David’s favorite iPad activities

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In the last 8-10 months or so, Justin and I have allowed David to have a bit of iPad time to watch some shows or play a game.

We are aware of media consumption in our house, and for us iPad time is quite rare (not daily) and limited to about 30 minutes or so. Frankly, he gets bored after awhile anyway! A few weeks ago he was very sick, and I was grateful that he had interest in the iPad so we could just sit on the couch together, and he could rest. And I do know that he’s learned a lot of the trucks that he knows from the Twenty Trucks channel!

As he gets older (he’s almost 2.5 now), and as Luke starts to take an interest, we’ll adjust as necessary. I’m, clearly, not a “no media” mom, and I lean more towards the “everything in moderation” approach. Well, not “everything” but you know what I mean! Justin and I do, however, have a specific goal to avoid handing over the iPad when we are out running errands or at a restaurant for dinner.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few of his favorite things on the iPad today.

David’s Favorite iPad activities:

Blippi – This channel features a very animated guy that captures David’s attention immediately. We typically choose any of the videos with trucks or machines, and Blippi stands next to them, in real life, and explains certain parts and what each thing does. It’s more realistic than cartoon drawings, and David really enjoys them.

TwentyTrucks – My mom told me about this channel because her friend, who has a grandson a bit older than David, loved this channel. It’s short videos of a man singing songs about a huge variety of trucks or machines. David’s personal favorite is the zamboni or the bucket truck. If I have one of the songs stuck in my head, and start to sing it, he’ll be able to finish my sentence!

As far as games go, he’s still a little young to really understand how they work, but he has played Toca Train and Trucks HD. He’s pretty good at using his finger to swipe things on the games, but occasionally his knuckles will hit the screen and throw everything off. He doesn’t quite get it all the way yet, but I know he’s young!

If you have a trip coming up, or just need something new for your toddler, you may want to look into these activities and Youtube channels!

A look back at David’s 2nd birthday (appropriately truck-themed) & another outdoor activity we absolutely love!

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Jenn says · 05.27.16

I am the exact same way with my daughter. The occasional bit of iPad time. ( she is 1 day younger than David)
He might also like Storybots. My daughter LOVES it. It used to be free but has now incorporated a monthly fee but you can still bypass it and get tons of educational videos for free. My daughters favorites are the animals.

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Brittany says · 05.27.16

Thank you for sharing this! My 2 year old has recently grown to love tractors, trucks and trains. He watches the Blippi videos a lot but I think they get old to him very quickly because he’s always looking for a new one after a couple of minutes. I’ll have to try out the TwentyTrucks channel.

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Kate says · 05.27.16

I find that anything Peppa Pig goes down well, as well as colouring games!
http://my–socalledlife.blogspot.com.au/

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Lisa says · 05.27.16

Thank you for sharing this!! My son is recently 2 years old and ADORES trucks and tractors and any construction vehicle. We live an hour and a half away from my family, and as he’s getting older he doesn’t always fall asleep during the ride, so we are looking for ways to entertain him (he gets agitated easily in the car when he’s “stuck” in the seatbelt lol). I will definitely be checking out these links! Happy weekend 🙂

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Lisa says · 05.27.16

We also watch the cartoon “Tractor Tom” on youtube, it’s an English/British based cartoon about tractors (similar to John Deer). I def recommend it! The only difficult part for us is that when we’re travelling on the road, I can’t save the videos to watch offline, so we just watch them at home.

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Valerie Harvey says · 05.27.16

My 2.5 yr old loves Blippi too! Another channel he likes is ‘RC Digger’ where you watch miniature remote controlled construction vehicles move dirt around etc. There is little to no talking, just action. He loves it!

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tylerparnell says · 05.27.16

My 2.5 year old loves KidTube. You have probably heard of it (I was late in the bandwagon), but no crazy ads or inappropriate videos. Before my Henry came around, I said he would never be on an electronic. Hah! Sometimes it’s just necessary. Moderation is key!

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Heather says · 05.27.16

Check out Starfall ABC. It’s a free app that really helped my now 5 year old with learning his alphabet. We just “graduated” to their paid app that is geared toward kindergarten/first grade. He was working on greater than/ less than yesterday and having a ball.

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Amanda says · 05.27.16

I like how you subtly when to great lengths to include a disclaimer for the haters. Because I’m sure some rude person will read this and get snarky about your kid using an iPad. My husband and I are hoping to avoid electronic use with our kids until they are at least 2, but she’s only 10 months, so that’s not on our radar quite yet. I do think it’s nice that there are games and educational things on the iPad they can use to learn! Thanks for sharing 🙂 I don’t know that my daughter will be super into trucks, but I’m sure we will find some channels that interest her when the time comes! Happy Memorial Day!

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Amanda says · 05.27.16

*went to great lengths.

