I will be the first to admit that I spend a lot of time on my phone. As a mom who works from home, blogs, and has a couple side businesses, it kind of goes with the territory! Smartphones make it easy to find information, stay connected with friends and family, keep ourselves organized and on time, and entertain our kids for hours on end. All with the tap of a finger!
I asked my fellow ICMB writers for their favorite apps that make their lives easier, and below are the 13 apps we cannot live without!
Apps for Kids
Bugs and Numbers
Developer: Little Bit Studio, LLC
Devices: iOS
Category: Education
Ages: 5 and under
Cost: $2.99
Description:
Make math fun for your child. Encourage their excitement for one of life’s most critical skill sets by making it both educational and fun with Bugs and Numbers.
Bugs and Numbers provides an extensive collection of unique games dedicated to learning and practicing a wide range of math skills in a non-traditional way. Organized into three basic stages, the app grows with your child through 18 games ranging from basic counting to early fractions. Designed around a bug city, each game is crafted for a basic set of math skills with an eccentric and fun parallel to our own society. Imagine serving bugs food at the local diner that happens to spin on an old vinyl record, or help ferry ants across water in an egg carton. It’s fun, unique, and most importantly, educational.
**Other similar apps: Bugs and Bubbles, Bugs and Buttons, Bugs and Buttons 2, Bug Art, Bug Mazing
Crayola Color Alive
Developer: DAQRI
Devices: iOS, Android, Windows, Amazon
Category: Entertainment
Ages: 4+
Cost: Free
Description:
Pairing an innovative 4D app with exclusive Crayola Color Alive Action Coloring Books, Color Alive gives parents and kids the ability to interact with their real world creations like never before. Characters fly out of your coloring pages, coming to life and interacting with you through augmented reality.
Each new character and creation is reflected in a 4D Experience™ viewed through the app, staying true to the creativity at play by appearing exactly as it has been colored. It’s a great creative developmental activity, and an amazing experience to try and share!
DialSafe Pro
Developer: Little Bit Studio, LLC
Devices: iOS
Category: Education
Ages: 4+
Cost: Free
Description:
Teach your child proper phone usage and safety with an app that lets them actually practice it! DialSafe is designed to teach these critical skills in a kid friendly manner through the use of animated lessons, skill building games, practice sessions, and even a realistic phone simulator. DialSafe helps provide a comprehensive learning experience in a safe environment where the child can both explore and learn.
IMPORTANT FEATURES
- Animated audio lessons on phone basics, 911, and strangers.
- Memory game to progressively learn phone numbers.
- Realistic phone simulator that operates like a real phone.
- Built-in real world dialog for key numbers (even wrong numbers).
- Custom phone numbers.
- Record custom audio.
- Guided practice sessions for step by step learning.
- Unguided challenge sessions for evaluating.
Hopscotch
Developer: Hopscotch Technologies
Devices: iOS
Category: Education
Ages: 9-11 years
Cost: Free
Description:
Learning to code? You’ve come to the right place!
This award-winning app lets you make your own games and publish them instantly for anyone to play. Use our super easy-to-follow videos to make games like Angry Birds, create pixel art, or build something brand new.
Kodable
Developer: SurfScore, Inc.
Device(s): iOS, Android
Category: Education
Ages: 5+ years
Cost: Free
Description:
This award winning game and accompanying curriculum, is designed to teach the basics of computer coding to kids 5 and up.
The furry aliens, known as Fuzzes were exploring space when their ship unexpectedly crashed on the maze-covered planet Smeeborg. The naturally curious fuzzes need kids to program them to explore all the colorful Technomazes on the planet’s surface.
Kids learn the fundamentals of every modern programming language in a fun and inviting way. Concepts learned through the Kodable Curriculum include:
- Sequence/ Order of operations
- Algorithmic operations
- Conditional logic statements
- Syntax
- Variables including Strings, Integers, and Arrays
- Object Oriented Programming
- Classes and Subclasses
- Properties
- Methods
PBS Kids Games
Developer: PBS Kids
Device(s): iOS, Android, Amazon
Category: Games
Ages: 5 and under
Cost: Free
Description:
Play free learning games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters anytime, anywhere. PBS KIDS Games features top shows, including Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts, Super Why, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, Dinosaur Train and more.
The app provides a safe, child-friendly playing experience for all ages. Kids can easily browse and play games at home, on the road, anywhere!
