It’s amazing to see how quickly kids learn technology and even more amazing to see how young they start! Before the age of one, my son learned how to unlock my smartphone. Soon after that, he discovered things like swiping to navigate through screens and tapping to open something. I also witnessed our friends’ three year old deleting and installing apps with ease. A fun challenge for his parents!
Though there is an endless supply of children’s smartphone and tablet apps available, it seems we’ve barely scratched the surface in our household. For now, we’re happy to have found something that supplements our love for books – interactive book apps! They’re fun and discoverable versions of our favorite children’s books that include audio and animations. The best part is that they’re so affordable. Many of these interactive books cost less to purchase than the printed copy. We tend to collect both – printed books for the quiet bedtime routine and interactive books for a little more excitement during a long car ride or while we’re getting supper ready.
Here are a couple of our favorite authors with interactive books:
Dr. Seuss:
Dr. Seuss interactive books generally have three modes: Read to Me, Read it to Myself and Auto Play. Interactive elements include: word highlighting during narration, tapping a word to have it read aloud, tapping on pictures for a description and, in some cases, recording your own narration and sharing it with others.
Dr. Seuss’s ABC
$5.11 on Google Play
This is one of the top picks in our collection and the interactive book only added to my love for it. It’s silly and rhythmic. A great tool to teach the ABC’s.
Hop on Pop
$5.11 on Google Play
Sandra Boynton:
The interactive elements in Sandra Boynton books add a new dimension to the personality and humor that already exists in the print versions.Animated fun that ranges from running water that steams up the screen so you can draw pictures in the steam, to three pigs singing in harmony.
Moo, Baa, La La La!
$4.59 on the Apple Store
The Going to Bed Book
$4.59 on the Apple Store
The Boynton Collection
You can also find four of Boynton’s interactive books bundled on Google Play.
Once you start into these gems, you may also want to explore the other books these providers have to offer:
Oceanhouse Media
Loud Crow Interactive Inc.
Hope you enjoy these books as much as we do!
