Children are fascinated by video and electronic games. Hand-held electronic games, LeapFrog, 
digital books, movies and apps for kids can make long travel hours fly by. To minimize the number of electronics you carry with you on vacation, download a selection of children’s apps on your iPhone or iPad before you leave home. Just make sure you pack some headphones so game sounds won’t drive you or your fellow passengers crazy!
You’ll find good reviews of apps for kids on BestKidsApps.com and CoolMomTech.com, including these great travel apps for kids:
- Elmo Loves ABC’s (iPad) keeps toddlers and preschoolers enthralled with songs, video clips, interactive games and coloring pages.
- Memory Train (iPad, iPhone) encourages preschoolers to help Spacey the Elephant remember colors, shapes and objects.
- My Playhome (iPad, iPhone) is a virtual dollhouse with preschool appeal where characters can be directed to perform everyday tasks.
- Kindergarteners through third graders will enjoy hunting for hidden objects in Highlights Hidden Pictures (iPad, iPhone).
- Stack the States (iPad, iPhone) turns geography questions into fun for early elementary students.
- Tales2Go (iPad, iPhone) puts a library of more than 1,600 audio books at your child’s fingertips.
- Weird but True (iPad, iPhone) entertains children 9 to 12 with more than 300 weird and wacky facts from National Geographic Kids.
- In Casey’s Contraptions HD (iPad), kids solve puzzles by combining slingshots, balloons, marble troughs and other objects into crazy Rube Goldberg machines. Great fun for fourth graders through middle school.
At Horizon Education Centers, we use computer games to help children build skills as part of a well-rounded childcare program.
Photo Credit: Sean MacEntee
