Now that I am a mom of two young boys, I laugh at the apps I have downloaded on my IPhone! Here are my top 5 favs that I just couldn’t live without.
1. Awesome Eats
I love this app! My five year old loves to play these games created by the Whole Kids Foundation. He gets to sort veggies and fruits and learn which items are compostable and/or recyclable. So much fun! I have actually learned quite a bit from playing this game as well – nothing is better than fun and education wrapped into one!
2. Baby Flash Cards
I cannot tell you how many packages of flash cards I have bought over the last five years. And do I still have any of those packages still complete and in the package?? Of course not! They end up getting strewn everywhere and I spend every day picking up after the youngest one in the house and I get frustrated and just throw them in the trash. This app prevents that from happening! It is a free app which I love, and I can use it to read and play with both of my kids while on the go.
3. Candy Crush Saga
Ok…so I know I need an intervention. But sometimes, when the kids have been whiny all morning, during naptime mommy just needs 5 minutes (which then turns into 30 minutes) of alone time! If you like puzzle and brainteaser games, this one is definitely for you. It is free to download – just don’t get suckered into buying extra moves, etc. every time you play. Besides, that takes the challenge out of beating each level fair and square!
4. McGruff SafeGuard Browser
Whether you use this app or a similar one, any kind of browser safeguard is necessary for kids anymore. For example, my five year old boy LOVES to watch videos of spiders, bugs, snakes, etc. At first, I went to YouTube for him to look at some awesome videos, but as we all know, the advertisements of other videos on the side of the screen can get extremely inappropriate for children. So I now let him go to sites such as NatGeo Kids and PBS Wild Kratts to watch kid-friendly videos, and I used this app to not allow him to go to the other non kid-friendly websites.
5. Alarm.com
Before I had kids, I never cared about the weather at all. But now, every time a severe thunderstorm comes through, I am glued to the TV to see if I need to go wake up my kids and move them to the basement! What is worse is when severe weather comes and I am not home and someone else is home taking care of them. For this reason I love our Cedar Hill home security because no matter where I am, if there is severe weather heading for our house, it sends me a push notification on my phone telling me what is going on with the weather and when it will be at our house. Who would have ever thought alarm systems would have features like this?! Now I can rest easy whether at home or on the road knowing that I never have to stay glued to the TV 24/7 during severe weather season to know what is going on!
Thank you so much for reading, and please comment below with your favorite apps now that you are a parent!
Author bio: Brittany Samples is a writer for Smith Monitoring. She is also a work from home mom of two busy boys who works hard to always be more healthy, safe, fun, and frugal!
I found out about this one because DH’s uncle is one of the creators, but the one I use all the time is Artemis SafeDose. It’s really designed for doctors (I’m not looking to dose anesthetics!) but it calculates doses of medication based one weight. I’ve shown it to my pediatrician and he’s ok with me using it – I can calculate how much Tylenol, Motrin, etc. to give based on kiddo’s current weight. AWESOME for not having to do math at 3 am when somebody’s feverish.
The other apps I couldn’t live without are Kindle (they even have little-kid picture books!) and Disney Junior.
Meg, Thank you for sharing some Apps. you use. I will differently check these out.