PlayKids - Cartoons and games
By Amanda Bindel,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Content galore with shows, games; strong parent controls.
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What you will—and won't—find in this app.
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PlayKids - Cartoons and games
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Based on 1 parent review
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What’s It About?
With PLAYKIDS - CARTOONS AND GAMES, kids choose activities from a line of train cars: shows, games, voxel (a building game), books, and other short videos. The last car is the bedtime car, featuring several lullaby selections that can be played withe a timer. Dozens of preschool-appropriate shows -- like The Wiggles, Pocoyo, Strawberry Shortcake - Berry Bitty Adventures, Bob the Builder, and Cleo & Cuquin are included, but they need to be downloaded before watching. Kids can also play a Minecraft-looking building game, create songs on the piano, play learning games, watch science videos, and even learn a new language. In the settings, parents can deselect any content they don't want kids to access and set time limits on app use.
Is It Any Good?
This app puts tons of kid-friendly content in one place with easy parental controls. Although other video services may offer more content, they don't offer the young-kid-friendly features that PlayKids - Cartoons and games has. Only kids' shows are included, most of them good-quality shows, and, even then, parents can restrict access to some shows in the settings. And, although it's a storage hog, the downloaded shows can be watched without an internet connection, making it a great travel accessory totally worth a month's subscription. The games could stand alone in a quality educational app, too. The video quality can be set to high or low (to save storage space), but the low quality is rather blurry. This one app alone could fully stock a preschooler's device.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about and consider a variety of options in addition to PlayKids - Cartoons and games for occupying and teaching toddlers. Check out Media Tips for Babies and Toddlers for ideas on balanced media use.
Load a device with several shows before a long car or plane trip to keep kids entertained without Wi-Fi. Ask questions about what they're watching along the way, and try to make connections to their experiences or knowledge.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
- Subjects: Arts: music, painting
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: logic, making conclusions, problem solving, Creativity: imagination
- Pricing structure: Free to try ($4.99/month; $51.99/year. 3-day free trial available.)
- Release date: March 8, 2021
- Category: Education
- Topics: Dinosaurs, Superheroes, Book Characters, Music and Sing-Along, Trains
- Publisher: Movile Internet Movel S.A.
- Version: 4.24.3
- Minimum software requirements: iOs 11.2 or later; Android varies
- Last updated: March 29, 2021
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