Vehicle game app for a 4 year old, and PC game for a 7 year old

July 1, 2018 9:20 PM

Looking for non-violent , entertaining and at-least-a-little educational electronic games for my kids. An alternative to the approx half hour of shows they watch per day. The 4 year old loves vehicles/police trucks / fire rescue, and doesn’t like things that are explicitly academic, but I thInk could be persuaded to play some kind of matching game (esp if it involves said vehicles). The 7 year old likes simple video games like those found on pbs.org. I like them too because they are innocent, non-gender-oriented and have a variety of options. Anything you recommend? Thanks! Ideally they can be played independently and with minimal adult supervision (so, no commercials or opportunities to spend money). Thanks!!
posted by leslievictoria to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Response by poster: Also: Am willing to pay a few bucks for an app if it makes it ad-free and with no requirement to pay later for additional levels , etc. thanks!
posted by leslievictoria at 9:21 PM on July 1, 2018

My 3-year-old likes Bubl Cars, but it is probably too simple for a 4-year-old.
posted by Phssthpok at 11:49 PM on July 1, 2018

My almost four year old really loved the Planes app game by Sago mini on a recent (big) trip. He played with it happily for longish periods of time off and on over a month - international flights, trains, etc. It's cute, noises are minimal and cute, no ads, nothing to buy, totally worth the small fee. It looks like they have a handful out with different themes (trucks!), and at least one that's a bit more of a game rather than exploratory. I downloaded a handful of different games for the trip and it was the only one he played with! Its cute enough that I didn't mind having a go myself.
posted by jrobin276 at 12:53 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

All the Toca Boca apps are pretty good, no violence. I'm partial to Toca Boo myself but that's just because the premise is so ridiculous (kid in a sheet literally just popping out to yell boo at adults).
posted by benzenedream at 12:57 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Starfall.com ios apps are enjoyed by my 4 year old. Plenty of matching games and a lot you can do for free. Starfall is a nonprofit educational resource too so that's nice.
posted by merocet at 2:50 AM on July 2, 2018

Seconding Sago Mini! My daughter loves all their apps, a number of them are free, and many are vehicle themed. Not sure they have any explicit educational value, but some elements of problem solving.
posted by Kriesa at 4:44 AM on July 2, 2018

When my kids were 4-8, they loved the apps from Toca Boca, Bamba, and My PlayHome. There are a few apps that are vehicle-related (trains, cars, airport). Lola Panda has apps that are specifically educational; the others are more open-ended play.
posted by belladonna at 5:47 AM on July 2, 2018

One more vote for the Toca boca games. I think my 12-year-old still plays toca blocks. But you could download a bundle and see what they like. (We used to like their games so much that we’d just download whatever it was they released, on the strength just of it being from toca boca.)
posted by leahwrenn at 9:05 AM on July 2, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks for these responses!
posted by leslievictoria at 7:20 PM on July 2, 2018