- Discover Interactive Children's Books for the iPad
- Introduce Your Child to Interactive iPad Apps
- Educational iPad Content Is Also Available From iTunes
- Turn Off Internet Connectivity Before Handing Your iPad to a Child
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Introduce Your Child to Interactive iPad Apps
While more and more eBooks for the iPad are offering interactive elements, true interactivity can best be achieved by selecting appropriate educational apps for your child from the App Store.
As you'll discover, there are thousands of kid-friendly apps available that are designed to be educational. Plus, you'll discover tens of thousands of age-appropriate games for the iPad, many of which offer the same or similar experiences as they'd get playing a handheld Nintendo DS video game system, for example.
To browse through the selection of educational content available from the App Store, launch the App Store app on your iPad while it's connected to the Internet. Then tap the Categories icon that's displayed near the bottom of the screen and choose the Education category to find educational activities or the Games category to find interactive video games.
If you tap the Entertainment category, you'll also discover activity-related apps that may be appropriate for your child, like drawing apps. By tapping the Books category within the App Store, you'll discover interactive children's books that require their own app to function (as opposed to being read using the iBooks app).
By exploring the Education category of the App Store, you'll find thousands of apps designed to teach lessons to kids and teens, starting as young as preschool age. There are apps to help teach the alphabet, numbers, colors, basic reading, spelling, counting, math, geography, music and countless other topics.
You'll also find apps targeted to specific age groups that are designed to help a child improve their memory and problem solving skills, tap their creativity through drawing or coloring, or learn some type of lesson by solving puzzles, for example.
Unlike eBooks, these educational apps often include interactive activities. You'll also find flash card apps and apps that can be used by a child to compose their own stories or poems. Once again, as the parent, it's important to invest the time while visiting the App Store to find age appropriate apps that are suitable for your child.
Reading an app's description and ratings, and viewing the sample screen shots displayed within the App Store for each app will be extremely helpful. However, before allowing your young child to use a new app, you should install it on your iPad and try it out for yourself firsthand, even if it comes highly recommended by a teacher or a friend.
Just like when exploring iBookstore, you can discover the best-selling Educational apps by tapping the Top Categories icon that's displayed at the bottom of the App Store screen. Then, in the upper-left corner of the screen, tap the Categories icon and choose Education.
On the left side of the screen, you'll see a listing of Top Paid iPad Apps in the Education category, while on the right side of the screen will be a listing of the Top Free iPad Apps in the Education category.