10 must-have toddler apps 2020
By: Bhargavi Sathyaprakash
Tags: Entertainment, Toddler Activity, Screentime, Mobile Apps, Education

I often become that exhausted monster mother throwing tantrums back to the toddler and later wondering who the actual kid in the house is. I never allowed myself to give my baby any screen time since hearing all the negative stories about poor motor and language skills, ADHD agonized me. At the same time, I was tired pinning, hunting, and cooking various toddler activities online. As a natural consequence of COVID-19 and weeks of being cooped up indefinitely, I decided to not beat myself up for giving some screen time especially when it is high quality healthy but not only educational content. I convinced myself that screen time is not that bad! In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 1 hour of screen time a day as a guideline. But is it easy to find the right apps (among the thousands) that are easy and useful without a lot of chaos and complication? NO!

So here are a few apps I’d love to recommend with a quick note (in no specific order), a list with mix of free and paid apps (worth paying for, especially if it means no ads and great content.)

1. Kids Piano: Let your baby enjoy his own in-house music party! This app allows your kid to play a variety of musical instruments from xylophone to a trumpet, make tunes and understand different tones and tunes. Isn’t it an excellent way to develop their memory, imagination, and focus? All these while they turn composers to make their own tunes in the four modes available.

2. Fairy Tales: Don’t we ourselves love listening to fairy tales? This is a story reading app you can read to your child or they can themselves read lovely tales from. It’s amazing for them to experience the joy of meeting their favorite fantasy characters. Adding to the gain, this app also allows offline reading, so you can enjoy on-the-go! Turn their bedtime stories beautiful with this Reader’s Netflix!

3. ABC Mouse: Who doesn’t love ABC mouse? Although it’s not a free app, it is certainly worth for its great educational content. The kid chooses different adventures in the virtual classroom setting, there are lessons that teach reading, math, coloring, counting, and music skills — all lessons and visual experiences customized age appropriately. Got more than one toddler at home? Go ahead and get sibling’s subscription at the same price and switch users easily. Sounds great, right?

4. PBS Kids Who doesn’t love PBS? It’s been a staple in child entertainment for decades now, Suitable for kids as young as two years old, the PBS Kids apps have something for everyone, teaching early science and math skills in fun and full-color games.

5. Busy Shapes 2: Unfortunately, all apps will not work unless connected to Wi-Fi. That’s why it’s a good idea to download some apps that work in airplane mode before hopping on a plane with your toddler. This app is my pick for airplane app for toddlers. It is made easy to learn shapes by dragging and dropping shapes into matching holes. The activity looks realistic with stunning visuals and calming background music. The shapes are made of real-life objects helping them to associate shapes that we see around daily.

6. Monkey Preschool Lunchbox: This apps just makes learning so effortless. Milo, the hero monkey adorably leads this application to teach shapes and numbers. With each successful task comes rewards — colorful and bright stickers to add to the kid’s collection.

7. Toca Boca: The Toca Boca app suite is of the most popular brands. Toca uses elements of fun, colors, and sounds to bring activities like cooking, taking care of pets and sick patients, hairstyling, and even chemistry to reality. Your kids can even design and build their own city with the Toca Life apps as they grow up.

There’s another app set to a similar theme — Children’s Doctor Dentist. Set to a medical theme, this app is suitable for toddlers as young as 2 years old. Kids would be are so happy treating the boo-boo’s with bandages of different sizes, cleaning and smiling at their own clinic — giving them a sense of satisfaction of role-playing a doctor and to use new tools like tongs, scalpels & many others while teaching them good values like caring for animals, attentiveness, and empathy.

8. Balloon Pop: I use this app more than my toddler to relieve stress! It’s fun and instantly draws the toddlers for a feel-light activity to pop the colorful balloons as they rise from the bottom of the screen. It’s simple and easy to grasp, and customizable. The difficulty level can be customized (based on the kid’s ability) to pop balloons at different speeds and sizes as they master the game.

9. Potty Time with Elmo: Who wouldn’t want this app to battle the struggle of potty-training toddlers? With “Elmo” being the obvious metaphor here, there are some interesting and interactive charts to accomplish the target. Although it’s not a free app, it might come in handy for moms who are in the appropriate stage with your toddler.

10. Daniel Tiger’s Grr-iffic feelings: I can’t stress enough on the importance of this app that deals with non-verbal communication with a pinch of entertainment Personally, I think it’s important to spend time with your toddler on this topic — EMOTIONS in their early years. This great app is a paid but well worth it. There are very few apps dealing with this issue well, and this one is worth the investment.