Friday, April 17, 2009

Games for the Six and Under Crowd (iPod Touch/iPhone)

My kids have discovered my iPod Touch.  They're as hooked as I am.  Last night my daughter hid it from me after I told her it was time to go to bed.  (I didn't miss it until she was asleep and found it in the nightstand after a bit of searching).

What's all the fuss?

I've founds some great games that they love.  These are the recent faves:

iWriteWords iWriteWords This is a fun little spelling game.  You trace out letters to spell words.  When you finish the word, a cute drawing appears and then you shake the letters into a little hole to move on. 

Sort of a Montessori style approach, like the sandpaper letters that my daughter does at school.  When she's trying to write a letter she doesn't know, I have to "dot it out" on paper for her so she can trace it herself.   This game matches that experience really well.

$.99 on iTunes

AniMatch AniMatch  A classic memory game with fun animal cards and sounds.  I played it a few times myself before going to bed last night.

$.99 on iTunes

 

pacifier1 Pacifier1 Marketed for the 1-3 set, although my older kids are mesmerized by it.  Little dots and shapes float around on the screen.  As you touch them, a number is spoken out loud from 1-10.  When you get to 10 it starts all over again.  Soothing background music, smooth movement and lots of colors to pacify and interest your young child.  And get her hooked to electronic games early.

However, if your child is still in an oral phase, probably not the best thing.  My 10 month old thinks the smooth, shininess of the iPod is a perfect thing to chew on.  I think I'll wait until she's a bit older...

$.99 on iTunes

Other Resources

This looks useful:  iPhone and Kids.  I especially liked the section on extending battery life.

Any special games that are hits in your family?

3 comments:

The upsycho said...

When my elder son was tiny, we found a computer game called Balloons or Bubbles or some such. Bubbles appeared on the screen whenever you pressed any key at all. Mostly just in random colours. However, if you pressed an R, a red one would appear, B for blue and a few other specifics. I can't remember what keys you could hold down to make the balloons get bigger until they burst, or smaller until they disappeared.

No word of exaggeration, we pulled his high chair up to the computer and had him playing this game at 10 months. He loved it. Fortunately keyboards are quite robust because as you can imagine, there was much smashing and banging that went on, as the excitement level rose! Occasionally, he would hit the print button by mistake, and we would get a printout of the screen (which wasn't terribly exciting from a dot-matrix mono, but I still have some of them today!)

Anonymous said...

Hello,


http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320174758&mt=8

I am the mom of a 4 years old little girl and I have an iphone ! I found out that in the appstore there were not enough good educational games for kids to developp their abilities and intelligence . So I decided to develop an application which will help and also give some fun for kids to play, to learn and write their alphabet and words.

This app "Write my name" is dedicated to all the parents who love to teach their child how to write their name or any words.
"Write my name" can help teach your kids to spell !

"Write my name" is an educational game which helps your children recognize the letters of their name and how to place them in order.

This game is very simple, you will like this easy app :
- You or your child enter your child's name (or another word).
- Letters appear on the screen randomly.
- The kids have to place them in the correct order.

You can also play with any words.
This game will also help your kid to recognize words, boost his visual memory and constitute a pre-learning to reading skill.

Summer is here ! Make sure the kids get ready for the next school year :
"Write your name" helps toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergardens learn some basic words :
- Preschoolers, and kindergartners will learn to write and play with their first-name.
- Toddlers will learn and play with more difficult words, depending of their vocabulary.

This application is also a good way to help your kid to become familiar with your iphone and it is a good family game.

This is a great game for kids who get bored in the car, in the airplane, at the restaurant, or anywhere.

Kids between the ages 2 to 6 love to play with letters, words and their spellings.
Fun and educational ! Learn while having fun, it's easy!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320174758&mt=8

Thanxs,

Julie

Eric Donovan said...

Hi Cammy,

We've just released our first iPhone app (an educational game for children from about 18months - 4 years) and we're getting some really good feedback.

Please check it out if you get a moment (itunes link: http://appsfire.com/bq) or you can just search for "funboard" on the app store. Currently it's free. Hope your kids like it!

Eric