Toca Boca

I acquired an iPad 2 a few months ago, and let me tell you....it's awesome. I love it, Atrion loves it. We have a few extra minutes of quiet time each day thanks to this product. If I want to doze a little longer in the morning then I just whip the iPad out. Atrion knows how to navigate it probably better than most adults and has become quite tech savvy because of it. I have had to invest in some Speck Ipad 2 2-Pk. Shieldview Screen Protectors, but that's totally worth it. There are some really fun apps for kids that promote learning as well as fun and imagination. I sometimes idly wonder what my life would have been like had I had an iPad when I was young. I definitely wouldn't have been outside as much I was. So, while I adore the iPad for so many things (especially grocery store trips and long car rides), I definitely don't want to let it take time away from usual kid things.

That being said, here are some great apps for kids to play occasionally.


We LOVE Toca Boca. Most of their apps are pure awesome and fun for both girls and boys...and Moms. And a couple of them encourage group play. They range from the $.99-1.99 range, but are totally worth it. The re-playability is outstanding. Here are our favorites:

• Toca Tea Party: This app is adorable. Your little one can host their own tea party! You choose the table cloth, plate, and cup design out of three options. The plates and cups can be mismatched as well for added personality. The three choices the app gives you to choose from are random and might be completely different from the three before. Which is fun. Next, you can choose the desserts which all look yummy to me. After that, the tea party begins. You (meaning your child- mature adults would never play with a child's app) and two friends can sit around the iPad listening to the fun music and tapping at the screen to eat the delicious desserts and drink either juice or tea. Once the plates and cups are empty, the host may refill at the request of their guests. Once all the desserts are served, tea time ends and all the dishes go to the sink to get washed. My 4 year old niece adores this app. 

• Toca Birthday Party: This app works almost exactly like the tea part app, but boys might find it more suitable for their manliness. You can choose the cake theme, plates, and a wrapped present. Then blow out the candles, serve the cake, pop some party poppers, and open the present. The toy inside usually makes a fun noise and that's about it. Once the cake is all eaten, the party is over. 

• Toca Hair Salon: This one is pretty fun. You can pick from 6 characters and cut, color, wash, and sort of style their hair any way you want. Below is the before (left) and after (right) pictures of my fabulous hair styling talents. Atrion mostly gives them all a buzz cut and calls them good. The weirdest thing about toca apps is the characters. They look weird sometimes. As you can see from these pictures.

• Monster Kitchen: This was the first Toca app we bought (it is actually a FREE one!!) and Atrion and I laughed for a good hour while we were playing with it. You pick out an ingredient and can slice it, puree it, boil it, microwave it, or saute it. The point is to get the monster to eat it. When he doesn't like it, hilarity ensues. There is also a regular, non-monster version that we have, but it isn't as fun in my opinion. I don't have a picture of this app, but you can click here to see it.
• Toca Store: This one is a one or two-player app. One person can be the store owner who picks what to sell as well as the prices. The other can be the customer who chooses what to buy and pays the owner. It helps with math skills and also fills the need to "play store" a little bit. 

Toca Boca is pretty awesome because with most apps companies, they have one or two good ones. Toca has several. They provide good, clean fun for kids ages 3-12, I would think. The older they get, the less playability the apps have, but they still enjoy it for a bit. 

I give Toca Boca 5 Stars.