Best apps/games for young children (single digits)

[o2bnclemson]

I have an 8yo girl and a 5-1/2yo boy and they love playing games on my phone. It's great if we're waiting and has often served as a reward. Here are some of their favorites:

Papaya Pet - a current favorite, similar to WebKinz
Pets Live - kind of a pet role-playing-game, but without the high-powered graphics
Puzzles - there are lots of puzzles my daughter loves -most are pretty big file size though
Drawing - some of our favorites are Magic Marker, Finger Paint, Kaleidoscope, Zebra Paint (a coloring book-type app) and Paint Joy (this is a great drawing app - lots of options with colors and brushes and will "animate" you drawing by drawing it back for you when you're done - kinda cool)
Bug Splatz - smush em with your finger - what could be more fun?!
Classic Simon - an Android recast of the old classic
Word Search - just what it says. Good, fun way to build vocabulary
Math Workout - math questions of varying difficulty. Fun for adults too!

FYI - they do not play unsupervised. There is still much they could screw up if left unattended with it.

Any others for the younger set?

 

[beef5stew]

Ihave a 3 year old. He loves:

bubbles: blow and pop bubbles
Animal Sounds: he likes me to play a sound, then he has to guess what the animal is

 

[EvilMonkey]

For some reason my kid can't get enough of the stupid "poke-a-mole" games. Go figure.

That being said, I don't usually let my kids play with my multi-hundred dollar phone that is easy to screw up/break/delete something, etc.

Kids are why Nintendo makes the DS and DSi, which are much cheaper and "kid-proof" than my phone is. It also shuts them up and saves my sanity on long car rides.

 

[jdbower]

I usually play "if you touch your uncle's phone again he'll smack you" - not sure why my sister doesn't let me babysit more often

 

[rjdangerous]

my 4 year old plays all these games listedm she works wonders on the X, is better at using it than my wife.

Has someone found an app like the old hide it pages in the highlight magazines? Hidden pictures.

 

[braj]

I like Jokes for Kids and Abduction (there is a mode where you can't fall, so kids can just keep playing without frustration).

 

[catgoblet]

My husband just launched a new game he designed with our 4 year old in mind (although it's fun for up to age 8-10 or the very young at heart). He partnered with a local artist who drew all the images by hand.

It's a great deal for a 7-in-1 game, but you can just check out the free version to see if your kids like it. It's called, Dash & Ditto's Playground and you can find it at: http://market.android.com/searchq=pname:com.catglo.dashplaygroundfree

It has cute bunnies in seven (7) games, including hopscotch, tic-tac-toe, a whack-a-mole style game, feed the baby bunnies, jump rope, mini-golf and an original driving game where you pick up the animal characters in the school bus.

I hope your kids like it as much as my son did!

 

[He123321]

My 10 year old loves Paper Toss, and we try to bet each other's records. I just hate the smack talk that comes from her lol...

 

[kaivorb]

To RJDANGEROUS:

I haven't found any of the "hidden pictures" games yet, but my daughters (3 and 5) are quite fond of the FIND IT! series of games. It is where they take a still shot from a cartoon (at least that is what they choose) and give you two versions of it and you have to figure out what is different.

My 3 year old really digs those, and she is surprisingly good at them. That would be my addition to the list.

And I have no problem letting my daughters play with my phone. The occasionally screw things up (mostly just downloading additional crap games I then have to delete), but it is worth it to get them more inundated with technology (and they do have a DS...and love that too).

K--