In honour of Fathers’ Day, we’ve pulled together a list of five of the best apps celebrating all things dad…
I Love My Dad (£2.49, for iPad only) follows Ollie the zebra and Fred the dog as they spend the day with Ollie’s dad – baking cakes, climbing a tree, riding a bike… Written and illustrated by Australian author Anna Walker, this is a charming, gentle tale. With original music and animation on every page, there is plenty to keep younger kids interested, and it’s a lovely ‘read together’ book.
In book-app Just Helping My Dad – Little Critter (£0.69, for iPad and iPhone), Little Critter spends the day with his dad, helping him out with chores. Of course his ability does not quite match up to his enthusiasm… leaving his very patient dad with more work than he started with! This is an OmBook from Oceanhouse Media – which means lots of useful features such as word highlighting to help with reading, full narration, a mini-game and the option to record your own narration.
What Will I Be? (£1.99, for iPad and iPhone) centres around a father as he answers his child’s big questions about the future. The app features lots of animation and interactivity, and also has original music and full narration. You can even choose whether the story’s main character is a boy or girl – a very useful feature. Suitable for pre-school and younger school-age children, this is a funny and touching tale of a father’s hopes and dreams for his child.
My Dad’s Bald Head (£0.69, for iPad and iPhone) is sure to be a hit with slightly older kids (school age and above) who will love the jokes and funny illustrations. A young boy describes all the benefits of his dad’s bald head – from dazzling his Grandma, to using it as a drum and decorating it with stickers. Although there is no animation, the rhyming text is fully narrated.
Guess How Much I Love You – Interactive Episodes (FREE for a limited time, iPad only). This app is based on the best-selling book of the same name, which tells the touching tale of Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare and their love for one another. The app features two interactive episodes with games and puzzles to enjoy, and kids can also create their own personalised postcard within the app to share with their family and friends.