The Android market has thousands and thousands of apps available to users. Free ones, expensive ones, educational ones, gaming ones – the list goes on and on. The thing is, sorting through all those apps is time consuming and, honestly, a bit tedious.
I know I’m not the only one to spend a while painstakingly tapping on each description, reading through it, noting the name, and moving on before suddenly giving up in the face of the daunting enormity of the task and just picking any old app.
So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that not only can you find highly recommended apps by dint of a quick Google search, but that there have been apps designed to, well, find apps for you.
The first of these apps worth noting is Apps for Kids by Appsfire. The app is, really, an app that helps you to scuffle through the Android Market in double quick time to find the best in children’s entertainment. They have even kindly placed the apps into relevant categories and age groups.
If you’ve ever bought an app that was too old or too young for your kids, then you’ll already be appreciating the value of that. They don’t say whether or not it works nicely with the pad, but it should be no more trouble than slightly bland or ragged graphics, and your kids won’t mind that too much at all.
For the younger kids try out Wheels on the Bus an interactive game that’s just perfect for the Eee Pad Transformer. Definitely a poke, swipe and giggle kind of game, it won’t do much more than entertain them and anyone who’s particular about the song should turn away now.
Preschoolers and kids hitting Reception to Year 2 will adore The Cat in the Hat, the Dr Seuss book brought to semi-life with zoom capabilities, word highlights, and interactive effects. It does serve an educational purpose as it says each word they tap and also lights then as the voice reads so they learn to recognise letters and words. I highly recommend this.
And finally, this week, the last app to hit my list is not really an app. It’s the App Inventor. This is Google’s very own WYSIWYG software that lets you create your own apps. Yeah. From scratch. Not only can you, the parent, design something that is utterly personal for your little ones, but older kids will thoroughly enjoy this challenge.
Learning how to programme is a part of the national curriculum for later years and several programs have been developed to help your kids perfect this useful skill. App Inventor offers the same skillsets but they actually may stand a chance of having their work appear in the app store. What better educational inspiration is there than that?
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