App Picks for Kids

Grab a photo from your camera roll and play along with this app created by Harvard University. There are three things you can choose to do with each photo: talk about the photo, decorate the photo (using virtual stickers and markers) or (my favorite) play hide and seek. The first option gives discussion prompts.  The second gives you access to a number of different colors and some silly "…

Try out improv with cartoon characters! In this app, designed to be a way for parents and kids to practice creative conversational skills, players take turns making two silly animals talk together.  You can choose the scene and have a structured set of conversation prompts or create your OWN setting with photos from your camera roll. The app records what you choose to have each of the…

Battle your friends (or enemies or strangers or the app itself) using VOCABULARY! In this wacky app created by The Oatmeal, you spell words to send out battalions of exploding cats to counteract your opponent's cats. You can play solo (against the app) or you can play against strangers or you can set up a game for a friend to join and you can play on your own devices against each other.

An app of truly open-ended play for little ones! As of the writing of this review, there are six different virtual play areas (they are adding more options as they are developed), including a tiny neighborhood scene to explore (including a child in a wheelchair and lots of other people characters to move around), a play area filled with switches and levers and all sorts of controls to…

A scavenger hunt for colors that you can play with a group of friends! Create a game by choosing the number of minutes you want to play and how many colors to hunt for. The app will generate a code that you can share with friends (or you can play alone). Once you begin the game you'll see colored circles at the bottom of the screen and whatever your phone camera is looking at. Walk around…

Play around with four types of strolling musician groups in this app for kids. First, choose which type of band you'd like to play with -- traditional marching band, mariachi band, electronic robot band or a Japanese group or mix and match all four.  Then, drag instruments from the bottom of the screen up onto the upper part of the screen and an animated animal will start to play the…

A cartoon illustration plus micro-bio on 77+ women in history (err... "HERstory") including no less than SEVEN women named Harriet.

It's not an app, but it's an excellent digital media resource and you should know about it. I discovered this podcast after it won the Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award from ALA and my daughter and I both love it!

It's a good time of year to go out and try ice skating, but... maybe today is too cold.  Or maybe you can't get skates?

A cooperative cooking game to play together with a group of people, each with their own screen! Combine ingredients on a plate as indicated on the "recipe" cards at the top of the screen. Once you've combined all of the ingredients, swipe the full order to the top of your screen to serve it. In the meantime, more ingredients keep appearing on your screen and they might be needed by other…

In this app, explore 7 different animals (anaconda, macaw, spider monkey, jaguar, blue poison dart frog, electric eel and the pink Amazon River dolphin), both inside and out. For each animal, you can identify major body parts, then look at different layers (muscles, skeleton, digestive system (you can feed the animal!), nervous system, vascular system and respiratory system).

1. Minibombo apps by TIWI s.r.l. (Google Play & iOS, best for toddlers & preschoolers)

2. Pettson's Inventions by Filimundus (Google Play, Amazon & iOS, best for school age (or preschoolers with an adult companion…