September was our biggest month ever on Apps Playground, with 34,456 unique visitors to our website. Which, by the way, relaunched with a spiffy new design.
It was also a really good month for new children’s apps on iPhone and iPad: we were truly spoiled for choice when it came to compiling our monthly roundup of the best ones. Our selection can be found below.
One important point on prices: when we say “freemium”, that means the app is free to download and play with, but uses in-app purchases in some way. In those cases, clicking on the ‘read our article’ link will take you to our original coverage, where we always explain how the in-app purchases are used, and how much they cost.
Read on for this month’s pick of the App Store! And we have a separate best Android apps for kids roundup for September too, if you own a Google-powered smartphone or tablet.
Toca Cars (iPhone/iPad - £0.69)
“An app of two halves: one that gets kids driving a car around a town knocking things over, and one that gets them to actually create that town from scratch by placing its buildings and objects. And then knock them over.”
Get it now or read our story
Sesame Street Family Play(iPhone/iPad - £0.69)
“A fab app, full of good ideas to get kids up and moving. The idea is simple too: you tell the app where you are and how many children want to play, answer its questions about what items you have to hand, and then get instructions for one of more than 150 games.”
Get it now or read our story
Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Farm (iPhone/iPad - £0.69)
“Inspired by the flip-flap books that let you match sections of different pictures: in this case, the top and bottom halves of various animals. ‘What do you get when you cross a goat with a turkey? Why, a gurkey, of course! What about a pig with a sheep? Well, that would be a peep, naturally!’ as the App Store listing puts it.
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Angry Birds Star Wars II (iPhone/iPad - £0.69)
“The game neatly presents the good characters from Star Wars as birds, and the baddies as pigs. But this time round, you can play as both sides, slinging pigs at birds as well as birds at pigs… The characters are drawn from all six Star Wars films.”
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Charlie and Lola Me Books (iPhone/iPad - £1.99)
The app is based on the existing Me Books app. That means stories with voice narration – in this case from the TV show’s cast – and the option to draw ‘hot spots’ on the screen to record you and/or your children telling the story. Up to three versions of these recordings can be saved to listen to later.”
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Justin’s World – Jigsongs (iPhone/iPad - £0.69)
“This is a combination of digital jigsaw puzzles and songs. Four of each, in fact, with children having to solve each puzzle in order to watch Justin singing the song it relates to. The four songs are well-loved nursery rhymes: Old Macdonald, One Two Three Four Five, Twinkle Twinkle and The Grand Old Duke of York.”
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DK Peekaboo! Read-along Stories (iPad - Freemium)
“An app based on publisher DK’s Peekaboo! pop-up books. The app offers a mixture of digital stories and mini-games based on the Peekaboo! books, starting off with three: Things That Go, Playtime and Farm, with more to follow.”
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Chug Patrol: Ready to Rescue (iPhone/iPad - £2.99)
“The story is based around qualifying for your Chug Patrol badges alongside enthusiastic trains Wilson, Brewster and Koko, with other Chuggington characters also making appearances… The app is designed to look like a physical book, getting kids to flip through pages of text and pictures.”
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FriendStrip Kids (iPhone/iPad - Free)
“Comic strips are fun, but how about comic strips starring your own children? That’s the inventive idea… more than 85 comic strips to choose from, with speech bubbles already written. The twist: your child has to point the device at siblings, friends and/or family members to complete the frame.”
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Quick Maths+ (iPhone/iPad - £1.49)
“A follow-on app, designed for children who’ve mastered the basic maths skills of the first Quick Maths app, and are ready for something a bit trickier to get their teeth into. The app is divided into four modes: Solve, Memorise, Compare and Swap. Each focuses on different skills, aimed at children aged 7-11.”
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A to Sea (iPad - £2.99)
“An animal alphabet app from A to Z, with each letter and creature getting its own interactive animation. ‘Fish swim (and fly!) Sharks chomp! Pufferfish inflate! Zooplankton do plankton stuff!’ as the App Store listing puts it. It’s handcrafted and rather lovely.”
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Where’s My Water? 2 (iPhone/iPad - Freemium)
“It stars the Swampy, Allie and Cranky characters from the previous game, but this time they’re playing in three new areas: a sewer, a soap factory and a beach. As before, the game focuses on water-physics puzzles, negotiating water through various obstacles to complete the more-than 100 levels.”
Get it now or read our story
Sophie la girafe Read-along Stories (iPad - Freemium)
“Book publisher DK has published a series of books based on Sophie la girafe, and now there’s an iPad app to go with them… Aimed at 0-3 year-olds, it’s a collection of digital stories starring Sophie and friends, with simple counting tasks and interaction as you read through them with your children.”
