Free, Low-Cost, Educational, AND Fun iPhone Apps for Grandkids and Grandparents!

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My grandson was over visiting this week and enjoying some fun mental exercise playing on Jumpstart.com on my computer. As I sat and watched him, helping him figure out some of the moves he needed to make, I also spent time catching up on email, including a favorite newsletter from DealMac.com.

As you know well, I LOVE iPhone and iPad apps. I am always on the lookout for the best fun and/or useful iPhone apps for the grand kids AND for all of us to help us with juggling all of our varied Sandwich Generation issues. DealMac’s free daily newsletter is an excellent resource and I highly recommend it. I don’t open it every day – way too busy, I’m afraid. But on those occasions I can read it, I always find some goodie that is FREE for a short time – always one of my favorite practical AND creative ways to save money and put a big smile on my face – not to mention my grandkids! 🙂 

This occasion was no exception. I discovered these cool freebies (though they are probably charging for them by now – or have been replaced:

• HiCalc PRO for iPhone and iPod touch: Calculator software for my high school grandchild, not to mention the up and coming grade schoolers.
• Push Panic for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Matching game that should be great brain exercise for the grands
• Monkey Bongo for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Puzzle game  – supposedly similar to Angry Birds which most of my family loves, though I’ve never tried it.
• Miss Spider’s Tea Party for the iPhone/iPod Touch books, including The Tea Party Book (available in several different languages) also includes a painting game, a puzzle game, a matching game, and two interactive versions of the book. I can’t wait to share it with my tinier long-distance grandkids next time I visit.

I finished downloading all those fun freebies, but my grandson was still busy having fun while learning with Jumpstart. I turned my attention to an intriguing option in the Apps Store I’ve only recently noticed – Categories – Education – Top Paid AND even better – Top Free. EVEN MORE FUN for grandparents and grandkids – and totally educational. My FAVORITE! I also downloaded:

1. PBS Kids Video – FREE – which features videos from the top PBS kids shows like Curious George, Super Why, and my grandkids’ favorite – Wild Kratts. How handy to have that for a long wait at the doctor’s office or therapy session!
2. Stack the States – Answer questions about the various states correctly, then stack them high enough to earn extra state points – this will go great with our Sequence states and capitals game!
3. Stack the Countries – Answer questions about the various countries correctly, then stack them high enough to earn extra state points
4. Presidents vs. Aliens – Aliens are attacking the White House. The player has to answer a question correctly about one of the presidents in order to get a balloon with his picture on it to fling at the aliens. You also have to answer 50% or more of the questions correctly in order to be awarded presidential points.

The last three games are by the same company, have paid AND free/lite versions and were actually quite interesting for me to play. The players do have to be good readers, so they’re probably best suited for older kids. I really liked that when I got an answer wrong, they show the correct answer. I don’t think kids OR adults could fail to learn new things each time they play these games AND they’re fun to play. I’ll keep you posted on the results of how my grandkids liked them. 

By the time the evening ended, my grandson had a blast with Jumpstart, I had some great new fun and educational iphone games apps for our kids and grandkids, and now it’s time for this grandma to “gift” the last three games to my long distance grandkids. I’m thinking they’ll have fun with them as well. For that matter, won’t these be fun for my senior mom and me to ask and answer the questions as we are waiting for food the next time we go out to dinner. Great brain food for the whole Sandwich Generation family. That’s always a winner in my book! How about you?

Updated 2017 – My new fave app for finding free and fun IOS apps is AppAdvice – with 4 – 6 free apps daily. I regularly find useful apps for myself as well as fun apps for the grandkids with it AND you can also check for freebies via their website. 🙂