Friday, April 5, 2013

Apps for tiny tots: arms & ammunition to protect your iPad & smartphones from destruction!

Although technically I created this blog several years ago, I have begun posting regularly only for a month now, hence this is my first time participation in #UBP13 and I'm pretty intrigued! As an introduction, I am in my early 30s, currently on a sabbatical, living with my husband and tiny tot in city of Jakarta, Indonesia, far away from our hometown Bombay. In this blog I share views, reviews, trials, errors and practical ideas to survive the hysteria of motherhood. From breastfeeding, to travelling with baby, to book reviews, to eating healthy- Its all in here! hope you find some of these posts interesting & useful!

Moving on to : Apps for tiny tots:

This is how some early mornings look like at our house:  Our 16 month old boy is up like an energizer bunny. LONG before the morning alarm goes off or we've opened our eyes. He jumps into our bed excitedly not because he's gonna be smothered by mum or pop but becuz he *KNOWS* he's gonna find a phone or iPad or laptop around! He thoroughly enjoys his mini treasure hunt, turning pillows, opening bed side drawers etc, screams in glee once he has found something & shoves it over my face demanding I play something interesting. Yes, TV, smart phones, iPad, tablets, laptop, ANY screen time  is highly unrecommended for toddlers, but at that particular "unearthedly" hour of the day I'm actually relieved that he's busy i.e.; I can roll in bed for another five minutes!

As a habit I usually switch off the TV & I put all the no no gadgets (iPod, iPad , laptop, chargers, hard disk, phones) out of sight before he's going to be around. But when the exceptions happen (such as being too sleepy to put back the iPad after night time reading), it's imperative that he focuses on baby apps than fiddle around deleting messages, calling random numbers, or changing the ringtone (he did that once! And I haven't changed it back!). The Practical Mom logic is: a few minutes of toddler raid can have far more devastating effects on the contents of an adult's gadget than on a toddlers brain, so when we fail to shift their attention away from the gadget itself we should unhesitantly shift their attention to baby apps! 

Finding an entertaining app, like most things that come under the umbrella of parenting, is a process of trial and error: if I download a dozen apps, he's likely to reject all but one. Why he likes and especially why he rejects any app is a big mystery. I have no clue. But here is list of a few that he ended up liking:

1) 123 baby count (by Wayne Smith), on iPad, 5 MB: This ones "interactive". Every slide has a number, alongside are that many number of objects (apples, rainbows, balls, gingerbread men, etc). As you tap every object,the object turns from dark to light and the VoiceOver counts. Once you've finished that slide, you move to the next slide with the next number. Its 0-10  and Manav seems to have fun with all that tapping. 


2) Family of ABC, for preschool, kinder garten, first grade  (by Muhammad Salman), on iPad, 3 MB : This ones a new download. It's got a backdrop of a castle on a river side and the alphabet string at the bottom. You click on an alphabet and the corresponding word & object pops in with a single tone of 'ting'. No voice over. No background music. 


3) Talking baby monkey (by Fliplab), on iPad, 30 MB: This is the only talking animal app that clicked with my son when he was little. He can repeat what you say in funny voice, eat a banana, do a cool dance, throw a stone, laugh, clap, cry, throw up, fall down etc. 


4) Baby Touch & Hear Lite - Listen Sounds of Animals & Tools (by Open Solutions), On iPad, 28 MB: Plays 5 slideshows of animals & objects such as plane, door, piano etc. Has both cartoon & real images, a nice background music, a VoiceOver saying the name of the object and the sound of the object. This has been his fave since he was a little baby. We would instantly melt as he heartily laughed every time he saw the pig! 


5) Baby Phone -Musical Baby Game (Penguin Apps) : on Android, 12MB: As the name suggests, it looks like a dial pad, you tap a few numbers and when you press "call" it moves to the next page that plays a nursery rhyme at random. That next page also has a dial pad, every button when tapped plays an animal sound. You can view the list of rhymes and disable the annoying ones. Of you don't press "end" the nursery rhyme repeats a couple of times. I.e.; if you aren't YET immuned to all things bells and whistles, you run a risk of going a bit nuts. This app has been like "homework" for me, teaching me rhymes I'd never heard of (incy wincy spider?) which have now become his favourites and I sing to him regularly.


6) Baby toy (by Idle), on android, 1 MB: Contains 3 screens: animals, robots, musical instruments and each screen has 6 pictures each. Tap on each picture to hear the respective funny sound.

19 comments:

  1. Swinging through with the UBP 2013! Taking a minute to link up and wish you a great day!
    Nicky
    www.feelingtheemptynest.com

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    1. Hi Nicky! following you on twitter now. cya around !

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  3. Ack! Sorry about that, I had to windows open at once and mixed up my blogs. Well, that pretty much gives you an idea about me and how I'm a multi-tasking techie mom.

    I'm surfing over from the UBP and thought I'd swing by and toss a little confetti. Hope you'll swing by my spot too. See you soon! Party on!

    ::: Tossing Confetti :::

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    1. Hi Trish, your tech blog looks interesting, shall be reading your posts soon. Thanks for swinging by!

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  4. Hi, I'm here through UBP2013 :)

    Coming by to say hi :)

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    1. Hi Sandra, the pictures on your blog are gorgeous ! shall read the posts soon! thanks for swinging by!

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  5. This is my 6th year with UBP. It’s great to visit new bloggers, as well as my old blog friends.
    I really enjoy reading the reason(s) that one starts blogging. Sounds like you have a busy and terrific life.
    Our son is 21 years old and attending college full time. They grow up so fast.
    What wonderful photos!
    I hope you’re having fun at the party!

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    1. Hi Berry, thanks for swinging by! Shall read your blog posts soon!

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  6. Thrilled to have you joining the UBP.

    You have tons of great stuff here... I'll have to dig in more later.

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  7. Like how you introduced us to new apps to use on our phones =) Welcome to the party!

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  8. Hello! Visiting from the UBP! I love a good app to and am curious to try out Family of ABC. Great to "meet" you! Happy UBP!!

    ~ Ferly
    Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve}

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  9. Hi there! Shall check out your blog right away! thanks for stopping by!

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  10. Love that pic of the sneaky child! Great apps too!

    Nice to 'meet' you!

    Stopping by to say hi from the Ultimate Blog Party!

    http://momandmore.com/2013/04/party-with-me-at-the-ultimate-blog-party-2013-ubp13.html

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  11. Haha, he is indeed very sneaky :) shall drop by your blog soon!

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  12. Hey Cathi..your blog looks interesting...shall read in detail, thanks for stopping bye!

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