I confess, I’m an app junkie. Though, I am usually all about the free apps, there are a few paid ones that I find amazingly useful. So, I thought I would talk about a couple of iPhone apps that are great for dads. I’ll have to add more to this list down the road, but here is a start.

Games for kids

I’m not a big advocate of letting my kids play games on my phone. I use it as a rare treat rather than a regular distraction. That said, sometimes its a must, so I like to have some decent games available. In the photo above my kids have two favorites. My son loves Angry Birds Star Wars of course. He’s my son, would you expect any less? And, my girls love Hair Salon.

On that note, I have to confess, I like playing the Hair Salon game sitting with my three year old. You can give people crazy hair cuts, dye their hair weird colors, and then apply some magic potion to regrow their hair too! It is crazy goofy, but we have fun playing it together. Here is an example (yes, I just sat here and created this while sitting at Starbucks, no my three year old is not with me).

 

 

Timer for time outs

The most useful iPhone app that I have for my kids is an app called Timer by App Cubby. It is a simple app that allows me to have lots of different (custom set) countdown timers. I use it by having a different timer for each kid’s time out. We use the 1 minute for every year old method, so you will notice that I have a 7 minute, 6 minute, and 3 minute timer. Often these timers need to run at the same time as my kids tend to get in trouble as a gang rather than one at a time, which is what makes this app so handy. I can start and stop multiple timers as needed. And, the best part, after the timer runs out, it starts counting back up so that I can see how much extra time my kids have sat in time out after I have forgotten to let them out (like that ever happens 🙂 ).

 

What apps to do you find helpful as a dad? I would love to find more (preferably free) apps to try out. Please comment and share.