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Jake’s Never Land Shapes and Patterns (iPhone/iPad - £2.99)
“Disney has been reinventing some of the characters from Peter Pan recently in its Jake and the Never Land Pirates cartoon. Now there’s an app for them… three mini-games to play: Shadow Puppets involves dragging and dropping matching shapes; Rolling Hills makes a path for Jake and co by completing patterns; and Lightning Bugs, which is more shape-tracing in a treasure cave.”
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Daddy Pig’s Puddle Jump (iPhone/iPad - £1.49)
“Peppa Pig apps have been very popular on iPhone and iPad, so news of the latest is likely to send Daddy and Mummy Pigs everywhere trotting to the App Store. It’s called Daddy Pig’s Puddle Jump, and it sees Peppa’s family practising their famed muddy-puddle jumping skills across 15 levels.”
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Chicken Cha Cha Cha (iPad - £2.99)
“We’ve not played board game Chicken Cha Cha Cha, but it sounds like a hoot: chickens racing round a meadow while training the visual memory of the kids controlling them. Now there’s an app for that… 2-4 people can play the game’s multiplayer mode, or one player can compete against the iPad-controlled chicken.”
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Disney Infinity Toy Box (iPad - Freemium)
“We’re fascinated by Disney Infinity, the new console game that throws a horde of famous Disney characters into a pot, then gets children to build worlds with them… a companion app for the console version, letting players build and edit their ‘Toy Boxes’ on the tablet, which will then be available to play with on their console.”
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Peter Rabbit Me Books (iPhone/iPad - £1.99)
“It’s called Peter Rabbit Me Books, but actually Beatrix Potter Me Books would be a more accurate name, as it covers a range of her famous animal tales… Like those previous Me Books apps, the stories are told through pixel-perfect digitisations of the original books. You can tap on the text to hear voice narration too, supplied by a pair of famous names: actors Richard E. Grant and Tamsin Greig.”
Get it now or read our story
Tidy Kids – Family Fun and Agility (iPad - £0.69)
“Yes, parents. This could be The Dream. An app that gets your children tidying up the living room or their bedroom. Really… it’s a game designed for all the family to play together, gathering round the iPad.”
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Night Zookeeper Story Pairs (iPhone/iPad - £0.69)
“A game of matching pairs for two players, with the cards based on animals created by kids around the world. But it’s more than just a game. “Every animal you collect comes with its own special Story Power. This could be a: plot, setting, object or challenge… Whoever wins the game then gets to make up a story using the animals they’ve collected, and those Story Powers.”
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Color Uncovered (iPad - Free)
“We’re still enjoying the Sound Uncovered app that San Francisco museum the Exploratorium released in February. Now it’s followed up with another app focused on colours. The aim is the same: a digital book with interactivity, animation and videos about a specific topic – colour, in this case.”
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StarComposer (iPhone/iPad - Freemium)
“An accessible music composition app aimed at children, providing loops in a range of musical genres to mix and match within a simple sequencer. Kids can record their own voice singing along, and share the results on YouTube and Facebook, complete with an animated music video.”
Get it now or read our story
Doodle Critter Math: Numbers (iPhone/iPad - £1.99)
“A collection of seven mini-games, each with a mathematical focus. Your kids will be reading numbers off a virtual clothes line; tracing them in a sketchbook; matching toy trucks, playing cards and throwing-rings; ordering fridge magnets; counting doodle characters on trains in a fairytale story; practising addition and subtraction with bus passengers; and putting together six jigsaw puzzles.”
Get it now or read our story
BBC Wildlife Bumper Book of Answers (iPad - £4.99)
“Based on BBC Wildlife magazine, this promises to be manna from heaven for parents struggling to satisfy their kids’ curiosity about the natural world… Hundreds of questions about the animal world are tackled by a host of the world’s leading experts.”
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Dora Appisode: Perrito’s Big Surprise (iPhone/iPad - £2.99)
“Dora the Explorer has millions of young fans around the world, so we suspect there’ll be plenty of interest in her latest app. It’s called Dora Appisode: Perrito’s Big Surprise, and publisher Nickelodeon is describing it as an ‘interactive appisode’… In this case, the story focuses on Dora, her monkey friend Boots, and her pet pup Perrito.”
Get it now or read our story
And if that’s not enough great iOS apps for kids, check out our Best-Of roundups for August 2013, July 2013 and June 2013.