Yikes! Through a mixture of travel, work deadlines and general disorganisation, we hadn’t managed to post our monthly best iPhone and iPad apps for kids roundup. Well, better 16 days late than never…
November was a good month for new children’s apps though, from Toca Boca to Disney, Clumsy Ninja to Nickelodeon, with lots of inventive, accessible apps in between.
Apps marked as ‘freemium’ are free to download but use in-app purchases (IAP): we’ll have explained in our original article how much they cost and how they work. Read on for this month’s recommendations on iOS (or click through to November’s Best Android Apps for Kids roundup if that’s your device of choice).
Toca Hair Salon Me (£1.99, iPhone/iPad)
“A reworked version of the developer’s popular Toca Hair Salon hairdressing apps with the twist that it’s your children in the barber’s chair. Well, your children, or anyone else they can take a photo of: mum, dad, nan, grandad, even the family dog (if they’ll stay still long enough for a decent snapshot).”
Get it now or read our post
Endless Reader (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“A light and entertaining introduction to sentence construction, rather than just spelling. The monsters are as charming as ever, and while the words are shorter – the app focuses on ‘sight’ words that children can hopefully recognise on sight – seeing how they fit into sentences is just the thing for early readers.”
Get it now or read our post
Nick (Free, iPad)
“The app offers a mixture of videos, animations, polls, games and full episodes of popular shows. Those featured include SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sam & Cat, Monsters vs. Aliens, Fairly Odd Parents, Victorious and iCarly, among others.”
Get it now or read our post
Barefoot Me Books (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“It’s in the same vein as previous Me Books apps based on Beatrix Potter, Charlie and Lola and Peppa Pig: an app that lets you and your children read digital picturebooks, sold from an in-app store as individual purchases. In this case, the app starts with six of Barefoot Books’ stories.”
Get it now or read our post
Big Bird’s Words (£0.69, iPhone)
“An educational augmented-reality app that aims to help children build their vocabulary by looking at the text in the real world around them… The emphasis here is on food, with more than 500 words for children to find on products and labels, whether they’re at home or in the supermarket.”
Get it now or read our post
Curious Playground (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“It’s aimed at 3-7 year-olds, but very much also at their parents: it’s an app for you and your kids to use together, to create games based on the people and places that are part of your daily lives… You can create word games, turn photos into memory puzzles, and then share the best ones via email or AirDrop – Apple’s new technology that lets you ping things between iPhones and iPads.”
Get it now or read our post
Disney Classics Collection (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“A collection of digital storybooks: Dumbo, Bambi, Snow White and the Aristocats. Each gets its own story with added animation and interactivity, including musical mini-games, digital colouring, puzzles and other games. Children can personalise the app with their name and photo, and each story comes with trademark sweeping-strings music, as well as voice narration.”
Get it now or read our post
ChatterPix Kids (Free, iPhone/iPad)
“It promises to ‘make anything talk – pets, friends, doodles and more’. How? By getting children to take a photo of an object or drawing, draw a line where the mouth is (or should be), and then record their own voice talking. ChatterPix then turns that into an animation where whatever’s in the photo appears to be saying your child’s words.”
Get it now or read our post
Clumsy Ninja (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“So, this is part virtual pet app (albeit with a ninja rather than a puppy or kitten) and part game, with the promise of more than 70 items to help the little chap learn new tricks – from trampolines and punch bags to, er, a chicken… The animation is top-notch too: much of the fun comes from watching the character’s capering.”
Get it now or read our post
Fun Town (£0.69, iPhone/iPad)
“The work of developer Touch & Learn, whose founder is a film production designer who’s previously worked on movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… That big-screen background looks to have translated well to a small-screen children’s app. Kids can make hamburgers in the town’s restaurant, build bikes in its bike shop, sort fruit in the grocer’s and scan and pack shopping in the supermarket, among other activities.”
Get it now or read our post
John Lewis Bear & Hare (Free, iPhone/iPad)
“Have you seen it yet? The John Lewis Christmas ad, with the Bear and Hare? It’s been causing quite a stir, and now there’s an official app for it on iPhone, iPad and Android… an animated storybook-app telling the tale from the advert (which, if you’re still blissfully unaware, involves a bear who’s never seen Christmas for hibernating-related reasons, and his mate the hare).”
Get it now or read our post
Pet Bingo by Duck Duck Moose (£1.49, iPhone/iPad)
“As the title implies, animals play a role too: as your children complete addition, subtraction, multiplication and division exercises, they’ll earn colourful virtual pets to look after. The exercises take place on a bingo board, and there’s a separate Report Card section for parents to check out how your children are doing.”
