App Picks for Kids

Sema, a character created by Kukua (a company from Nairobi) now has a whole collection of apps teaching basic skills. In Sema Trace, users trace letters with their finger and are rewarded with Sema telling them about an object that begins with that letter that she has "taken a photo of". 

Short animated/illustrated informational movies for kids about a wide variety of topics.

Basically a Netflix for children's books, this subscription service gives subscribers access to tons of the same kids books that you'll find in our libraries plus some high quality original content.  Free for the first 30 days.  If you're stuck at home without access to a bunch of books, this is a truly worthwhile app to download.  There are graphic novels, comic books (…

If you enjoyed any of the previous Toca Hair Salon apps, you'll love this one too.  It's got a new (but familiar), larger mix of quirky, androgynous customers to choose from, all of the hair dressing options you've loved in the previous apps (wash, cut, shave, blowdry, color, regrow hair... the sky's the limit!) and this app adds a few optional in-app purchases including a new make-up and…

An app with mini-biographies of more than 10 influential women throughout history.  This app features women from a variety of races, nationalities, specialties and eras.  Read the text yourself or choose to have the app narrated aloud.  There are mini-actions and quick quizzes sprinkled throughout the stories --  most of which contribute to the storyline, but not all of…

Travel the Australian outback with a cute little wombat, searching for food and a safe place to sleep.  This is a story told in 5 chapters of beautiful watercolor paintings.

If you've ever dreamed of creating collage art with elements from classic artworks in a museum, then this is the app for you!

Want to go on a virtual vacation to a warm island spot?  Try Sago Mini Vacation!  Players can explore a vacation home, water slides, a bubbling volcano, ride on a whale and more! There's no wrong way to play with this app, so kids can enjoy the thrill of discovering the little hidden surprises throughout the app.  And it's always silly fun to stack characters on top of each…

Hey Clay now has a single app that includes their entire collection of clay making tutorials.  It's free to download and you get one sample tutorial from each category (birds, dinosaurs, monsters, aliens, etc.) and if you'd like to see all of the instructions you can pay to unlock each category.  This app is reminiscent of step-by-step drawing books, but in addition to showing an…

A tiny little app, based on the classic Mexican children's song, "Un Elefante" and the children's board book "Elefantitos" that was written about it.  Users can choose "read it myself" "read to me" or (my favorite!) "sing to me." Incredibly, the app has the option to switch between 8 different languages including the singing and all of the visual text in the book app!  Language…

A word game for anyone old enough to spell (including adults!).  In this app, letters "march" across the screen and you must tap the last letter in the line that finishes a word.  For instance, if the letters "C-A-T-N" march across the screen, you can tap on the T to capture the word "CAT" or you can wait to see if the next letters are "I-P" and then tap on the P to capture "CATNIP…

A book app about a boy who finds "a little piece of line" and picks it up.  The story follows the adventures of the boy and the line throughout his life and offers the readers opportunities to draw pictures with the line (or erase lines) at points in the story that move the story along.  The tale includes imaginary fire fighting and bullies that can be erased as well as lighter…