The Top iPhone Apps for Kids & Parents Alike

With more and more children ages 8 and younger and all the way to the age of 10 or 11 getting smartphones, it begs the question, What about all those applications? Many are definitely not suitable for younger teenagers, so what do you do when the time comes to go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house, and you have a 9 year old in the back?

The answer is simple. Fire up one of these applications for your smartphone or iPhone and enjoy the rest of your day. These great phone apps for kids will allow you to enjoy quiet time at home while your youngster learns math, animal sounds and even spend hours on end giggling because they are popping bubbles and playing with fish. So, here is a list of apps and although I was looking for apps for all smartphones, the best and most suitable (no surprise with the restrictions in place) are applications made for the Apple iPhone. They are either free or $.99. Check them out and have a good time!

Wheels on the Bus Ages 2 and up (way up), $.99

Although geared towards the pre-school set, this is a very fun app for kids and adult kids of all ages. The song plays I various languages, including kazoo, piano, cello, and gibberish, among others. The older kids and parents will find that recording your voice to play back instead can be a great feature, especially if you need to remind your young child to do something before they start playing! There's poking and prodding of the screen, while the elements keep surprising the kids for endless hours of enjoyment.

Tappy Tunes Ages 2 and up, $1.99

Another musical app, this one comes with loads of different tunes, such as classical, holiday , patriotic-you name it, it's there. Dozens of songs with the notes in the correct order help them to learn music and they won't even realize it. Tap the screen to make it play and whenever you touch it, it activates graphics for a great show and to help keep the beat.

Koi Pond All Ages, $0.99

While this may sound boring, you watch a "pond" with fish swimming around. The great thing about this app is that it almost hypnotizes your kids-and you-at the same time. Are you dreaming of that quiet ride somewhere? Then this is the app you need to get. With tranquil and outdoor sounds, the Koi fish swimming around actually respond to your touch to the screen. It actually looks as if you are touching the water-it makes waves where you touch the screen and the fish swim away. It takes a little while for them to come back, just as any fish does when they are scared. Just make sure you have enough smartphones to go around, as everyone will want to play with and feed the fish (when you shake the iPhone).

Where's Gumbo Pre-school ages and up, Free/$1.99)

This app works best without your phone on vibrate. This is a homage to the flap storybooks. You "lift" the flaps to reveal what's behind, which are random animals, while looking for "Gumbo" the dog. Gumbo is placed behind the flaps too, but non ever show up in the same place twice, making it a surprise-and never boring-every time you-Oooops! I mean, every time your child plays it.

Memory Match Ttoddler-2 and up, Free/$0.99
This is a memory game for children of all ages. It features animal pictures, it helps to develop memory and motor skills, while learning the different animals involved.

Peekaboo Barn Pre-school and up, Free/$0.99
This is another educational app, but relies on animal sounds to make the matches, instead of pictures. As long as a child has heard the sounds before, than they should have no problems with the app. If they haven't, then they surely will learn, after all that is what this app is for!

Balloonimals All Ages, Free/$1.99
Have you ever made balloon animals? Well, this app lets you make a balloon animal using this app. Most little ones love it and will try to make different things for hours on end. They will blow the balloons up by blowing into the iPhone's mic, and to make the animal, shake the iPhone. Once the animal balloon is put together, they can pet it and make it learn tricks. The free version of this app comes with a T-Rex.

Topple Free/$0.99
This is a game of stacking things. The aim of the game is to make the stack of things as high as possible before running out of time. The taller the stack, the more it sways, just as it would in real life. The great thing about this app that makes it so fun is the way the blocks you are stacking interact with you. The better you do, the nicer the expressions of the blocks' faces. The more your tower sways, the funnier the expressions become. This is free however, the second version of the app costs the $.99.

PopMath ages 6 and up, $0.99
PopMath is an app that uses question and answer bubbles. The players are presented with one bubble for the question and and a bubble for each answer. The object is to pop the bubbles by touching the math problem first then pop the bubble with the answer to the problem. The more bubbles you pop that are wrong, the closer you get to the right answer. The game uses addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Bubble Wrap All ages, Free
I have saved the best app for last. You know the kind of bubble wrap paper that you get when you have precious and glass things mailed to you? The bubble wrap that comes wrapped up in in the mail? You know the kind, the bubble wrap you secretly hide form your kids to pop later when you are feeling down? Well, this app allows you to pop fake bubble wrap just like the real stuff. Grab a field of bubbles and touch each to make it pop. And that's it, that is all this app does! But, with so many people in the world who secretly love bubble wrap, I'm surprised I haven't heard about this one before now... Pop...pop...pop....OOoopps-sorry 'bout that, I couldn't resist!

References & Resources:

Babble: Drooliscious Apps: Best apps For Distracting Young Children

Travel Savvy Mom: Top iPhone Apps for Kids

Mashable: 15 iPhone Apps to Tame Kids