Hats off to the BBC for ensuring as many children as possible can get its CBeebies Playtime app. Having launched in August for iOS and Android, it’s now available for Windows Phone 8 smartphones too.

The content is the same: four mini-games based on popular CBeebies TV shows: Octonauts, Tree Fu Tom, Something Special and Alphablocks. Kids can also create their own hot-air balloon avatar to represent themselves in the app, and keep track of their progress.

“Children’s media consumption habits are changing rapidly, as highlighted by the recent BBC Trust review into children’s services, and it’s important for us to be able to reach them wherever they are,” writes the BBC’s Patrick Healy in a blog post introducing the new version.

“As mobile and tablets are now commonly used by children, we wanted to provide a new and exciting way of entertaining and educating them on those devices.”

Windows Phone might not be quite as popular as iPhone and Android, but it’s growing: some research this week claimed that 12% of smartphones sold here in the UK in the last three months were Windows Phones.

While the flow of high-quality children’s apps on Windows Phone could be improved, it has some great features for parents in its Kid’s Corner mode, which separates off apps for kids from the rest of the device.

Anyway, for parents with Windows Phones, CBeebies Playtime is definitely worth downloading. It’s a free download from the Windows Phone store.