In this high tech world, it’s likely that someone in your family received a new smartphone or tablet over the holidays. One of the greatest features of these new electronic gadgets is that they have the ability to download apps that make life more convenient and fun. Below is a round-up of 10 family-friendly apps that will help entertain and educate loved ones in your household. Happy downloading!
- Zoodles - If you’ve recently bought a tablet with your young child in mind, you’ll want to download the Zoodles app, which offers a huge selection of educational and interactive games, videos, art lessons and story books for children, as well as a number of helpful features for parents. The content is categorized by year – from the toddler and preschool years to elementary-aged selections – and perhaps best of all, there’s a ‘parent-along’ setting that encourages kids and parents to play together. This multi-faceted app enables parents to put their devices in “Kid Mode,” so that violence and advertisements are kept at bay, time limits for usage are set, and kids can safely access a wide selection of amazing, age-appropriate content without accessing any of your digital property. Another neat feature is that the app provides weekly reports about the child’s interests and skills to the parent. This is a must-have.
- Captain McFinn “Swim & Play” - This inventive app takes children under the sea to engage in fun games that encourage social and emotional advancement in preschool-aged children. Using groundbreaking technology, a live host/facilitator happily assists children and parents through colorful underwater adventures that demonstrate important life lessons, such as building strong characters and anti-bullying. Families enjoy communicating with the host and helping Captain McFinn, a friendly shark, and his ocean animal friends reach their goals.
- Nighty Night and Nighty Night Circus - These two beautifully narrated, interactive bedtime stories will help calm your child into sleepy land as she or he says good night to a number of farm or circus animals, depending on the chosen story book. Children click on charming animated pictures to put each sweet animal to sleep by turning off the light and saying, “Nighty night.” These apps can be downloaded on iOS devices, Google Play, Amazon and Samsung electronic tablets.
- Jungle Time - Jungle Time is a straightforward, helpful app that will teach your child how to tell time through learning lessons that work on building a child’s time-telling skills. Kids learn about the big hand, little hand, minutes and seconds of a clock using cute jungle-themed clocks. The app is available for iPads and iPhones.
- Toca Nature - This gorgeous app touts the ‘magic of nature’ and hopes to inspire children to appreciate the wonders of the world around them as users create and grow their own natural settings. Users explore various landscapes and learn about the animals that live within these ecosystems, their food sources and the animal’s mannerisms. Players also feed the animals, plant trees and pretend to co-exist with nature using this imaginative app. It’s great for rainy days, car rides or quiet time indoors. It is available to download on Apple iOS devices.
- Star Walk - Created by Vito Technology, this astounding app encourages a family to bond as they stargaze and learn about constellations together. Walk out into the night sky and hold your new tablet up into the air. The app will show the precise placement of stars and other celestial bodies in the sky at that very position, using your device’s GPS technology. This is the perfect download for family members who enjoy learning about astronomy. Star Walk is available to download to Kindles, Androids and iOS devices.
- Spotify – Music loving tweens and teens will enjoy adding Spotify to their app list, as this technology brings ad-free, streaming music to their devices for a very affordable price. $0.99 purchases three months of endless service. Users select from a massive variety of music, create their own playlists and receive recommendations on the newest artists and albums.
- CBS sports - This comprehensive, informational sports app keeps families up-to-date with information on game scores, player performance and team drama. It is a great download for the sports loving member of your family and can help you stay connected to your child by finding ways to relate through sports. It’s available for download on Android, iTunes, iPhones and more.
- Timehop - Sentimental parents and teens around the country have fallen in love with the Timehop app, which is downloadable on iOS and Android devices. Users have the gift of hopping back in time to see where they were a year ago on this very day. The application pulls photos and messages from your computer, camera phone, Facebook account and Twitter account each morning and then places a photo or snippet of life from a year ago on your device’s screen. Until a time machine is invented, Timehop does the trick. You’ll be reminded of how far you and your family have come and squeeze in a few mushy moments with your morning coffee.
- Postcard on the Run -Download this app onto your iOS, Android or Windows gadget before your next family vacation and you’ll be delighted with the result. Once downloaded, you simply take a picture with your smartphone or tablet, click on the ‘Postcard on the Run’ app, and your selected picture will be sent as a physical postcard to a loved one’s home address. Yes, a real-life postcard of you and your family or a scene you select. This is a fun way to keep in touch with those you care about.
