ABC by Paul McDougall is a beautiful ABC app. A digital version of the book by the same name, It features a sequence of cards with the entire alphabet with little characters for each letter and a very simple story, which help memorizing the symbols (letters) associating them with words.

Ideal for the little ones, is available for the for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch for a super light price.

ABC by Paul McDougall. 99¢ (iPad and iPhone / iPodTouch)

Children from all over who watch TV had probably already seen and liked Word World, the show. For those who like the show and for the ones who don’t know it yet, Build a Word app is a world of fun. Very simple, very straight-forward, build words little by little by dragging the letters in to the shapes forming the name of animals and watch the them come to live. Ideal to children starting to learn how to read.

Build a Word by Word World. iPhone version 99¢

Another great app for the first steps in the alphabet, is ABC Wildlife. This cute app has over 80 animals along with pictures and small movie clips of the actual animals. It has an interesting navigation proposition where you start from the alphabet but any other letter in the animals’ name is interactive and will let you explore other letters and animals names. Gracefuly produced, comes with versions for the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch.

ABC Wildlife, by Peapod Labs. $2.99 (iPad), $1.99 (iPhone)

Watch the demo video:

Here is a nice application for introducing the alphabet for the little ones. Interactive Alphabet for iPad features the whole alphabet with example words and interactivity for each letter. With nice calm music and voice, is certainly a good addition for introducing letters to toddlers.

Interactive Alphabet for iPad, ABC Flash Cards, by Piikea St. $2.99 (iPad)

See video demo:

Dots for tots - teach toddlers to draw, count and alphabet
By SID On

Rated: 4+

Price: $0.99

Developers’ description:
“Play disguised as learning? Learning disguised as play? Either way, Dots 4 Tots will be the most fun teaching aid, your kids have played.

Ideal for children 2-6, Dots 4 Tots teaches your children Animals, Shapes, Letters and Numbers, all while improving their hand-eye coordination and motor skills.

Vibrant colors, encouraging sound effects and voice prompts not only teach basic concepts and patterns, but builds children’s self-confidence as well.

Select a category and then using the app’s helpful prompts, children simply trace their finger from point to point to complete the pattern. Connect the dots and…surprise…the image transforms into a colorful picture that is sure to delight and encourage further play.”

Why we like it?
Connecting the dots games are among my favorite games when I was a kid (still love it). I just loved finding out what was hidden on the pages as I followed the numbers with my pen.

‘Dots for tots’ is a version of that activity thought and simplified for toddlers and pre-schoolers and added with interactivity that only an iApp can offer. Choose from different themes  and simply connect the dots to unveil the figures. Kids exercise memorizing the sequence of numbers as they  learn letter, shapes, animals, etc.

The app comes with 4 sets of figures (letters, numbers, shapes, animals) and you can buy extras (dinosaurs, cars, girls)

From Duck Duck Moose, creators of ‘Wheels on the Bus‘, one of the all-time best apps for toddlers, here comes Fish School. A complete interactive learning game with 8 educational activities covering letter, numbers, shapes, colors, differences and matching.

With two versions, one for the iPhone/iPod Touch and one design specially for the iPad this is very thoughtful production with beautiful professional graphics, great animation and sound.

Duck Duck Moose currently carries 4 interactive apps for the Apple platform and for me is already established as a quality stamp for great products.

Fish School HD for the iPad, from Duck Duck Moose. $1.99
Fish School for the iPhone/iPod Touch, from Duck Duck Moose. 99¢

But wait! We’ve got promocodes! First TWO commenters on this post get to download the iPad version for FREE!

Watch the demo video:

In the well established universe of memory game, Matching Cards by Lunabee stands out as an excellent choice. Choose from 4 different themes, 4 different colors and 3 levels of difficulty to set up your ideal matching cards game. Lovely illustration, voice and sound effects, with time score keeping.

Matching Cards, by Lunabee. 99¢

8 Planets Pro
By BrightSlide Kids

Rated: 4+

Developers’ description:
“Learn and have fun in this exciting collection of 4 educational lessons based on the eight planets in our solar system!”

Why we like it:
Here is one of a kind. 8 Planets is a great app to learn the names and the position of the planets in our solar system while improving spelling and learning letters. My 3 yo boy (who is, of course, crazy about the Space) has memorized right away all the planets names and was even guessing right the missing letters.

Here is another app from gdiplus the creators of our all-time favorite iWriteWords. ABC Maze is a game which will help improve motor skills and eye coordination while recognizing letters and small words. It has the same great quality of other gdiplus apps in terms of interface design and sound feedback which makes it certainly a fun game. And also a great companion for iWriteWords where kids learn how to handwrite the letters.

I would even recommend gdiplus to put out a combo so parents can buy the two apps at the same time.

ABC Maze, from gdiplus. 99¢

Here is one app of a category with very few alternatives so far. ABC Tutor is intended to help teaching how to draw letters using a blackboard analogy. Relating letters with animals, is a very fun experience. For the little ones, it might be harder to follow the strokes that mount the letters but the ones learning how to write now will certainly have a great time. Very professional app, good graphics, sound effects and interaction.

If you like this one, make sure to try Letter Writer Oceans and iWrite Words.

ABC Tutor, from Agilitech. 99¢