Top 5 FREE Toddler iPad apps

Since letting Leon play on the iPad I went on a bit of a downloading frenzy choosing from the array of free apps out there for tiny tots. His favourites are as follows:

First Words : Animals
This is actually my favourite as it makes me believe Leon can spell. Letter tiles are scattered around an image and the tot has to drag them to the correct place to spell out a word. The iPad says letter, and tot often repeats after him which is exciting! Free version includes the words cat, bird, keys, cake all of which were some of his first words. Rather simple but cute graphics and has 5 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese) plus English phonics. Try Japanese characters for a laugh. Cat is pronounced "Ne-Ko". Like this one so much will probs upgrade.


Kids Can Match - Animals
Very noisy memory card game with animal sounds and photos. 2 levels on free version. Can get tedious if toddler is determined but rubbish (and animal sounds go on for ages...) but Leon soon got hang of it and played over and over. This is one of the first he goes to if we bring out the iPad. Not sure why really- it does my head in...


Toddler Shapes
Virtual shape sorter with plenty of encouraging "Woohoo!" and "yay!"s along the way to Bizet's Habanera as a backing track.


Talking Tom
Irritating cat that receives a good beating or drinks milk when prodded. Repeats what toddler says to screen resulting in much laughter.


Seek and Find
Refreshingly hand drawn farm scene with a mixture of exciting and rather mundane actions resulting when toddler touches part of the scene. Donkey kicking tree to make apples fall down, pig farting in lamb's face etc! Good for exploring and although it doesn't do much Leon liked it a lot and I suppose it's like an extended lift the flap book and I like it for its simplicity compared to a lot of other apps that are more in your face. Full version is £1.69 and gives 2 extra scenes and other features.

I must admit that I've been hiding the iPad from Leon and don't really use it when I'm wih him as he's now discovered YouTube which equates to endless Fireman Sam, Teletubbies and irritating nursery rhyme videos.