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Megan says · 05.27.16

I will say, I always hoped I would manage to be one of those moms whose kid didn’t care about electronics at all. Nope. My daughter, who’s a week or so older than David, is obsessed with the ipad. She watches a lot of Peppa Pig and Masha and the Bear (in Russian no less!). She also enjoys watching music videos, which we supervise heavily. I will say, I give a lot of credit to the ipad for the fact that my daughter knows all her colors and shapes, can count to 20 and identify numbers, can say her ABCs and identify letters, etc. There are a lot of educational videos on there, and it can be great. Of course she plays outside, and we read tons of books, sing songs, play with legos, etc, but the ipad has proven a great educational tool. Sometimes I still feel guilty about how much she uses it, but as she grows, she’s becoming more interested in books and building blocks and that sort of thing, so I don’t feel too bad 🙂

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Melissa says · 05.27.16

We have found the iPad to be a valuable tool in our arsenal when it comes to dealing with our oldest child’s learning delays. We have a hard time at home getting him to sit down and work with a pencil and paper, but give him a learning app on the iPad? He loves it. We struggled for a while feeling like we were terrible parents, but over time we came to realize, technology is not going away. Are we going to adapt to that, or are we going to spend our lives beating ourselves up? So we chose to direct that energy towards incorporating technology into our kids’ lives in a moderate way and use it for their benefit in addition to entertainment. Moderation in all things. 🙂

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Bree says · 05.27.16

As a technology teacher, kuddos for taking the “everything in moderation” approach! I struggle with this (our daughter is 20 months) and I’ve read many peer-reviewed studies that go back and forth on the issue. Love the blog, your openness, and parenting style.

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Jenny Silva says · 05.27.16

Blippi is awesome. My son was obsessed. I can’t call a tractor a tractor anymore because there are specific names for them. That was when he was 2.

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Ashley Whisenant says · 05.27.16

My son is about a week younger than David and one of our favorite apps is Infant Zoo by TreeBettyDesigns. It is actually for younger kids, but he loves to copy the animal sounds. We also like PlayKids. I think it is by PBS. There are so many different games/books/coloring/videos on this app. It is a one stop shop. It has been very useful during doctor’s visits.

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Laura says · 05.27.16

My son is 3 weeks older than David (it’s been so fun watching them grow up “together”!). The first iPad games that he actually caught onto (about six months ago) were the Sago Mini games. He especially loves the Monsters one and the Friends one, though we also have Ocean Swimmer and Forest Flyer. Best part is you can often download them for free!

Thanks for the Youtube channel recs – my guy also loves all things trucks/construction! We will have to check those out!

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rachel says · 05.27.16

Agree with everything in moderation — our almost daily dose of Elmo happens when I make dinner. Otherwise I’d be holding a baby and have a toddler fussing at my legs!

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Caitlin says · 05.27.16

I have a truck-lover in my house too, about a month younger than your David. He LOVES Mighty Machines on Netflix. It’s soooo 90’s (they say things like “That’s so wicked!”) but it’s actually pretty interesting. He gets so excited to see trucks out in real life too…I used to get so annoyed by construction zones, but now we go out of our way to find them!

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Jennifer says · 05.27.16

Thanks for the tips! As a new mom to a little boy, it’s good to have these bookmarked for later when he is allowed screen time – and interested in trucks!

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Laura says · 05.27.16

We are big blippi and twenty trucks fans, too. A few others my son likes are “mizyaka dizyaka” (the one where they assemble the fire truck is his favorite), organic learning (lots of trucks, cars, and busses), Things that Go TV, Fireman Sam, and country boy kid videos (he loves watching the little boy and his trucks!).

It is amazing how current technology affords kids the instant gratification of watching whatever they want…when we were kids it was limited to vhs tapes that needed to be rewound–ha!

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Tracy says · 07.06.16

Thanks for the tips! I can only watch Blippi so many times before my brain gets taken over by the Garbage Truck song.

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Amy Jo says · 05.28.16

You should check out the endless alphabet/reader/numbers set of apps. My 3 year old son loves them, they show a word or number then scramble the letters and the kids out it back together. Then there is a sentence or story about each word. My nieces and nephew love it too, they will actually take turns and pass it around to each of the four to let someone else do the next word or number.

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Lauren says · 05.28.16

The twenty trucks channel sounds great! I’m even board of some of the car “things” we watch. An app that helped my son know all of his letters & their sounds by 2.5 is the ABC Mouse app! This has animated “music videos” for each letter of the alphabet that are very catchy & engaging. It comes with the first 4 letters unlocked and then each time you watch one of the videos, you earn tickets to unlock others (you can also purchase tickets to unlock them faster if you wish). That’s the first thing we EVER let our oldest watch and it has greatly paid off! We also have the giant floor “puzzle” of ABCs that we then reference and play different games on to help him identify but the app definitely helped!

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Erin says · 05.29.16

Hi Kate! My husband and I also limit tech time for our two little ones. One app that I don’t feel guilty about letting them play and that they absolutely LOVE are the Bugs and Buttons apps. They are educational and very appealing. As a teacher, I feel they have great concepts and activities for young children. They are worth checking out!

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April says · 05.29.16

My daughter is 6 now but when she was younger she really loved Monkey preschool lunchbox. As a former hairstylist, you should also check out Toca Hair Salon and Toca Hair Salon Me. They are very entertaining!❤️❤️❤️

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Ashley says · 05.31.16

OK i agree with the no media during meals eating out, but it’s really hard with our now 21 month old to get a peaceable meal where both or even one of us get to eat…any suggestions for that age?

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Tracy says · 07.06.16

We absolutely LOVE Blippi too! We put youtube on our TV, and my son (2.5 yo too) can basically watch the garbage truck and ABC’s videos on loop.

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