Can anyone recommend me any iPad apps which a 2 year old would find fun please?

The iPad is owned by my mother-in-law who has poor IT skills, so any recommendations on what to watch out for appreciated too. I’ve seen from a Guardian article that I’ll need to turn ‘In-App purchases’ off for her. I don’t have an iPad myself so I’m not sure what else to beware of.

I won’t be able to feed back on any answers (since I’ve no iPad) so Thanks In Advance for any good ones.

How about a bucket and spade at the sea side? Or a ball to run around with? Or a real book?

Why would a 2yr old be playing with an Ipad?
Is it for a journey or something?

I would recommend real toys rather than apps really at that age.

Ignoring what I personally think i dont think they will have the dexterity to use it but they will have the skill to break it

Wot Junky said.

Get them started early imo. Peppa Pig, Animals HD and any kind of the kind of touch and make sound apps etc.

Ignoring what I personally think i dont think they will have the dexterity to use it but they will have the skill to break it

You’d be amazed how quickly they learn the UI – even at age 2.

Ignore the grumpy Luddites.

My 2 year old enjoys Little Fox Music Box and Peppa Pig’s Party.
And can happily unlock the iPad, flip screens to find them, launch them and play them.

My tip is to switch off multitouch gestures in the settings to stop them exiting or switching apps by mistake.

Infinity Blade and Clear Vision

😉

Oh and they love having holiday photos on there to look at!

My 22mth old can unlock it and go to videos to watch the Postman Pat and Shaun the Sheep videos. Can also go to YouTube though gets annoyed when he ends up watching something else. (safe settings are essential!)

Likes to try with Angry Birds too though still not Sussex it fully.

Best used for longish car journeys without buying an in car DVD thingy.

Look at apps by Duck Duck Moose and Toca Boca, fantastic quality apps for little ones.

My now three year old loves them, has done since two.

Perhaps start with Old Mac HD, Bus HD or Toca Doctor…

http://www.duckduckmoosedesign.com/

Startpage

Luddite alert! – With all due respect to the other posters, I’d recommend doing a bit of research into how computers effect the attention span, and capacity to use the imagination, on little people. Then draw your own conclusions.

peppa pig here as well

Give them a crayon and some paper!

Lucky there aren’t many mothers on this forum (are there?) as it could become handbags at dawn. Still, looks like it might run and run…

Luddite alert! – With all due respect to the other posters, I’d recommend doing a bit of research into how computers effect the attention span, and capacity to use the imagination, on little people.

I did. Turns out that they are great for little minds. 😀
Plenty of research backing it.

Incidentally “IT skills” are one of the key stages at nursery too.

My 2 year old can count to 10, identify colours, animals, various items of clothes, fruit etc and is starting on the alphabet
iPad apps can be great for learning but kids do need other forms of interaction

It is a great tool for entertaining them but like everything else only in moderation.

Physical activity and other games/imaginative play generally figure higher in the plan for the day. If nothing else have to exercise him so he will sleep. Can’t wait till he fits on a balance bike.

My 3yo plays on mum’s iPad – his favourite is Tap The Frog. For all the righteous on here, he doesn’t spend that much time on it, doesn’t spend lots of time in front of TV either and has plenty of time outside playing on bikes and scooters (given it’s safe to play on the road in front of our house, I’d suggest far more time on bikes and scooters than even the kids of most other STW members).

clunker – Member
Give them a crayon and some paper!

There’s an app for that!

It’s a balance. Our little one gets to use the iPad on weekend mornings when she wants to be up early and we want to sleep in… she sits between us for an hour or two and its perfect!

Great foe airplanes too!

Dig dig digging is a great interactive book, my boys had the real books too, so the iPad was just an extra bit of fun, there’s lots of shape and object recognition apps, most free. I’d also recommend getting a cheap stylus and let them have a scribble on sketchbook express, bamboo is also good for drawing. Obviously we use real paper and toys but anyone who thinks not using an iPad or computer is better for there child is frankly going to be missing out.

my 2 yr old likes garage band and some of the paint apps. (Yes, we do plenty of proper painting as well)

BTW, if you jailbreak the iPad you can get an app that will disable the buttons and app switching gestures, so that your child doesn’t get annoyed when they accidently close/switch apps. (I haven’t done this myself, so you’ll need to Google the details.)

if you jailbreak the iPad you can get an app that will disable the buttons and app switching gestures

You can disable the app-switching and other gestures in the Settings, without needing to jailbreak. That just leaves the Home button, which they soon learn not to press 😀

Duplo apps are good – if you don’t mind the corporate branding. My 2-year-old loves “Bugs and Buttons” (I think that’s what it’s called) – lots of sorting and counting games. Flip and Numberlys are also popular – partly because I love the beautiful animation.

She gets to play with it for 10-15 minutes in the morning and evening, loses interest and wants to play with real stuff after a while.

My 2 year old use my phone to watch videos on Youtube, ie nursery rhymes, helicopters, aeroplanes, ambulances.

I can’t see one single way in that it is hindering his developement, in fact it is really helping him.

Of course when he has used it for 5 minutes I banish him outside and make him do 20 laps around the garden (even in the pouring rain) just to make sure he is getting the right exercise quota.

My 2 year old use my phone to watch videos on Youtube

After ours became obsessed with her umbrella I showed her “Singing In the Rain” on YouTube. She now does an incredibly cute little song and dance number that has the grandparents melting.

“…wha ah goreoussss feeing… am appy again…” 😀

Of course when he has used it for 5 minutes I banish him outside and make him do 20 laps around the garden (even in the pouring rain)

Pffftt.. stop mollycoddling him. If it’s dry then turn the hose on him and make sure he runs through the nettle patch. It’s character building.