Get it now or read our post
My Talking Tom (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“More of a virtual pet game where Tom starts as a kitten and gradually grows up, with your children tasked with keeping him entertained, fed, rested and toileted (is that a verb?), while also customising the way he and his home looks. That makes it more of a game, with players levelling up (50 is the maximum) to unlock new clothes, furniture and food along the way.”
Get it now or read our post
Dr Petplay (£1.99, iPad-only)
“Puts kids in the role of a vet for their own toys. The app gets them to choose the type of their animal: dog, cat, rabbit and horse through to monkey, bear, elephant and, ahem, brontosaurus or Tyrannosaurus Rex. Then they take a photo, type in their name, set their birthdate and weight, then record the ‘symptoms’ of their current illness. There’s an X-Ray mode to see how their bones are looking, complete with the ability to zoom in or scribble notes.”
Get it now or read our post
Junior Astronaut (£3.99, iPad-only)
“Aims to teach 9-15 year-olds about the science of space travel through text, animation and interactivity… rockets, aerodynamics, mass, weight, gravity, actions and reactions and all the other things I kick myself for not paying more attention to as a stroppy teenage physics student.”
Get it now or read our post
Storybiscuit (Free + IAP, iPad)
“The latest app hoping to get parents to pay a monthly subscription fee to get new stories for their children… It’s the work of a British company called Storybiscuit, which is promising that its ‘rich stories and vibrant illustrations introduce different people, creatures and places, igniting children’s imaginations and encouraging them to take a greater interest in the world they live in’.”
Get it now or read our post
Strangebeard – The Pirate Princess (£2.49, iPhone/iPad)
“A storybook-app about a princess named Isabel, who goes to a party dressed as a pirate, and then finds her self sucked into ‘an incredible, action-packed adventure filled with pirate galleons, fearsome monsters and fruit-flinging monkeys’. The app uses StoryToys’ familiar technology to create a pop-up style digital book, with mini-games and lots of interactivity.”
Get it now or read our post
Gocco Zoo (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad)
“A zoo full of animals to paint and create. Kids get to feed the various creatures to instantly transform their colours, or take more time with a digital brush, stamps and patterns, then take snapshots of the finished articles. It’s very playful, and easy to get to grips with even for preschool children.”
Get it now or read our post
Skylanders Collection Vault (Free, iPhone/iPad)
“More about keeping tabs on kids’ collection of physical toys – the ones they scan in to the various Skylanders games. Well, not just the ones they own: if anything, this is a catalogue showing off all the Skylanders characters through videos, images (including 360-degree photography), stats and biographies.”
Get it now or read our post
Animal Band Nursery Rhymes (£0.99, iPhone/iPad)
“Although it features familiarly-3D scenes, it’s more a musical toy than a digital book. ‘It’s twilight in the jungle, and all the animals are feeling sleepy. As each loveable little character is woken up with a simple tap, it joins in the song, creating a wonderfully rich musical experience’… No musical training or proficiency required, as it’s more about triggering different characters to join in the playing.”
Get it now or read our post
Leo’s EyePaint (Free, iPhone/iPad)
“A new app that features the stars of Leo’s Pad mixed up with the clever augmented-reality photography of the EyePaint apps… It’s aimed at under-fives, who can use their iPhone or iPad’s camera to collect colours and patterns from the real world, which are then used to colour in the drawings of the various characters. Photo-painting, if you will.”
Get it now or read our post
The Lonely Beast 123 (£0.69, iPhone/iPad)
“It takes kids on a journey around the Beast’s house, counting all manner of objects from rubber ducks and fried eggs to flowers and shooting stars. Author Chris provides the voiceover, with lots of interactive fun to be had alongside the basic counting.”
Get it now or read our post
Mr Fox and Shapes (£1.99, iPad-only)
“A fab addition to the App Store. It sees the Mr Fox character and his friends taking part in seven shape-based mini-games for preschoolers. Your children will be building a ship, space rocket and circus tent, as well as playing simple, accessible games to learn key shapes and colours.”
Get it now or read our post
Santa’s Merry Band (£2.99, iPad-only)
“KT Tunstall, Indigo Girls and Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler are the ones that jumped out for us, although the app’s soundtrack also features G. Love, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Dan Hicks and Rosie Thomas. What’s the app? Well, it’s the latest spin-off from the main Mibblio app, which gets children playing along to songs using virtual instruments, which they do by tapping buttons on their iPad screen.”
Get it now or read our post
Frozen: Storybook Deluxe (£4.99, iPhone/iPad)
“Tells the Disney movie’s story through its two sisters: Anna and Elsa. Besides reading the story, children can record their own voice narration, and flip their device around to switch between the different viewpoints. There’s also interactivity: puzzles, ‘frosty drawing tools’ to make pictures, and a (virtual) snowglobe creation section.”
Get it now or read our post
Want more best iPhone and iPad apps for children? Read our roundups for October, September, August, July and June.