My two-year-old, Oliver, has been using my iPad for his entertainment purpose since he was 10 months old. In order to keep him away from my “serious” apps, I have been providing him children apps that would capture his attentions. I’ve lost count of how many apps have been installed and deleted in the past year for Oliver. It has been a try-and-true journey to finally discover what works for toddlers, at least mine, between age 12 months to 26 months old. In no particular order, I present to you, the top 5 favorite and educational apps for 2-year-old’s:

LEGO® App4+

We didn’t know how or when, it was just one day out of the blue, something about this app just clicked for Oliver. Once he had discovered the purpose of the game, he was able to play it according to design, and he was actually enjoying it. The interface of this game is extremely simple and intuitive. Objective is to build a Lego vehicle, then drive it across the screen from a starting point to an ending point. Along the way if player has collected enough coins, the game will unlock a new vehicle part for building the next vehicle. The more parts unlocked, the more the variation in vehicle design. When player has reached the end point, the game will reward the player a Lego puzzle to solve. The reason I said vehicle instead of car is because the variation in Lego parts does not limit to just cars. Players can build helicopter or a half-car that runs on legs. The vehicle creation part of the game is equally entertaining for adults and toddlers. The driving part of the game only requires the player keeps a finger on the screen to instruct the vehicle to continue moving forward. Everytime when my son unlocks a new vehicle part or rewards with a puzzle, he always raise his arms up and shout, “hooray!” And when he completes the simple Lego puzzles, he will look to me for praises and approval. Not to mention, my son loves Lego. He enjoys playing with Lego people on the iPad. I am recommending this game, not because it teaches kids anything explicit such as counting or the alphabets; it is because this app is perfect for mommy/daddy-baby bonding.

Kids Learning Little Speller 3 Letters Word

This app is successful, in my opinion, for its visual simplicity; so simple that, you can figure what this app is all about just from the screenshot above. A picture of the subject, 3 scattered letter blocks, and a placeholder for the blocks that will spell out the object in the picture. Because it is so simple, it is perfect for young toddlers. For starter, the drag-and-drop concept works great with the kids because, at their early age, all they want to do is to make things do things with a simple finger touch. Touching a letter block and moving it to another location on the screen, even some adults can find that amusing, let along children.

Oliver was about 18 months old when he first discovered the app on my iPad (one of my try-and-true’s). He used to do random-dragging all the time. He was amused by the power he had over the letter blocks, he could careless about the purpose of the actual app; he loved it. Around 22 months old, he had gotten very good at reciting his ABC’s (much thank to our daycare). When he re-discovered the app with his new-found knowledge on the alphabet, he started to use the app to play “recognize the letter”. For instance, if he saw the screenshot above, he would tell me “T”, “C”, and then “A”. (Then I would re-enforce him by saying, “good job, you know your letters!”) It did not take long until he connected the two to two together — letter blocks, letter placeholders, drag the blocks to the matching placeholder. Just like that, he had been playing the app as intended since.

I am recommending this app because it is fun and interactive for toddlers. The simple interface design makes it welcoming for them. As a parent, I appreciate very much to have witnessed the intellectual growth in Oliver through this app.

Letter Quiz

This is one of the many apps available to teach children their ABC’s. I particularly like this one because of its clean design, the “game” variations, and a background voice that does not sound like robot. The top left icon is a flashcard game. It displays 2 random letters, in both upper and lower cases. Player taps on a card, the app displays a picture of an object that begins with that letter, then reads the letter and the word for the object out loud. Oliver actually learned the word ice cream from doing this. The next icon on the top right is an identification game. The app will display 6 random letters, then the voice will say, “touch the K“. Then, the player will have to identify the “K” out of the 6 random letters. If player chooses wrong, the app will play a “failed” sound; when player chooses right, a picture card will appear with an object that starts with the letter in focus. “K, keys.” The icon on the bottom left is a matching game. The picture explains game very well; player will be presented with 3 pairs of letters in upper and lower case. Player will have to use the finger to draw a line between the uppercase and the lowercase letter that match. Lastly, the bottom right icon is a writing game. It helps the player to trace the strokes to learn how to write each of the letters. Parents can control whether or not to display letters sequentially or randomly to adjust the level of difficulty. To be honest, I may have installed the app on my iPad, but I have never advocate for it when Oliver is on my iPad. He has somehow discovered the app on his own, and I have seen him playing with the app on many occasions. This app can hold his attention a bit longer than the others, which, in a way, helps him get used to staying focused with something for an extended period of time.

Little Fox Music Box

This is one of the most brilliant children apps yet. It is musical and highly interactive. The best part is, it is free. The folks who created this app are my heroes. This is the first app that made Oliver cracked up on his own. From the screenshot, see the little squirrel hiding behind a tree in the top right corner? When it is tapped, it will sneak out in stealth and drop a nut on the sleeping farmer sitting at the bottom of the tree. Oliver laughs so hard everytime he touch the squirrel. Through this app, I witness how Oliver’s sense of humor has developed over time. He has been playing with this app since inception, but it has taken him about 10 months of time before he begin laughing at funny animations. I assume that he has grown to understand mischievousness in order to find humor in the little animation. I feel so proud of him…

(Sorry I got carried away talking about Oliver!) This app currently has 4 different screens. There is one musical studio screen, and then the remaining 3 are songs: Old MacDonald, London Bridge, and Evening Song. There is also a recording feature for players to record their own songs. The music studio screen is quite awesome. It has a lot of cute interactive objects on the screen, each of them has a certain animation upon touch and creates a certain tone. Objects include a herd of little frogs, a number of jars filled with liquid, water drops, spiders, caterpillar, pots and pans, cooking utensils, and so forth. This app wins because it is highly interactive. Kids love pushing buttons, and this app is every child’s dream because everything can be touched, and there is always animation and/or sound coming from it.

LEGO® DUPLO® ZOO

Admittedly I am a big Lego fans. But I am not being bias when I recommend two Lego games in my top 5. Oliver is 26 months old right now. He has been spending a lot of time lately alternating between the two Lego games on my iPad. He has also been building new things with his Duplo. This Lego app, with all due respect, is a marketing piece that introduces all of its Duplo sets to little kids. Normally I reject apps that are marketing tools, but this app is too brilliantly designed, it deserves an exception. The app includes two parts: an interactive storybook and an animation gallery. The animation gallery has 3 short animation videos that feature the Lego giraffe and Lego bunny. The animation backgrounds are all from Duplo sets that can be purchased at the stores, like the Duplo Zoo. Nothing special about them as they are clearly there for marketing purpose. But I find them beneficial because I am currently introducing Lego to Oliver. He is barely two years old, his imagination and creativity are not fully kicked in yet, so he does not know what to do with the Duplo. But after spending time with this app, slowly but surely I notice he has been getting more creative with his Lego plays. For instance, he is starting to identify the Lego-man as daddy, a Lego-woman as mommy, and a little Lego-boy as himself. He likes to put them inside the Lego train. If an app is teaching my son how to play creatively with his Lego, that is a big win for the app. The interactive storybook part is Oliver’s favorite. The story is about the little giraffe and the bunny are taking a journey to deliver a birthday present to the lion. Oliver loves to play out the story with the help of his little finger. He especially enjoys the part where he is navigating the airplane the giraffe and bunny are flying on. He also loves the ending, where the lion is having cake with all of his friends. Oliver often put his mouth on the iPad screen and pretend to eat the cake with the Lego animals. Comparatively, this game has less educational value than the others, however, for its entertaining purpose, it excels at keeping a 2-year-old happy.