographic. Featuring more than 700 dinosaurs, this app provides users big and small an up-close look at what it was like in prehistoric days with incredible facts, maps, interactive features and bonus videos.
$4.99; all ages; available on iPad.
Little Digits. This edu-taining app makes learning to count as easy as 1-2-3 for preschoolers! Simply touch your fingers to the screen and watch as the numbers begin to appear as adorable, unique characters and animations. This interactive game features easy addition and subtraction problems, as well as the basics for younger beginners.
$1.99; ages 3–7; available on iPad.
Barefoot World Atlas. Got the travel bug? Take a trip around the world in the comfort of your home with this globetrotting app for users of all ages. Make new friends in faraway lands and discover landmarks, wildlife, famous buildings and more in the cities of your choice. For the families out there that have wanderlust, this app is a must!
$4.99; all ages; available on iPhone and iPad.
GazziliScience. Show your little one how much fun science can be with the help of GazziliScience. Featuring six interactive science-based activities on simple topics such as seasons, plants and water cycles, this app will give your child the basic building blocks needed for learning about life science in a fun and creative way.
$.99; ages 3+; available on iPhone and iPad.
Kids Learn Spanish with Busuu. Hoping to introduce your child to a second language? Consider checking out this fab (and free!) bilingual app for little ones. Offering up 150 words taught through interactive learning courses, this educational game includes a wide variety of Spanish vocabulary for people, places and things. The cute graphics are muy irresistible!
Free; ages 4–7; available on iPad.
Meet the Insects: Village Edition. Give the mini bug-lover in your home all of the resources he’ll need to explore his favorite six-legged creatures. This app includes fun facts, comprehensive quizzes and audio-narrated descriptions of well-known insects such as ladybugs, grasshoppers, cicadas and bug-beyond. All in all, a great resource for the adventurers who want to learn more about the buggy world around us.
$6.99; ages 4+; available on iPad.
Toy Story: Story Theater. Can’t wait for the next Toy Story film to hit the big screen? With the Toy Story: Story Theater app, your child can create her very own animated adventures with Woody, Buzz, and Jessie — all with a touch of the screen. Featuring a variety of settings, props, actions and characters, this app is easy for kids to use and allows them to record their own narrative to help bring the story to life. Perfect for rainy day imaginative play and a great opportunity to help build your child’s early literacy skills. Plus, what could be better than a little time spent with Woody and the gang?
$2.99; ages 3–7; available on iPhone and iPad.
