Top 6 iPad Picks for Toddlers 2+

Harper is the king of my iPad. I hate to admit how much I let him play on it, but it has become my “babysitter” when I need to take care of Dakota. I try to limit his screen time, and some day’s are better than others, but I’m only human and really trying to do the best I can with two little ones.

Anyways, like I said, Harper is the king of the iPad. He knows how to get around that thing like nobody’s business. Sometimes he’ll even ask me to “see a new game?”  which means to look in the app store to see if there’s anything new he can try. I mean, really!?

Some of the games he plays are pretty awesome, and if you have a kid who loves to play on the iPad, here’s our top six picks that you may enjoy.

1. Art Maker by ABC’s Playschool Basically, you choose a background, then decorate it with objects like dolls, bears, balls, blocks, fish etc. and then hit the record button to record a story. We started playing without recording the stories, then it evolved into all of us making stories with the objects he chose, and now he actually sits and narrates his own stories! I think it’s completely amazing that he does that and his stories are hilarious to watch!
2. Letter’s With Pooh This is one of the best app’s I’ve come across that teaches letters. You follow along with a story featuring Winnie the Pooh and friends and there are letter activities along the way. First you learn how to trace with some “tracing practice”, then you move on to tracing letters, and then you have to help Tigger find the letters that fall out of his book. It’s a great app, and Harper has spent quite a bit of time on it. I think he’s actually learned a few more letter playing these games.
3. Bugs and Buttons This one is intended for an older child, but he likes playing this one too. There are several different games, but some he can do include sorting buttons, making patterns, counting or catching (squishing) the bugs as they crawl across the screen. The letter train is cool because as the train moves along, you have to fill in the missing letter on the platform, definitely meant for the preschool aged child. There are many other mini games to try here too.
4. Curious George at the Zoo This is a fun app that features Curious George and the man in the yellow hat taking care of various animals. There are four different area’s with different types of animals in each. The four area’s are Sunny Safari, Deep Freeze, Old MacDonald’s Farm and The Outback. In each area the animals need to be woken up, bathed and fed. There are other activities such as making pictures with earned stickers and even some video clips featuring the animals you’ve cared for. 
5. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally This is such a fun game. Basically you go on a road rally adventure with Mickey and his pals. You have to perform several tasks in order to reach the end of the race. It’s educational and very fun at the same time. I only wish there were more app’s like this one!
6. Toca Boca If you do a search for Toca Boca you’ll get several different apps, and there is something for every type of child here. Harper really enjoys each of these games as they are all very unique and interesting. We have nine of these games and he plays each of them regularly. His favorite though, if I had to guess, might be Robot Lab. He gets to create a robot and then fly the robot through a simple obstacle course while trying to retrieve 3 stars. It’s a simple concept, but with each robot he creates, he gets a new obstacle course so the game just doesn’t get old.

* I think these games are really geared for older children (4+) but I know that Harper’s been able to control my iPad and play some of these games by 18 months, so 2+ is just a rough estimate.