**No in-app purchases!
Toddler Tap
Developer: James Miller
Device(s): iOS, Android
Category: Education
Ages: Children 5 and under
Cost: $1.99
Description:
Toddlers tap to learn basic concepts such as shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and items around the home. The app contains over 280 words across 22 different topics in both English and Spanish.
The interaction is designed to engage your toddler in a fun and simple way to help increase his or her vocabulary. Tap any token and stars fly out from underneath while the name is announced.
Apps for Adults
7 Minute Workout HIIT, weight loss exercises
Developer: Ego360
Devices: iOS, Android
Category: Health & Fitness
Cost: Free
Description:
Get fit quick with high intensity interval training, a great workout for weight loss, toning legs and arms, tone your butt and have a flat stomach in a short period of time.
Not a simple 7 Min Timer, a virtual personal trainer will motivate and guide you to prevent mistakes. Clear previews and instructions for an easy start.
Scientific research has shown that even 7 minutes of HIIT (high intensity interval training) exercise a day provides heart health benefits.
Artkive
Developer: The Kive Company
Devices: iOS, Android
Category: Lifestyle
Cost: $4.99 (iOS), Free (Android)
Description:
Never again feel guilty about throwing away artwork your kids bring home. Get rid of the clutter and start to enjoy your child’s work. Turn your Artkive into a high quality, hard cover book or other great products (like phone cases, blankets, coasters, pillows and more) with little more than the touch of a button!
Cartwheel by Target
Developer: Target
Devices: iOS, Android
Category: Shopping
Cost: Free
Description:
The first-of-its-kind mobile savings app that makes saving money on the things you already buy at Target fun. Choose your savings from hundreds of offers. See what your friends are saving on. It’s Target savings, mobile style. And there’s never been anything like it.
Search, browse or even scan items in store to find offers, then add the offers to your personalized Cartwheel barcode, all from the convenience of your phone! Save on your next Target run by scanning your barcode at checkout in store. Use the discounts as many times as you like before they expire. You can even stack Cartwheel on top of your Target REDcard discount and other coupons!
Don’t have time to browse the app for deals before you shop? No problem! Just use the barcode scan feature found in the app menu to scan the barcode of any item in store and see if there is a Cartwheel offer for that item. If no offers are available, we’ll show you similar deals.
Dropbox
Developer: Dropbox
Devices: iOS, Android, Windows
Category: Productivity
Cost: Free
Description:
Dropbox is the place for your docs, photos, videos, and other files. Take Dropbox with you and stay on top of your work while you’re out and about. Share files with your team, get feedback on your work, and even make edits right from your iPhone or iPad.
Netflix
Developer: Netflix, Inc.
Devices: iOS, Android, Windows
Category: Entertainment
Cost: Free
Description:
Watch TV shows and movies recommended just for you, including award-winning Netflix original series, movies, and documentaries.
Netflix has something for everyone. There’s even a safe watching experience just for kids with family-friendly entertainment.
Voxer
Developer: Voxer, LLC
Devices: iOS, Android, Windows
Category: Business
Cost: Free
Description:
Voxer is a free app that combines the best of voice, text, photo, and video messages with walkie talkies in one messaging app. Easily and instantly communicate with friends, family or teams at work live, or listen to saved messages later at your convenience. You can also share text, photos, video, and your location alongside voice messages.
Walmart App
Developer: Walmart
Devices: iOS, Android
Category: Shopping
Cost: Free
Description:
Our award-winning app saves you time and money online and at your local Walmart for shopping millions of items at unbeatable prices.
Check out the app’s great features:
- Savings Catcher compares prices on your eligible purchases with any lower prices in your area. We’ll give you any difference on an eGift card!
- Pharmacy for ordering, transferring, and tracking prescriptions and refills.
- Baby and wedding registries. Easily find and buy the right gift — no more duplicates! Try scanning in the store to create a registry.
- Wish lists for any occasion. Create and manage a list for yourself or for someone else, and even share your lists on social media.
- Faster pickup at the store by checking in first with your device.
- Special savings — be the first to learn about them! Set your device’s settings to receive notifications. Check our weekly ad and Rollbacks.
- Find locations, in-store inventory, aisle locations, and store hours.
*All app descriptions and images are courtesy of iTunes.
Let us know in the comments below which apps you would have a hard time living without!
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