My Favorite Apps - or at least, my Toddlers' favorites

Before I had an ipod touch I never imagined I would let my toddler touch it, but the thing has been surprisingly durable and OH so useful. My kids LOVE the various apps.

Here are some Toddler Friendly apps that my kids love and I fully approve:

1. Angry Birds - There is just something about this app that kids LOVE. Can't explain it, but my 2 year old asks for "Ang Birds" every time he sees the ipod. And my 3 yr old actually has some decent scores.
2. Preschool Lunchbox - My kids love this little monkey. They also love getting "stickers" as rewards and both seem to "get" how the app works pretty well. VERY intuitive interface.
3. Shape-O - Easy interface puzzle game, my 3 year old loves it and has learned quite a few new words, like "Flamingo." The other game by this designer is not as big a hit (caterpillar).
4. Thomas & Friends by Callaway - We have both "Day of Diesels" and "Misty Island Rescue" and my kids love both of them. I like them 'cause they aren't just storybooks, they also have coloring pages and a matching game (memory style).
5. Peter Rabbit Pop-Out - We have this and Squirrel Nutkin on different ipods. We enjoy the fact that these are classic books about adorable animals, and my kids enjoy the pop out effects. (Note, some reviewers say this app takes up a lot of room.) These guys also make a Charlie Brown Christmas app that my 3 year old likes, but it's a bit tough for him, so I imagine a 4-year old would like it, assuming they like snoopy and charlie brown.
6. Sandra Boyton - Great kids books turned interactive. My kids particularly love the Barnyard Dance and Blue Hat, Green Hat apps. They animals are animated and some dressable, etc.
7. Another Monster at the End of This Book - Normally we don't encourage a lot of Elmo in our house; we prefer Grover. But this app is far superior to the first app (The Monster at the End of This Book). This one is very interactive and more intuitive - my kids could easily figure out how to turn pages etc. It can be a LITTLE bit frustrating for my 2 year old as there are things you have to figure out, and even my three year old can struggle sometimes, but I think they will enjoy it for a long time for that reason.
8. Fisher Price Animal Sounds - Had this app for awhile and both of my kids have enjoyed it. I think my 3.5 year old is kinda too old for it now. It is very easy to use, doesn't have a lot of "other buttons" to push and take them away from the app, etc.
9. Dr Seuss ABC's - We haven't had this long, so I can't really offer kid reviews. But I like it. We're working on the alphabet and my kids love this book, so I think it'll be good reinforcement. I am a LITTLE bit disappointed in the interactivity, but the interface is good for kiddos.
10. Talking Larry - This is not educational at all, and only works if you have a microphone on your ipod. But my kids love listening to their words spoken back to them in a crazy high pitched bird voice. They also enjoy exploding the poor little guy.

These are our top 10 apps at this point. We need a decent Winnie-The-Pooh app 'cause those guys are favorites.

I should mention that I rarely pay for apps for the kids and never pay more than $.99 an app. The ONLY exception to this has been the Dr. Seuss app which I needed for alphabet learning and travel. These apps are frequently on sale around holidays. The Dr. Seuss apps are "on sale" for $2.99 for Valentines Day and the Sandra Boyton books are frequently available for $.99 which I consider totally worth it for the amount my kids have used them.

I use Apps Fire to track apps that I am interested in and see when they go on sale. This is a free app that shows what apps are on sale in various categories (both books and education frequently have good toddler apps). You can star apps you want to track and the app will notify you when they go "on sale" or even free.