You’d be amazed how quickly they learn the UI – even at age 2.

a testament to why apple gear is worth premium prices compared to ms stuff – they actually take user interface design seriously and listen to their UI usability department…

a testament to why apple gear is worth premium prices compared to ms stuff – they actually take user interface design seriously and listen to their UI usability department…

I’ve got a Windows Phone 😆

There was a great toddler game I downloaded that asked the kid to point to different shapes, letters and numbers.

Our twins, 2 at the time, had no problem using it.

I would also add that they also enjoy using real toys, buckets and spades and devour books.

🙂

Youtube in small doses is also great – ours is obsessed with “Come Outside”, the one with Pippin the dog. She now knows in detail now bricks are made, where apples come from, stuff like that.

Of course her favourite is the sewage one – “Pippin Poo Tunnels, please!” 🙂

a testament to why apple gear is worth premium prices compared to ms stuff – they actually take user interface design seriously and listen to their UI usability department…

That would be why my 5yo has such trouble using my Windows laptop then? 🙄

ffs, what is the world coming to. call me up for being a luddite. crayons,songs,toys,talking,stories i see the product of early internet at school, (i teach) the kids have no imagination, they can’t think for themselves. they can’t converse with people to find out information and the have little or no imagination.
hand eye coordination would also suffer, from a grip and dexterity point of view. yes pressing in the right place is hand eye coordination but i’m talking about controlling a pencil or a spanner (in the future).
i think it’s a pants idea.
yes they need to know IT stuff but they will come across it plenty at school, what they’ll never get back is the communication techniques we learn as kids from watching and listening our elders.

Tozzle. You have to drop shapes into the correct space, so good for spacial awareness and ting.
Drawing apps are alright too, although ours just likes to see the trace his fingers make rather than actually drawing anything.

Amazing what they can do at that age in terms of understanding how to get to what they want. My 2 love looking at photos too.

EDIT – the naysayers seem to assume our kids are on an iPad for 20 hours a day! It’s a treat, not a babysitter.

call me up for being a luddite

You’re a Luddite 🙂

Actually the problems you describe sound much more like problems from too much TV – when using the iPad, mine is much more involved, chattering to us about what she’s doing, asking for help with stuff, and learning. Not sitting slack-jawed just watching.

Everything in moderation.

🙄 at all the luddites.

NO ONE here is suggesting sitting their kids in front of a iPad/PC for 12 hours every day till they lose the use of their limbs ffs.

It’s just one more way to play and teach them. And is used IN ADDITION TO other toys, reading books, painting, singing, running, jumping, climbing trees, quantum physics.

There was me thinking that giving young kids a broad range of fun, engaging and challenging play was a good way for them to learn and develop.

Ha, it is a fair assumption that most folk on here have an understanding of the world outside the walls of their own home and has an interest in fitness and healthy lifestyles, to a varying degree.
I also appreciate that some will see it as a treat for their kids and I agree kids need variety and an understanding. I just think personally that two is too young. I do see kids who are as I have described on a daily basis, I do think and would stick to what I said that technology for the very young is restrictive not helpful. Obviously there is a point when that changes and I wouldn’t like to suggest when that is.
The great minds of yester year were great because they could and did think rather than pontificate on social networking sites………
Going for my coat now…….

Sorry still sounds like Luddism to me.

I do see kids who are as I have described on a daily basis

You’re seeing kids now, of school age, who were using apps for children on an iPad when they were two? Erm…

Are you sure you’re not seeing kids that have been plonked in front of the telly all day? Good kids apps are engaging, challenging, fun and educational. Just like good kids games, books and activities. All good things as far as I’m concerned.

Can you tell me why reading a typical toddler book with lift-up flaps and bits to pull is inherently good, while reading exactly the same story on a tablet with bits to touch and interact with is inherently bad?

The app I recommended (Little Fox Music Box) is basically 3 nursery rhymes to sing along with plus animations to interact with and a free-form bit to make up your own tunes. There is even basic problem solving. For example, my daughter knows that on Old Macdonalds Farm she has to change the season to summer to before the sunflowers will grow, but Autumn if she wants the pumpkin, and winter if she wants the squirrel to throw a snowball (but then the piggy gets cold and the bee won’t come out). That’s pretty decent logic to be facing a toddler with and is easily ahead of the complexities of “Where’s Spot?”

Still I’m sure as a teacher you are aware that Luddism is the norm. Plato and Socrates made complaints similar to yours about the new technology of their time: books.

“If men learn this [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.” “[Books] by telling them of many things without teaching them” will make students “seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows. Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who takes it over from him, on the supposition that such writing will provide something reliable and permanent, must be exceedingly simple-minded.”

— Plato quoting Socrates in the Phaedrus

So at least you’re in good company.

I do see kids who are as I have described on a daily basis

GrahamS kind of said it for me – exactly what evidence do you have that this is down to a little bit of time spent on an iPad (or other computer)? You point out all the learning stuff they’re missing out on, yet everybody on here letting their kids use computers is also busy pointing out all the other stuff their kids do.

I just think personally that two is too young.

On what evidence – given I think we’ve established we can discount your comments about the inadequacies of the kids you have to teach being anything to do with that?

I help out with the IT in my son’s primary school. As a teacher you’ll appreciate what a big part of education IT now is (BTW we’re considering getting some iPads). My son’s teacher has commented on his IT skills being good (as she expected!) – this is seen as a positive thing for him. Oh, and in his report one of the things he got marked very highly on was his imagination.