Stimulate Thinking and Creativity
With a massive selection of kids’ phone apps on the market, it is difficult to determine which ones best maximize kids’ media time. The following is a selection of kid-tested and parent-approved apps to help boost kids’ critical thinking skills and creativity.
Piano Kids – Music & Songs. Free for Android. Ages 3+.
This top-rated app teaches kids and parents how to play musical instruments, including the piano, xylophone and drums. It exercises children’s memory, concentration, creativity, listening skills and motor skills.
Flow Free. Free for all platforms. Ages 8+.
This color-based game offers various levels of play to sustain the interest of ages, grade-school to adults. It improves complex thinking skills as players try to connect the dots to create pipes without crossing over another color.
Heads Up! Free for Android. $1 Apple. Ages 6+.
Based on Heads Up!, created by Ellen DeGeneres, this family game is a blast for all ages. A player holds the phone on top of their head with an image facing out for the other players to see. The player’s teammate then acts out the image shown on the phone while the teammate holding it up has to guess what is being acted out.
Kids Build & Crash Blocks Game. Free for all platforms. Ages 1 – 4.
Toddlers and preschoolers can build tall towers with colorful blocks while learning their colors and numbers. When they’re done building, children thrill at crashing the tower. The app also features fun sound effects and animations.
Doodle Magic Joy. Free for Android. Ages 3+.
This drawing app, with colors ranging from soft pastels to bright neons, offers a variety of art tools including pen, calligraphy, airbrush, crayon, pastel, sponge, eraser and more. When doodles are complete, the art can be saved and even played back as a cartoon. This is a fun app for all ages, kids to adults.
Unblock Me Free. Free for all platforms. Ages 7+. This mental workout boasts 16,000 puzzles. The object of the game is to unblock the red block in as few moves as possible.
Hoopa City 2. $3.99 for all platforms. Ages 5 – 10.
Kids can build the city of their dreams with skyscraper apartments, shopping malls, and beach resorts in this 3D game app. Then they can play inside the city they’ve built, dress up their citizens and even switch to night mode to see their city light up.
Magic Tiles 3. Free for all platforms. Ages 7+.
This massively popular piano game requires players to tap the black tiles while avoiding the white ones to generate beautiful, high-quality music. The app features additional instruments such as guitar, as well as a battle mode where kids can compete with other players around the world.
ColorMinis Kids. Free for all platforms. Ages 3+.
With this color and design app, kids experiment with a variety of colors and materials, including Real 3D gloss, clay, glass, metal, and more. They can color and design anime figures, animals, robots, castles and much more. When their design is complete, they’ll create animated gifs with their creations.
Drawing for Kids! Learning Games for Toddlers. Free for Android. Ages 2 – 5.
This app is an easy way for even the youngest toddlers to learn how to draw. It includes fun sounds and animations as each drawing comes to life.
