If you’re a family that likes to travel, you’ve likely noticed that keeping children occupied can be a difficult task at times. Whether you’re taking a road trip or you’re hopping on a plane, your kids will need something to do. Here are some great apps for them to try, courtesy of our PHL Airport parking members:
Ages 1-4
Drawing Pad
For: iPad, Android, Kindle Fire
If your child likes drawing and painting, the Drawing Pad app lets them use digital paintbrushes, markers, crayons, and more to create fun works of art. They can even use their fingers to finger paint and best of all - there’s no mess to clean up.
Busy Shapes
For: iPhone, iPhone Touch, iPad
This app features a variety of interactive puzzles with shapes that can be dragged, dropped, and moved to complete the puzzle. Kids can build reasoning skills and advance their intelligence while they enjoy changing backgrounds and situations.
Reading Rainbow
For: iPad, Kindle Fire
Instead of lugging books and picture books around with you on your trip, consider downloading the Reading Rainbow app. You’ll have access to more than 600 children’s books that your kids can either read or listen to while in the car or on the plane.
Ages 5-8
Faces iMake - Right Brain Activity
For: iPad
This app lets kids create their own funny faces using a variety of objets like bananas, pen caps, eggplants, broccoli, and more. Once they’ve finished their masterpiece, they can share it with others in a social media gallery called FaceWorld.
Toca Life: Vacation
For: iPhone, iPod, Android, Fire phone, Kindle Fire
If your child likes playing dress-up and creating scenarios, then they’ll love Toca Life: Vacation. The app lets players create their own stories where they can mix and match outfits, choose props, and even create puppet shows in scenes like airports and hotels.
Fruity Fractions
For: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
For a mix of fun and education, download Fruity Fractions. Kids can slice fruits up into equal parts and then put them back together - as they go, they’ll learn the fundamentals of fractions while unlocking parts of a fun, jungle-themed story.
Ages 9-12
Thomas Was Alone
For: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
For more of an emotional aspect, point your kids in the direction of Thomas Was Alone. The app hinges on storytelling and the relationships between the characters, which are shapes with unique abilities that the player must manipulate.
DragonBox Elements
For: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire
This innovative app makes learning geography a fun game. With more than 100 puzzles in two different difficulties, kids can tap, draw, and drag objects within bright and colorful graphics. As they solve the puzzles, they’ll gather creatures to form an army and fight the enemy monster.
Coggy
Coggy isn’t an app, but a physical game that’s easy to take on the go. It features brainteasers that players have to match by bending and folding the clicking puzzle. The game encourages visual-spatial skills, critical thinking, and logic and best of all - you don’t have to worry about losing pieces.