OT: Android for Kids

[der.hans]

Am 21. Jun, 2015 schwätzte Nathan England so:

moin moin Nathan,

Memory from the f-droid repo. It's GPL and has cards with Tux on them :).

In addition to the matching pictures, each card has its own sound, so
there's also audible matching.

It also useѕ well-known characters for the face side.

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=memory&fdid=org.androidsoft.games.memory.kids

Hmm, that project has a few other games and commitment to GPL.

http://www.androidsoft.org/softwares.html

This also looks useful.

http://www.androidsoft.org/permission-friendly-apps.html

I recently picked up a few other games from f-droid, but haven't really
played with them much.

On the non-FLOSS side there is Petson's Invetions, which I tell everyone
about. It's fantastic. I recommend it even though it's proprietary
software. In fact, it's the only proprietary software I recommend.

We started with it at the age of 3.

It's a digital rube goldberg machine. The player is given and image of
what the machine is supposed to look like, then supplied with a panel of
parts and a field upon which to build the machine. Not all of the parts
will be used. It's a bit difficult, but somewhat randomly pulling stuff
over can make progress, so even at 3 it was useful.

I've seen at least 4 versions available.

If you'll give access to a GNU/Linux box, then sl is great. It's short,
but can entertain over and over, especially if you toss on a wrapper to
randomly call different options.

There's also tuxpaint, but mostly I prefer to just point at the crayons
and paper even if those don't make noises. We do have some stamps, so that
part of tuxpaint isn't as novel.

There are several 'doodle' drawing games on Android, but all proprietary.

I've also disabled networking on the child tablet. No need for tracking.

For board games, Robot Turtle has been great. There are different levels
of play so the older kids might also find it engaging. The 3 year old
probably will have troubles with the role of turtle master, but the older
kids handle it fine.

Since only the turtle master is allowed to touch the board, it's great for
the younger kids who still tend to knock things over when playing with
them.

Officially the players aren't competing against each other, so each can
play a different level of the game at the same time. Convincing them that
they aren't competing can be difficult.

ciao,

der.hans

> Howdy,
>
> As I'm sure many of you on this list also have children and several older 
> android devices, what apps do you install for your kids to play?
>
> I have children from 3 to 14, but I am primarily interested in games for my 3 
> year old. I don't have game systems in the house, nor do I own a television, 
> but as the Phoenix heat kicks into full gear it's difficult to keep a three 
> year old entertained and productive... and Dr. Seuss books do an excellent 
> job, but he much prefers Asphalt 8.
>
> What have you found to be good for younger kids?
> Free is great, but I'd rather pay a couple dollars for a good game without 
> in-app purchases, but does that even exist anymore?
>
>
> My list so far is fairly short:
>
> Angry Birds
> Angry Birds Go (racing)
> Asphalt 8
> Riptide
> Bible for Kids (It has a kids game in it)
>
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