10 iPhone Apps That Foster Creativity in Kids

The business innovators, problem solvers and success stories of the future are very likely to be children whose parents encouraged their creativity, doing everything that they could to nurture creative impulses throughout their little one’s childhood. Thankfully, the wildly popular iPhone not only manages a variety of tasks for busy parents, but also has an entire subsection of applications in the App Store that can help kids develop their creativity along the way.

•   PlayArt - Selected by USA TODAY as one of the Five Top Apps for Creative Kids and among the Guardian’s 50 Best Apps for Children, this $3.99 application lets kid create their own mashed-up versions of iconic artistic images. Pairing creativity-boosting play with a hands-on art history lesson, this app is a must-have for the parents of budding art buffs.

•   Sketch Club - While this $2.99 app is powerful enough for advanced artists of the adult variety, it’s also a great tool for youngsters. The variety of tools and options allows kids to customize their works of art fully, experimenting with brushes and tools to learn more about digital art creation on a larger scale. There is also an option to upload created projects for critique by other users, which you might want to disable before letting your little one loose.

•   Auryn Ink - Watercolors are beautiful, intriguing and incredibly messy when they’re put into little hands. Thankfully, the creators of this $3.99 app have simulated the watercolor painting experience beautifully. You and your children can create entire watercolor paintings right on your iPhone!

•   Kid Art - Simplified, stripped-down controls make this $0.99 app a great choice for little fingers, as it’s designed solely for their use. Intended to deliver as autonomous an artistic experience on your Apple device as possible for your little art aficionado, the bright colors and kid-favorite themes are sure to be a hit.

•   Touch Sketch - Experimenting with a variety of effects and tools makes this $0.99 app a big hit with older kids, who may have less patience for the cartoon-influenced offerings of art apps directed at youngsters. Customizable and feature-packed, you may even find yourself using this one when the kids aren’t around.

•   Kid Paint - Simple and intuitive, this free app is supported by ads but doesn’t allow in-app purchases so little ones won’t accidentally purchase paid apps while they create their masterpieces. Kid Paint also doesn’t allow third party data collection or location tracking, ensuring the safety of your sensitive personal information.

•   Magic Painter - With a variety of brush and background styles to choose from, this winner of Macworld Asia’s 2012 Top One Prize is available for $2.99 in the app store and supports both English and Chinese languages. You can save your kids’ artwork to Photos for printing and preservation, so their hard work isn’t discarded after completion.

•   Art App - Let your kids edit photos and create their own digital art with this free app, which allows for removal of the source image after completion to leave only the traced lines in the digital painting. Young children may need assistance with the opacity options, but older ones should be able to navigate Art App with relative ease.

•   Kids Song Machine Lite - Kids that are actively involved in musical instruction have higher standardized test scores, are more likely to perform well academically, and tend to be more proficient in mathematics than their non-musical peers. This free app will let your budding virtuoso learn the lyrics to classic kids’ songs, perhaps sparking a lifelong love affair with music.

•   Kids Musician - With a piano keyboard and seven percussion instrument sounds, Kids Musician makes it easy for little fingers to play classic songs right on your iPhone. Kids can begin to learn the basics of music with this $0.99 app, which could reveal previously hidden musical interests.

While these apps are great ways to keep your child engaged in an enriching, worthwhile activity on the go, they’re also effective tools for use at home. Using these apps together will not only help to encourage creative thinking in your child, but also forge stronger emotional bonds between the two of you as you share precious time together.

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